SHARON — It hasn’t been long since ultimate, formerly known as Ultimate Frisbee, was the most popular sport at The Sharon Academy.

The school first offered ultimate in 2011 as a club sport, and after the Vermont Principals’ Association made the Green Mountain State the first in the country to sanction it as a full varsity sport beginning in 2019, the Phoenix competed that spring with a full schedule and an opportunity to compete for a championship.

At least two seniors from that 2019 team went on to play in college: Annabel Lapp played club ultimate at the University of Portland in Oregon and now plays at the University of Vermont after transferring, and Claire Jenisch plays at Oberlin (Ohio) College.

“I was never a sports kid growing up. I was very much an art and music type of kid,” Jenisch said. “It sounds cheesy, but (ultimate) has become such a big part of my life since high school. The community, the people I play with, means so much to me. It makes me really excited that other people are excited about it.”

But all sports were canceled the following spring due to COVID, and the Sharon team was unable to survive the year off, lying dormant for the next two seasons.

In 2021, a group of students would throw a disc around and play among themselves, but never played a competitive game.

This spring, though, the Phoenix have risen again as a club team, competing against other schools for the first time in four years.

“The interest was there. They just didn’t know it was a thing,” junior captain Maple Moore said. “Seniors (can) will something to underclassmen, and I was willed the responsibility of starting up the ultimate team again. Last year I tried to, it didn’t really work out, so this year I really put my heart into making it again, and I found people who are passionate about it.”

Thanks to the efforts of Moore and others, Sharon put together a 10-member roster — enough to put a team on the field, as ultimate is played seven-a-side, but not enough for full scrimmages in practice and not enough to consistently send fresh legs off the bench during games.

Just eight players were present at Thursday’s home opener, an 11-4 loss to Mill River. The Phoenix had dropped their first game, 15-1, at Leland & Gray on April 12.

Sarah Booker and Chris Zanotta, who both played some form of the sport in college, were brought in as co-head coaches by athletic director Blake Fabrikant and his assistant, Grayson Levy. Booker, who moved to the Upper Valley in 2019 to become an inventory planner at King Arthur Baking Company, had previously coached at her high school alma mater, which started a team just after she graduated from college.

“The culture is why I love the sport so much,” Booker said. “There’s a really nice balance of competitiveness and sportsmanship, and also just fun. The spirit of the game is the most important rule in the ultimate rule book, which is totally unique to the sport. It’s self-refereed, so the players all take a lot of responsibility for how they play on the field. Everyone is responsible not only for playing well and competitively, but also having respect for their opponents and playing to win without sacrificing the joy of playing.”

The VPA still sanctions ultimate as a varsity sport, with separate boys’ and girls’ divisions, but during its lone varsity season, Sharon and some other teams competed as coed squads in the boys’ division. The club team is open to all genders, but all 10 players use male pronouns.

Moore, who plays varsity basketball in the winter, and junior Lev Breese are the Phoenix’s only upperclassmen, so hopes are high for stronger numbers next spring and beyond. Two eighth graders at the middle school, River Sotak and Aeden Hart, are on the roster along with three sophomores and three freshmen.

“It’s been awesome, because it allows us to go into each game saying, ‘this is what we want to learn, this is what we want to work on,’” Moore said. “It’s clear that (other teams) have more experience and more knowledge of the game, but it’s not harsh because it’s such a friendly environment that it allows us to try and learn from them.”

Sharon practices three days per week and will play seven more games this month against teams of varying skill levels. Some, like Mill River, are also relatively new programs, while others, like Burr & Burton, are much more competitive.

Booker said she saw significant improvement Thursday from the first game last month in terms of disc movement, decision-making and defense. Onboarding can be challenging, she said, because ultimate does not have the visibility of most other sports, but its welcoming nature can allow athletes and non-athletes alike to pick it up easily.

“Most kids joining the team, they’ve never seen a professional game. It’s not like basketball where you’ve seen it on TV,” Booker said. “But you also don’t have kids who have been playing competitively forever, so it is a very welcoming place for people who haven’t traditionally played sports to hop in. I’ve seen a lot of people who are like, ‘I’m not an athlete,’ and within a couple years they’re one of the best players on whatever team they’ve joined.”

Benjamin Rosenberg can be reached at brosenberg@vnews.com or 603-727-3302.

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