Ultimate Frisbee news: A look at Bella Wirszyla’s flight path in the sport

The road to the 2025 European U20 Ultimate Frisbee Championships in Trnava, Slovakia, started for Bella Wirszyla with Disc Golf, in Wilmington, North Carolina. 

Wilmington boasts several disc golf courses, and Bella - along with her twin brother - started playing when they were about four years old, writes Sports News Blitz’s Ultimate Frisbee guru Chris Wirszyla.

The foundation

Most people learn the backhand throw first. But Bella, always a trendsetter, mastered the more difficult forehand throw before anything else, scoring her first hole with it at the age of eight, on St. Patrick’s Day. The luck of the Irish (on her grandmother’s side!)

Bella and Alex participated in several Ultimate clinics during their primary school summers in Wilmington, hosted by Cape Fear Ultimate.

The “Sea Urchin” sessions paved the way for middle school ultimate, run by several of the teachers. 

They practiced every week and entered several tournaments and inter-school matches, in which they did quite well.

In one of these tournaments, Bella was asked to play for a team from Charlotte, the “Morphos”. 

She was really excited for several reasons, one of them being that the “kit” was really cool.

Bella and her two friends, Harper and Natalie, soon distinguished themselves as the stars of the team. The three girls even began coaching the rest of the team themselves. 

Taking it up a notch

Bella was falling in love with the sport, while Harper has gravitated to another up-and-coming sport, flag football (which may soon become an Olympic sport). 

Their all-around athlete friend, Natalie, was recruited to play lacrosse.

When the girls turned 13, they were the only three non-adults to join the Cape Fear Ultimate club, a coed group of about 40 players. 

She enjoyed playing in the more competitive situations, and had some great team-mates who helped her improve her game. 

Her throws and offensive and defensive knowledge grew, although there was some disappointment with the “spirit of the game” by some of the alpha male players. 

In Ultimate, fair play and sportsmanship are written into the rules, and players are supposed to exhibit these traits, not curse, yell, or try to intimidate.

I’ve been playing for 40 years, and I never saw behaviour like that on the field. I ended up complaining to the president of the club, whose husband was one of the biggest offenders, and she cracked down on them.

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A new chapter in Leeds

In 2023, Bella and family moved to England, to the Leeds area.

We quickly found the ultimate community to be thriving, alive, competitive and inviting. 

Bella joined ‘Leeds, Leeds, Leeds’, a coed club that practiced weekly and played regularly, both indoors and out. 

She also joined “Horizons”, a high quality women’s team who are great role models for her, with doctors, teachers and other professional women, with a couple of more pursuing PhDs. 

The indoor season consists of practices, games, and tournaments held around the country. 

Bella played indoors in Sheffield, York, Leeds, Bristol and Nottingham. 

Between the Leeds, Leeds, Leeds team, and the Horizon team, Bella was part of tournament championship teams in PitchHog, Yindoors, JWIN (Junior Women’s Indoors Nationals) and a women’s hat tournament.

Putting in the hard yards

Training for Ultimate is not for the faint hearted. Besides practice sessions, which are two hours in all conditions, a couple of times a week, there are also monthly six-hour full-day sessions. 

In these, the teams work on conditioning, offensive and defensive skills, individual throwing, strategies, and especially, teamwork, communication, and making sure the team is right there in the running for the team spirit award. Which they have won several times…

In 2024, one of Bella’s coaches suggested she try out for the U17 and U20 national teams. 

The tryouts were together and Bella made the U20 squad as a 15-year-old. She opted to play on the U17 team to get more playing time. 

Practices were monthly for the entire weekend, and traveling and lodging arrangements had to be made. This was a big commitment from both the players and the parents.

With excellent coaching and leadership, as well as hard fitness training (helped by a grant from Sports News Blitz for an Active Leeds gym membership), Bella has started to excel in all aspects of the game. 

I have played and taught ultimate for 40 years, and I can say her knowledge of the game has surpassed mine (I can still throw as good as her though).

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Highs and lows in Ghent

The 2024 European U17 Ultimate Frisbee tournament was held in Ghent, Belgium, in August of last year.

Israel was sadly banned from playing because of some graffiti sprayed on a wall at the venue.

These U17 girls had nothing to do with politics, had trained hard and paid a lot of money to be there, just to be not only kicked out of the tournament, but banned from even being spectators.

Great Britain played well, beating Switzerland and Austria, before failing to make the medal games. They lost a few games by just a couple of points, but won the spirit award.

Frustrations and lessons from the field

Bella herself was team MVP for several of the games, voted on by the opposing teams. She played amazing defense, giving 100 per cent at all times. 

Personally, as an experienced player myself, the team was hurt by a few things. First, the coaches elected to play three squads for one point each. So each girl got one third of the total points, but not one third of the playing time.

Not to be biased, but Bella really was one of those players, along with a couple of more, who should have been on the field more. 

It was obvious some of the girls did not have the fitness level, or the skills necessary, to keep up with highly fit and trained teams.

Second, for some reason, the coaches elected to play a cautious game, and not take advantage of situations where a quick run up to the frisbee to start possession would have been advantageous. 

Instead, some of the players would casually walk up to the disc on a turnover, and wait until the offense (and defense!) had time to get organized. 

More often than not, what could have been a quick score, resulted in a turnover because the defense had time to get set. 

I know Bella was frustrated, as was I. But, since I wasn’t coaching, I had no say in the matter. I just felt bad for Bella, and the rest of the team, for these missed opportunities.

All in all, it was a great experience for Bella, and for the rest of the girls, especially since they received the spirit award. 

It gives the team a look at what other countries are doing, and how they have to play if they want to compete on an equal basis with teams such as France, Sweden and Italy, highly trained and fit young women.

Next Up - The GB U20 Team competes in Trnava (August 3-9).

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