Ultimate Frisbee teams, some dressed as dogs, clowns and Lady Gaga, filled Bend’s Pine Nursery Community Park Saturday during the 21st annual Gandy Goose co-ed tournament.

The tournament was part of the Disc Go Ball festival at the park. A disc golf competition took place in the brush around the Ultimate Frisbee fields, and instructional clinics let spectators learn how to throw a disc.

Helen Mead, of Portland, dressed as a poodle while playing Ultimate Frisbee on the team “Natural 20s.” The whole team from Portland dressed as dogs, and even congratulated each other with dog-themed admiration.

“Someone scratch that man’s belly,” one teammate yelled out from the sideline.

Mead, a preschool teacher in Portland, said she loves how Ultimate Frisbee tournaments encourage participants to dress up and act a little goofy.

“I’m a preschool teacher and did theater in high school and college, so it’s a very easy transition,” Mead said. “I also really love the car rides to tournaments. On the way here I’m crocheting parts of my costume and wearing a dog face.”

Danielle Hirsh, a member of a Eugene Ultimate Frisbee team “Room to Grow,” said spectators should not let the costumes fool them. Each team is full of athletes, she said.

“We are pretty good athletes, but we also like to dress up,” Hirsh said. “We play hard and dress up hard.”

Hirsh’s team brought random costumes and were dressed by the teams they played, creating a hodgepodge of costumes on their team. Besides being dressed by their opponents, “Room to Grow” and all the teams played other spirit games between matches. Spirit games included yard games or running through obstacles as a way to build camaraderie.

“That is part of it is you play a game to bring the Ultimate Frisbee community closer together,” Hirsh, a massage therapist in Eugene, said.

Twenty teams from Oregon, Washington, California and Idaho competed on 10 fields at the park. Some of them were club teams gearing up for the summer Ultimate Frisbee season.

The “School of Rock” team, dressed as characters from the movie, was made up of Bend residents who are on a club team that starts play in June. The outing Saturday was a chance for the team to get back in shape.

Olivia Roberts, a member of the “School of Rock” team, said the Ultimate Frisbee tournament offered a nice mix of competitive play and silliness with the colorful costumes.

“It’s fun when people are super competitive when we actually play, but then we have a good time,” Roberts said. “When everyone buys into it, that’s the whole point.”

— Reporter: 541-617-7820,

kspurr@bendbulletin.com