In its third year at the University, the University’s disc golf team is returning to nationals.

The disc golf team started competing at the National Collegiate Disc Golf Championship on Thursday in Augusta, Ga., said Ben Wales, a member of the team. The competition will last through Sunday.

Wales said collegiate disc golf at the University is still growing as stable tournaments are developing at colleges across the country. He said they competed at Georgia Tech’s invitational over spring break and will host the Alabama Slammer later this year.

“The Alabama Slammer is an open tournament that we held for the first time last year.  It was used as a regional qualifier for the 2009 nationals, and Mississippi State won in a playoff after tying the UA team,” Wales said.

Though collegiate disc golf stepped onto the sports scene in 2007, Wales said the SEC has strong competitors.

Georgia has won the 2007 and 2008 national titles, and Mississippi State won the title in 2009. Florida, Arkansas and South Carolina are also competing at nationals.

“Alabama has been in the top five every year that this tournament has been played, placing second in 2007, fifth in 2008 and fourth in 2009,” Wales said.

Teams representing schools such as the University of Oregon, the University of Texas and Pennsylvania State University will also be competing.

“Our main competition should be Mississippi State, Arkansas and the University of Alabama in Huntsville,” Wales said.  “They were all very strong teams at nationals last year and, from all the information that I have gathered this year, they have not lost much, if any, talent.”

Connor Bentley, a member of Alabama’s team who is a senior majoring in management and information sciences, said the UA team is confident about their ability to work together.

“All of our ‘star’ players graduated last year, so these past two semesters have been all about building a team from the ground up,” Bentley said. “Our coach had to leave us in December, so it was up to the few players that had been on the team to share their knowledge with the new talent.

“A lot of weekends, late practices and fundraising went into being where we are now.  Ten guys that didn’t know each other at the beginning of the year became like family.”

Wales said disc golf is a year-round sport, and the team holds practice twice a week, though individual members are expected to practice additionally on their own.

“Practice is a personal issue for players,” he said.  “The main challenge being to make the team when we choose the team to take to nationals or any other tournament we play in.”

Those representing the University at nationals this year will be Wales, Bentley, Kyle Henderson, David Croomes, Conrad Crandall, Kevin Anderson, David Deyton and Andy Freeman.

“I competed back in ‘07 when we finished second, and I finished as a first team All-American,” said Croomes, a senior majoring in telecommunication and film. “I practiced a lot this year, the same as I did then, just working on fundamentals and putting—tons of putting.”

Bently, Croomes and Wales said they’re optimistic about their chances of winning.

“We built this team from the ground up,” Bently said. “To be where we are now and perform at the level we are is an astounding feat by itself.