The Phoenix were taking on New York at home in June of 2024, and had taken the early lead. I was on the mic, acting as PA announcer, DJ, and on-field activation coordinator.. “Holy shit!” a voice near me yelled as Alex Thorne rifled one 70 yards on a rope. A few minutes later, I heard the same voice shout the same expletive as Big Game James Pollard leapt high in the sky to snag the disc out of mid-air. I looked over to see who had gained on-field access and was making all of this racket. It was the guy who ran the food truck, hanging out on the sidelines, transfixed. He had never seen ultimate frisbee before, and now he was getting to see it played at a very high level. “This is f*ckin' INCREDIBLE!” he said to me, wide-eyed and in a Delco accent. The line at the food truck was getting long and agitated, but he wasn't going anywhere. “Holy shit!” he screamed yet again as Jack Williams came out of nowhere to snag a Callahan and turn the momentum of the game. New York would go on to win, 21-20, another in a long line of heartbreaking losses for the Philly boys against the three-time league champs from up north. The Philly fans went home disappointed that night, both in the loss and in how long it took them to get a hamburger.
After the game I walked past the dude's food truck. There I saw him head down, talking to no-one in particular. “God damnit! If it wasn't for that damn third quarter, we'd have beaten those guys!” He hadn't known ultimate frisbee existed 3 hours ago, now he was devastated by a heartbreaking loss.
Although I'm fairly certain he hasn't signed up, THAT GUY is who this newsletter is for. Somebody who maybe doesn't know the intricacies of the sport but who has seen it live and thrilled in the athleticism, the daring, and the downright FUN of the sport of ultimate frisbee. This community can be a bit intimidating (Shaggy will discuss that later), but we want this newsletter to be accessible to all, whether you've played since the 60s or just found out this was a sport three hours ago.
But just because we want to make this newsletter accessible to newbies and normies doesn't mean that hardcore UFA fans won't enjoy this it as well. They will. Shaggy is as well versed on both the sport and the league as anyone you'll find, and I'm thrilled that he agreed to write for this newsletter when I gave him a buzz shortly after I left the Phoenix. I'm kind of a poser in this world, it gives us credibility that the other guy actually knows what the hell he's talking about.
We don't know what this will become, but that's what makes it exciting. It's also what makes the UFA exciting. We're in the VERY early phases of a league that's entering its 13th season. When Major League Baseball was entering year 13 there were teams called the Brooklyn Bridegrooms and Boston Beaneaters, the umpires sat in easy chairs, and players who wore gloves in the field were considered sissies. THIS is in many ways the most thrilling part of a sport's history, not when the owners are all multi-billionaires with 70 yachts each and you have to take out a second mortgage to afford four tickets and parking. Don't get me wrong, I love the NFL (Go Birds!), but what's happening here is kind of awesome in its own right, and unlike the NFL, WE get to be a part of its early history. So let's embrace that, let's get excited about this coming season, and not let petty cynicism distract us from what's right in front of our eyes: an exciting sport, a fun league, and a lot of really interesting people working their asses off to put on a great show and make the dream of a pro ultimate league a reality. Because that kind of thing, if the food truck guy is to be believed, is “f*ckin' incredible.”
One of the biggest free agent moves of the offseason thus far has been Big Game James Pollard taking flight out of Philly and heading up to the Land of 10,000 Lakes. James came to the sport in an interesting fashion; he was a tennis star in college who picked up ultimate and quickly fell in love. He and I were pretty good friends when we were both with the Phoenix, I think in large part because we both came to the sport as outsiders; James from the world of tennis and me from the world of basketball, where I've coached for most of the past 25 years. James is a great dude and a helluva lot of fun to watch play ultimate. He's also pretty damn good; he's the Phoenix' 3rd all-time leading scorer. I reached out to him when I found out he was headed to Minnesota to learn why and what he'd miss about Philly.
New season, new team. How excited are you to play for Minnesota this season and why are you excited?
This is probably the most excited I've been for a season, except for maybe my rookie season. Minnesota are the defending champs, so the target will be on our backs. I'm also excited to play in a new division, and make games miserable for whoever is unfortunate enough to be guarded by me.
What caused you to make the decision to leave the Hotbirds and fly north to the Wind Chill?
I played for the club team Minneapolis Drag'n Thrust this past summer, so I knew Windchill would reach out in the off-season. It ultimately came down to the current state of the Philly men's scene, especially on the club side. I've been trying to get the top players to play for the cities club teams, and not travel to other cities, for several years with no success. I thought hard and came to the conclusion that I should play elsewhere for a year to learn and grow as a player from a winning program, then I can come back and try and instill it in Philly.
What player on the Wind Chill are you most excited to play with in 2025 and why?
If I have to choose only one player, I'm gonna have to say Justin Burnett. We both helped run the UFA Summer Camp in Grand Rapids this past summer. We got to know each other through coaching and playing Uno, and also developed some chemistry on the field. You can expect to see a few huck connections between us this season.
What player on the Hotbirds will you most miss playing with next year and why?
As much as I want to say G-Mart, I think it's gonna be Nard. Besides being teammates on the field, he's probably my closest friend on the team. We were roommates for a couple years, we go to or watch Philly sports teams together, and have game nights regularly. Also going to miss our midnight talks about whatever is going on in our lives.
What are your favorite memories of being on the Hotbirds?
I think the 2022 season. We had our highs and lows, but we made the playoffs for the first time in a decade, I was moved to offense, and was awarded the Most Improved Player in the league.
NOTE: James will be appearing tonight (Wednesday) on Live with Lep. It's a fun show that I highly recommend if you want to get to know these guys better.
Introducing the UFO MVP Award, the winner of whichwill be going home with this spectacular jacket.While the league hands the award to the best player in the league, we here at the UFO see MVP differently; in our eyes, Most Valuable doesn't mean best, it means the guy who is simply indispensable to his team, the guy whose team would be dead in the water if not for his very presence. For example: Jeff Babbit was undoubtedly the best player in the UFA in 2023. He was completely unstoppable. However, he was NOT the Most Valuable…when he missed the playoff game against the Breeze that year, the team played its best game of the season. Which is to say: the Empire maybe go 11-1 that year instead of 12-0, but still cruise to a league title with little to no resistance. This is not a knock on Jeff, who is friggin' awesome, this is simply an example to show how we view MVP. With that in mind, Shaggy is going to give you his top 4 candidates heading into the 2025 season. Johnny disagrees with some of these picks, but he'll wait for a later edition of the newsletter to supply his own.
Garrett Martin, Seattle Cascades
Garrett Martin led the league in plus/minus last season, and was part of the first successful Seattle team in nearly a decade, reaching championship weekend for the first time in franchise history. With a team that was relatively inefficient on offense—bottom third in hold percentage, eighth in offensive efficiency—Seattle relied on one key trick to winning games that more teams should think about: scoring more than their opponent. Seattle was second in goals scored, and no one was a bigger part of putting the disc in the end zone for the Cascades than Garrett Martin. With a fresh crop of talent from local big colleges like Oregon likely eyeing the successful Seattle over the subpar Steel, Martin looks primed to lead another deep playoff run for the Cascade. If Seattle can cement itself as the best in the West, look for Martin to get my vote for UFO MVP.
Jordan Kerr, Salt Lake Shred
With the body of a wide receiver, Jordan Kerr was the rightful UFA MVP in 2023, and was perhaps the only player with a case to win it over Osgar in 2022. Kerr also put together back to back 70+ plus minus seasons, a feat only accomplished by him and the aforementioned Ryan Osgar since the pandemic. Salt Lake took a step back last season, and Kerr along with it, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see Jordan Kerr return to his 2023 form and pace the league in scores yet again.
The best player on the Vegas Big Horns
I am not reporting anything, I do not know anything, I do not have any intel. What I do know is that if I were a Vegas tycoon who had just bought a frisbee team, I would spend a lot money on the personnel. The UFA could use a market reset in player salary if New York has decided to stop shelling out for stars, and the Big Horns could be just the team to do it. There are several stars who have shown a tendency to move around if the money is right: players such as Khalif El-Salaam, Joe White, and anyone who has won a title with the Empire would be first on my list. A team entering the league and making a championship push is also very attainable, particularly in the West where Colorado and Salt Lake both entered as the best teams in the division. If Vegas proves to be big spenders, this is a team that can make waves in the playoffs, and will have the players to do it.
Ryan Osgar, Free Agent
I’m not saying that Ryan Osgar is the greatest player of all time, but you know who else took some time off during the peak of their career and returned to win an MVP? Michael Jordan. Osgar put together some of the most efficient seasons in history playing with several other MVP caliber players in New York, and if he returns to the league in 2025, he would make any team he joins an immediate championship contender. Any team he joins. If he returns to New York, it vaults them right back to the favorites. If he is the headliner of the Vegas expansion franchise, they would be my pick to come out of the West. If he decided to play for Detroit they would see their first winning season in franchise history. Osgar was that good in his previous run in the league, and after a year off from professional Frisbee he would return as talented and hungry as ever.
Dark Horse Candidate:
Tannor Johnson-Go, Boston Glory
TJG has the throws and cuts to be an MVP contender. The biggest thing preventing Tannor from claiming an MVP honor is how little he plays. Johnson-Go has never played more than 8 regular season games, and has played just 16 total throughout his 3 year career, despite being fairly healthy throughout. A full season of fully committed TJG deserves to be on this list.
Notable Snubs
Lukas Ambrose, Seattle Cascades
The player besides Martin to have a +69 for the season, Ambrose generated most of his prodigious production playing D-line, and amassed a shocking 34 blocks. But I can only put on Seattle Player in my Top 4.
Jeff Babbitt, Boston Glory
The back-to-back UFA MVP has several factors that take him out of consideration for our award. Despite his prodigious scoring acumen, he has the fourth highest target share on Boston, and if TJG or Orion Cable play a full season that would likely drop to 5th or even 6th.
Allan Laviolette, Carolina Flyers
2024 was his most efficient season by a large margin, and he carried the largest load of the offense in his career. On a team rife with options, I find it unlikely Laviolette reclaims his same statistics in 2025, even if he continues to be a major cog in the Flyers O.
Brett Hulsmeyer, Atlanta Hustle
The Babbitt of the South, I don’t see Hulsmeyer racking up stats against the dregs of the league, something every good MVP candidate needs to do. Atlanta is deep in a way Boston simply isn’t, and that will lower Hulsmeyer’s stock just enough that he drops out of the conversation for me. However, if Vegas pays him $40k a year to play out west, then all bets are off.
The funny thing about Charlie Hoppes that while I was with the Phoenix, I considered him an arch-enemy. Not because I disliked him, but because he was co-coaching the big bad New York Empire (along with Anthony Nunez). For those of you who are unaware, those of us in Philly pretty much hate everyone and everything about New York City. We have a chip on our shoulder the size of a cheesesteak, and we're pretty obnoxious about it. However, as time went on, I noticed that Charlie was a guy in the ultimate community who I REALLY liked on twitter. He just seemed super genuine, super nice, and very supportive of his players, friends, everybody. As I've gotten to know him better recently, that has proven to be the case. Charlie is just, plain and simply, a terrific dude, and one this community is lucky to have. I spoke to him about his extensive resume in ultimate, his new job as a player agent, and his years coaching the New York Empire, who he helped guide to three consecutive Championship Games, winning two.
You have coached at every level, from youth to club to college to the UFA....what is it about ultimate that makes you want to dedicate so much of your life to the sport?
Different experiences feed different parts of my brain and heart. Back when I was coaching year-round, I was so ready in the spring to start working with athletes who were dedicated to being excellent at the sport in the club and pro arenas. By the end of the summer, I couldn’t wait to teach new college freshmen the basics and watch them discover their love of this new sport to them. High level coaching requires heavy doses of Xs and Os and game planning and roster management. College has these long seasons that mentorship means a great deal. I just found myself in a cycle that no matter how much I coached, I’d always have something new to look forward to, and it took many years before I hit my first wall. There are so many wonderful challenges in ultimate. I find that addictive and constantly rejuvenating.
You've started in the UFA as an assistant with the Phoenix back in 2014, you most recently coached the Empire in 2023. What were the biggest changes you saw in the league over that decade?
Those early years of the league are surreal to look back on now. It felt like we were living the stories you’d read about 1890s baseball or something. Every team did what they could to make it through the next week, as a team and as an organization. That being the case, I think the rising professionalism of the teams has been huge. It’s exciting to see every team we played developing their own home stadium experience. That just wasn’t a thing in 2014. But even bigger than that is the consistency of the whole league on the field. There have always been stars from the very beginning, but players 10-30 on any given roster today are streets ahead of those same spots on the roster 10 or 12 years ago. It feels like every season teams are setting new offensive records, even as the defense improves every year. The AUDL in 2014 was wild and sometimes very fun, but regularly low level compared to the average UFA game today.
You coached the 2023 Empire team, with Jagt, Williams, Osgar, the Drost twins, Brownlee, Davis...the list goes on and on. They’re considered the best team ever in UFA history. Do you think that's an accurate statement?
In my opinion, the 2023 and 2022 teams were the best two in league history. I think the team that folks point to that could lay claim to that spot is the 2016 Dallas Roughnecks. It’s a fun thought experiment—Beau Kittredge, Jimmy Mickle, Dylan Freechild, Kurt Gibson, Cassidy Rasmussen, and plenty of others, all in their primes. They were similarly dominant in that season to what we were in those two. The big difference are the turnovers. The 2016 Roughnecks turned it 22.1 times a game. The Empire turned it 12.9 times a game in 2022 and 13.7 in 2023. And our D line was excellent at converting break opportunities, up at 58% in each year. Even if you don’t consider the fact that those Empire defenses would have been better than what the 2016 Roughnecks played by quite a lot, and that the D lines the Empire faced in 2022 and 2023 were much stronger than the 2016 Dallas D line, it would be hard for the Roughnecks to turn it 8 or 9 times more than us and still win. So in my mind, those two Empire teams stand alone in league history and I don’t believe it’s close.
Heading into the 2025 season, what UFA team and what UFA player are you most excited to watch?
Two of my favorite teams to watch, the Hustle and the Shred, should be fun again. I think it’s fascinating to see the Wind Chill lean in to the high variance style on both sides of the disc that they just won with. I think sports are most compelling when great teams have different styles, and you get to see what style wins out. In pro basketball and baseball, the analytics have “solved” the sport in a way. They have determined an optimized way to play, and so everyone plays that same way. It’s too bad. So while it’s a cop out to say the defending champs are the most exciting and interesting to me, I love that they are going to double down on the aggression. That’s fun and cool and I can’t wait to see how it works.
I’m excited to watch Lukas Ambrose grow into an even bigger role in the next few years. He’s obviously a great defender and a throwback block-getter. But he’s got some real offensive chops. It isn’t a stretch to say he could jump another few levels to the top of the sport soon.
What do you think about the UFA starting a team in Las Vegas?
I think intentional growth is important for the league. Everyone knows the drawbacks of having a team in Las Vegas, but there are some huge advantages that other markets won't have. There's a reason all these major pro sports have teams and events expanding or relocating to Las Vegas. If ultimate continues to take steps into the mainstream, Vegas could be one of the best possible locations the league has. But these first five years or so will be an enormous challenge for their ownership, even moreso than other expansion teams due to the relative lack of a critical mass of local high-level talent and a larger existing ultimate community. So it's a gamble, so to speak. If they can establish themselves, they will be in as good a place as any in the league for sustainable success.
Like I said before, you have experience at virtually every level and every league in ultimate...what are you working on these days?
Thanks for asking! I just launched a coaching and consulting service, the not-so-catchy Charlie Hoppes Ultimate Coaching & Consulting (though I think the acronym CHUCC is pretty fun). I am a targeting a broad market with CHUCC: everyone in ultimate. Because I’ve coached and worked in teams and organizations at virtually every level, I feel like I can provide some insight and guidance to almost anyone’s situation. For example, I’ve been the head coach for 13 different assistants’ first season coaching. Mentoring coaches is extremely fun. I believe I can similarly help players, teams and organizations.
I’ve been lucky so far. I’ve had calls from players, coaches and teams across all three pro leagues and the college and club divisions, and then also a few league level players who want to step into competitive play. It’s just what I hoped, that awesome mix of people and experiences. I can’t believe I get to just sit down and talk ultimate with a handful of folks each week and learn about their journeys, and work alongside them to put them in a stronger position moving forward. It’s totally unique from anything else I’ve done in ultimate and it’s been an amazing start. Call me, everyone! Let’s talk!
Speaking of which, you're actually representing former Dallas Legion star Alec Holliday Wilson as a player agent. Can you tell us a bit more about that?
It’s been really fun and interesting to be on this side of it. Alec understands the unique spacing and timing of the UFA field as well as anyone this side of Cameron Brock, and he’s in the middle of his prime. He’s had ten teams express interest, and received very competitive offers from nearly all of them. He’s a star on the field, he’s a big personality that really engages with fans, he’s an excellent teammate, and he’s been a leader in Dallas for years. With the offers he has, I can confidently say he’s going to end up in an amazing situation for both him and his new team. Working as an agent isn’t something I had planned, but being in a player’s corner and imagining a great role and fit for them—I’ve been doing that for years. I’d like to think I’ve been a big help to him during the whole process and I hope I get to work with him and other players in the future.
1 - Ben Jagt of the New York Empire (#4 above) is the only player in UFA history with 300+ career assists, 300+ career goals, and 150+ career blocks.
2 - The number of players who have had 35+ assists every season since 2017. They are Pawel Janas of the Los Angeles Aviators (above) and Sean Mott of the Philadelphia Phoenix.
2- The only two players in UFA history with 200+ blocks (playoffs included) are twins; Ryan and Mike Drost of New York are #1 and #2 in the league all-time in blocks.
2 - The only two teams who have been with the league since the very beginning in 2012 are the Detroit Mechanix and the Indianapolis Alleycats. 6 teams that joined in Year 2 are still with the league.
5 - The number of players in the league who had 25+ goals and 25+ assists in the 2024 regular season. They were Travis Dunn of San Diego (53 A, 26 G), Alex Atkins of Colorado (42 A, 25 G), Jack Williams of NY (27 A, 25 G), Sean McDougall of LA (30 A, 29 G), Noah Coolman of Colorado (28 A, 25 G). And a special shout out to Ben Lewis of Houston, who came damn close (24 A, 40 G).
9 - The number of assists Terrence Mitchell had in 2017. It's the only year in his 9-year career in which he didn't record both 10+ goals and 10+ assists.
15 - The number of games the Philadelphia Spinners won in their only season in the league. The Detroit Mechanix have won 16 games in their 12 seasons in the league.
17 - The number of UFA games Mark Lloyd has played since 2014. Lloyd, who just announced his return to Toronto for the 2025 season, is the Rush's 6th all time leading scorer despite only playing two full seasons.
73 - Among franchises that have played 100+ games, the highest winning percentages belong to the NY Empire and Carolina Flyers, who have each won 73% of their games. Next up are the Madison Radicals at a 72% win percentage, the Toronto Rush at 68%, and the DC Breeze at 63%. The worst winning percentages belong to the Detroit Mechanix at 10%, the Philadelphia Phoenix at 30%, the Seattle Cascades at 42%, the Montreal Royal at 43%, and the Pittsburgh Thunderbirds at 49%. And a special shout out to the Salt Lake Lions, who played for just one year (2014), and never won a single game. Their winning percentage of 0% will never be surpassed.
77.8 - Only one player in the league completed over 20 hucks* with a 75%+ completion rate. That was Jake Floyd of Dallas, who completed 28 hucks at an incredible 77.8% clip. Most huck completions in the league belonged to Jake “Fire Away” Felton, who completed 39 hucks, but only completed 47% of his attempts.
*defined as a 40+ yard completion.
80- Only one player in 2024 threw over 75 passes without a single incompletion. That was Brandon Pastor of the Philadelphia Phoenix, who went 80-80.
95 - Goals scored by Mischa Freystaetter of the Jacksonville Cannons in 2016, the current league record. It was a 14-game season, but still, an insane number of goals.
97.8- Among players with over 1500 career completions, the highest completion percentage of all-time belongs to Solomon Rueschemeyer-Bailey (New York), who has completed 97.8% of his career passes.
* But a special shout out to Matt Gouchoe-Hanas (formerly of Carolina), who completed 1457 passes at an incredible 98.6% clip.
500- Just how impressive is Pawel Janas of the Los Angeles Aviators? Not only is he the only player in UFA history with 500+ career assists (504 to be exact, playoffs included), only one other player even has 400 career assists (Kevin Quinlan, Montreal). And of the 11 players with 320+ career assists, only Janas and Jonathan Nethercutt (Colorado) have done so in fewer than 100 career games.
736 - Cam Brock's career +/-, the highest in UFA history.
In December, the UFA community received a seismic shock when Ultiworld broke the news that there was a new expansion team in Las Vegas called the Bighorns. Almost everyone had expected a new team in the league when Dallas folded, but they expected one in Kansas City or St. Louis, not Las Vegas. I was intrigued by there being a new team in Sin City, so I reached out to team founder James Shorey, and he got right back to me to tell me his hopes, fears, and reasons for starting the Las Vegas Bighorns.
What's your background in ultimate?
I’ve been playing ultimate frisbee since the summer of 8th grade in 2001. I got started in the Cleveland Summer league which led to me discovering the joy of playing club. I went to college nearby at Oberlin College where I had the pleasure of being an Oberlin Flying Horsecow for 4 years. I coached the team the year after graduation, and after the season I moved to Denver where I continued to play competitively for a team called Inception. After nearly 5 years in Denver, a job opportunity took me to Vegas in 2015 where the ultimate scene can be classified as more laid back to Colorado. I’ve been playing and an active member of the ultimate community here in Vegas since then.
What made you decide you wanted to put together a team in Vegas?
It’s an idea I’ve had in the back of my mind for years now. Vegas is currently undergoing a sports entertainment renaissance and ultimate frisbee is one of the fastest growing spectator sports around the world. July or August 2024 I called one of my friends who I attended the UNLV MBA program with in 2021 - Andy Donahue - to meet for drinks at Red Rock Casino and asked how we could make a play for a UFA team here. We concluded we would send an email to the UFA commissioner and go from there. I heard back from Tim DeByl in September and for those who don’t know Tim is already an amazing commissioner for the UFA, a great guy and a pleasure to work with. It took from then in September until a week ago to make the Vegas Bighorns deal happen.
The biggest question I hear is: where's the talent going to come from? Vegas is not known as an ultimate town. Where do you plan to find the players?
Wondering where the talent is going to come from is like putting together a music festival and wondering where the DJs are going to come from; trust me they find you. Based on tryout registrations so far we are going to have representation far and wide as we currently have players signing up from Arizona, Utah, California, Colorado so far. It is known that Las Vegas Ultimate is a small community but we’ve always had some talented players here as well as one of the most proven in the UFA - Joel Clutton. However, that is the reality for Southwest frisbee players; the talent is spread out. Bighorns can reach their maximum potential if there is a buy-in that we are the UFA team of Southwest USA; if we’re united we have all the potential in the world to win in the league.
Your full-time job is at Caesar’s Sportsbook. The UFA did have a partnership with Draftkings a few years ago. Did sports gambling come up in your conversations with Tim DeByl?
In October when Tim was in Vegas and we met in person, he brought up Draftkings taking action on ultimate frisbee for a brief time (2021) which was news to me at that moment. However the UFA has matured since then so I can imagine it's not an “if” but “when” question. At Caesars and most books now, the range of sports has grown immensely and I see active markets for surfing, darts, the Golden Tee video game just to name a few. So why not ultimate frisbee?
What are you most excited about for the coming season?
I would say what’s excited me is the positive response to the news, other people’s genuine excitement in discovering that the Vegas Bighorns are entering the picture. We really kept this whole project under wraps until recently when Ultiworld broke the news, but now I get energized by hearing other people sharing my view that we have something special brewing here. From what is being planned, I will tell you it’s going to be a rollercoaster high from opening weekend and you will all see why. I can’t wait haha.
What do you find most daunting about trying to launch an expansion team?
The most daunting aspect without a doubt is the Bighorns not financially surviving long enough for the franchise to find its legs. Whoever was the top comment on Ultiworld’s article “Bit of a gamble if you ask me” had me laughing but it is true, classic risk reward scenario. The reward of being a successful Vegas sports franchise meets the risk of being another failed UFA team. The support thus far though has been outstanding but I will tell you all, the challenge of running a UFA team is real. I’d love it if you adopt us as your favorite team and buy a t-shirt and tell all your friends about Opening Day, but if not us I ask you to do it for your team because it’s up to us as fans to support what we all want to see grow.
When they start a UFA HOF, who would be the first ballot Hall of Famers? -Andrew
Shaggy: There are two unquestioned unanimous first ballot Hall of Famers who are in a tier all by themselves. The first is Cameron Brock, who just signed with the Atlanta Hustle after 12 years with Indianapolis. Brock has 644 goals scored. The next closest player is Ben Jagt, with 392. Jagt could catch Cam in total plus/minus, but Jagt would need to average 40 goals a season and play until he was 40 to catch Brock in total goals. Brock scored 30 or more goals every season but 1, in which he played 4 games. We may never see another goal scorer quite like Brock in league history.
The second is Beau Kitteredge. In his 6 seasons, Beau won 2 MVPs and 5 Championships. He is partially responsible for the formation of the two greatest super teams in league history: the 2016 Dallas Roughnecks and the 2019-2023 New York Empire. He has won 17 of 18 playoff games he played in. He lost 9 total games in his career.
After those two there are several players who could certainly qualify for the Hall of Fame, or would be future Hall of Famers when they retire. Players like Jon Nethercutt, Goose Helton, Pawel Janas, Rowan McDonnel, Kevin Petite-Scantling and Jay Froude to name a few. The New York Empire will get a wing all to themselves, in part because no one else wants to hang out with them. At least Jack Williams, Ben Jagt, Ryan Osgar, and Jeff Babbitt are First Ballot Hall of Famers, and Marques Brownlee, Antoine Davis and the Drosts will likely join them. Cameron Harris, Mischa Freystaetter and Mark Lloyd would be first ballot players who are already retired…check that, Lloyd actually just announced yesterday he's returning to Toronto after 6 years away from the team.
JGT:I’m gonna give you 5 on my First Ballot Hall of Fame, for contributions both on and off the field: Beau Kitteredge, Cam Brock, Ben Jagt, Matt Smith, and Goose Helton.
Who is the most underrated player in the league? -John
Shaggy: Zeppelin Raunig. If Raunig was a junior at Oregon he would be an MVP candidate, as is he is frequently passed over when discussing Seattle's success unless it is to point to a highlight. He was not selected for an All-UFA team despite scoring 51 goals and having a 97% completion rate. If Ben Jagt had a 97% rate we would rename the league after him.
JGT: Alec Wilson Holliday. There are some players who put up empty numbers on bad teams. Alec Wilson Holliday isn’t one of them. He was 5th in the league in +/- despite being on a team that went 0-12. He’s widely considered one of the fastest cutters in the league. He’s going to have a major impact on whatever team he lands on in 2025, and I’m really excited to see where that is…on a contending team he would be really fun to watch and get the credit he deserves for being such an awesome player.
What are some rules changes that you guys would like to see? -Trevor
Shaggy: The MLU had a rule that if you scored a callahan the other team had to pull to you, sort of like a safety in football. They also allowed to you call timeouts after a point and adjust the pull position, so if you called a timeout after scoring, you pulled the next pull from midfield, and you could call a timeout after being scored on to have the other team pull from the back of the endzone. Basically I really liked the MLU rules.
JGT: Back-court. Cam Brock and I have debated this on twitter, but the end of that Carolina vs Atlanta playoff game totally convinced me that this needs to happen. Basically, once a team crosses the 50 yard line, they can’t throw it backwards across the 50. Pro ultimate is about the fans, not the “purity” of the sport, and throwing the disc backwards is NOT fan-friendly. There’s a reason basketball eliminated the four corners offense. Because it was BORING. And pro ultimate is at a stage where it cannot afford to be boring.
Why does frisbee gatekeep itself from being a bigger sport? -James
Shaggy: Lol, get ready for a ramble and a rant. Any predominately white, relatively affluent US-based organization is going to gatekeep itself by accident by catering to that exclusive and uninteresting group. Frisbee is still mostly played and followed by people who liked to be outside but weren’t quite athletic enough to play a varsity sport in college, and that group of people is small, exclusive, and for the most part, rich and white. Furthermore, even when a relatively homogenous group of people tries to be inclusive, it can come off as awkward or pretentious. For example, frisbee has a lot of mechanisms that might be good in a vacuum, but are executed by humans and therefore flawed. Spirit of the Game is a glorified version of “activities are less fun when you cheat”. However, it is often used as a cudgel to browbeat individuals who look, act, think, or speak differently. Spiking is a GREAT example of Spirit of the Game gone awry. I don’t like spiking, I think that there are more interesting ways to celebrate success. However many people do like spiking, and there is nothing inherently bad about it. There is a certain segment of frisbee players who treat spiking as if it caused them physical discomfort, and attempt to police it accordingly. That is foolish.
The governing body of ultimate in the US is the USAU, and their biggest mistake has been to distance themselves from LDOs (local disc organizations), in favor of “professionalizing Ultimate” through the Triple Crown Tour, the College Series, and the recent changes to the YCCs (Youth Club Championship). This is a mistake because USAU is a player-based organization, meaning the majority of its members are players, and therefore it should try and meet people where they play the most frisbee, which is in their LDOs. By “professionalizing” club, and shifting organizational focus towards “elite” club teams, they are simultaneously alienating the majority of their membership who has neither the ability nor the interest to engage with frisbee at that level, and simultaneously weakening “elite” club teams by hamstringing the processes by which those teams generate new talent.
Conversely, the UFA is not a player based organization, it is fan-based, because the players do not pay money to the UFA, the fans do. For them, a separation from casual frisbee to pro frisbee is ideal, because it allows people who do not see themselves as frisbee players to engage in the sport. I love the WNBA, although I am not a women's basketball player. Therefore, despite having to appeal to frisbee players, as they constitute a majority of the fan base, the UFA would be better served not basing its decisions to frisbee players, because they do not make up a majority of the population, and they do not always make the best decisions en masse. By opening up the sport to people who do not consider themselves to be frisbee players, it allows some of those gates to be opened to communities who are currently outside the frisbee ecosystem.
JGT: My answer will be a bit more UFA-focused than what Shaggy so eloquently stated. As an outsider sports fan who is not really part of the “community”, to me the sport of ultimate frisbee is awesome, and yet the people who play it can be its worst advocates. As I say repeatedly on twitter: I've never seen a community that dunks on itself like ultimate. The UFA has gotten plenty wrong through the years, no question, and will continue to get things wrong. I’ve been there, seen it happen, and I screwed up plenty myself. But the league gets SKEWERED every time it makes a mistake. And on the flip side there are hundreds of people, from owners to coaches to players to refs to announcers who devote so much time and energy and love to this project, typically for zero money, and it appears to me that that is all taken for granted and rarely acknowledged. The amount of positive energy poured into the UFA is a fraction of the amount of negative energy I've seen poured into it over the past four seasons. It is disheartening.
At the end of the day the entré to the sport for “normie sports fans” is pro ultimate, not club. It's a lot to ask of someone to join a sports league that meets once a week, but it's not a lot to ask to spend $20 to check out something new on a Friday night. But if the people who actually play the sport aren’t spreading positive energy and advocating for a pro league, why would the normies want to become fans themselves, attend a game, and put a frisbee in their kids’ hands?
On the other side, IMO the league gatekeepers sometimes project a somewhat cold, corporate feel, and while that may have worked in the professional lines of work where most of them have found success, this is a sports lifestyle brand that needs to be welcoming, fun, and warm. At the end of the day, this is a customer service business, and I think the league can do a better job of recognizing that humans are just as important as spreadsheets when it comes to whether or not the league succeeds.
And so gatekeepers at the community level make ultimate less accessible by downplaying and ridiculing the sport at the pro level (where the sport is most likely to gain casual fans), and gatekeepers at the pro level make it less accessible by not taking a people-first approach.
What four teams do you see going to Championship Weekend? -David
Matt Smith of the Atlanta Hustle announced his retirement at the end of the 2024 season. The league's third all-time leading goal scorer, also one of my favorite people in the UFA, he made one of the most incredible plays I've ever seen in league history.
I posted some of the best photos of the teams in 2024, and there was a theme to the project that I'm not sure if anybody got. If you figure out what it is, shoot me a line and let me know. First one to get it gets their picture on our IG.
The league is expected to announce the location of Championship Weekend this week. The final contenders are supposedly DC, Madison, Salt Lake City, and Montreal. I'd put my money on Madison. It's a safe choice but a good one. I posted some less traditional stadiums where I'd like to see CW take place.
Cam Brock, the Alleycats 2nd leading scorer in 2024 (and league's all-time leading scorer) is headed to Atlanta. Their 3rd leading scorer in 2024, Lucas Coniaris (pictured above), will be playing for the Oregon Steel this season. And their 4th leading scorer, Xavier Payne, is headed to the Chicago Union. Rebuild coming to Indy.
Here's my proposal for why and how the Carolina Flyers and LA Aviators should play each year in Roswell, New Mexico.
Sideline Chatter is a new IG page that's posting various rumors from around the league. Fun stuff.
Thanks for hopping aboard! Hope you enjoyed Volume 1. If you have any thoughts, questions, concerns, or corrections, please feel free to contact me at johnny@johnnygoodtimes.com. Any questions you've got for next months mailbag, hmu there too. If you have any friends who might be interested in getting on board the UFO next month, just have them sign up by clicking here. And be sure to follow us on IG to get daily updates from around the UFA. Until next time, keep it weird-
The UFO
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