POINTED AHEAD: Junior Seth McLean throws a disc golf disc toward the basket. There are several different types of throws a disc golfer can use. Veronica Teeter | Photo

When disc golfer and junior Foster Blahunka learned Disc Golf Club ended last year due to members graduating, he decided to do something about it. He talked to Ryan Beavers, former club sponsor and physics teacher, and posted an Instagram message on Aug. 15. His efforts were successful, and the club will begin another season this spring.

Beavers is a disc golfer himself and he said he first started the club when students recognized him from various courses, and asked if he would be willing to sponsor.

“I’ve been playing disc golf for the last about six or seven years, and I started teaching here about four years ago, and a few of the people that I saw on the golf course, I noticed, were students here,” Beavers said.

“Once I became a teacher, they approached me asking about starting a disc golf club, and I was all for it, so we did, and that was three years ago, back when these guys were all sophomores in high school. And then over the last few years, we were able to kind of grow the club a little bit, and we started going to events, but all the folks who were really involved in the sport have since graduated.”

Blahunka is new to the sport but said he enjoys playing. He said he first became interested in the sport after watching YouTube videos of players competing. According to Seth McLean, disc golfer and junior, Blahunka came to him wanting to go out on the disc golf course one day.

McLean said, “Foster had a set of disc golf discs that he had for a while, and we had never actually used them. So, we just decided to go one day and we really liked it. We had been playing frisbee golf all over the summer, so he asked about (the club). (When) Mr. Beavers said he had just lost all the seniors last year that originally started the club, we decided that we were going to try to restart it.”

The club went out a couple times in the fall, but according to Blahunka, it is looking for new members to join the club for the spring. Blahunka said the club is for anyone interested in disc golf and wants to learn more, no experience is required.

“Anybody really (would be interested in the club). I mean, you don’t have to be athletic or anything to play disc golf. You don’t have to be good at it to enjoy it, so anyone can really go out and play,” Blahunka said.

Beavers said there are many benefits to joining the club, both involving the sport and outside of just playing. 

Beavers said, “Well, you get to meet different people, which is always nice in a social setting. You get to be outside on a golf course, which is always nice. You get a little bit of exercise, and you enjoy your surroundings. A lot of courses are in parks and some of them are in the woods, so they’re just nice walks in the park. It’s fun hanging out with your friends. It’s an easy sport to play, it’s inexpensive and available to more students. So, you don’t have to have the fastest sprinting time, you don’t have to have the ability to jump really high or be super strong; as long as you’re willing to practice throwing the disc just about anyone can get pretty good at it.”

McLean said students who are interested should join because of the benefit of having Beavers as the sponsor. McLean said Beavers can help the athletes to improve their skills because of his knowledge of the sport.

“Mr. Beavers is very good at disc golf, and he knows a lot of people around (Hamilton County) that play because he’s actually involved in the Hamilton County (Disc golf club),” McLean said. “He’s even the treasurer for it, and so he knows a lot, and he can teach a lot about it. So, you get a lot of experience from him and in past years the club has gone out and competed in the summer, so that’s something you get to do because you have to be on a team to compete,” McLean said.

The club said it wants to compete in the high school competition in the summer, but it has to have enough members on the team to be able to compete. Beavers said they can take up to two teams of four members each to compete. In order to gain enough members for the club, they have been trying to get the word out for their spring season. Beavers said he talks to his students and has an information basket in his classroom, but he is relying on Blahunka to help bring in more members.

Blahunka said, “We’ll probably get some posters, announcements; we’ll talk to the activities office probably. We don’t really have anything official (as far as a practice schedule), and I don’t think we will. We’ll just kind of (find) when everyone’s available, and just try to go out as much as we can.”