Contrary to popular belief, teachers actually do not live at school and many have hobbies that do not reflect their day jobs. For life outside the classroom of teacher Chas Busch, it is Ultimate Frisbee.

Busch started playing Ultimate in college at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. This year marked his tenth year of playing, five of those as a player at UNO and five as a coach there.

“I liked how accessible the sport was. I had only played in gym a couple of times in high school, but that was the case for most of the people at the first practice,” Busch said. “I fell in love with the sport and its community, played all through college and ever since.”

As for the structure of the sport, Busch said Ultimate Frisbee has five levels. Pickup teams have games that are roughly organized where anyone can play and the rules are loosely enforced, league teams are local organizations that have captains who draft teams for weekly scheduled games with specific rules, colleges or university teams that practice on a weekly basis and travel to compete in tournaments across the country, club teams that travel to play in tournaments across the country, and semi-professional teams that travel to play in single games against other teams in their division culminating in a championship weekend.

“In Omaha we run a fall, winter and summer league,” Busch said. “I have played in every season of league since I started. I have captained for the past 7 years and helped organize the league for the past 5 years.”

On Jan. 11, Busch traveled to Madison, Wisconsin to try out for their professional Ultimate Frisbee team. This was his third year trying out, but he did not make the team this year.

“This was a rough year for me at tryouts, I have not done as much training this year as in years past,” Busch said. “I think I played well in that I did not make many mistakes, but my overall fitness was not at the level that it was last year.”

If Busch makes the team, he will play one or two games a week starting in late May. While the school year is in session, he will travel up to Madison on the weekends to practice with the team. Once the school year is over he will move there for the summer.

“I have always strived to get better at the sport and play at the highest level,” Busch said. “I love the competition. Professional Ultimate is not a lucrative venture, but the level of play, organization and exposure is appealing.”