Lakeside Ducks: Taylor’s Ultimate Frisbee Club’s Rise to Success

SUBANG JAYA, Selangor - Through thick and thin, the Lakeside Ducks –more commonly known as Taylor’s Ultimate Frisbee Club –made a strong comeback, having won silver in Axolotls Interuni Indoor Clash 2023 (AIIC’23) on 8 April.

The current 2023 Frisbee Club had many expectations to live up to. After their previous batch led the Lakeside Ducks to their first-ever gold medal in Ultiasia’s Summer Flick 2022, the team suffered a painful defeat in OOPS’s Nottingham Ultimate Battle Royale 2023 (NUBR’23), only placing 10th.

“The biggest issue is scheduling and commitment,” said Sri Nareendra Sri Rameesh, current Vice President of the Frisbee Club.

“It’s understandable that everyone has a different level of commitment for the sport, and with how overwhelming life can get, there was just a lack of drive to train harder.”

Despite that, it was this exact game that renewed the team’s passion and where they realised that if they wanted to win, they really had to put the work in.

In AIIC’23, they were off to a rocky start. Having lost their first 2 matches, the Lakeside Ducks were now desperate. The team went in without any expectations except to push as far as they could go.

They kept their morale high despite the lack of support as they were not in their home turf, and broke through with their 4th and 5th match, which consecutively led them to win their Semi-Finals.

The team unfortunately lost their final match due to team injuries and a lack of girl players. Regardless, they walked away with a silver medal that is ‘one of their favourite wins’.

The team winning silver at AIIC’23

(Source: Original Taken by the Lakeside Ducks)

Chiew Natt-Li, 21, is the Social Director and an active player of the Lakeside Ducks, who has suffered several ankle and knee injuries. When asked as to what motivated her to keep going with the sport, she said: “I guess it’s how I really love the club and the people, that really drove me to continue regardless of my injury. I wanted to recover as soon as I could to get back on the field and train with my friends.”

Ultimate Frisbee is not a conventional sport in Malaysia. It is unlike its fellow team sports counterparts like basketball or football, and is rooted in a very unique value – ‘Spirit of the Game’, where players self-referee the entire game. Through emphasising the principles of sportsmanship, players are responsible for calling their own fouls and resolving disputes on the field through open communication and mutual agreement.

Having grown the team to where it is today, Pek Yui Xin, Ex-President of Term 2020-2021 (currently an active senior player) shared her struggles of reviving the club during the early months of post-covid.

“During the covid lockdown, everything was a mess. There’s only so much a sports club could do online,” said Yui Xin. “The club died out and we were left with only about 10 active players”.

Things took a positive turn, and the club had a 180 degrees rebrand in 2022, picking up with a frisbee retreat in July 2022 at Sarang by the Brooks for cultivating crucial team chemistry. The club has grown in numbers, with frequent freshies coming in to learn and over 450 members in the WhatsApp group snagging for a spot at weekly training.

Frisbee players competing on an outdoor field at NUBR’23

(Source: Original Taken by Adriel Wong Photography on Facebook)

From the interview with both Nareen and Yui Xin, the club values have remained the same in both terms, that is to expand the frisbee community. Both of them strongly believe that freshies should have the passion to learn the sport, not let competitiveness get to you and really commit.

Through exploring the history of Lakeside Ducks and its players, there is this underlying reason for these university students choosing to pour their soul into this specific sport –a strong devotion and love for their fellow teammates. With a list of ambitions for the club up their sleeve, what’s next to come for Lakeside Ducks should be highly anticipated.