SVC Ultimate Mission Statement

The SVC ultimate team as a whole, as well as its team members individually, strives for preeminence on multiple levels including the physical, the competitive, and the cooperative.

Ultimate Frisbee, according to several faculty and alumni accounts, has been a relevant part of Saint Vincent Campus culture since the sport’s inception in the 1970’s. The aspects of the game such as companionship, individual skill, and teamwork have enriched the lives of Saint Vincent Students ever since. In lieu of the national growth of Ultimate as a intercollegiate competitive sport and the evolution of the SVC student body, the new generation of Bearcats has endeavored to elevate the standard of excellence set by previous Bearcat Ultimate players and pit Saint Vincent’s best against those of other institutions.

Saint Vincent College has since become known as a gracious host of three tournaments per academic year, and a welcomed participant in several all-weekend tournaments hosted by other institutions. In addition, in the spring semester of 2005, SVC Ultimate, in accordance with the precepts enumerated here, made its first appearance in the Sectional Level of the UPA  (Ultimate Players Association) sponsored national collegiate tournament. In accordance with its mission of physical, competitive, and cooperative preeminence, the team has already managed to distance itself from other teams in nascent stages, and has a respectable national ranking. This rapid improvement is a direct result of motivation and desire in each of the physical, competitive and cooperative arenas. Ultimate tournaments are grueling tests of physical stamina and the game itself requires a high degree of athletic prowess and skill. In addition, Ultimate is a self-officiated sport, requiring honesty, sensibility, and temperance by its players.

SVC Ultimate, as a representation of Saint Vincent College itself and its Benedictine tradition, holds its players to a higher standard in the spirit of the game. Because there are no scholarships awarded to ultimate athletes, and little recognition to be had by ultimate athletes, they participate solely for the sake of the sport and for the solidarity of team membership. Competitiveness arises from this internal motivation, and unity with teammates springs from the aversion of forsaking a teammate through poor preparation. Ultimate athletes do not adhere to the common heresy of compensationalism, and believe that one can, through diligence and vigilance, be both athletically and academically gifted. En toto, the Ultimate athlete at Saint Vincent, is one with a grounding in academics, one with an undying aspiration to physical excellence, and one embedded in a life giving matrix of teammate camaraderie.