Mayhem as Frisbee Team Overcomes Obstacles

Zena Ali
@ZenaAli77438355

Mayhem, the frisbee group you may not have heard about, just came in seventh place out of 15 teams competing in a tournament in Alexandria organized by the Egyptian Ultimate Frisbee Players Association.

Mayhem competed against 15 teams from Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and other countries in the region.

“The team which won first place was the Supernova team which is composed of former Mayhem athletes who have graduated from AUC,” Mayhem team member Youssef Zaki, a Multimedia Journalism senior, told The Caravan.

Back on campus, Mayhem is looking to become recognized by the Office of Athletics as a competitive university team, lost the sponsorship of the Office of Athletics in the summer of 2018 and was redesignated as a student club.

Founded in 2013 by Petroleum Engineering alum Ibrahim El Sayed, Mayhem is composed of AUC undergraduate students who play professional frisbee, also referred to as “Ultimate Frisbee”.

Mayhem’s current team captain Actuarial Science junior Adham Maamoun says that, ever since, the team has been missing out on a lot of opportunities because of this redesignation.

“For example, having an excused absence to attend tournaments, having the privilege of holding games at AUC, financial aid for national team players, buying the full scale of our equipment, transportation to and from the different game fields and many more are benefits which we do not have in comparison to official sports teams,” Maamoun told The Caravan.

Mayhem had previously submitted a proposal to the Dean of Students, as well as the Director of the Office of Athletics in Spring 2021, to renew sponsorship.

“However, ever since then, we haven’t heard anything from their side about the subject”, Maamoun explained.

Vice-President of the Office of Student Life Deena Boraie said Mayhem is no longer sponsored by the university because the frisbee team has no contemporaries to compete with in other local universities.

“As AUC, the Office of Athletics competes against universities so we’re not going to start talking to private frisbee teams, that’s not appropriate at a university level”.

The Office of Athletics agrees with Boraie, but added that they are exploring the possibility of readmitting Mayhem – as well as rugby and American Football teams at AUC – to university sponsorship.

“We are trying to help them, but there are still some small steps we [as the Office of Athletics] want to work on. If they get resolved, these teams will come back again under us (Office of Athletics),” said Amira Farag, Recreation and Fitness Manager at the Office of Athletics.

Sherif El Erian, Senior Director of the Office of Athletics since fall 2021 confirmed Farag’s statement and advised Mayhem to start by writing another proposal and meeting with this team.

“If they really want to be part of the university-sponsored sports, it might take a while, like a year or two, but we should start [the process],” said El Erian.

In the meantime, the sport has been gaining ground locally. Zaki says that other regional universities have been introducing competitive frisbee teams.

“The German University in Cairo is called GUC Airbenders and there is another such team at the American University in Beirut,” Zaki said.

Mayhem has been rising in local rankings, reaching the top three Egyptian Ultimate teams, due to their performance in the National League up until 2019.

The team was also ranked third in the MENA Championship in 2019, topping all other participating Egyptian teams. Mayhem also received the Spirit Award of the All African Ultimate Clubs Championship in Kenya in 2017.

It was able to get international recognition by entering one of the international club championships, Windmill, which took place in Amsterdam in 2018.

Every semester, they conduct tryouts to give a chance for new players to join the team.

After the university’s continuation of face-to-face instruction in fall 2021, Mayhem was able to resume with its normal tryouts on campus, which had been suspended due to pandemic restrictions, and recruit new players, even those without prior experience with the game.