Ken Cleveland
While attending Boston University, Adrienne Altobelli-Fiacco was introduced to a sport that would bring her into competitions locally and finally internationally.
“I was introduced to Ultimate Frisbee as a competitive sport in college at Boston University (2002-2006), and over the summers would return to the Wachusett area and play summer league with the Wachusett alumni’s men’s team The Drunken Clams (circa 2003-2005),” Altobelli said.
Attending Dawson Elementary School, Mountview Middle School and then Wachusett Regional High School, she was on the swim team, and played Holden Soccer as well as participating in drama at Wachusett.
“Soccer definitely gave me a good sense of field awareness, which transitioned well into Ultimate,” she said of skills that helped her in Ultimate Frisbee.
“Swimming gave me strength and stamina to make it through seven or eight two-hour-long games during competition weekends. I don’t know that drama helped necessarily,” she sad of one of her activities while attending Wachusett, “though I could say that it helped my body adapt to constantly pushing myself and never sleeping.”
Her Ultimate Frisbee career has had her travelling around the U.S. and to several countries.
In 2005, she also began playing with Slow White, a club team based out of Boston.
“In 2006 and 2007, we placed second at the USA Ultimate National Championships, and I played with them through 2015. In 2016, I played with a team out of New York called Metro North, and that year we also placed second at nationals. In 2010, I played at the World Ultimate Club Championships in Prague, in 2014 in Lecco, Italy.
In 2018, her team, Molasses Disaster, based out of Boston, won the Masters Mixed Division in Winnipeg, Manitoba, in Canada.
From 2018-2019 she played for a team called shame. based out of Denver, Colorado, finishing 3rd at my final nationals.
This year, she was with Molasses Disaster as it won the Grand Masters Mixed Division in Limerick, Ireland.
Changing atmosphere
“Ultimate has grown exponentially since I graduated college, which, unfortunately, also means the community has changed and become even more competitive,” Altobelli said.
The teams had cooperated as much as competed.
Altobelli’s mother, Lori, said that when Adrienne was in a tournament at Devens, the team from the United Kingdom did not have a place to stay.
“So she (Adrienne) invited them to our house. The team from the University of Michigan also couldn’t find hotel space, so they were invited to our house. When Adrienne’s team found out, they came, too. We had 42 people at our house in Holden for the weekend,” Lori Altobelli said.
“There’s always been a great balance in ultimate between competing, socializing and having fun. It meant my team could enjoy the company they were with while also running around on a playing field for the first time in two years (post-COVID restrictions), which was amazing,” Altobelli said.
On to aerial work
Altobelli now works for the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment as a training specialist in liability and employment.
But she is also a part-time aerialist and aerial instructor with Apex Denver, a parkour and circus arts facility, specializing in aerial silks, lyra, Chinese pole, and trampoline.
‘It’s a bit nicer to my knees than Ultimate was, though much harsher to my shoulders,” Altobelli said.
“Holden definitely still feels like home to me,” she said. “My parents still live there and several friends from high school are nearby. A number of my former teammates still live around the Boston area, as well.
“COVID was definitely a rough period with not being able to travel and see all my friends that I was used to seeing on a near daily basis for so long,” she said.
“My favorite aspects of Ultimate were how unique the sport was 20 years ago. It required incredible athleticism, including running, jumping, catching, throwing, and changing direction.
“I absolutely loved my teammates and the community — I have friends all over the country and world due to competing. My husband was actually on our rival New York team, and we were friends for over a decade before we started dating,” she said.
Her husband, Vinny Fiacco, actually proposed during the 2018 World’s competition, she said. “We got engaged at the start of that World’s. A very exciting week: an engagement, a gold for me, and a silver in the men’s division for him,” Altobelli said.
“With this most recent competition in Ireland, it was the first time the division ever existed. Every team at World’s was equally matched. Each team won games and lost games, and I knew players on almost every team. My team was incredibly supportive; many of us hadn’t touched a disc since the start of COVID and have fallen out of shape because of it. I was personally going through a rough patch physically … , but there was never a moment of negativity,” Altobelli said.
“We were there to have fun and had the added bonus of winning. Every member of the team contributed something unique, our sidelines were always involved in every single play, and whenever there was a turnover, everybody kept their heads up and engaged. All this despite it being about 60 degrees and raining the entire week. Plus, lots of Guinness,” she added.
