Recognizing the top performer of the 2024 season.
November 12, 2024 by Edward Stephens in Awards with 0 comments
Ultiworld is pleased to announce our annual Club Awards, continuing with the Club Player of the Year in each division. While we consider both regular season and postseason performance, because of the nature of the Club division, we weight success in the Series and at Nationals above all else. This year, with an uneven regular season, the postseason emphasis is perhaps greater than ever. The Club Awards are voted on by Ultiworld reporters, contributors, and editors.
Player of the Year is our most prestigious award. Our Player of the Year winner is the best performer of the 2024 club season, and the highest vote-getter for All-Club honors. The winner is not eligible for consideration in any of our other individual awards.
Player of the Year Award
All-Club First Team
All-Club Second Team
Offensive Player of the Year Award
Defensive Player of the Year Award
Breakout Player of the Year Award
Coach(es) of the Year Award
Club Awards Voting Breakdown
Snubs and Superlatives
2024 Men’s Division Club Player Of The Year
Raphy Hayes (Portland Rhino Slam!)
The 2024 Player of the Year Award has been a long time in the making for Raphy Hayes. Hayes, who has been part of the Portland Rhino Slam! project since 2012, toiled at his game in relative obscurity for years as Rhino endured early Nationals exits or missed the tournament entirely. The product of all that thankless work finally began to come into focus (for the public, anyway) in 2019, when Hayes’ performance announced him as the leading edge of a Rhino effort that could – finally – consistently hang with the division’s best. As Rhino got closer to their goal over the ensuing years, Hayes remained their polestar, their true north, their guiding light. With Hayes at the head, it’s no wonder they bagged the program’s first championship.
There is more that can be written about Hayes’s impressive capacity as a club leader and pacesetter, but it’s worth examining his 2024 season more simply: he is a generationally great player who put together a generationally great season. How much can any one player shape the field? The answer to that question has, in the past, informed our appreciation of throwers like Jimmy Mickle, Valeria Cárdenas, Robyn Fennig. But what about the players on the receiving end of those throws?
Hayes’s 2024 season made a powerful argument that we should re-evaluate our perspective on what kind of player can dominate a landscape. Between a superhuman catch radius, the dynamism and fight he showed on contested unders, hands as secure as Fort Knox, and absolutely automatic skies – seriously, he was set-it-and-forget-it in jumpball situations – Hayes was the one-man, on-field equivalent of an entire terraforming crew. His presence instantly expanded the range of play for the entire Rhino offense. Despite every opponent knowing he was the primary focus of the offense, he still managed to lead Rhino in goals scored, posting a cool 13 – no easy feat on a line with several other capable deep threats. And while he was far from the only reason they only gave up a paltry three breaks through their entire bracket run, his particular superpowers formed the bedrock of their approach. The results of that approach and Rhino’s well-placed faith in their brightest star speak for themselves.
Excellence both on defense (when Rhino did turn the disc over) and as an assertive and creative thrower are nice add-ins thrown into the bargain. Make no mistake though, Hayes stands atop the division in 2024 for being one of the most extraordinary cutters and receivers the sport has ever seen. To borrow and recontextualize Ralph Kiner’s famous quip about Phillies outfielder Gary Maddox: Two thirds of the Earth is covered by water. The other third is covered by Raphy Hayes.
Player of the year Runners-Up:
- Chris Kocher (New York PoNY)
- Daan De Marrée (Chicago Machine)
