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What a Rush! Orillia native loves playing pro ultimate frisbee

Dan LaFrance, who shone in basketball and soccer at ODCVI, has found a passion for unique sport; Toronto Rush player hopes to play for Team Canada

Former Orillia District Collegiate and Vocational Institute (ODCVI) basketball and soccer standout Dan LaFrance is living out his dream of being a professional athlete - but not in either of the sports he was known for during his high school years. 

LaFrance, now 24, plays professional ultimate frisbee.

The Orillia native first heard about the unique sport during his fifth year of high school.

“I stayed back (for a fifth year at high school) to play sports and a lot of my friends had gone away to university," said LaFrance. "They would come home for a long weekend and tell me about playing frisbee and I didn’t think much about it at the time."

LaFrance moved to Hamilton the following year to study civil engineering at McMaster University. His plan was to play on either the soccer or basketball team, however, he was unsuccessful in trying out for both.

LaFrance’s disappointment created an opportunity to try something new.

“in my first week at McMaster, during orientation, I was talking with one of my roommates and he had played ultimate in high school and he was going to the tryout and asked if I wanted to tag along,” LaFrance explained.

“So, I went out and had no idea of what I was doing, but I guess the captains saw some potential in me and put me on the team.”

LaFrance had a big learning curve ahead of him, playing a new sport that was so different than anything he had played before.

“It was a shock to me. It is self-officiated at almost all levels of the game which was very new to me coming from a basketball and soccer background,” he explained.

What made ultimate frisbee so different was what made LaFrance fall in love with the sport.

“There is a lot of components of the game that aren’t necessarily highlighted in other sports such as the importance of spirit of the game; there is real value to being sportsmanlike and having fun on the field, and I feel like I came from a pretty intense high-level sporting background that didn’t always highlight having fun and that was kind of a new and refreshing piece to ultimate,” he said.

Although ultimate frisbee was much different than the sports that LaFrance previously mastered in high school, he was able to find success early thanks to some similar skillsets he learned at ODCVI playing basketball.

“I did a ton of jumping training and explosiveness training to play basketball and a lot of the components of frisbee are similar," said LaFrance. "There is a lot of jumping to catch a disc or make a play, and a lot of lateral movement used in basketball so I could translate those core skillsets."

LaFrance started his ultimate frisbee career practising a couple of mornings a week and playing on a few weekends throughout the semester. As his love for the game continued to grow, he started working hard at getting better and started to dedicate himself to the sport with the goal to reach the next level.  

“After my third year of university, I was really trying to make the under 24 Canadian National team. I made it to the final tryouts and was cut, that was my final opportunity to make the team, but it allowed me to transition my focus to the team I wanted to make next,” LaFrance said.

Being cut lit a fire under LaFrance; he wanted to succeed and it pushed him to become a pro-level player.

“I came into ultimate frisbee during a period of time where the AUDL (American Ultimate Disc League) was starting to gain serious traction. The AUDL is the top of the mountain of where you could play,” LaFrance explained.

“I remember watching AUDL games on the bus on the way to Canadian Nationals back in my first year. I remember thinking how cool it was that ultimate was a 'real' sport.”

LaFrance made a last-minute decision to try out for the Toronto Rush of the AUDL, using the same mentality that got him into the sport in the first place.

“I’m going to shoot my shot. If I play well, I’ll make it," said LaFrance. "If I don’t, that’s OK, it was a great opportunity."

LaFrance ended up having a good try out and made a big grab in the end zone during a drill; a video clip of the highlight reel play was posted to the AUDL Instagram page, which likely clinched his spot on the team.

LaFrance says his elite performance at the Toronto Rush tryout was more attributed to his mentality than his years of training and experience.

“It was sort of the combination of these points in my career that were difficult for me, a lot of failures and going into it without any expectation other than I’m just going to play hard and if it works, it works," he explained.

LaFrance now applies that same mentality to his daily life outside of ultimate frisbee.

“I used to be really afraid of failure and I think going away to school and sort of taking a different step on the athletic path made me realize that failure is just an opportunity to learn and get better,” LaFrance said.

LaFrance encourages all local high school athletes to be unafraid of failure and not scared to try something new.

“The beautiful thing about going away to college or university is that environment allows you to try a lot of different things with pretty low risk. Taking the shot is a really important thing to do,” LaFrance encourages.

“Whether it be a sports team, a club or some type of group activity on campus, that period of time in your life when there is a big transition is the perfect opportunity to try something new," he said.

The ultimate goal now for LaFrance is to play for Team Canada’s senior national ultimate frisbee team. LaFrance did not make the team that will compete at this year’s World Championships, but he looks forward to improving his craft and trying again in four years.


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Tyler Evans

About the Author: Tyler Evans

Tyler Evans got his start in the news business when he was just 15-years-old and now serves as a video producer and reporter with OrilliaMatters
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