Player Bio and Interview: Garrett Hubing

Nicknames: none
Year of birth: 1984
Height: 5'10''
Jersey Number: #12
Started playing Ultimate in: 2003
Joined Goats in: 2010


How?: The first ultimate I played was with UC Berkeley's B-team, in California. I moved to Germany a year later, and played for around 7 years with a really nice team in Göttingen. When I decided to move to Ankara last year, I thought it might be the end of my frisbee career. I was extremely happy to find that there was already a vibrant ultimate community at Bilkent (my hat goes off to the team's founders). I felt very welcome here from the very first day I came to practice, and now that I've been here for a year, the team really feels like a second family.


What were your best and worst moments in the team?
Best moment(s):I really enjoyed playing a couple of final games with the Goats this year. Someone came up to me after one of those games and said something along the lines of "that was the most intense game of ultimate there has ever been in Turkey". I think it's fantastic that I get to be part of the rise of Turkish ultimate, in terms of level of play, popularity, etc.



I love seeing people join the sport, because I think it can be such a positive part of peoples' lives in a way that some more traditional sports (soccer, basketball, volleyball) are less likely to be. I think that a higher level of play will help the sport grow, so I'm doing what I can to contribute.

Worst moment(s): There haven't been any particularly bad moments. I could have played better in a couple of games (but when is that not true?). I guess I'll say: when I hurt my knee, and didn't get to practice with the Goats for a month and a half.


What were the funniest things in the team?
- Hüseyin's ultimate-worthy hair
- Ilker's push passes
- Şerife smiling her way through pain and exhaustion
- Utku's injury story (make sure to ask him)
- Hannah softly and politely directing practice
- Eyüp's smoke breaks, and unexpected pirate hat
- Cem's Iguana Loki. Iguanas are funny.


How do you see yourself as a player? What are your virtues and vices?
I love playing defense, and when I'm in okay shape I think I am a pretty formidable defender. On offense, I've been trying to turn into a handler for about 3 years, with mixed results. I've been known to make poor throwing decisions when I get nervous, and my long throws are not as precise as they should be.

But the main thing I need to work on is keeping up my concentration and intensity at practice.


What are your current projects in terms of Ultimate?
I need to take a more organized approach to teaching some of the fundamental aspects of the game. I need to learn how to teach people not to get broken on the mark, and not to get beaten to the open side while defending. I need to figure out how to teach the dump, and to teach people to make more thrower-friendly in and out cuts. My coaching approach so far has produced some positive results, but in the abovementioned areas, I need to be a better teacher.

What do you think would make the Goats a better team?
I think more intensity on defense, and more intelligent positioning and switching, would make the Goats a much better team
I would like to make the Goats known for their hard defense. I want our marker to realize that if he/she gives 100% rather than 70% on the mark, he/she is helping his/her team win. I want our field defenders to be constantly planning how they are going to stop the next cut, and how they can force the offense to make a riskier throw. I want people shutting down dump cuts and short in cuts, rather than just allowing those throws. If we can do some of these things, we'll be a much better team.