The soaring popularity of ultimate in the city will now have its very own elementary school tournament.

DiscTricked 38 — The Ultimate Experience will take place June 5-6 and will include teams from six Richmond elementary schools — Garden City, Grauer, Whiteside Diefenbaker, Errington and host Thompson. There will be two hours of games from 3:30-5:30 p.m. on both days.

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Ultimate is already thriving at the high school level. The Richmond Colts captured the B.C. Ultimate Open Invitational AAA Championship last weekend. That came after RC Palmer earned the AA crown a year earlier.

Although many elementary schools have disc spots as part of their PE program, there was a distinct lack of organized ultimate at this age level until now thanks to a small group of dedicated teacher-leaders.

“Most of the teachers on this committee are or were players themselves, and have a great passion for spreading the love of this sport to the elementary level,” explained Thompson Elementary teacher and DiscTricked 38 chairperson Adam Stokes. “We envision this as the beginning of an annual event, and hope this will eventually grow into an elementary school ultimate league.

“We saw this as an opportunity to get our younger students involved in a sport that emphasizes both the spirit of athletic competition, as well as the spirit of integrity and sportsmanship.”

The tournament committee has decided to prioritize the focus on integrity, typically called Spirit of the Game.

The tournament will not culminate in a traditional championship game, instead students demonstrating exemplary Spirit in each round-robin match will be awarded a chance to participate in a mixed “Super Spirit” final, that will see these ‘top spirited’ athletes coming together and playing for the love of the game, and not the logo on their jersey.

It hasn’t taken long for DiscTricked 38 to gain additional support.

A partnership has formed with Elevate Ultimate Academy. Their top level coaches have lent advice in the planning stages, is providing mentors to support the students in real time, and have donated jerseys and discs to use as prizes for our most spirited players. Prizes have also been donated VUL and BE Ultimate.

The City of Richmond is also providing a water-filling station.