Daver Karnosky/Daily Mining Gazette Monte Carlo’s Tyler Turcotte (black shirt) attempts to make a catch while Shottle Bop’s Kyle Suvanto (gold shirt) looks to help during a GUTS practice on Saturday, Feb. 10, at the Hancock Gym.

HANCOCK — For several months, members of the local Guts Frisbee teams Shottle Bop and Monte Carlo have been holding practice at the Hancock High School on Saturday mornings throughout the winter. While the practice sessions have been about keeping their skills honed for the upcoming Bill Beckman “Under the Dome” frisbee tournament, which is in Marquette starting on St. Patrick’s Day, the sessions have doubled as an opportunity for the players to share their love of hurling a plastic disc at each other at high speeds with others interesting in the sport.

“Well, it’s a good excuse for us to kind of come in the gym,” said the Shottle Bop’s Will Blau, on a recent Saturday morning. “Especially during the winter, like today. And especially for us to keep our skills kind of, you know, tailored during the winter months. Last time we actually played competition was late September 2023, so it’s just good. We’ve been practicing weekly. We do this every Saturday at noon.

Blau said that typically they get a nice little group going each Saturday.

“We usually get about 10 on average,” he said. “So, today is a little bit below average. But, if you don’t play the sport continuously, it’s really kind of tough to really jump into it.”

With the Bill Beckman tournament coming up in Marquette, Blau and his friends and teammates are working to prepare.

“So, as much as we can get out here, practice, keep the hands kind of up and running, keep our accuracy up on our shots, that’s good,” he said. “Speaking of the tournament coming up. We have the dome tournament. That will be, actually, in Marquette in the Superior Dome. So we’ll have that on St. Patrick’s Day.”

With the Monte Carlo team members also making the trek to the Hancock Gym, it helps give the practices a little friendly competition.

“We have most of our Shottle Bop team here. A lot of the Monte Carlo guys are playing. So, it’s been good,” said Blau. “The competition’s always good. We always have Kevin from Marquette, who makes the journey every week. So, it’s good, just an excuse to get with the guys and play.”

Blau and teammates like Kyle Suvanto, Al Nettell, Carter Nettell, and Scott Brooks have been developing a consistent rivalry with Monte Carlo, which includes Tyler Turcotte, Tyler Brunet, and Cameron Murray over the last few years. Which has pushed all of them to improve.

“In terms of the competition that we’re playing against year in and year out, it gets better and better,” Blau said. “When I started, my dad (Ron) was one of the better players. Now he won’t even play on the line with us. Because we have this wave of youth kind of coming along. That’s really been growing the sport. So, that’s been really fun.”

Blau admits that he is starting to get a bit older himself, which is why it is fun for him to help teach Michigan Tech students, who are interested in learning about the sport, while also continuing with his own training.

“Now I’m not even the young guy anymore,” he said, with a laugh. “There’s guys at Tech, who are just starting, and they can throw, they can catch, just as well as us. It forces us to get out here and practice and kind of keep up with the younger guys. Funny to say, being only 25, but I mean, the competition year in and year out is crazy, and everybody’s coming for us now, and that’s what’s fun.”

The Michigan Tech students who are coming over and learning the game are coming from a background of disc golf or ultimate frisbee, which helps them pick up GUTS quickly.

“A lot of it is seamless, because most of them are either disc golfers or ultimate players,” said Blau. “So, a lot of them are very familiar with disc sports. The hardest part is kind of getting over the learning curve of the catching, because everybody can throw a frisbee, everybody’s played catch, and the two-hand grabbing. But, once you have to catch a disc with one hand coming at 70, 80 miles an hour, it’s a little different story.

“Once you can get over that small little learning curve of the catching, if you have any competitive bone in your body, this is a good sport for you.”

Shottle Bop won the Coca-Cola International Guts Frisbee Tournament this past summer in Hancock. They have also finished either first or second in several other tournaments in recent years, so they understand that they are now the team others are chasing.

“The target is on our back,” Blau said. “Everybody wants to beat us and catch our shots, but it’s not going to happen. So, that’s fine. Got to humble the young kids, as they say, but it’s fun.”

Connor Steer and Luke Lahtinen of the Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity at Michigan Tech have been spearheading the influx of students to the GUTS Saturdays.

“They’ve been great incorporating as many guys as they have,” said Blau. “They brought over numerous teams that have played in tournaments and everything. So, it’s been awesome.”

The challenge of battling the newer faces keeps Blau and his teammates coming back to the gym every week.

“It gets a little bit humbling at points because when we lose, it’s a big skeptical, ‘Oh, Shottle Bop lost, Shottle Bop lost.’ But, to a point, it’s really only made us better, I think, as a team, because it forces us to practice harder.

“We can’t really take games lightly as we could before. Every team has players that can beat us single-handedly. So, having that target on our back kind of treats us just like the big shot in the game. That’s fine, because (with) our sport being so small, we want it to rise as big as we can.”

Blau and his teammates are embracing the moment they are in, at the same time, as the ambassadors of the sport.

“So, somebody’s got to be the face of the game,” he said. “We know that us being young, we’re outspoken, we kind of talk, and get chippy with the other team, which is fine because that’s part of the sport, too.”