April 22, 2024
By Evan Lepler

This is first piece of a three-part series previewing the 2024 UFA season. Part II and Part III will arrive tomorrow. 

As we embark upon the 2024 season, our league has a new name and players are tossing a different disc, but it’s not like we are starting from scratch. To the contrary, the "Frisbee Era" is building upon a dozen years of memories, drama, and professional ultimate history, much of which the "Tuesday Toss" has meticulously chronicled since its humble, verbose inception in 2015. 

Four days shy of another opening day, this next chapter—which officially commences on Friday night in Boston to begin a long and winding road toward August’s Championship Weekend in Salt Lake City—has an endless array of fascinating storylines. Between a pair of seemingly unstoppable streaks, a worthy collection of rising contenders, and a group of young and hungry competitors looking to prove they belong, the upcoming ultimate journey should include a truly tantalizing championship chase, along with countless additional avenues of intrigue. 

Over the past month, I have spoken to many of the league’s head coaches, and while preseason optimism definitely remains undefeated, I was struck by the immense amount of experience the resides with almost every franchise. A third of all UFA leaders have been pro head coaches for at least half a decade, while two-thirds of the 24 teams are currently helmed by an individual entering at least their third season atop the organization. It’s a level of continuity that has contributed to strategic complexity, innovative ideas, and generally, a higher level of ultimate for everyone. 

“I think it’s great for the league,” said Madison Head Coach Tim DeByl, who’s entering his 12th season leading the Radicals and holds the distinction as the league’s longest tenured leader. “It makes it tougher for everybody, but it also makes it more fun.”

Through their first six years in the league, DeByl felt the Radicals benefitted hugely from their relatively uncommon continuity, both among the coaches and players. Over the past half-decade, however, as more teams in the league have developed their own signature systems and styles, the baseline level has risen several notches.

“There’s just, in general, a lot more strategy happening,” said DeByl. “Colorado’s force middle is different than DC’s force middle. There are different ways to do things, and those subtleties make it interesting [...] The complexity of what you’re trying to do has exponentially grown, which is cool.” 

Across the league, only two teams have changed head coaches since last season, though there’s also a bit of complexity in this assertion.

In DC, Lauren Boyle takes over for Darryl Stanley, and it will be her first time coaching in the UFA. But she has considerable experience leading the top male players in DC, and her two assistants, Alex Crew and Xavier Maxstadt, are both carryovers from Stanley’s staff. Meanwhile, in Dallas, former assistant Darius Tse takes over as the Legion’s Head Coach, replacing Jerome Price, who remains with the team as an assistant. 

Elsewhere, Portland’s Timmy Perston will lead the Nitro, just like he did as the active head coach down the stretch last season. In New York, the reigning champs lost half of their co-head coach duo, with Charlie Hoppes stepping aside. But Anthony Nuñez is back leading the way for his fourth year on the Empire sideline. 

Everywhere else, coaches are categorically embarking on anywhere between their second or 12th seasons, a dynamic that has brought the sport to new heights. 

“The standard of professionalism across the league and expectation across the league has risen dramatically from just a few years ago,” said Austin’s Steven Naji, the 2022 recipient of the league's "Coach Of The Year" award. “We’re seeing coaching staffs understand what it takes to be successful. Players expecting certain standards from their coaching staff. More networking between coaching staffs than years prior.”

Figuring It Out

Of course, all coaches have endured head-spinning moments throughout their careers, particularly early on when everyone was still adapting to the new professional ultimate ruleset. Things like managing the clock, maximizing the value of timeouts, and maneuvering through the brisk pace in between points were all opportunities to try and gain an edge, but also potential pitfalls that could significantly cost a team if handled improperly. 

“Year one is so hard [for any pro coach],” said Carolina’s Mike DeNardis, who’s led the Flyers since the team’s inaugural campaign in 2015. “You’re just thrown into a sausage grinder, and you have no idea what it looks like because the game is so much different.” 

San Diego’s Kevin Stuart, who, like DeNardis, has been a UFA head coach since 2015, agrees.

“Obviously, the learning curve the first year or two is very steep,” said Stuart, who begins his 10th year leading the Growlers this weekend. “Each year, I feel like I pick up something new.”

For the franchises that have entered the league this decade, finding coaches who have been willing to stick around and build year after year has been critical to many of their successes. Boston, who joined in 2021, along with Colorado and Salt Lake, who debuted in 2022, are all teams who have grown as a result of their coaching continuity.

“Every new guy, every college guy, they’ve got to learn how to play UFA ultimate,” said Sam Rosenthal, who’s about to begin his fourth season leading the Glory. “Having all these guys who have been in our system for three years, and the system mostly hasn’t changed, really helps because we’re starting at practice one [this year] where we would have been at practice seven in 2021.”

Maintaining a consistent structure also enables development in a way you might not realize, particularly for the players who begin the season on the bottom half of a roster. These are the guys that are grinding hard every practice but may not get a chance to show their skills to the world on gameday. Of course, everyone understands the value of depth, and we’re seeing more young players willing to bide their time and hone their abilities.

“It’s good for players that are spots 15 through 30 on the roster,” said third year Salt Lake Head Coach Bryce Merrill, and the winner of last year's "Coach Of The Year" selection. “If you come and put the work in, you can develop into our system. I think that’s good. That gets these top level college guys or guys that are just one step below the starters to say your time is well spent.”

Furthermore, coaching continuity can be critical to establishing a team’s identity, not just on the field, but off it as well. Sure, the X’s and O’s are valuable, but creating the right atmosphere around a team is also paramount in growing sustained success.

“From my perspective, one of the biggest benefits is on the cultural and buy-in side,” said Colorado Co-Coach Tim Kefalas, who’s entering his third season collaborating with Mike Lun. “Having similar folks in leadership roles lets us keep that buy-in vision piece at the forefront.”

Lessons Learned

There was a time, especially before the dawn of professional ultimate, when most frisbee teams did not have a coach. Over the past decade, as it has gone from something of a nice perk to an absolute necessity, the appreciation toward quality coaching has skyrocketed.

“I know how much it helped me to have a coach,” said Atlanta Coach Tuba Benson-Jaja, reflecting on playing career. “Someone to help me manage my emotions.” 

Today, some teams have several assistants supporting a head coach. Often, they serve as offensive or defensive coordinators or are more individual player-focused, guiding growth and monitoring specific skills, while the head coach might have the more global responsibility of creating chemistry, cohesiveness, and refining a team’s overall mindset.

“The list of things to address at practice is unending,” said third year Philadelphia Head Coach Roger Chu. “One of the things I’ve learned over the last couple of years has been [...] there are a few key pieces we need to hit and to focus on those rather than worry about everything else.”

The vagaries of player availability is another tricky reality of professional ultimate. Most weeks, virtually every coach could offer an excuse about missing someone important, but those explanations tend to fall flat when everyone’s dealing with the same struggle. Learning to adapt and still succeed without key contributors is often the mark of an elite head coach.

“There’s so many strategies you can run when you have everyone, but when you don’t, which is a large majority of the time, you can’t lean on that,” said DeNardis. “So it’s like, hey, we could be great if we could do A, B, and C, but we can’t do A, B, and C because these three players aren’t here. So what’s plan D, E, and F? What’s the secondary thing that’s gonna still keep you successful? That’s been hard. That’s kind of a learned thing too.”

Even beyond creating depth is the dynamic of fostering specialization throughout the roster. Each week, it’s up to the coach to determine which 20 players are active on gameday, and there can be dozens of factors that go into those decisions.

“You’re not always [choosing] the 20 best ultimate players,” said DeByl. “There are guys who are gonna play five or six points, and they might be special at one thing, and we don’t need them to be well-rounded players [...] I think that’s evolved for us through the years, just understanding the types of players that you really need.”

Living The Dream

For people who are passionate about ultimate frisbee, coaching, or both, helping to lead a UFA organization can be a truly rewarding endeavor. Numerous coaches also mentioned how the continued continuity only adds to the fun, both in terms of developing camaraderie and respect amongst coaching staffs along with the fun opportunity for long-ranging chess matches that manifest through a series of interesting adjustments, game after game and year after year. 

“A coach tends to be an under-appreciated role and sometimes doesn’t have real glamor,” said Minnesota’s Ben Feldman. “At least we can offer some perks and benefits like resources, equipment, gear, travel, playing in front of a big crowd; the things that make coaching more fun. Having footage and a lot of information to use to refine your strategies. I think that’s all a benefit of why you’re seeing pretty good retention. It’s a lot of time and effort, but the coaching groups are getting a lot of enjoyment and satisfaction by being involved. Plus, when you’re getting 1,000 people out to your games, it’s fun to be a part of that experience.”

Feldman is one of seven current UFA coaches who also played in the league, suiting up for 47 games across five seasons. The leader in this department is Toronto’s Adrian Yearwood, who competed in 80 games during his seven years playing for the Rush. There are also several current UFA coaches who were national caliber talents, but their careers between the lines preceded the pro ultimate era. 

Atlanta’s Benson-Jaja certainly sits on this list, and he remains grateful to still be involved in ultimate at the highest level. He also holds the unique distinction as the only UFA coach who’s led multiple franchises to the playoffs, having taken both the Hustle and the Cannons to the postseason.

“I get to coach a sport that I love, under the lights, traveling all over the US,” said Benson-Jaja. “And when I started playing, there were zero spectators other than other ultimate players.”

Over the past 12 years, we’ve clearly come a long way, and the future is certainly bright. Of course, any coach will tell you that having good players is still the most important factor leading toward winning.

“I think that continuity can pay dividends,” said San Diego’s Stuart, “as long as you have the talent to go with it.”