Zoe Andyke taught a group of educators last week the mechanics of how to play disc golf on the football field at Ranson Middle School. She’s the founder and CEO of the national disc golf nonprofit Uplay, and an apostle of sorts for bringing the sport to Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools.
Her students hurl their discs toward baskets set up near the end zone, and Andyke hustles to give pointers and tips. It’s not a group of pro disc golf hopefuls, but nearly two dozen Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools physical education teachers learning how they can teach the sport to their students. With UPlay's help, the teachers learned the basics of the sport to help them develop the curriculum in their own schools.
Disc golf is one of the fastest-growing sports in the country and has a strong presence in Charlotte — the Disc Golf Pro Tour championship is being held here later this month. And it’s part of the district’s physical education curriculum. The district purchased equipment for the sport for middle and high schools in schools in the 2019-20 school year.
But it’s a relatively new sport — one that teachers may not have had a ton of experience with.
“Learning how to learn a new skill, it takes time, challenge, it’s challenging for a lot of our kids to begin with," said Andrew Romberger, a health and PE resource teacher at CMS who helped organize the training. "But the more we persevere and practice any new skill, the better we’re going to be at it.”
Andyke is a professional disc golfer with a background in physical education. She was inspired to start Uplay after realizing there was no curriculum book to help physical education teachers teach the sport. Uplay gives its curriculum book to schools as part of the program. The group has since implemented the training in all 50 states and dozens of countries.
“I see these PE teachers, these adults, kind of turn into their childlike selves and get very competitive and joyful, and I see that translate in the classroom, and I just know that kids are having better days," Andyke said.
As part of the program, schools will be able to bring their students to the championship for free.
