By OJASWI DHAKAL and LARAIB IRFAN
There’s a running joke about ultimate frisbee teams — are we a frisbee team with a drinking problem or a drinking team with a frisbee problem? BUFF (Beloit Ultimate Frisbee Family) is here to challenge that narrative. We’re more than just that.
Our team is one of the most diverse and inclusive groups we have ever been a part of — not because it’s performative or to check a box, but because we radiate the kind of chaotic, loving, beautifully unfiltered energy that naturally pulls in real ones. BUFF is for the people who show up as they are — weird, wonderful, loud, quiet, messy, magical. We love hard, laugh louder, and throw disks with reckless joy
Yes, we celebrate wins. But we’re also built for the 3 a.m emergency period painkillers crisis calls, the spontaneous Walmart pilgrimages, the “just lost all the games but still showed up to practice” moments. We’ve seen each other cry, throw up, spiral, heal, and grow — sometimes all within one game. BUFF isn’t just a team. It’s emotional support with cleats.
That said — we are inclusive, but don’t get it twisted: we’re highly allergic to bad vibes. If you roll up with negativity, weird superiority complexes, or energy that drains the BUFF soul — don’t worry. The bad girls know. Your aura will be banished so fast it’ll need a passport to re-enter.
When one of the bad girls was moving to Milwaukee for a summer internship and had no way to get there, another BUFF baddie got certified just so they could drive her to the housing. Not once, but twice. Zero peer pressure, pure love.
Or the time a bad girl was convinced about failing Calculus, and another baddie — who happened to be a math wizard — stepped in and tutored her. Thanks to their BUFF craft, she not only survived but thrived.
Even when the bad gal studied abroad in France, BUFF was there. She just landed, and within days, was hit with a classic voilà, welcome to France housing disaster — no roof over the head. But half a world away, another BUFF baddie came through. Thanks to them, this bad girl had a safe place to stay. Think about that for a second: someone you’ve thrown a frisbee with, cried with (full-on nasal fluid drip), and laughed with — still showing up, still loving you. That’s BUFF. Genuine. Authentic. Ride-or-die energy.
Just make sure your energy matches the team — because around here, we throw disks, not shade.
That being said,
Student government doesn’t always see us. Maybe because our budget doesn’t come in skidibi coded Excel sheet. Maybe it’s because our cleats look like they came from a garage sale and our frisbee bag has been through at least three natural disasters. Our field time and space reservations gets stolen. Our funding? LOL. Not everything we build can be measured in numbers or flashy wins.
We’ve been denied funding because — and we quote — “you don’t bring enough back to campus.” Which is wild, considering what we bring: joy, friendship, community, and occasionally ibuprofen and mother yolk -— the one we “borrowed” from Commons, all fresh and good, and brought back like responsible citizens of the frisbee nation.
But let’s be real: not everything we build can be measured in numbers or flashy wins.
You can’t quantify what it means when someone teaches you how to throw a forehand and process your breakup in the same practice.
BUFF has united people from more countries than the study abroad office’s brochure. We’re basically a UN delegation in cleats with questionable hydration habits.
If “impact” is measured in the things we’ve mentioned — the rides across states, the tutoring, the late-night check-ins, the housing saves — then yeah, maybe you missed it.
Because those moments don’t show up in Google Forms. They live in us. And they are very, very real.
To be denied funding by folks who have no awareness of what this team holds — what this club is — hurts. Because BUFF has been generational. Alumni from across the world have played, still play, and still carry BUFF with them. They’ve taken what they learned here — not just how to huck a disc, but how to love better — and built lives around it. BUFF taught them that. BUFF taught us that.
So, if you’re wondering who we are — here it is:
We are Beloit’s wildly underfunded, deeply beloved, global frisbee family.
The most likely to loan you cleats and talk you through a midlife crisis at age 20.
We don’t have the budget.
But we have the heart. The history. The impact.
And we’re not going anywhere.
With most of our BUFF team members either graduating or studying abroad the next semester, we find ourselves at a precarious time. This is an open invitation to all of you – join BUFF. As Liam Peterson’28 and Sandhya Pise’26 shepherd the BUFF sheeps as co-captains from here on, we know that we leave you in chill hands.
With love,Your favorite mildly chaotic underdogs,
aka BUFF
Featured Image: Unknown
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