Last week, the club Frisbee team nominated senior leader David Rosenberg for the prestigious Callahan Award. Like the Heisman trophy in collegiate football, this accolade highlights superior athletes for solid play and contributions to their team. Determined not only by skill, but by sportsmanship and leadership as well. Winning the Callahan is an impressive accomplishment, and Rosenberg feels honored by the nomination.
"It's a really good feeling," he said. "I feel I've earned a lot of respect from my teammates."
The Judaic studies major from Barrington, RI was introduced to organized ultimate Frisbee just after graduating high school. During the summer after his senior year, Rosenberg played on a team in an adult league in Providence. He came to Tufts for mainly academic reasons, but hoped to get involved in ultimate.
"I never played formally before Tufts," Rosenberg said. "I knew I wanted to play, but I didn't know what schools were good or not."
The team during his freshman year was a solid one, but the following year the team was much weaker. One year later, Rosenberg's junior year, the team improved, making its way to Regionals. Rosenberg played a lot sophomore year, playing well at all positions. He was a captain in his sophomore and junior years and a role model for the whole team. This year, Tufts in ranked in the top ten in the country, despite competing in a tough region with teams such as Harvard and Brown.
"The region is so tough, we could win Regionals but not make Nationals, it all depends on how we do on crucial weekends," Rosenberg said. "Regionals are double elimination; one bad game makes it a lot harder [and] one slip up makes us come through a back door road."
"We are a lot more confident. We are much better this year than last year," Rosenberg added.
Rosenberg, like most of the team, trains regularly in the off-season. Some players join summer leagues at home while others remain at Tufts and play in Boston. In the fall, the official pre-season, Rosenberg played with the Tufts squad in tournaments and conditioned extensively.
"Everybody takes it pretty seriously; it is up to the individual," Rosenberg said. "We have pretty intense running practices inside during the winter and we sprint during practice in the spring."
"Our conditioning is what set us apart from other teams this year," Rosenberg said.
Last year, Rosenberg hoped the team would simply make it to Nationals. They did, going 2-5 in the tournament. This year, he and his teammates are aiming higher. Rosenberg hopes to go further in the National tournament, possibly to the quarter or semi-finals. Nationals will be held in Boston this year over Memorial Day weekend. The preliminary and playoff matches will be held outside of Boston while the final match while be held at Tufts on the Ellis Oval.
"Last year we did not practice enough before and we lost two games by one point," Rosenberg said. "This year the finals are at Tufts, this gives us a lot of motivation to do well."
As far as the future, Rosenberg hopes to continue playing Frisbee for club teams and wants to pursue a career in the education field. He hopes to become a youth educator at a temple where he can develop his skills working with people. He is satisfied with the progress the team has made and sees good things for the future.
"We seniors hope to make this the best year of our four. We are fortunate we've gotten better," Rosenberg said. "The team will be great next year because of our depth. The team is young and we [seniors] leave a good foundation for the foreseeable future."
