With spring approaching, the Iowa State Ultimate Club and Iowa State Women’s Ultimate Club are ready to let the discs fly, as they travel to Baton Rouge, La., for the Mardi Gras Ultimate Frisbee Tournament this weekend. The tournament is the first of the spring season for both teams.

“It is one of the most fun tournaments because so many teams go,” said Michael Lun, men’s ultimate club president.

Lun said this spring will be a “rebuilding” season for the men’s club. Because of the loss of key players from last year’s team, he said the men’s team is implementing a simpler offense for the Mardi Gras tournament this weekend.

“We’re going back to fundamentals, we’re going back to an easier offense,” Lun said.

Rachel Derscheid, coach of the women’s ultimate club, said the women also have a new look this season. The club is using a new motion offense this season that is “very different from what they’ve played before,” according to Derscheid. Because of the new offense, she has been preparing the club with new drills.

“I’ve made up a lot of new drills to put them into game-like situations in the context of the motion-motion offense,” Derscheid said.

The Mardi Gras tournament this weekend and the Frostbite III tournament in Springfield, Mo., the following weekend, are intended to prepare the women for the competition they will face over spring break, Derscheid said.

“These two tournaments will be used as benchmarks to see what finer points the team needs to work on before spring break,” he said.

The women’s club, nicknamed the “ISU Woman Scorned,” will play in two different tournaments -the Terminus in Atlanta and the High Tide in Savannah, Ga. – during spring break.

The Terminus tournament, played March 11 to 12, will have some stiff competition for the Woman Scorned, Derscheid said.

“The first weekend’s competition will be very tough, with a number of the teams there being previous national qualifiers,” Derscheid said. “It will probably be the highest caliber tournament they attend all year.”

The men also travel to Savannah for the men’s High Tide tournament, where both the men and women placed second last spring. Derscheid is confident that her team can go far in the tournament again this season.

“I think they can make finals again this year and have a good chance to win High Tide,” she said.

Joseph Brisbois, third-year member of the men’s team, said he looks forward to putting all the team’s hard work in practice to use in competition this weekend.

“I’m really excited to see what the new guys can do,” Brisbois said. “I’m really hoping to better our [performance] last year.”

The men’s and women’s ultimate clubs practice on the turf at the Lied Recreation Athletic Center. The men practice on Monday nights from 10:30 p.m. to midnight and Wednesday nights from 9 to 10:30 p.m.

The women practice on Tuesday nights from 9 to 10:30 p.m. and Thursday nights from 10:30 p.m. to midnight. For more information on the clubs and upcoming events, visit The RecServices Website