AXTON — Think “Frisbee,” and you don’t necessarily think of rural Henry County.

Or temperatures barely above freezing, and a sometimes nasty wind.

It’s more evocative a beach or a park, maybe, or perhaps a university’s green quadrangle, and long-haired dudes in bare feet having a toss.

But that is decidedly not the scene here where some 500 men on 23 college teams from 11 states showed up to compete in the massive Easterns Qualifier Ultimate Frisbee tournament. Ultimate is a 7-on-7 game that’s like a hybrid of soccer and football, played with that same throwing disc you got stuck on the roof when you were a kid.

It’s become a highly organized game — though still possessed of some of its playground roots — played across the country in leagues from youth to professional. And for Henry County’s Smith River Sports Complex, it’s become a minor economic boon. This weekend’s two-day event is one of five Ultimate tourneys the facility will host this year.

“We’re losing the hippy vibe a little bit,” said Jacob Merlin, 22, a University of Virginia exercise physiology major and captain of UVa’s “Night Train” Ultimate club.

Merlin and his team were about to compete in their second of four pool play matchups Saturday, this one against “Cinister,” a club from the University of Cincinnati.

Other teams came from Alabama, Connecticut and Michigan, along with places more nearby. The Dartmouth team didn’t make it because their van overturned on the way, though no one was badly hurt, according to organizer Greg Vassar, who also coaches the University of North Carolina-Wilmington team. The Brown University team flew in.

“It can be an expensive sport with the travel,” Vassar said. But most clubs get some financial or other support from their colleges.

Vassar said he picked the facility here for this tournament after visiting it for a tournament last year, and because it’s closer for teams from the northeast than Wilmington, where the tournament has been held in the past.

Plus, with restrooms, a concession stand and room to set up 12 fields, it’s nicer than a lot of places where Ultimate is played, Vassar said. “You might be on a horse pasture, or you might be on a field like this.”

As popular and well-organized as the game has become since it’s creation at a New Jersey high school in 1968, it has retained plenty of informality, even when played at the highest levels.

The Night Train squad took the field in a motley collection of jerseys, some from last year’s uniform, some in random T-shirts. Merlin wore a UVa basketball jersey being number 24 and shorts with number 12. Their new uniforms didn’t arrive in time for the tournament. No one seemed the least bit bothered.

Their rival Cincinnati team had matching uniforms. With the cold weather, players had all manner of layers on, too. Still, every team seemed to have that one tough guy gritting it out in shorts and a T-shirt. A player on the SUNY-Buffalo squad took the field in a tank-top, but with fleece pajama pants and a trucker hat.

The officiating is another remnant of the game’s Sunday-in-the-park origins. Even major tournaments such as this one, where teams were vying for a single-spot in the Eastern Regional tourney in Wilmington, games are largely self-refereed. The players call their own fouls, though in some cases, as in the UVa-Cincinnati matchup, there are “observers” on hand who mediate disagreements over calls by the players.

The players themselves are hardly just a bunch of hacky-sack veterans.

Vassar was a track athlete at UNCW who was recruited to play Ultimate.

Roy Matthews ran cross country before picking up Ultimate as a graduate student at UVa, where he’s now a coach — and a candidate for a doctorate in electrical engineering.

Most, however, seem to be soccer players, like Merlin, the feisty UVa captain.

He took up the game after learning about it as a freshman at an activities fair.

Now, it’s the star around which his college life revolves.

“I sweat with these guys, I run with these guys, I bleed with these guys, and then I hang out with them,” Merlin said.

He didn’t spill any blood during Night Train’s second match, but Merlin certainly played with an intensity belies anyone’s notion that this is not a serious game.

Play starts with a football-like kickoff, or “pull,” and then proceeds through passing of the disc more like soccer. Once a player catches the disc, he must keep one foot planted while he looks for a teammate to pass to. If he can’t find a pass in 10 seconds, the disc is turned over. A point is scored when a team completes a pass in the opposing team’s end zone.

It makes for a fast, pressure-filled game, and sets up plenty of acrobatics — such as a self-sacrificing diving catch Merlin made in the end zone about 30 minutes into the game to put his team up 5-4.

That set off the team cheer, a call and response.

“Night!”

“Train!”

“Night!”

“Train!”

“Night Train!”

“Boom!”

The first team to 15 wins, and if neither team reaches that mark in 90 minutes of play, the game is extended until one team reaches a score two points higher than the highest score by either team at the end of regulation.

That’s what happened in this game, a seesaw battle with neither team able to open a lead.

Regular time ended with a 12-12 tie, meaning the first team to 14 would win it.

Merlin rallied his team on the sidelines, and the Night Train rolled, racking up two quick scores for the victory.

“Night Train!” Merlin called.

“Boom!”

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