OKLAHOMA CITY (Nov. 8, 2018) – Oklahoma Christian will add Ultimate to its list of club sports for the 2019-20 academic year, OC Athletic Director David Lynn said Thursday.

Known informally as "Ultimate Frisbee," the fast-growing sport has more than 18,000 players on more than 800 college teams. OC will be among a small percentage of those schools that will offer scholarship money, Lynn said, and the school will cover the program's travel expenses.

"We've had some success with our most recent additions of swimming and club bowling," Lynn said. "We want to start things that we know we can be competitive in and we can add to incentivize future students to come participate on our campus.

"Ultimate is already being played on our campus. We are trying to recognize club sports that we think are underserved in our region but also on the rise in popularity. I think we did that with bowling and I think Ultimate checks both those boxes."

Gabe Cabrera, a former college and professional Ultimate player who helped begin a similar program at OC's sister institution, Ohio Valley (W.Va.), will serve as the program's coach. Initially, Cabrera said, OC will have an open division (coed) team with an integrated roster, with the women on the team participating both in open-division and women's-only events.

"It is a very widely played sport," Cabrera said. "It's starting to get to that point where it's no longer that niche sport that hippies played. It is taking off. More schools have Ultimate Frisbee clubs that are sanctioned by the university than any other sport in the NCAA or NAIA."

Collegiate Ultimate is governed by USA Ultimate, based in Denver. OC would compete in a region with teams from Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas, Missouri, Kansas, Colorado and Wyoming at the Division III level of the sport.

Cabrera said that the fall semester usually is used as a preseason, to teach players the rules and concepts of the game. The regular season – which includes about 30 games – runs from February until early April, followed by the postseason that stretches into May.

He will arrive on campus in January and start building the team. Initially, he'll be trying "to find a good student pool on campus" and begin training immediately with plans to begin competition in 2019-20.

"We want to make sure they find love and passion in this game, in a manner they have not found in any other activity they have done," Cabrera said. "That's the big thing with Ultimate Frisbee. It's not just a sport, it's almost a lifestyle. It's a way of going about life and treating other people. One of the core aspects of the game … is something called 'Spirit of the Game,' which translates as sportsmanship for most other sports, but because Frisbee is self-officiated, it's up to the players on the field to solve the disputes themselves, to try and use conflict resolution to avoid animosity between players."

Cabrera can be reached at gabe.cabrera@gmail.com.

Ultimate will join men's and women's bowling on OC's roster of club sports. The university also offers varsity programs in 16 sports – baseball, softball and men's and women's golf, soccer, cross country, swimming, basketball, indoor track and field and outdoor track and field, with plans to add volleyball.

Ultimate video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3QZ-fq8JZM&feature=youtu.be