The University of Lynchburg hosted a disc golf clinic on Tuesday, Oct. 14.
Presented in collaboration with Uplay, an educational nonprofit that promotes the sport of disc golf, the clinic was offered to students in Teaching Individual Sports, Outdoor Pursuits, and Dance, a class taught by Dr. Katie Bowman ’17 MEd.
The course is part of Lynchburg’s health and physical education major and coaching minor.
“This activity models what I’m asking the students to do in this class,” Bowman said. “Teach and coach individual sports, outdoor pursuits, and dance to one another through a process of breaking the activities into digestible pieces so that students can learn individual skills, combine those skills, and then begin to apply those skills into partial and finally full gameplay.”
Held on Lynchburg’s Shellenberger Field and attended by approximately 25 students, the clinic was led by professional disc golfers Taylor Chocek, Kat Mertsch, and Sofia Donnecke. The trio was in the area for the 10th Disc Golf Pro Tour Championship, held Oct. 16-19 in Lynchburg and Bedford County, Virginia.
Assisting them were Bradley Williams, a ranked men’s disc golfer; Henry Pearson, who works for disc golf’s governing body, the Professional Disc Golf Association; and Brennan Elliott, a local musician and disc golfer.
The event was organized by Benuel Hostetter and John Barker, both avid disc golfers and dining services employees at Lynchburg.
“They started with a few putting drills to emphasize what is arguably the most important part of the game and then moved on to the basics of throwing forehands and backhands,” said Hostetter, who attended the clinic.
“The students were having a good time, and a number of them were able to make really impressive progress over the course of the clinic. I was really impressed with how enthusiastic everyone was and the turnout was great.”
According to Hostetter, this was the first time Uplay had held a clinic for a college or university class.
For the past two summers, Hostetter, Barker, and a former University staffer have run a disc golf clinic for high school students who were on campus for the Governor’s School for Mathematics, Science, and Technology.
“We had a short course set up across the Dell and everyone got to play through it a couple of times after the clinic portion of the day,” Hostetter said in September. “We also provided a beginner-friendly disc to every student who wanted one to take home, as long as they promised they would go find a course near them to play.
“Almost every student opted to take a disc home with them. The pride and joy I felt, getting to see the enthusiasm grow in those students as they figured out how to make the discs fly the way they wanted it to, is one of the best feelings I’ve had playing disc golf.”
Hostetter said he and Barker gave out a “decent number” of their own discs at the 2024 Governor’s School clinic, so as the 2025 clinic approached, he reached out to Uplay.
“They were happy to send us a big box of used discs, which came in very handy for our clinic,” Hostetter said. “That is also what got the conversation started about having Uplay come to campus [this fall].”
Hostetter also ordered training materials from Uplay. He hopes the recent clinic will “springboard the cultivation of a disc golf club, or at least a somewhat-organized disc golf community, on campus here at the University of Lynchburg.”
Lynchburg’s disc golf course, located off Lakeside Drive in the Faculty Drive area of campus, is open to the public.
