The Legend of Baja began in the summer of 2014 when a group of enterprising teenagers started the Fishers Ultimate Summer League, a pick-up ultimate league that met at a local park.
Of course any game worth playing is worth playing for money, so an entry fee of $10 per team was charged, with a chance to win $190.
The epic battles of ultimate that were taking place on the fields of Fishers caught the attention of two players from the Indianapolis AlleyCats and plans for a Fishers High School club team started to form.
Eventually the league found a regular location to play at a vacant lot behind the Taco Bell on Allisonville Rd.
The beverage of choice at Taco Bell was Mountain Dew Baja Blast (it’s “a tropical lime storm” after all). With levels of sugar and caffeine that would send the average adult parent to the ER, it was the perfect fuel for the Fishers Ultimate Summer League.
Large quantities of Baja Blast would be consumed, and it was then that phrases like “Baja Ultimate” and “Baja Arena” would be coined.
One mother would later recall her feelings about dropping her son off behind Taco Bell:
“I couldn’t help wonder whether I was dropping him off for a dance off, a vicarious meeting with the Colombian cartels, or whether he secretly got a job at Taco Bell. I believe I grounded him for telling me he was playing ultimate, because I thought he just made up a game. Clearly Frisbee golf was the only sophisticated thing you could do with a Frisbee!”
But a love for ultimate began to take hold, and the fact that memories were being made soon became apparent.
Not sure when this next pic was actually taken (probably not July ’14) but it was too good to leave out!
Team disc designs were proposed and thankfully, certain elements were modified appropriately!
Word about the league spread and prospective players from far and wide would inquire about participating.
The very first callout meeting would take place in September 2014.
Turnout was great and practice began!
The team trained hard all Fall and into the Winter, and performed well in Winter Indoor League… and people noticed!
The fledgling team competed in its first USA Ultimate-sanctioned tournament in the spring of 2015. In their first appearance at the Indiana State Championship tournament in June, they compiled a record of 4-3 on their way to a 4th place finish overall. They were on their way!
In time, that first team – it’s players, coaches, and parents – would go on to record impressive achievements in the sport of ultimate.
But nobody knew it back then. Nobody knew how any of it would turn out. Certainly not the parents dropping their kids off at Taco Bell to play some game they had never even heard of!
Fishers Baja is the lasting legacy left behind by everyone involved with that first team, a program that will touch the lives of many in both the ultimate and Fishers communities for years to come. And for that, we owe a tremendous debt of gratitude.
Fishers Baja 