Staff and Their Passions: Ultimate Frisbee and Gaming
Who doesn’t love a little competition and community? Outside of work, our staff can be found playing games on teams IRL or on the screen.
Melissa DiBerardino (Archives and Special Collections) started playing ultimate frisbee as an undergraduate at Stonehill College. She became friends with the team captain, who encouraged her to join the team. She instantly felt at home with the “friendliest nerds,” and she’s still playing 10+ years later.
DiBerardino currently plays with the Boston Ultimate Disc Alliance (BUDA), which offers youth, college, adult, master’s, and grandmasters leagues. She plays on a mixed-gender team called the “Mighty Dacks.” Two games are played per week, for about 90 minutes each. The game is similar to soccer; the aim of the game is to get the disc into the defending team’s end zone for a goal. There are seven players on each team, with three handlers who move the disc around. Then there are two inside cutters and two players on the wings.
DiBerardino also played on another local team as a part of the USA Ultimate (USAU), which is a national league. Teams in this league compete regionally and nationally in tournaments. After two years, she quit this team because of the practice and travel demands. In general, She noted that Boston is a competitive area for the sport. The city even has its own professional women’s team, the Brute Squad.
DiBerardino’s favorite thing about playing ultimate frisbee is her teammates. She has played on the same team for 10 years; and, at this point, she knows people on other teams in the league as well. She explained that playing is good exercise: she tends to run five miles during each game. She said that Emerson students even have an ultimate frisbee team, called the Skunks, which was established in 2019.
When asked if her participation in the sport has helped her in her professional role at Emerson in any way, she replied that teaching and mentoring new players has bolstered her amount of patience, and it obviously has advanced her sense of teamwork in the office!
Derek Palmer (Marketing) has been playing video games since making childhood visits to old-school arcades. Most of his current friendships were formed during and after high school through gaming. And now that his friends live all over the country, gaming provides an opportunity for him to “hang out” with them on a regular basis. Usually, he and a few friends meet in chat rooms once or twice a week to talk and play video games. He said, “It’s like they’re just sitting right next to you on the couch.”
Palmer plays several Xbox Series X games regularly: Halo, Apex, Overcooked, and Star Wars Battlefront. He’s played the Call of Duty series and Halo for the longest period of time. One of his current favorites is Call of Duty Zombies.
Palmer credits gaming with helping him become more of a team player. It has also bolstered his patience, confidence, and time management skills. He noted that playing on weeknights offers him a much-needed outlet at the end of the day. He also loves reading, so he enjoys the narratives of the video games, especially sci-fi, fantasy, and different world realities. For any newbies interested in trying out the world of gaming, Palmer’s advice is to “pick a platform and style of game that works best for you, and then figure out the rest as you go.”
Interested in sharing your hobby in an upcoming article? Email us at people@emerson.edu.
Nancy Howell (Marketing)