The Youth Engaged in Advancing Health (YEAH) Club is hosting an ultimate frisbee tournament to promote student health on campus, according to junior co-president Brandon Chan.

The tournament, which began on Monday, Feb. 10, is the club’s first major project, according to Chan.

“Basically, the point of the club is to improve the health of students by improving their diets, reducing stress, and promoting exercise,” Chan said. “I believe it [the tournament] is a great way to reduce stress and promote exercise.”

According to Chan, the club tried to welcome all students who wanted to participate with a flexible sign-up policy, allowing students to sign up as either a team of six to seven members or as an individual whom club members would then assign to a team.

Sign-ups were held on the bulletin board outside the Student Activities Office, according to junior treasurer Michael Li. The tournament was well-received by Paly students, as many students signed up after the club’s initial publicity efforts. When sign-ups ended, there were six or seven teams signed up to play, according to junior co-president Patricia Ho.

“We basically put up posters, and then we asked our friends to spread the info by word of mouth,” Ho said. “There was on announcement on InFocus. We thought about starting a Facebook group, but we already had enough sign-ups.”

The teams include students from different grades such as Max Cohen’s team, a team of all sophomores headed by sophomore Max Cohen; the Bearded Vishnus, a team of juniors and seniors headed by senior Abe Wilson and junior Peter Wilson; an all-junior Abunai team, headed by junior Elliot Sanborn; and an all-senior Seniors Totally Dominate team, headed by senior Russell Langston.

YEAH Club members pondered other possible activities for the tournament before voting on ultimate frisbee, according to Chan.

“We knew we wanted some sort of tournament,” Chan said. “We thought about feasible intramural sports at Paly such as basketball and soccer.”

Chan said he hopes that a successful tournament will encourage students to continue to pursue intramural sports at school.

On Monday, the first day of play, the Seniors Totally Dominate team played the Bearded Vishnus at lunch on the lacrosse fields. The game ended in a 6-6 tie, so the teams played again on Wednesday during the advisory period. The Bearded Vishnus won this game, 11-3.

“I thought it was fun,” Bearded Vishnu player Abe Wilson said. “I like to play ultimate [frisbee]. Just as a recreational activity, it was good.”

On Tuesday, no teams were prepared to play. On Thursday, the Calliope team was scheduled to play the Max Cohen team, but only two Calliope members showed up. Since the Calliope team had hoped to compete in the tournament together as a team, YEAH Club members agreed to postpone the game and instead took on Max Cohen’s team themselves in a friendly scrimmage.

The YEAH Club has been keeping in contact with teams via email, with the competition schedule subject to change based on teams’ availabilities and the weather, Ho said. The tournament is expected to continue until all participating teams get a chance to play, probably in late February or early March, according to Ho.

“We’re not really sure right now,” Ho said. “It depends on the weather because today [Wednesday], it was raining. We were really lucky that we were able to get a game in during advisory.”

Li agreed that the club does not have a definitive schedule for the tournament.

“I don’t think we have a set date for when it [the tournament] is going to end,” Li said.

There were originally some worries that overnight rain might lead to players slipping on the muddy lacrosse fields.

“If it rains and players feel that the field is too muddy, we’re going to have to postpone games,” Chan said after Monday’s game. “So far, several people have been slipping, but luckily, nobody has gotten seriously hurt.”

Luckily, this problem was solved when the club received permission to use the football fields, Ho said.

“We originally thought we wouldn’t be allow to use the football fields, but then we asked the P.E. teacher, [Earl] Hansen, and he was like ‘Sure, nobody else is using it,’ ” Ho said. “I think we’re going to play the rest of our games on the football fields.”

So far, the YEAH Club is satisfied with how the tournament is going.

“The weather’s been pretty bad, but it wasn’t such a bad turnout,” said junior Club Publicity Chair Joseph Choi. “Everyone’s been having fun. Hopefully, next year or the next time we do this, there will be more people.”

Players on the winning team will be rewarded Jamba Juice gift cards and frisbees.

Note: Junior co-president Patricia Ho is a reporter on the Voice staff.