April 23, 2024
By Evan Lepler
This is Part III of a three-part series previewing the 2024 UFA season.
Part I
Part II
Seven On The Line
1. Can Boston catch New York and DC?
Considering the Glory are 0-12 all-time against the Empire and the Breeze, one could argue this question has a foolish premise. And, obviously, games are won on the field, not on paper.
But simply from a roster standpoint, Boston appears to be closer to the pair of East Division juggernauts that they’ve been over the past three seasons.
“I don’t think when we played DC, New York, and Atlanta last year that we played as well as we could’ve,” said Glory Coach Sam Rosenthal, “but we’ve always felt if we played well against those teams, we can win. We can play with those guys, and we’re a much better team now.”
As for whether Boston can actually get over the hump, time will tell, but the biggest headline of the offseason involved reigning UFA MVP Jeff Babbitt not re-signing with New York and choosing to join the Glory. His presence was felt immediately when he attended practice for the first time with his new team.
“They put a couple up to him that they wouldn’t have put up to anybody else,” remembered Rosenthal. “He came down with all of them against some of our top big guys. And he got a couple of blocks that it didn’t look like he was gonna get. He’s so effortless, right, it doesn’t look like he’s trying that hard but then when he goes for a block, it feels like he always gets it.”
This past week, the Glory also snatched Ben Katz away from the Empire, signing another acclaimed defender at New York’s expense. With explosive big men Tannor Johnson-Go and Orion Cable also returning for the Glory, Boston should have the size and depth to battle against the best. While they lost steady and reliable O-line cutters in Ray Tetreault and Tanner Halkyard, the Glory still have a scary downfield group with Babbitt and Johnson-Go set to collaborate alongside Simon Carapella and Peter Boerth, two youngsters that showed glimpses of greatness during their rookie campaigns last year. Turner Allen, another tall, young athlete who played mostly defense in his limited action the past couple years, could also play more offense in 2024.
Rosenthal is particularly proud that the Glory are uniting so many of the top young players in New England, boasting that Boston has signed top college prospects out of UMass, Northeastern, Tufts, Brown, Brandeis, Middlebury, Maine, UNH, and Vermont.
“Boston ultimate was so fractured post-Covid,” said Rosenthal. “A bunch of us met [this past offseason] to try to figure out how to make that better, and it’s really neat now. We’re trying to build Boston ultimate back where it belongs as one of the best or the best ultimate city in the world.”
2. Can Seattle break back into the playoffs?
Amongst all the UFA franchises that have ever qualified for the postseason, no team is currently mired in a longer playoff drought than the Seattle Cascades. Remembering their last opportunity requires harkening back all the way to their historic comeback against the Madison Radicals in the 2016 semifinals, a contest that still easily ranks among the greatest ultimate games—and spectacles for our sport—anyone has ever seen. As an unlikely participant in the 2016 finals, the Cascades held an early lead against Dallas’s all-time super team before an officiating snafu and a dropped pull dramatically shifted the momentum, ultimately leaving Seattle to settle for second place.
Eight years later, the Cascades are still trying to get back to the playoffs, and their second year Coach Jesse Bolton, who played for Seattle during that memorable 2016 run, feels they are in a strong position to get back into the postseason dance.
“When I talk to [the team], I say our goal should be to contend for the West playoffs, but the more concrete goal that I’m looking for, I have challenged them to score at least five points per quarter and hold teams to under five points per quarter. That will be our mark of success throughout the year, and we’re trying to accomplish those two goals every quarter.”
The 2023 Cascades, who finished the season 4-8, met those new Bolton benchmarks just six times in 48 total quarters last season, but the biggest difference for the 2024 Cascades comes in the form of several key free agent signings and the renewed buy-in from some of the city’s key ultimate veterans. Tommy Li, Jeremy Norden, and Christian Foster are three experienced leaders and contributors that Bolton believes will add maturity, fire, and playmaking to this year’s ‘Scades. Khalif El-Salaam, Garrett Martin, and Zeppelin Raunig are three established stars, and they will only get better by having more talent around them. Seattle also made waves by signing last year’s UFA Rookie of the Year Lukas Ambrose away from Los Angeles, along with adding high-volume handler Ian Sweeney from Portland and bringing back former Seattle standout defender Shane Worthington, who spent last year with the Austin Sol.
All of these pieces, along with the continued growth of Seattle’s typically talented youthful core, could very well elevate the Cascades back into the playoff conversation. But the competition for the West’s top three should be a fierce and crowded battle. Teams like Salt Lake and Colorado, the division’s last two champs, begin the campaign with much loftier goals than just simply participating in the dance, and Los Angeles, Oakland, and San Diego also all harbor genuine belief that they can be in the mix too. We are just a few days away from gathering our first real data, as the Spiders host the Aviators and the Growlers visit the Cascades in Week 1 action this Saturday.
“We had a couple frisky games against San Diego last year,” said Bolton. “I think it’s fair to say the team’s generally don’t like each other.”
3. Can Atlanta finally get over the hump?
One month after enduring the most heartbreaking defeat in franchise history, the Atlanta Hustle gathered for a postseason meeting, where everyone was forced to face the devastation directly.
“It was probably the most somber, depressing meeting I’ve ever had in my life,” said Tuba Benson-Jaja, chuckling as he remembered the challenging vibes from last fall. “It was so sad, like people were all there tearing up, people just like ‘why are we doing this?’ And I was like, guys, if we say we really want to grow, we’ve got to really look at these times [...] It was really tough, and I think a lot of guys didn’t like it, but it was part of [our] growth.”
No one will ever forget the stunning double overtime setback against the Austin Sol, but the birth of a new season certainly presents the Hustle with a new opportunity to rewrite their own long-term narrative.
“Our mentality this whole season has not been that we’re just inches away from making it to Championship Weekend, but there’s an unknown gap, and we don’t know what that is,” said Benson-Jaja. “This year is different, and we need to push harder on all throttles to try to bridge that gap and make sure we’re not leaving anything unturned. A lot of the guys have really bought into that.”
The 2024 Hustle lost two key members of their O-line from last year—Max Thorne and Liam Haberfield, the latter of whom will be suiting up for New York—but virtually every other contributor is back from a team that went 10-2 a season ago. Replicating that regular season success is far from promised, of course, especially considering how the Hustle have arguably the most daunting schedule in UFA history in front of them.
But Benson-Jaja views the upcoming gauntlet as a blessing more than a burden.
“Everything about this season is putting us on a bigger stage,” said Benson-Jaja. “We’re getting bigger games. More are Game of the Week [or Super Series]. The Hustle have a tv contract with a southeast tv station [...] We’re doing a Hustle documentary series. So all these things, including these big games we get to be in against like Colorado, New York, Carolina, I think it’s gonna hopefully help us so when we do get to the end of the season, it’s just another game with just a little more on it because we’ve played a whole year of really big games.
“We’re not in this place where we think we’re this dominant team, I’m also trying to make sure we’re not scared of anybody. We have a chip on our shoulder because we’ve proved nothing yet. That was my opening statement this season: we’ve actually done nothing when it comes to reaching our goals. If we’re a championship caliber team, then where’s our championship?”
4. Can San Diego’s youth movement replace past stars?
After going 29-7 over the course of three regular seasons from 2019 to 2022, highlighted by a Championship Weekend appearance in 2021, the Growlers stumbled to a disappointing 3-9 finish in 2023, missing the playoffs for the first time in six years. As they embark on back-to-back road games in the Pacific Northwest this weekend, the Growlers are hoping to experience some early success and re-emerge in the West division mix.
“We don’t want a repeat of 2023,” acknowledged Growlers Coach Kevin Stuart. “I can’t quite put my finger on what has been different, but there’s been a bit of a better vibe this season than the start of last year.”
The Growlers still have some key veterans, but the departure of mainstay leaders like Steven Milardovich and Paul Lally definitely reframe the feel of the team. There’s no question that Stuart will be counting on the next generation of southwest standouts to rise up and complement Travis Dunn’s continued consistency. Dunn was named to the All-UFA Third Team last season, the fifth consecutive year he’s received All-UFA honors.
“He’s the same Travis,” said Stuart. “I think we’re gonna have more pieces to support him this year than we did last year. We were really snakebit with injuries last year.”
Along with the continued growth from players like Max Gibson, Stefan Samu, and Bryce Lozinski, the Growlers are also excited about a pair of 24-year-old additions from other West Division squads: Matt Miller joins San Diego after three seasons with LA, while Peter Lenz should make his Growler debut against his old team in Seattle this Saturday.
Few will forecast this San Diego team to make serious waves in 2024, but this is also a franchise that has never endured back-to-back losing seasons, a reality they hope to perpetuate in the months ahead.
“We’ll make it as annoying as possible to play us,” said Stuart. “That’s always one of our goals.”
5. Can Chicago’s stars carry the Union?
Similar to San Diego, the Union saw their standard slip in 2023.
Chicago won double digit games in the previous two regular seasons, advancing to Championship Weekend in both, before compiling a forgettable 6-6 campaign last summer. They still qualified for the playoffs in a weak Central Division, but never felt like a threat to make their third straight UFA semifinal.
One year later, after adding some significant new weapons, Head Coach Dave Woods believes the team’s floor has been undoubtedly raised, while their ceiling, to his delight, is very uncertain.
The three biggest new names on Chicago are the J crew. Jeff Weis and Joe White rejoin the Union after playing elsewhere last year, and John Lithio brings his championship experience from New York to the Windy City. All three of these pieces, if available and healthy, can be game-changing additions.
Weis, despite being just 27 years old, is now the longest tenured member of the Union roster, having first joined the squad as a 20-year-old in 2017. In 43 career UFA games with Chicago, he’s scored 98 goals and thrower 53 assists.
“He’s been a huge impact player for a long time,” said Woods. “Getting him to come back is a big deal. He’s a big body, so you have to respect his size, but he also has some of the quickest feet I’ve seen on a large person, which makes him a terror in red zone scenarios. He’s just a huge threat.”
It’s easy to imagine Weis working downfield alongside Lithio, who consistently looked comfortable making plays amongst New York’s all-star lineup over the past three seasons, in which he produced 114 goals and 42 assists. Woods did not want to prejudge Lithio before getting to work with him, but he’s been very pleased with how he’s looked and fit in through the team’s first few practices.
“I’ve been impressed in his leadership and how good of a teammate he can be,” said Woods. “That’s been a phenomenal boon that I think is just an extra thing that speaks to his character.”
And then there’s of course White, whose hype and potential has exceeded his availability and all-around impact over the past couple seasons, both with Chicago in 2022 and Carolina in 2023. He’s only played in six regular season games and four playoff contests over the past two seasons, but he has accumulated 23 goals and 34 assists in those 10 appearances. While they expect his availability to be limited in May, the Union are hopeful he will make a strong, positive impact by the end of the season.
The other quirk to the 2024 Union roster is that, while around half the team is brand new, many of the additions arrive with previous UFA experience. For Sam Gabrielson, Chicago will be his fourth different team in as many seasons. One of his former teammates with the Flyers, Wilson Matthews, is now on the Union too. Former Radicals Henry Goldenberg and Jake Rubin-Miller are now set for their Chicago debuts. These could all be important cogs in the Union system to go along with their other new signees, which includes intriguing college talent from schools like Carleton, Illinois, Iowa State, Northwestern, and others.
They are still figuring out roles and responsibilities, with the luxury of a full weekend of practice coming up since the Union don’t begin their season until May 4.
“We have no idea how good we can be,” said Woods. “We don’t know what our team looks like, and that’s exciting, because we don’t know what our ceiling might be.”
6. Can New York be the league's first team to three-peat even after losing two MVPs?
Oddsmakers inside Lepler’s Locks’ official super-secret UFA bookmaking headquarters still have the Empire as the preseason favorite to win the 2024 UFA championship, but a relatively tumultuous preseason has certainly shrunk New York’s margin for error. The Empire were probably a minus-favorite against the entire field last year, meaning that it was more likely they would win than the combined odds of all the other teams combined, but that’s certainly no longer the case. Following the departures of Charlie Hoppes, Jeff Babbitt, Ben Katz, John Lithio, Ryan Holmes, and likely Ryan Osgar, the Empire will definitely remain in the championship mix, but their margin of error has dropped dramatically.
It creates an interesting irony, as the conversation and preseason narrative inevitably begins with everyone who left. But it’s also foolish to forget everyone who’s back, along with some other new additions that could ultimately help New York hoist the trophy for a third consecutive season.
The Empire still have 13 of the players from last year’s championship game expected to play on Saturday, including Ben Jagt, Jack Williams, John Randolph, Antoine Davis, and Marques Brownlee. Prized free agent signings Liam Haberfield, Connor Russell, and Axel Agami will make their Empire debuts this weekend against Montreal, and New York has also suddenly re-signed veteran handler Sean Keegan, who last played for the team back in 2017, to the active roster for the 2024 opener. With Elliott Chartock unavailable this weekend, you can expect Keegan to slot into a handling role on the Empire O-line alongside Solomon Rueschemeyer-Bailey. It’s also very possible that we’ll see Keegan with Chartock and SRB in a three-handler set in future weeks.
In summary, even after a few surprising defections, Empire GM Matt Stevens has maintained that it is still business as usual for New York. They enter the season riding a 30-game winning streak, tied for the longest in UFA history. They are monumental favorites this weekend at home against Montreal, as the Royal, despite some promising international additions of their own like Quentin Bonnaud and Tobe Decraene, are still coming off a winless 2023 season.
This is all to say that it appears New York remains well-positioned to make more ultimate history in 2024, but the upcoming journey, like the Empire’s offseason, could also be a little bumpier than normal for the league’s leading dynasty.
7. Can Detroit win a single game?
Here we go again with a few minutes on the mysterious Mechanix.
It’s been over 2,500 days.
Since that random late-April victory over Chicago in 2017, the Mechanix have lost—no kidding—an astonishing, bamboozling, confounding 74 straight games. We’ll officially cross over the seven-year mark this coming Monday.
How is this streak still a thing?
And how am I still kind of rooting for them?
On Ultiworld, Zack Davis admirably aimed to capture the psyche of Mechanix owner Brent Steepe in a lengthy feature last week. It’s worth reading.
I also recently spent over an hour on the phone with Brent, and I must say that it’s hard not to be struck by his tone and tenor. One might expect him to be angry and defiant, determined to prove all the doubters wrong, worn down by all of the losing. But that’s just not the case, at least with his comportment during our conversation.
He’s surprisingly calm, steady, and optimistic. He maintains a fervent belief, expecting his team to be competitive and hopeful that the inexplicable streak will soon expire. He’s fully aware of the abysmal history, but refuses to be defined by it, even when it’s largely what he’s known for.
Frankly, it’s easy for many to dismiss him. Trying to actually understand him is a much tougher task. And to his credit, he does have a handful of players that truly seem to believe in him, a small group that remains impervious to the excruciating track record and continues to grind toward, they hope, the sweet nectar of an actual win.
Steepe has no interest in stopping, and while he doesn’t necessarily care what other people think, he also asserts that he can and will continue to push forward regardless of the negative noise that comes his way.
“I’d appreciate if people don’t judge me for doing my thing,” Steepe said. “It’s not their money, it’s not their time, it’s not their family sacrifices, it’s not their ideology, it doesn’t have to be. We are putting people together and we’re doing our best to get better and better and better, and eventually we’ll knock this thing off [...] As far as I’m concerned, I’ve got an organization that has a really great story, and we don’t have performance pressure because according to everybody else we’re going to lose anyway."
“It is what it is. It’s gonna be a great story. When it’s gonna pop, I wish I could tell you because I would special order some of the finest sake in the world. I really would. But we can’t do that in sports, unfortunately, so I don’t know how it’s gonna go down.”
The Hammer
Among the nine games on the Week 1 slate, battles between division rivals might be the most important in terms of setting the tone for playoff chases across the league. Playoff teams from last year like Atlanta, Minnesota, and Los Angeles get immediate road tests against Carolina, Pittsburgh, and Oakland, respectively. Montreal and San Diego, who both are looking to bounce back from disappointing campaigns, get thrown into the fire with early-season doubleheader road trips. Even Dallas and Houston tussling for an early edge in their Texas rivalry is an intriguing story, with either the Legion or Havoc getting the chance to start 1-0— something that neither could achieve last year.
But let’s be honest, there’s no game more tantalizing—perhaps on the entire UFA season schedule—than the Week 1 "Super Series" showdown between DC and Salt Lake. These are two teams who’ve gone a combined 40-8 in the past two regular seasons, with five of those eight losses coming against the Empire.
Obviously, both of these teams will be gunning for the slightly less invincible version of New York that they’ll see in the coming months, but first the Breeze and Shred will sharpen their skills against one another in a marquee matchup at Zions Bank Stadium. The forecast is mid 50s with a chance of showers, and perhaps these conditions could help give the defenses more of a decent chance against a pair of offenses that sizzled a season ago.
In 2023, Salt Lake was number one league-wide in offensive efficiency. DC was number two.
The Breeze were tops in the UFA in completion rate and red zone conversion rate; the Shred were second best in both.
Now, the East went 10-2 in interdivisional games last year, with the Breeze going 1-1 in their two opportunities, both against Carolina, while the West went 3-5 in interdivisional action, including the Shred’s 1-2 mark.
There are so many noteworthy players and other storylines to mention that I’m gonna refrain from diving further down that rabbit hole here, but rest assured established UFA voice Ian Toner and Colorado Summit star Alex Atkins will have you covered on the inaugural "Super Series" broadcast, starting with an extended pregame scene-set at 8:45 PM/ET on Saturday evening.
Wait, Evan, you’re not on the broadcast this Saturday?!?!
Indeed, an unfortunate scheduling conflict sadly prevents me from being in Utah, but I’ll be following closely from afar and am excited to have Toner and Atkins carry the torch. There was a time when I was uncertain about having an active player on the call for a huge game like this, but my tune has changed a bit as I’ve gotten more into tennis over the past few years. Listening to current touring pros like Christopher Eubanks, Nick Kyrgios, and Bethany Mattek-Sands in the broadcast booth has yielded fascinating insights and perspectives that are amplified exponentially by their active stature as athletes. Atkins shined in his past commentary roles, working last year’s Summit opener while injured as well as bringing his gregarious yet thoughtful personality to the Championship Weekend Gameday Live set last August.
I’ll be antsy and grateful to resume my ultimate broadcasting journey next week in Atlanta, when the Hustle and Empire collide in another scintillating Super Series standoff. But until then, like you, I’ll be enjoying the ultimate, trying to digest it all and make some sense of the start of our new season.
At long last, the Frisbee Era is officially here.
