In addition to competing in many tournaments, the Kettnetic Thunder Ultimate Frisbee team is hoping to build a tradition at Kettering University after their first full season that started this January.
The team has a busy schedule during the regular season, which runs through April. They’ll be playing tournaments in Ohio, Chicago and throughout Michigan. They have been accepted to four tournaments so far, and are looking to add one more as well.
Kettnetic Thunder opened their season at the ‘Glow in the Dark Horse’ tournament at Western Michigan University in January. Although the team didn’t win a game, they played with less than half of their roster because not everyone on the team could attend. They showed improvement throughout the two-day event, culminating with a close 14-12 loss to Kalamazoo.
“After watching the videos of our matches, we were surprised how good we actually looked,” said Ken Kaminski, the team’s head captain. “We were getting good disc movement, and had many opportunities to get a point.”
Bobby Mckee led the team in goals with 11 points and Adam Kohler led the team in assists with 14 in the six-game tournament.
Although the team didn’t pick up wins like they wanted to, Kettnetic Thunder has set some very lofty goals for the season, including moving into the top 100 in the Division III rankings and into the top 30 in their region rankings. The team is also moving closer to attaining full club team status at Kettering.
“I’m even more excited for what next academic year holds,” Kaminski said. “We are currently half way to Kettering team status. We have 100 percent approval with all the B-Section student government boards and we’re doing so much preparation to make sure A-Section approves before the end of this summer term too.”
The team is currently preparing for its next tournament, the ONU Indoor Feb. 19, in Ada, Ohio.
“A-Section is practicing four days a week and B-section is conditioning after work and sharpening their skills. We have 18/25 players planning on attending this tournament and from the hard work I’ve seen so far, we should be seeing much better results.”
Information about the team, including photos, videos, schedules, an online store and roster profiles can all be found at www.kettneticthunder.com.
“We're building this team to provide an amazing experience for those who chose Kettering as their university and still want to participate in sports,” Kaminski said. “In the Ultimate community it is well known that Ultimate is a very appealing sport to engineers, making Kettering the perfect university to make an Ultimate team. And with many future leaders and CEOs choosing Kettering it will be easy to find outstanding team captains to keep the team going for many years to come. We hope to gain the support of all students and staff along the way and represent our university proudly.”
Contact: Patrick Hayes
810.762.9538
phayes@kettering.edu