Ultimate players come and go, but anyone can return after no matter how long and fit right back in. Sometimes old and new faces reappear. In the game, two teams of seven players face off on opposite ends of the field. The object of the game is to pass the disc down the field and score in the opposing team's end zone. No matter what the level of competition, be it lunch-hour pickup games or international tournaments, there are no referees.
Players work out rule violations among themselves, sometimes by just redoing a play.
Players even call fouls on themselves. O'Shea lives in Cupertino and works in Sunnyvale. Aruna Venkatachalam, one of the handful of women who regularly play, said the sport is popular because of the people who participate. Charles Shaffer, a Cupertino resident and president of Oaks Travel at The Oaks shopping center, said there is always mutual respect between players. He's been playing the game for 23 years, starting when he was a student at Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo.