dontBLAMEtheDISC
Birdie Member
Former ESU Disc Golf Club Member
I started off this year really excited for the 2022-2023 college disc golf season. My old disc golf club at Emporia State University finally had mens and womens teams, a solid starting four and actual team depth. They also were privileged to have Eric McCabe as their coach. First coach in our club team history.
The beginning of the disc golf season was going well for the ESU disc golf club winning tournaments as a team and in singles. They also had good media and social media coverage from the local community, Emporia Gazette, Emporia State University and Dynamic Discs. Which was really nice to see as when I was playing for ESU we were lucky if we got a single mention from Dynamic Discs. The strange thing was that every single article and online posting was about ESU disc golf clubs first season or inaugural season. At first it didn't really bother me as it's pretty typical for people to not do proper research. At the national championships ESU disc golf club found its way at the top in the final round; sadly they lost by a couple strokes thanks to a fantastic last couple birdies from the Cincinnati team.
Once again the responses, praise and postings were about ESU disc golf clubs first season and how they almost won nationals in their first season. Even though there are many people who knew of the ESU disc golf club existence before this year not a single one spoke up.
My poorly written words, spelling and grammar usage are in no way trying to diminish what they accomplished this year, but to make sure the hard work and hours we spent trying to have a successful club during our time is known. Which is the reason I decided to write about the short history of the ESU disc golf club and give people a little inside look of disc golf in Emporia.
ESU students first went to nationals on a whim of four friends who enjoy disc golf and some still work at Dynamic Discs. In 2015 they played in one tournament qualifier and got a bid to nationals. After eleven rounds of disc golf they finished 53 out of 61. That would have been the last ESU team to go to nationals till this year and maybe not ever again if not for a little luck and a guy deciding to move to Emporia on a whim of his own.
I first ventured to Emporia in May of 2015 to check it out and see if I should really move here. Like you see on most of Dynamic Discs advertising "Emporia is the disc golf mecca" and "Emporia knows disc golf". And for me it was because it was a beautiful week of disc golf there was hardly anyone playing unlike back home where there was usually quite a wait. A couple of days in I decided this would work and also decided to go back to school and got accepted at ESU. This is where the lucky part starts. I happened to be at one of Emporia's courses at the same time as the locals where playing a doubles league. Had I been playing another course or not run into the wonderful welcome from the other locals who without them disc golf in Emporia would have died a long time ago. I wouldn't have found out about the PDGA league Dynamic Discs was running and for some reason didn't do again till 2020. If I hadn't kept up with that when I moved, I wouldn't have met one of the four originals of ESU disc golf club to play in nationals. Thankfully since I was new in town I mentioned I was attending ESU and he talked to me about another current student's interest in continuing the disc golf club.
First semester at ESU started out slow and slightly disappointing due to the fact that "disc golf mecca" is only true during the Glass blown open. Emporia probably has the most unplayed holes per capita. The other slogan "Emporia knows disc golf" really should be changed to "10% of Emporia knows disc golf and cares". It's very typical in most college classes on first days to have everyone introduce themselves by telling a little about themselves. Even though Dynamic Discs has the biggest tournament of the year, a pretty impressive booth at the ESU block party and is the disc golf mecca. Whenever I introduced myself and how I enjoyed playing disc golf, I would be met with blank stares or a question about what is disc golf. Only one class did I hear a positive remark even though there were quite a few students from Emporia in my classes.
Sadly the disappointment did not stop there. ESU also has a big activities fair for all students at the beginning of the year. Even though Dynamic Discs was going to help us with going to nationals everything else was quite lackluster. Our contact at Dynamic discs was also a former student so I will give him credit for arranging the table at the event. Luckily I had a disc golf banner and the other current student also brought discs to make our table stand out unlike Dynamic discs who provided nothing. We signed up thirty people that day and we were quite optimistic. Unfortunately I think we heard back from one person.
This begins our slog through countless hours of having tables in the main building, using up quite a lot of printing allowance, posting flyers and asking everyone we saw while playing disc golf if they were also a student at ESU. Somehow we managed to find two other players thanks to our consistent asking of people playing disc golf. While we were waiting for our first qualifier we tried to get out and practice the new format as much as possible. We also started an ESU student league and continued to promote disc golf at ESU. Even though we seemed to get a lot of interest there were very few people who would actually come out and play. I have now come to understand how many cliques there are in Emporia disc golf. At least Dynamic discs started giving us free stickers to hand out as well.
One of the biggest challenges we faced was that the cost of going to nationals used up all of the money Dynamic Discs allocated for us. It also used up the money ESU would refund us after submitting receipts. Therefore, we had to use our own credit cards to pay for the tournament entry and reserve the hotel rooms. We got to deal with the "joys" of setting up accounts that would allow us to access the allocated money from Dynamic Discs and then having to wait for up to six months for ESU to refund us. One example of the money challenges we faced was the uniforms; we were able to get two sets of jerseys and team t-shirts from a local screen printer for the same price Dynamic Discs quoted us for four jerseys.
Even with all the challenges we qualified for nationals. With continued efforts we finally managed to get a couple of students to come out and play. The next challenge we faced was dealing with our four players actually being able to get the time off for a week-long commitment. Which almost led to disaster. Thankfully we found a last minute student to fill in for nationals. The old national competition format was a crazy amount of disc golf and they counted singles scores as well as the team scores as one total score. Even if you qualified for the national championship your team still had to make the cut to play in the finals of nationals. Thanks to a solid playoff win from our last minute player we qualified to compete in the finals of the national championships. After eleven rounds of disc golf we finished 31 out of 49. We quickly learned that to be competitive you needed to have at least one person close to a 1000 rating preferably two.
Fall of 2016 saw a much better result for the disc golf club. We actually had quite few people participate in events and even managed a second team for our fall tournament qualifier. Dynamic Discs even stepped up a little bit, started giving ESU disc golf club members a discount at the disc golf store and of course plenty of free stickers. Once again though thanks to work and school requirements we barely managed four players for the national championship who could find the time off. Thanks to our star player we had our best scoring season yet at nationals and our top player managed to work his way to the singles finals. After seven rounds, eight rounds for our top player we finished 24 out of 43.
Fall of 2017 started out as our most optimistic year not only did we have most people returning, we also had more people coming to meetings, being active, consistent meetings with a higher up at Dynamic discs, scholarships offered and even though she wasn't eligible to play in the national championships we had our first pro who also had connections to Dynamic discs. We also started talks about designing and building a course at ESU. Emporia was also lucky as a whole not only did we have local run leagues, Dynamic Discs marksmen putting league and thanks to another amazing individual who moved from another state we also got the hopz and hyzers league. It really was a great start to the fall and winter.
Of course all of this would be too good to be true. Enjoying being a college student, people graduating, dropping out, moving, actual follow through when it came to nationals, misuse of funds from who we thought was a trusted teammate, an overall lack of support and disinterest from students. The beginning of 2018 was the end of our ESU disc golf club adventure.
Which brings us back to this year which just happened to be the straw that broke the camel's back for me. Seeing true support from ESU and Dynamic Discs left quite the bitter taste in my mouth, a touch of jealousy and doubt because we never came close to winning the title so maybe we didn't deserve the support. The biggest standouts for me during our time at ESU disc golf club that I feel could have been handled better was very little promotion from Dynamic Discs, no promotion from Emporia State University accurate & consistent communication from ESU and Dynamic Discs, Dynamic Discs being more concerned with going to nationals then growing disc golf at ESU.
One of my biggest disappointments was arranging meetings with ESU about building a disc golf course and getting approval if I could bring Dynamic Discs in as well. Then having a meeting with a higher up at Dynamic Discs and him telling me it should be the ESU disc golf club who designs it, which I tried to explain is not what ESU required. When my goals fell through and most of the club moved on that year. A couple of years later Dynamic Discs designed a course at ESU, hopefully they allowed the ESU disc golf club to help.
I started off this year really excited for the 2022-2023 college disc golf season. My old disc golf club at Emporia State University finally had mens and womens teams, a solid starting four and actual team depth. They also were privileged to have Eric McCabe as their coach. First coach in our club team history.
The beginning of the disc golf season was going well for the ESU disc golf club winning tournaments as a team and in singles. They also had good media and social media coverage from the local community, Emporia Gazette, Emporia State University and Dynamic Discs. Which was really nice to see as when I was playing for ESU we were lucky if we got a single mention from Dynamic Discs. The strange thing was that every single article and online posting was about ESU disc golf clubs first season or inaugural season. At first it didn't really bother me as it's pretty typical for people to not do proper research. At the national championships ESU disc golf club found its way at the top in the final round; sadly they lost by a couple strokes thanks to a fantastic last couple birdies from the Cincinnati team.
Once again the responses, praise and postings were about ESU disc golf clubs first season and how they almost won nationals in their first season. Even though there are many people who knew of the ESU disc golf club existence before this year not a single one spoke up.
My poorly written words, spelling and grammar usage are in no way trying to diminish what they accomplished this year, but to make sure the hard work and hours we spent trying to have a successful club during our time is known. Which is the reason I decided to write about the short history of the ESU disc golf club and give people a little inside look of disc golf in Emporia.
ESU students first went to nationals on a whim of four friends who enjoy disc golf and some still work at Dynamic Discs. In 2015 they played in one tournament qualifier and got a bid to nationals. After eleven rounds of disc golf they finished 53 out of 61. That would have been the last ESU team to go to nationals till this year and maybe not ever again if not for a little luck and a guy deciding to move to Emporia on a whim of his own.
I first ventured to Emporia in May of 2015 to check it out and see if I should really move here. Like you see on most of Dynamic Discs advertising "Emporia is the disc golf mecca" and "Emporia knows disc golf". And for me it was because it was a beautiful week of disc golf there was hardly anyone playing unlike back home where there was usually quite a wait. A couple of days in I decided this would work and also decided to go back to school and got accepted at ESU. This is where the lucky part starts. I happened to be at one of Emporia's courses at the same time as the locals where playing a doubles league. Had I been playing another course or not run into the wonderful welcome from the other locals who without them disc golf in Emporia would have died a long time ago. I wouldn't have found out about the PDGA league Dynamic Discs was running and for some reason didn't do again till 2020. If I hadn't kept up with that when I moved, I wouldn't have met one of the four originals of ESU disc golf club to play in nationals. Thankfully since I was new in town I mentioned I was attending ESU and he talked to me about another current student's interest in continuing the disc golf club.
First semester at ESU started out slow and slightly disappointing due to the fact that "disc golf mecca" is only true during the Glass blown open. Emporia probably has the most unplayed holes per capita. The other slogan "Emporia knows disc golf" really should be changed to "10% of Emporia knows disc golf and cares". It's very typical in most college classes on first days to have everyone introduce themselves by telling a little about themselves. Even though Dynamic Discs has the biggest tournament of the year, a pretty impressive booth at the ESU block party and is the disc golf mecca. Whenever I introduced myself and how I enjoyed playing disc golf, I would be met with blank stares or a question about what is disc golf. Only one class did I hear a positive remark even though there were quite a few students from Emporia in my classes.
Sadly the disappointment did not stop there. ESU also has a big activities fair for all students at the beginning of the year. Even though Dynamic Discs was going to help us with going to nationals everything else was quite lackluster. Our contact at Dynamic discs was also a former student so I will give him credit for arranging the table at the event. Luckily I had a disc golf banner and the other current student also brought discs to make our table stand out unlike Dynamic discs who provided nothing. We signed up thirty people that day and we were quite optimistic. Unfortunately I think we heard back from one person.
This begins our slog through countless hours of having tables in the main building, using up quite a lot of printing allowance, posting flyers and asking everyone we saw while playing disc golf if they were also a student at ESU. Somehow we managed to find two other players thanks to our consistent asking of people playing disc golf. While we were waiting for our first qualifier we tried to get out and practice the new format as much as possible. We also started an ESU student league and continued to promote disc golf at ESU. Even though we seemed to get a lot of interest there were very few people who would actually come out and play. I have now come to understand how many cliques there are in Emporia disc golf. At least Dynamic discs started giving us free stickers to hand out as well.
One of the biggest challenges we faced was that the cost of going to nationals used up all of the money Dynamic Discs allocated for us. It also used up the money ESU would refund us after submitting receipts. Therefore, we had to use our own credit cards to pay for the tournament entry and reserve the hotel rooms. We got to deal with the "joys" of setting up accounts that would allow us to access the allocated money from Dynamic Discs and then having to wait for up to six months for ESU to refund us. One example of the money challenges we faced was the uniforms; we were able to get two sets of jerseys and team t-shirts from a local screen printer for the same price Dynamic Discs quoted us for four jerseys.
Even with all the challenges we qualified for nationals. With continued efforts we finally managed to get a couple of students to come out and play. The next challenge we faced was dealing with our four players actually being able to get the time off for a week-long commitment. Which almost led to disaster. Thankfully we found a last minute student to fill in for nationals. The old national competition format was a crazy amount of disc golf and they counted singles scores as well as the team scores as one total score. Even if you qualified for the national championship your team still had to make the cut to play in the finals of nationals. Thanks to a solid playoff win from our last minute player we qualified to compete in the finals of the national championships. After eleven rounds of disc golf we finished 31 out of 49. We quickly learned that to be competitive you needed to have at least one person close to a 1000 rating preferably two.
Fall of 2016 saw a much better result for the disc golf club. We actually had quite few people participate in events and even managed a second team for our fall tournament qualifier. Dynamic Discs even stepped up a little bit, started giving ESU disc golf club members a discount at the disc golf store and of course plenty of free stickers. Once again though thanks to work and school requirements we barely managed four players for the national championship who could find the time off. Thanks to our star player we had our best scoring season yet at nationals and our top player managed to work his way to the singles finals. After seven rounds, eight rounds for our top player we finished 24 out of 43.
Fall of 2017 started out as our most optimistic year not only did we have most people returning, we also had more people coming to meetings, being active, consistent meetings with a higher up at Dynamic discs, scholarships offered and even though she wasn't eligible to play in the national championships we had our first pro who also had connections to Dynamic discs. We also started talks about designing and building a course at ESU. Emporia was also lucky as a whole not only did we have local run leagues, Dynamic Discs marksmen putting league and thanks to another amazing individual who moved from another state we also got the hopz and hyzers league. It really was a great start to the fall and winter.
Of course all of this would be too good to be true. Enjoying being a college student, people graduating, dropping out, moving, actual follow through when it came to nationals, misuse of funds from who we thought was a trusted teammate, an overall lack of support and disinterest from students. The beginning of 2018 was the end of our ESU disc golf club adventure.
Which brings us back to this year which just happened to be the straw that broke the camel's back for me. Seeing true support from ESU and Dynamic Discs left quite the bitter taste in my mouth, a touch of jealousy and doubt because we never came close to winning the title so maybe we didn't deserve the support. The biggest standouts for me during our time at ESU disc golf club that I feel could have been handled better was very little promotion from Dynamic Discs, no promotion from Emporia State University accurate & consistent communication from ESU and Dynamic Discs, Dynamic Discs being more concerned with going to nationals then growing disc golf at ESU.
One of my biggest disappointments was arranging meetings with ESU about building a disc golf course and getting approval if I could bring Dynamic Discs in as well. Then having a meeting with a higher up at Dynamic Discs and him telling me it should be the ESU disc golf club who designs it, which I tried to explain is not what ESU required. When my goals fell through and most of the club moved on that year. A couple of years later Dynamic Discs designed a course at ESU, hopefully they allowed the ESU disc golf club to help.
