Thank you Yoonee Jeong for chatting with us. Yoonee will be playing with Samsui at the WMUCC this summer. Yoonee brings us through the challenges behind preparation for WMUCC and shares how Ultimate has positively impacted her life. 

Tell me a bit about yourself and how you first came across Ultimate

I started playing ultimate in Korea. I’m Korean by birth, but grew up in different places. I was mainly in the Philippines when I was younger, and have worked all around Asia and spent some time in Africa as well.  When I first moved back to Korea after living in the Philippines for 10 years, I was just looking for a team sport to play. I played soccer until University and realise that it’s very difficult for women to find a team sport and continue doing so at a competitive level. Then I came across Ultimate just by chance and it was a very welcoming and inclusive community. So the culture really drew me in.

I moved to Singapore in 2013 but only  played casually since I was a working mom with 3 young children. Years went by and I tried out for  Singapore women’s team for the beach world in 2017, thinking “okay I’m 39 now. This will be my last tournament.” But I forgot how fun it was to be at a tournament at a higher level. Even just training as a team and seeing the team coming together. There were so many moments where we were really, really proud of what we were able to do – even just sending a women’s team to the beach world for the first time! And since playing beach worlds, my vision for ultimate only grew in contrast to what was meant to be my retirement. 

What would you say you bring to a team?

I am far from being one of the best players on the team but I am one of the oldest – turning 45 this year. And I guess the longevity of my ultimate career is one of the things that I add value. People, especially in Asia, can often see Ultimate as something they do in their 20s and early 30s and retire, as different life events get in the way of staying in the competitive Ultimate scene. I try to impart my experience of juggling different life priorities while staying healthy and fit (enough) to play, mainly because I want to encourage others to think about ultimate as a lifelong sport.

Can you tell me about your team – who you are, how it started out and everything in between.

So we’re called “Samsui”.  Singapore is a multi-ethnic country and our name comes from the founding mothers of Singapore. They were immigrants from China, who worked as construction workers in the early days. We feel this is symbolic of who we are as the founding mothers of Ultimate here with a lot of our teammates being the first female players in some of the first clubs in Singapore. 

When looking around, Singapore has incredible Masters female talent who have had no option before but to retire at one point because there is no platform for them to come back to. But they are amazing athletes still craving that adrenaline rush and the joy of playing Ultimate.

So I started planting the seed. My base to start with the beach team but I was reaching out to other players that I knew of. Looking back, I was literally just texting people saying “hey, this is Yoonee, you may not know me but would you be interested in my idea?”. I then found my co-captain Carol Garcia who has also played for the top clubs here, also a mother, also not a native to Singapore and also having similar thoughts.

We started working together and managed to get a group of women together for 2018 WMUCC. That was the first time that Singapore sent a Masters women’s team, but it was a bit of a hodgepodge. We had a line and a half of players from Singapore and the rest were just guests but they really embraced everything we were trying to achieve. Fast forward and we have the failed attempt at a campaign for Australia due to the tournament being canceled. But we had started to gather more interest. For Australia, we had at least two full lines of Signaporeans and for Ireland we’re bringing three lines!

How has training been coming together for you all?  

Oh, my  – it’s been so hard! And I’m sure it’s been hard for everybody. but Singapore has had fairly strict group size limits that only lifted in late April 2022. So up until then, we could only meet in groups of five. Our running joke is will we all forget how to play seven V seven? And we really have! The first time we played seven V seven together I swear all the cutters were just double cutting. There were clusters everywhere and we had to come up with different creative ways to get around these restrictions adding more complexity. We could never all play together.

How would you say Ultimate changed you?

Ultimate taught me not to give up. When you reach a certain stage in your life, you don’t really get the sense that you’re growing as a person – for me anyways. In Ultimate, I get to explore these uncharted territories and push myself.

I met my husband playing ultimate and everywhere we moved Ultimate has been the first community that we reach out to. It’s a part of our identity now, as individuals, as a couple and as a family. The ultimate community became an anchor wherever we go. I’m sure this is true for a lot of other players, but you meet some of your closest friends through sports. I’m fortunate enough to have a very supportive husband, kids who are resilient, growing up around the ultimate frisbee games and fields. But I think in any sport, your closest friends tend to be your teammates.