The “Spirit of the Game” is alive and well on Bainbridge Island.

That’s how Ultimate players refer to the game’s high school and club’s high level of sportsmanship and player respect. Due to the sport’s semi self-officiated nature, every player is held responsible for ensuring the rules are followed, the play is fair and the spirit is fun.

The Bainbridge High Ultimate team came through on all counts and celebrated a storied season this year, fighting through early season disappointments to emerge as a force to be reckoned with late in the playoffs.

“It was a good season for us,” said BHS Head Coach Andrew Lovejoy. “Neither of our teams had a spectacular regular season record, but we always take the long view, and the playoffs are our primary target. This year, our A team finished third out of 28 teams in the league, losing in the semifinals to the eventual champions, Ingraham High School [and] our B team finished as the highest ranked B or JV team in the league.”

Though the Bainbridge team was first founded more than 15 years ago, Ultimate has a long and notable history behind its rise to its current place in the international sports world, though, Lovejoy explained, the game remains very underrepresented in Kitsap County.

“Seattle has one of the largest youth Ultimate scenes in the country, and probably in the world,” he said. “All of the teams, besides Bainbridge, are from the Seattle side. At the moment we are the only high school with an established program on this side of the water.”

BHS competes in a 28-team-strong mixed gender league run by DiscNW, the coach explained, which is the main Ultimate organization in Washington. There is also a boys only and a girls only league.

Even as the sport finally claws its way up into the official spotlight, Lovejoy said, it was the weird uncle of the Spartan athletic family for many years.

“Our team was started when I was a sophomore at BHS in 1999,” Lovejoy remembered. “And, I believe there has been a team ever since then. For most of that time the team was student-run, didn’t have a coach and had minimal recognition and affiliation with the school.”

Not so anymore, though.

“Our participation has really exploded in the last four years or so,” Lovejoy said. “I think most people are probably aware of the team.”

Ultimate (don’t call it Frisbee, either) is a limited contact team sport wherein teams of seven work to score points by passing the disc to a teammate in the opposing end zone. Nobody can take a step while holding the disc, and interceptions and incomplete passes are turnovers.

For high school players, Ultimate is a spring season sport here.

Many aspects of the game today reflect its origins, including the lack of referees to call fouls and the underlying “spirit of the game” mantra.

As early as 2012 there were an estimated 5.1 million Ultimate players in the nation.

Even so, the coach said that there remained many myths about the sport among the less informed.

“Many don’t see it as a ‘real sport.’ There’s still also a big misconception that it’s a ‘hippy game,’ and that players are running around barefoot wearing skirts.”

Actually, though, Ultimate is a bit more intense than your average picnic day pastime.

“With the new semi-professional Ultimate leagues that have started up over the last few years, the sport is getting more exposure and a lot more people are aware of it, but I think those stigmas and misconceptions are definitely still out there,” the coach added.

“Many think it’s the same as disc golf, and very few people who don’t play it or know someone who plays it realize how intense and athletically demanding it can be,” he said.

To learn more about the Ultimate program at BHS, visit www.bisd303.org/Page/10349.