GRANDVILLE, Mich. (WOOD) — Disc Golf and Ultimate Frisbee continue to grow in popularity. There are amateur and professional teams in West Michigan.

“It’s something that you really fall in love with the first time you play,” said CJ Proos, marketing director for Eurodisc. 

Some consider Ultimate one of the fairest sports. It’s mainly self-refereed, so players have to call their infractions and try their best to follow all the rules. 

“Ultimate is a team sport, so it’s seven versus seven and it’s kind of like football, soccer, basketball all combined, so you have to pass the discs up the field and get them inside end zones,” Proos explained. “It is a really intense sport, it’s so much fun, it gets people really active and it’s really… it’s a very inclusive sport, in my opinion. It can be for any shapes and sizes.”

Not only does Proos play, but both his jobs revolve around the sport. He works for the Detroit Mechanix who plays at Grand Rapids Christian High School and more recently, became the marketing director for German-based company Eurodisc when they expanded to the U.S. in July. The manufacturing facility in Grandville is run by Proos and operations manager Sam Dennis. They’re able to print custom designs and ship them all over the country, but they’re also focused on building local connections. 

“So far, we’ve worked with Downtown Grand Rapids Inc., so we did discs for their World of Winter event. We gave them 600 custom discs and they actually handed them out to the community,” Proos said. “We got to see a lot of the community receive our discs and it was really good to see the positive impact that we were getting from them.”

The discs are also made with a focus on sustainability.

“Our product is 100% organic. It’s made with a sugar cane base material, so it produces less carbon emissions and impacts the environment less than most plastics that are used.” Proos said. “We really want to be conscious of our environment and the earth. We know that if we don’t have land to use and utilize, we’re not going to have field space, we’re not going to have the parks that we have here in Michigan to do disc golf or ultimate.”

The discs are also fully recyclable and can be melted down at the facility in Germany for re-use. In addition, Eurodisc has partnered with the Humane Society of West Michigan, donating discs for dogs to play with. The intention is to work with teams, businesses, camps, and other organizations, but eventually, Proos said he’d love to pilot a fundraising program to raise money for schools, churches, and other organizations in the area.