Churchill chases ultimate honor in unique sport.

Byline: Steve Mims The Register-Guard

Churchill capped off a big month of May by claiming the coed title at the state high school ultimate Frisbee tournament.

Strange as it may sound, Churchill defeated Vacaville, Calif., 15-5 to win the state title at Sheldon High School on May 22. Vacaville was the lone out-of-state team invited to help fill out the 10-team field that also included Churchill's B team.

The previous week, Churchill took its boys and girls teams to the Western High School Ultimate Championships in Seattle. The boys took second, and the girls were fifth at the tournament, which featured the top teams from the western half of the United States.

"This season has been pretty impressive considering we were state champions and the men's team took second at Westerns and the women were fifth," said Luke Johnson, who coaches the Churchill men's and coed teams.

Churchill senior Eli Janin, who is headed to Oregon next year to play ultimate, was praised for his work in helping the Lancers finish second to Northwest Boys School at the Western championship.

"The coach of the team that beat us, who has seen some of the greatest ultimate players, identified Eli as the best player at the tournament," Johnson said. "He could be the top high school player in the nation. Eli has been playing since he was 3 years old, and he has the best knowledge of the game and some of the best throws. He is a natural-born leader when it comes to ultimate."

Johnson said that nearly 45 players turned out for ultimate at Churchill this season and he is hoping that soon players will get an even earlier start.

"We're hoping to teach the game less in high school and teach more in middle school," Johnson said. "I went to Kennedy Middle School and started the first middle school team in Eugene and the second one in Oregon. We had nearly 20 middle school kids out for the first time. The hope is to get a new middle school team every year."

Churchill, South Eugene and Sheldon are the three local high schools that field an ultimate team.

"We played Sheldon three times and South Eugene three times, but most of our play is done in tournaments," Johnson said.

Churchill opened the season by playing in a tournament hosted by the Oregon club ultimate team. The Lancers defeated five college teams in the tournament before losing to Lewis & Clark in the final.

The Lancers went on to send both a boys and girls team to the Western championships before uniting the players to get two coed teams in the state championship.

Traditionally, four boys and three girls line up against one another in coed games.

"The fact we could get two teams for the state tournament was a big thing," said senior Rebecca Sheridan, a captain of the girls team that is coached by Nina Herbst.

"That we had a full girls team this year was also big."

Now that the school season is over, Johnson is hoping to put together an all-star team from the 10 clubs that participated in the state championship and take them to the youth club national tournament in Minnesota in August.

That all-star team also might participate in the annual Summer Solstice tournament next month at Monroe Middle School, a tournament that has been running for more than two decades.

"I think the sport is continuing to grow and has huge support in Eugene, which has a tradition that is almost unmatched in other communities," Johnson said.

"The summer solstice tournament is one of the longest-running tournaments in the history of the sport, and it brings in some of the best teams in the country."

Johnson hopes more local high schools will get involved in ultimate.

"It's an exciting sport and all you need is a plastic disc, so it's is a cheap sport to play and it is one of the most exciting things you can see when people are jumping and laying out and diving for the disc," Johnson said.