MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — You may have played it in a park or on a beach.

But did you know professional ultimate frisbee is a thing that exists?

And Minnesota’s actually pretty good. Meet the most successful Minnesota pro team you’ve never heard of.

“A lot of the guys on the team have been calling this Winnesota,” said coach Lou Abramowski. “We’ve been winning a lot of games.”

You might not believe it given the state of the Twins right now, but believe it or not, being in first place with a real chance at a championship is allowed for teams from Minnesota.

“Yeah, don’t jinx us by saying that,” captain Danny Collom said with a laugh.

This is the Minnesota Windchill, and they’ve won their last six in a row to boast a record of 6-1 halfway through the regular season in the American Ultimate Disc League – a, yes, professional ultimate frisbee league which has 26 teams spanning across the United States. The league is five years old. Minnesota joined as an expansion team four years ago.

“Ultimate has been one of the fastest growing sports in America,” Abramowski said, “over the last 10 years.”

For those unfamiliar, the sport is a combination of frisbee and football. You can’t run with it but have to pass it up the field – eventually to a teammate in the end zone.

“We’re trying to gain legitimacy as a professional sport,” said captain David Shirley, “because it is a professional league.”

Minnesota’s players don’t get paid – at least not yet – but the league is trending in that direction as it grows. Some teams already do pay their players, which makes Minnesota’s success even more impressive. They’re the underdog on what isn’t always a level playing field.

“A lot of teams are running in cities that have a lot of attention and are getting thousands of fans at every single one of their games,” Abramowski said. “And some of the teams are owned by people with very, very deep pockets, and they’ve been able to compensate their players pretty well.”

The sport’s quest for legitimacy got a major boost in the past year, when the International Olympic Committee recognized it as a possible future Olympic sport.

“The Olympics is huge,” Shirley said. “Competing with soccer and football and baseball and basketball, we have a long way to go. But being in the Olympics is that first step, in the right direction.”

As for growing the sport here at home, the Windchill knows there’s one big thing they can do to help with that.

Keep winning.

“Obviously it’s way more fun to come watch a team win than lose,” Collom said. “Hopefully we can keep it going.”

The Windchill’s next home game is Sunday at 1:00 p.m. at the National Sports Center in Blaine. For more info on the team, click here.