Volume CXXXIII, Number 1 September 7, 2001 f

Stoned Clowns ready for some serious action
JOCELYN FOULKE
Staff Writer

Jon Knapp '02, Caroline Budney '03, and Anne Gustafson '02, veteran members of Bowdoin's Stoned Clown Ultimate Frisbee Team, are not afraid of clowns. "I think that we're scary, but I'm not scared of clowns," asserted Knapp.

Stoned Clown Ultimate, whose first tournament of the year takes place on September 23 in Seekonk, Massachusetts, plans to strike fear into the hearts of its opponents this fall. Knapp said he believes the team will outperform last year's season in which Stoned Clown advanced to the regional tournament at Fort Devens, Mass., and came within one point of winning the Kind Bud Bowl in the spring.

An intense ultimate session last Wednesday. Stoned Clown is taking its skills to schools like Harvard this year. (Henry Coppola, Bowdoin Orient)

Several experienced senior players graduated last spring, but due to plenty of first-year players and motivated upperclassmen, Stoned Clown has an optimistic outlook for the fall season.

Stoned Clown's primary disc handlers include Knapp, Sam Terry '04, and Caleb DuBois '02. Sophomore Brendan Dickinson, another handler, is "a really incredible player," according to Knapp, and junior Alex Rosati is remarkable for both his speed and the fact that he has "no sense of pain."

Anjali Dotson '04 is an outstanding player because she, as Budney said, has "good vision of the field and great hands." Gustafson identified Anne Larkin '03 as an "up and coming" player.

Stoned Clown's offense is structured by a general guideline, within which the players often improvise. They also run set plays. The team likes to mix up its offensive style, interchanging a strong give-and-go offense with long passes.
Harvard and Tufts will be Stoned Clown's toughest trials this fall, while old rivalries will be revisited when the team competes against the likes of Bates and Brown.

Athletes are drawn to ultimate for a variety of reasons. Budney cited the camaraderie among women on all the teams as a primary reason she enjoys the game. Knapp enjoys that fact that he gets "a cut on my forearm at the beginning of the season and it just never goes away."

Players appreciate that ultimate is a self-refereed game. "Ultimate players are empowered with the ability to make their own decisions," said Gustafson. "This adds a really unique aspect to the game."

Ultimate is a unique sport, the only one to encourage costumes on the field and humorous, improvised cheers at the end of the game. Budney said that she has developed great relationships that were unique to a frisbee squad and that the team "is a really tight group."

The team's unique name originated from a piece of furniture handed down from one of the old fraternity houses, a white chair with the words "Stoned Clown" emblazoned across the back. The chair makes an appearance on the sideline of every game. At the end of the season, the captains sign the chair and pass it down to the next generation along with other memorabilia.

Stoned Clown, with its combination of fierce competition and fun, is agreed upon by many to be Bowdoin's most entertaining sports club. If you still need a reason to attend a game, as Knapp put it, "If nothing else, our name is Stoned Clown."