<p>Two of Center Grove’s spring teams — softball and boys golf — will generate plenty of buzz in the coming weeks as the top-ranked teams and state championship favorites in their respective sports.</p>
<p>But another group of Trojans has already claimed a state title this season with little fanfare and will be attempting to finish their year with an even bigger prize — a national championship.</p>
<p>Not sanctioned by the IHSAA, ultimate is very much a niche sport, with only a handful of high school club teams in Indiana. But Center Grove Ultimate Club, which formed in 2003, has emerged as the state’s dominant force; its victory at last weekend’s state tournament marked its eighth in a row and ninth in the last 12 years.</p>
<p>"I think we just have the most structured program, the most school-supported program and the most history of working hard throughout the year, so we improve the most by the time the season ends," said head coach Jake Phillips, a 2012 Center Grove graduate.</p>[sc:text-divider text-divider-title="Story continues below gallery" ]Click here to purchase photos from this gallery
<p>With no more worlds left to conquer in Indiana, the team is hitting the road in an attempt to prove itself as the best in the country.</p>
<p>This weekend, the Trojans are embarking on a road trip to Atlanta for the Paideia Cup, a prestigious six-team invitational tournament featuring top high school clubs from Georgia, Illinois, New Jersey and North Carolina. This year marked the first time that Center Grove, currently ranked sixth in the country, was invited to the event.</p>
<p>"That’s really our first major test to see if we actually belong where we are right now," senior Alex Henderson said.</p>
<p>During the second weekend of June, the Trojans will then go to Rockford, Illinois, where they’re one of 16 teams competing in the High School National Invite. Having placed fifth a year ago after entering as the No. 1 seed, Center Grove Ultimate hopes it can redeem itself and finish off the season in style.</p>
<p>Even if it does, the players aren’t expecting a ticker-tape parade — aside from a little bit of Twitter love from the Center Grove Sports Network, last weekend’s title run barely registered on the local radar.</p>
<p>Surprisingly, they’re more or less okay with that.</p>
<p>"It’d be cool to have the spotlight," Henderson said, "but that’s not why we’re here. Most of the guys out here just like playing."</p>
<p>Fellow senior Dustin Baird said that he’d like the club to get some more attention, but not for selfish reasons.</p>
<p>"The only reason I’d probably want more recognition is just to make sure the club keeps going for longer, because right now we’ve had less and less people coming out," he said. "If we got more recognition, I think more people would come out."</p>
<p>Though it’s still somewhat of a niche sport — which could change if it’s added as an Olympic sport in 2024, as rumored — ultimate combines elements of several more popular sports. The field setup and scoring are similar to football, as teams earn points by advancing the frisbee forward into an end zone. The free-flowing nature of play is more like soccer, and offenses set up patterns and plays much like a basketball team would.</p>
<p>A player can not advance the disc by running with it; once he or she catches it, one pivot foot must remain stationary and a pass must be made before the defender marking that player completes a 10 count. Possession also changes if the disc is dropped, caught out of bounds, or intercepted or knocked away by the defense.</p>
<p>Games are seven-on-seven and played to a point limit (usually 13, 15 or 17 points), with a time limit sometimes put in place during tournament play to keep games from running long.</p>
<p>For most of the players on the current Center Grove team, the introduction to ultimate has come through friends or siblings who played before. Henderson, for example, learned from his older brother Conner, and the two actually play together on the Indianapolis AlleyCats, a semipro team in the American Ultimate Disc League, along with a number of other former Trojans.</p>
<p>While mastering the nuances of the sport can take a good bit of time, Baird says that most athletes with experience in other sports can pick up the basics fairly quickly.</p>
<p>"We have a pretty good system. There’s a structure to it, and it does take probably a year to learn," he said. "Overall, it takes a pretty long time, but to learn how to throw and how to work into our basic system doesn’t even take a season."</p>
<p>Amazingly, the hardest part for the Center Grove Ultimate Club has been sustaining numbers. The long-running tradition of success, it turns out, has actually been a blessing and a curse.</p>
<p>"It seems the more we’ve been winning, the less people show up," Henderson said. "Some people just come because their friends play, and it’s just kind of a fun thing, but the more we win, the less people want to get serious."</p>
<p>So what can the Trojans do to maintain their current high standards while also enticing more people to come out and participate?</p>
<p>"We’re still trying to find that balance," Baird said.</p>
<p>Perhaps capping the spring with a shiny national championship trophy would help.</p>[sc:pullout-title pullout-title="Take it on the road" ][sc:pullout-text-begin]<p>Center Grove Ultimate Club will wrap up its season with a pair of high-profile national tournaments:</p>
<p>Dates;Event;Location</p>
<p>May 12-13;Paideia Cup;Atlanta</p>
<p>June 9-10;High School National Invite;Rockford, Ill.</p>[sc:pullout-text-end]
