The flying disc sport known as “ultimate” moves quickly. Players sprint across open fields, the disc gliding between outstretched hands as teammates call for passes and defenders scramble to keep up. But for physics teacher and avid ultimate player Matthew Bonges, the most satisfying moments are not the clutch-ups or the points scored.
“ I enjoy the most seeing everyone working together in a way that just flows on the field,” Mr. Bonges said.
While Mr. Bonges no longer competes regularly after stepping away from Chicago ultimate leagues to focus on family life, ultimate remains a defining part of how he thinks about teamwork and community both on the field and in the classroom.
Mr. Bonges first started playing during his senior year of high school before joining the men’s ultimate club team at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in the early 2000s, where he continued playing throughout college and graduate school until 2008. His team eventually advanced to the quarterfinals at college nationals, one of the highlights in his years of competing.
But what stayed with him went beyond just winning games.
“ I thought it was so fun to play in terms of how it’s structured,” Mr. Bonges said. “It’s very free-flowing.”
That reliance on trust and cooperation is built directly into ultimate’s culture. Unlike most organized sports, the game is self-officiated: players call their own fouls and settle disagreements without referees.
“There is something like a ‘spirit of the game’ that you try and hold everyone to,” Mr. Bonges said. “That idea of, like, fair play and treating others well, I think is applicable in any context even outside of ultimate Frisbee.”
The sport’s emphasis on honesty and respect has influenced the way he approaches teaching as well.
“Instilling in students that everyone is trying their best to follow the rules and be fair to others,” Mr. Bonges said.
Those lessons occasionally appear in his lessons more directly as well.
“I do bring it up sometimes when we get into our rotations and torque,” he said, explaining the occasional parallels he draws between physics concepts and ultimate. “But I am careful to try and make sure my students have a parallel to something that they are familiar with.”
From his brief period of time teaching at an American school in Costa Rica to teaching at Homewood-Flossmoor High School in Chicago’s south suburbs, Mr. Bonges has tried to introduce students to the sport by organizing teams or connecting students with local ultimate communities. He hopes to eventually do the same at U-High.
For Mr. Bonges, the appeal of ultimate has not only been the competition itself, but the moments when an entire team moves together with trust and purpose.
Mr. Bonges said, “Everyone gets involved. You really have to work together. No one person can do everything.”
