When he was 13-years-old, Will Hanna decided to try ultimate frisbee. At Jeffersonville High School, Hanna and his friends decided to make an ultimate frisbee team. He said his team was mostly of pickup people.
““We only had about two people that can really handle the disc and I just ran and caught,” Hanna said.
Playing ultimate frisbee was an alternative to everything else for Hanna.
“I didn’t really want to play football or soccer or anything more traditional,” Hanna said.
One of the days in high school, Hanna heard one of his friends were going to play ultimate. Hanna decided to join them.
“So I went out and played and I kind of just fell in love with it,” Hanna said. “It was something different and it did a lot of stuff that I liked to do (running and catching).”
THE CHARIZARD HAT WIELDER
Since coming to college, Hanna has played for the Ball State Wizardz men’s team. At any ultimate frisbee tournament, he wears different hats and pajamas.
One of those hats is a Charizard hat, which looks like the face of the dragon pokemon. Hanna said he bought this hat a couple years ago, after seeing someone with a Gengar hat at a football game.
“And I was interested in finding if they had any more hats, so I went online and I got the Charizard hat,” Hanna said.
At tournaments, Hanna wears the hat along with a set of pajama pants.
“I wear a lot of pajama pants and I really like different hats,” Hanna said. “And the Charizard hat really stuck.”
On the field, the Charizard hat symbolizes Hanna’s want to not be taken seriously. Hanna said he always like having fun.
“I enjoy playing hard and having great competition, but never at the expense of fun,” Hanna said.
Off the field, Hanna lends a helping hand to both veterans and rookies on the team. In a texting interview, team captain Garrett Fuelling said Hanna is very supportive.
“He will try his best to be there for anyone that needs him,” Fuelling said.
In the Eastern Plains Conference tournament, Hanna had two goals and a catching percentage of 100. Daniel Stephens, president of the ultimate team, said Hanna has done really well this year.
“The fact that he’s been able to sky these people and beat everybody down the field and do whatever he wants on the field has been amazing,” Stephens said.
HANNA’S LIFE
If Hanna had not fell in love with the sport in high school, then he would have chosen competitive bicycling.
“I definitely would be riding my bike a lot more. I enjoyed doing that whenever I’m not playing ultimate when I have time,” Hanna said.
Since coming playing for the Wizardz, Hanna will remember last year’s team.
“Because we had a really good balance of old Wiz and new Wiz. It was kind of the changing of the guard in terms of the old style of players and the new style,” Hanna said. “
The advice that Hanna would like to leave behind, for current players, is to stick with it.
“ I think a lot of people get burned out after a few years,” Hanna said. “ I really felt like I made a family here. I’m gonna miss everybody.”
Patrick Murphy 