Michelle Leahy

 

What year did you begin playing Ultimate Frisbee? 

November 2012

 

 

How did you start playing?  

Val nagged me persistently for about a year until I finally gave in and agreed to give it a go. Now I’m much better at listening to her…!

 

 

Who was your first frisbee crush? 

Doesn’t really apply but if it did, it would have to be Ben Noonan. As well as being my first frisbee coach ever, he’s the most handsome man in Ireland… How could a girl resist?
 

 

What was the best frisbee tournament you ever attended? 

Siege 2015 - Having missed the previous two Sieges because of exams and illness (boo) I was ridiculously excited to finally get to play one (ask Edel, she had to drive me and I'm pretty sure I was supremely annoying!)
It was the best tournament I've ever played at because I was playing with UCC, in my final year of college and with all my best friends (aww) and we played the best ultimate we played all year.
The party was unreal and we had great craic transforming Reidy into Foxxy Cleopatra and leading him to victory in the "Sexiest Spy" category.
It was great playing in the final against Manchester because they had pushed us so hard the day before and winning was the perfect end to a fantastic weekend!

 

 

What was the worst frisbee tournament you ever attended?        

Probably Munster Munch 2014 - I should have known when I began the day by cleaning out a basin of Val's vomit, that it was a bad omen for things to come. Basically we played pretty rubbish and my Dad had come to watch us. Sadly we proceeded to destroy the idea I had built up in his head about frisbee being a great sport that I was a little bit good at. Oops.
Rosie summed it up rather well by saying "I was SO glad to be playing with LMS that day."
Let us never speak of it again.

 

 

If you were an animal that could play frisbee what animal would you like to be and why??         

I would be this little guy
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/38/67/16/38671612e4595044d4e0949792038c11.jpg
because, according to my teammates, that's the exact face of surprise I make whenever I catch a disc!

 

 

If a theme song was played every time you were announced onto the pitch, what theme song would you choose?       

“Bitch” by Meredith Brooks
Shtinger picked this one out! He’s still trying to get the “Michelle’s a bitch” idea to take off (or at least I hope it hasn’t taken off!), but I actually like that song so I decided to humour him!
But as she says in the song Shting, “You know you wouldn’t want it any other way”.
She also says “So take me as I am, this may mean you’ll have to be a stronger man”… I guess you’ll just have to man up =P

 

 

What was your best Ultimate Frisbee moment?         

There are way too many moments to think through them all, so I’ll just go with the most recent one which was being awarded most improved female player in UCC 2014-2015. Basically everyone is so class and improved so much, that the fact they voted for me made me feel all warm and fuzzy on the inside. Thanks guys <3

 

Which player did you look up to when you first began playing frisbee?       

Ehm, all of them? More specifically, Ben for being a great coach, Edel for coming to all our beginner trainings and teaching us loads, Rosie for just being her amazing (and terrifying) self, Mairéad Rice for being a fantastic player and captain (and helping me out loads with college work!) and Doc for helping the beginner teams out massively at both indoor and outdoor IVs.

 

What player do you look up to at the moment?        

Still look up to all of them and basically everyone I play with really, because you can always learn something from everyone. Special mentions to Mary McCoach and Feely for being extra super amazing both on and off the pitch and making me want them to coach me for the rest of my life because I literally don’t think I will EVER stop learning from them. I could probably write an essay on how great they are but I’ll leave it at that in case I weird them out!

 

 

Have you ever played a joke on one of your teammates?         

Hhmm not that I can think of sadly...
I suppose it doesn't count as a joke but I did enjoy when we bought the t-shirts for Ben Noonan when he said he'd "give it to us hard".

 

 

Where do you see your frisbee self in 5 years time -   

Living in Cork and continuing to play and improve with Rebel hopefully! Using up all my work holidays for tournaments I’d imagine :/

 

What was the best frisbee team you ever played on? 

 

Rebel Ladies 2013-2014 and UCC Ladies 2014-2015. They're both very similar teams and I learned so much playing on both of them. Everyone is actually best friends and myself and Val's house ended up being a halfway house for most of the players for most of this year! There's nobody I'd rather spend all my free time with than them basically! It's quite convenient that we also play really well together!

 

Do you have any other hobbies?   

Procrastination from college work is a major one which, funnily enough, goes very well with playing a lot of frisbee! Meeting up with my other friends and telling them about frisbee? Telling my family about frisbee? Uh-oh… I’m beginning to see a common theme…

 

What was the best frisbee party you were ever at and why?        

Any UCC party this year (2014-2015) would probably be up there. The atmosphere in the club was better than it’s ever been and we had unreal banter. Or maybe I’m imagining this because I’m leaving and want to think they’ll have no craic without me! The Siege party was probably the highlight, especially waking up with Cliona the next morning and sprinting around Aldi for food to sober us up so Mary wouldn’t murder us!

 

 

Have you ever thought about quitting frisbee and why?    

Nope, not yet anyway! I feel like I’ve only been completely committed to playing for a year, since I joined Rebel really, so that’s definitely not long enough to get tired of something I love so much.
And, as you may have guessed from the hobbies question, I really wouldn’t have anything else to do if I didn’t play!

 

 

Why do you continue to play frisbee?     

It’s probably a 50/50 split between loving the sport and loving the people. 

 

 

Choose your ideal frisbee player mush-up       

Feely's knowledge and understanding of the game, Rosie's badass-ness and throws, Mary's cool head and general awesomeness, Aoife's speed and work ethic, Leanne's commitment, Cliona's "cut where I want you to" facial expression (hehe) and any boy's (Doc, Oisín, etc.) ability to jump really...? 

 

 

An interesting fact about you that people should know      

I collect owls? (Not live ones obviously (sadly), just ya know, ceramic, wooden, metal and plastic ones)
I feel I should also mention that I'm really not a bitch too, just in case!

 

 

If you had to pick one person on your frisbee team to be stuck in a submarine with for 9 days who would you choose and why?   

Rosie, because I am no longer terrified of her and we are friends now! Kidding (kind of), we would have very logical discussions about everything and she would keep me entertained!

 

 

Do you have any nice saying - frisbee or just in general - you would like to share with us?         

I tend not to express myself in words... More in a series of various noises... People generally get the idea though!

 

 

Do you ever wonder how different your life would be if frisbee didn't find you?

I’d probably be the proud (not-so-proud) owner of multiple chins and would never have met most of my best friends… It’s too scary to think about and now I will probably have a nightmare about it!

 

 

Your dream job?

Anything that involves lots of holidays and not a lot of effort! I think that's a very specific niche that I'm not likely to find my way into though....
Maybe I could start the Michelle Leahy School for Kids Who Can't Frisbee Good and Want to Do Other Stuff Good Too!

 

 

Very informative interview Michellle. Thank you!