The masterminds behind the division's best teams
November 21, 2024 by Edward Stephens and Alex Rubin in Awards with 0 comments
Ultiworld is pleased to announce our annual Club Awards. 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.
The Coach(es) of the Year closes our annual awards. As so many teams have added more and more sideline-savvy consultants to their roster with less asked of a single head coach, this has essentially morphed into “Coaching Staff of the Year.” Coaches can impact the game in so many ways — tactics, motivation, communication, personnel management, program development, skill-building, etc. — and it can be hard to divine what exactly each has contributed to their team. But good coaching is something that we feel that “we know it when we see it.”
Player of the Year Award
All-Club First Team
All-Club Second Team
Defensive Player of the Year Award
Offensive 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 Coach(es) of the Year
Molica Anderson, Adrian King (San Francisco Revolver)
You can tell when everything starts to come together for a team. There’s a certain ‘it’ factor – and this season, Revolver had it. The talent on Revolver has been competitive over the past several years, but something always seemed to stand in their way when it came to performing at the end of the season.
In 2024, the team found their purpose and their identity – and remained consistent in both – as they pushed to their best finish since 2018. The lines were considered, balanced, and versatile. The crossovers were careful and intelligent. The schemes on both sides of the disc were positively dangerous. Adding an extra reset like Nathan Kwon to ease the backfield burden on Nate Prior and Mac Hecht was a smart practical move. So was overloading the primary D-line with relentless matchup defenders, which is what allowed them to set the tone for most of their games at Nationals and jump out to early leads.
Between the continued concentration of talent – due in no small part to the culture the team’s coaching staff has helped build for years – this season and the confident, team-forward way they applied themselves (even while scrapping from behind against PoNY in semis), Revolver showed all the hallmarks of superb leadership.
– Edward Stephens
First Runner-up
Zack Smith, Craig Harkey, Ben Wiggins (Seattle Sockeye)
After missing Nationals in 2023, Sockeye had a lot riding on the 2024 season. With a strong focus on youth development, the Fish improved at each tournament throughout the season and played their best ultimate at Nationals. Rather than hide newer players, the Sockeye coaches featured them and built the team around their strengths. Sockeye welcomed nine additions to the roster this year, and all of them played significant minutes at Nationals. The team also rostered 15 practice and development players. Some coaches would struggle to balance the needs of a competitive club team with the needs of players at the early stages of development, but Sockeye’s leadership team kept everyone engaged and brought the team to a winnable bracket game. That’s a major success and a clear signal that the program is in good shape.
– Alex Rubin
Second Runner-up
James Highsmith, Alex Champe, Dan Donovan (Chicago Machine)
Given their large contingent of travel players, Machine coaches are already in a unique situation in that they do not have as much practice time with the entire team as other top teams. Add in a strange ultimate calendar where the World Ultimate Championships took a few of the team’s top players abroad for the end of the regular season and Machine’s coaches had even less time together with the entire team than usual. On top of that, the team’s consensus best player was injured midway through the team’s first game, and their POTY candidate was ejected midway through their quarterfinal game. Despite all of that, Machine still made the semifinal round where they fell to the eventual champion in a game that was closer than the score indicated. They retooled their entire offense on the fly and still managed to win two bracket games. This year’s Machine weathered more adversity than most teams face, and yet with strong leadership they looked resilient every step of the way.
– Alex Rubin
