West Side Story: What is WINGS?
Sam Abdel-Malek: It’s for any age group, any part of high school. [Also] any skill level. Anyone can join in. Even if you have never touched a disc before. We meet twice a week, it’s really fun. It’s not serious at all, [for the most part].
WSS: How long has WINGS been going on for?
SAM: It’s been going on for [atleast] 10 years. Right now we are seven times state champions. Before it had an actual coach from the University of Iowa, just a student who was part of the friend group that created the club, and he came back to coach it. But my freshman year he left so it was [taken over by] my brother.
WSS: What do you like about WINGS?
SAM: It’s student-led. but It’s also kind of competitive at the same time, [for] the people who are interested [in improving] and [to] get good at the sport that they care about.
WSS: Do you think you’ve improved in your time at WINGS?
SAM: At the beginning, I hadn’t really played. My brother was the [first] person [to] show it to me. And before I had never really thrown [a disc] at all but now I’m even able to coach kids.
WSS: What do you think you brought to WINGS that wasn’t there before?
SAM: I brought the hype that’s surrounded it. Just the energy of the people who are there. [I also have been] making it bigger within the school.
WSS: What got you interested in Ultimate Frisbee?
SAM: Originally my cousin who lives up in Pittsburgh, he showed me and my brother [Ultimate Frisbee] and my brother really took off with it. He started with WINGS. Then he went to play for the University of Iowa in his junior or senior year of high school. And that really put it in my brain that this is a cool sport, and [I thought] I should make it bigger within West,
WSS: Since your brother is doing it in college, are you also planning on playing Ultimate Frisbee in college?
SAM: I know it’s a lot of traveling and definitely a time commitment. Like on the weekends, the entire weekend, but if I go to the University of Iowa, definitely, I think that’d be really fun.
WSS: Where do you want WINGS to go in the future?
SAM: I want it to keep growing. I would like it to be a club that everyone knows in the school like BPA [or something like] that. [I want] people who haven’t heard about it [to] join because maybe their friends are interested. I don’t know if it’ll ever get there, but it would be really cool to have a district wide Ultimate Frisbee [league].
