By: Niveja Assalaarachchi, Staff Writer
The SFU Ultimate Frisbee Club is one of many sports-oriented student organizations. According to the SFU recreation website, the team holds tryouts to compete in two-four competitive tournaments. The club sometimes participates in co-ed competitions, but has separate competitive teams for men and women.
The Peak spoke to Anant Aneja, the president of SFU Ultimate Frisbee, to learn more about the sport and what he hopes the club will achieve in the future.
Ultimate frisbee first originated in the US during the late 1960s and is played in more than 100 countries. It takes place on a grassy field between two teams comprising seven people each. The aim of the sport is to capture the flying disc in the opposing team’s end zone — the scoring area located at either end of the field. According to Aneja, what makes ultimate stand out is the spirit of the game. “Because there are no referees in ultimate all [ . . . ] the calls are made by the players,” he said. “You have to be honest, you have to be true to yourself, you have to be true to others, you have to play with it with integrity.”
According to Aneja, the club has been active for over 20 years, and often hosts drop-in sessions in the SFU gymnasium which can see more than 70 students join. He noted that teams for competitive tournaments have a roster of 22–30 players each.
Aneja pointed out that the club has not always participated in competitions. “The impact the club has made hasn’t actually been really preserved all that well, just because it hasn’t been a competitive club for the longest time.” During his tenure, Aneja has focused on making the club more competitive. He oversaw decisions such as the club splitting from its traditional mixed team format to have dedicated teams for men and women, with the latter competing for the first time in a decade.
“I’ve been playing with these guys for like three years now so being able to build on these past years and then go and win a tournament with them was surreal.”
— Anant Aneja, president of the SFU Ultimate Frisbee Club
He noted a major highlight for the club was the men’s side winning the 2026 Stanford Open, which is a major intercollegiate ultimate frisbee competition featuring teams from North of Turtle Island (Canada) and the US. “I’ve been playing with these guys for three years now so being able to [ . . . ] go and win a tournament with them was surreal,” he noted.
As SFU moves away from competing in the National Collegiate Athletic Association in favour of U-Sports, the club is no longer allowed to compete in professional tournaments officially representing the university, according to Aneja. He stated that, “While varsity teams are still competing competitively in the US, club teams are strictly prohibited to represent SFU in any way in the US,” according to Aneja. “It’s just really annoying, and we’ve had to figure out what we can do as a collective.”
Despite these obstacles Aneja says he remains optimistic and will continue to push for SFU Ultimate Frisbee to grow. He hopes to get a dedicated space to exercise and bond as a team. “It would go a long way if we just had [ . . . ] some area to work out together as a team, but understandably those [ . . . ] gyms are reserved for varsity.”
