Waddell Tees Up for Disc Golf

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Disc golf player sets up his shot to make it in the basket.

Braden Hamilton, Reporter

Have you ever seen a chain linked cage around Waddell Elementary School or Washington and Lee campus and wondered what it was for? The answer is disc golf. Disc golf is a flying disc sport in which players throw a disc at a target. It is played using rules similar to golf, but significantly easier to learn, and much more accessible and easier on your wallet. 

Some might think it is just frisbee with a target, but the discs are specialized, much like clubs for regular golf. There are drivers, wedges and putters and they are shaped and weighted differently so they fly differently. Because of this, you are able to control them more than your average frisbee. It has recently gained popularity and even has a professional league. It is on college campuses, state and local parks, and now at Waddell Elementary School. 

Waddell Elementary School recently installed two new cages on their campus. Lexington City Schools’ Superintendent, Rebecca Walters, said it all happened because of an amazing community partnership between the school and Just Games Lexington, a local tabletop game shop who also carries Innova and Dynamic disc golf discs. 

According to Walters, Fintan McGrath, a current 5th grader at Waddell Elementary, reached out to her by letter last summer asking if the school would consider adding a disc golf cage to the Waddell playground. The persuasive letter convinced Mrs. Walters to reach out to Waddell’s PE teacher Holly Sndyer to develop a plan to bring disc golf to the school. Snyder suggested the school reach out to Zander Tallman, owner of Just Games Lexington, to see what cage might be best for the school. 

Walters said “Zander became an integral part of this project, helping us to select a cage, offering to sponsor a cage, and also install the cages for us.” 

Because Just Games donated one of the cages made it possible for Lexington City Schools to purchase an additional cage. Because of this community partnership, the school was able to purchase two high quality cages that will hopefully be used for many years.

These holes are open to anyone in the community to enjoy playing after regular school hours and on weekends. The school is hopeful that families will come and play together.

During school hours in the spring, Mrs. Snyder’s PE classes always has a disc golf unit. Previously,  she pieced together with hula hoops but now she will have disk golf baskets to use to better teach the elementary students.

If students are interested they can check out other Rockbridge County disc golf courses: 18 holes on the back campus at Washington and Lee University and 9 holes at Glen Maury Park. 

Looking to be a bigger part of the local disc golf scene? According to Snyder, there is a very active group called Rockbridge Disc Golf that you can find on Facebook which is run by RCHS’s own Mr. Hamelman. They meet to play every Sunday from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. and Wednesday from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. on the W&L course. 

While everyone is grateful for these new cages at Waddell, Tallman said “There are no plans to add any more baskets at Waddell or likely anywhere within the city limits due to space constraints.”

However in Rockbridge County, according to Hamelman, “the big news right now is that we are building a new course in Natural Bridge and partnering with Natural Bridge State Park. This project has been going on for a couple of years, but we are finally reaching the final stages of planning, and funding is starting to come through. The course will be a lot different than the Washington and Lee Back Campus Course. Natural Bridge will offer longer fairways, more open space to air out discs, and new challenges with wind, distance and shot placement. Washington and Lee by contrast is a much tighter, shorter and technical wooded course.”

Hamelman, a disc golf enthusiast, thinks of disc golf  “… as hiking with an added physical and mental challenge”. He advocates strongly for disc golf  in our area saying  “Virginia is a diverse state that offers a lot of different environments for courses, from woods and mountains to plains to the coast. Virginia is growing as a disc golf state. With possibly the greatest player of all time and 5x world champ, Paul McBeth, living an hour from us in Forest, VA and the current world champion, James Conrad, living a bit further down the road in Blacksburg. All of this is to say that now is the time to get into disc golf. The popularity is ever-growing, and it is easy to get into! Grab a disc and try it out!”