The D-III phenom reflects on his time in the division and his hopes for what it could be as he continues his college career at the latest school to offer ultimate scholarships, Davenport
March 28, 2025 by Jacob Cowan in Profile
Ultiworld’s 2025 college coverage is presented by Spin Ultimate; all opinions are those of the author(s). Find out how Spin can get you, and your team, looking your best this season.
Humor me with a thought experiment: what was the most exciting moment of the 2024 college season? Some, probably most, would answer the Cal Poly SLO upset over UNC in the men’s D-I Nationals semifinal. Others might say Dawn Culton’s game winning catch to save Pleiades’ title streak. If you’re looking for the correct answer though, or at least one that’s a little edgier, I’d point you to Mount Berry, Georgia, way back on Sunday, April 24th, the game-to-go of D-III Men’s Southeast Regionals. Duh.
Up 8-4 at halftime, Ave Maria Gyrenes faced a clear path to victory against the Berry Bucks. Not only was the Gyrenes’ first-ever Nationals berth on the line, but so was revenge for a crushing universe point loss in the game-to-go a year prior, not to mention 13-8 pool play loss from Saturday. Fast forward a little under an hour, and Berry strung together some breaks to claw back to universe point, which they started on offense. Playing Regionals on their home fields, Berry would not go down easy. The Bucks received the pull and centered to Collin Hill, the team’s captain and one of the premier players in the division, who, after a few passes and a stoppage on a marking violation, found himself downfield.
Immediately after the disc was checked back in, Hill jabbed under and sprinted deep. Ian VanOrder, another senior on the team, put up a backhand far in front of Collin. Game on the line, sprinting his heart out, Hill just barely managed to track it down, laying out in the end zone with the disc firmly pancaked between his hands. It was truly a catch worthy of a Mike Breen double bang, as you can see here.
For most, this would stand out as the highlight of a career. A fantasy dreamt about since the first throwing session actualized in the most consequential game of a senior season. Chef’s kiss, tie the bow, dot your is and cross your ts. A season-extending, layout catch on home soil that sends the sidelines into a frenzy? Name a better way to go out. Sure, Nationals loomed a few weeks later, but who cares what happens there? In one fell swoop, or perhaps dive, Hill’s career culminated in THE most jaw-dropping play of 2024.
Little did we know, though, that for Collin this wasn’t even the highlight of his time at Berry, and his college career was far from over.
Hill’s Beginnings
Hill got his start playing in seventh grade, in Atlanta, Georgia, after seeing a flyer and thinking, “chasing a frisbee would be really fun and cool.” He started taking the sport seriously in 2019, when he was a member of the ATLiens U20 team that finished as that year’s YCC co-champs1.
As of writing, that ATLiens team has already produced two Callahan award winners in Justin Burnett and Aidan Downey, and Ben Dameron may as well go ahead and add his name to the list of ATLiens-turned-Callahan-winners by the end of May. That team also featured future Team USA U24 and club stars Adam Miller and Franky Fernandez, so it’s no surprise the team was the genesis of Hill’s larger aspirations within ultimate.
“Being teammates with guys like Ben Dameron and Aidan Downey was honestly a transformational experience, because they set a really high standard, and I wanted to push myself for the opportunity to play with them again,” Hill said. Hill was one of only four juniors on that team and didn’t play much, but nonetheless it was a foundational experience. “It’s honestly crazy that I got to play with those guys,” he continued. “I don’t think they know it, but they’re the reason I’m pursuing the sport the way I am right now.”
Unlike many frisbee-obsessed high schoolers who decide to pursue their passion in the gauntlet of Division I competition, after a COVID-interrupted final year of high school Hill matriculated to Berry College, entering into the purity, joy, and chaos that comprise The People’s Division. In his own telling, Collin explained that his college choice “ had a lot to do with [ultimate].”
Berry won Southeast Regionals in 2019, when Hill was a junior in high school, and when Hill visited campus, he got a real feel for the team’s vibes after staying overnight with Bucks players Walter Ellard and Chris Gmeiner. In addition to enjoying his time with the team, Hill liked the school’s “small, tight-knit community.” For youth frisbee players interested in smaller colleges and universities, it can be a difficult decision choosing between a smaller school with a less serious team and a larger university with a more competitive ultimate program2. Hill knew by going to a D-III school like Berry he would be one of few with ultimate experience prior to college, but he decided he “was just going to enjoy the atmosphere off the field more than focusing on on the field results and that stuff.”
That reality didn’t keep Hill from setting lofty goals, however: “When I first came in, I set myself this goal of making Nationals every year,” he said. Not to spoil anything, but remember that layout grab?
College Career and the Rebuild
At Berry, Hill quickly established himself as a force to be reckoned with in the division, winning Rookie of the Year second runner-up after the 2021 fall Nationals in Norco where Berry lost on universe in the fifth-place game. That spring, Hill, alongside co-stars Walter Ellard and Caleb Enright, led Berry to a no.3 seed and semifinal appearance at Nationals, the best finish in program history. At the end of that year, however, Ellard, Enright, Gmeiner, and many of the key contributors on that semifinal team graduated, which left Hill to lead the team through a rebuilding process.
In 2023, Hill’s junior year, more than half of the roster was composed of rookies, and, in Hill’s words, “a lot of the returners didn’t really play the year before.” After an up-and-down regular season and Saturday of Regionals, Berry won their first Sunday game on universe, and later found themselves again on universe, pulling in the game-to-go to the Gyrenes, who they had lost to the day before. In Hill’s telling, “We have to break to win. Ian VanOrder gets the block, I pick up the disc and throw it to him for a goal, and then we go to Nationals.”3.
Following this miraculous Regionals performance, Hill posted a whopping 32 assists to go along with five goals and six blocks at Nationals, earning All-American Second Team honors and establishing himself as a player capable of leading a team to national prominence. The success of the 2023 season, not the high Nationals placements, individual accolades, or breath-taking universe point wins, was Hill’s proudest achievement of his Berry career. “All season we preached that as long as we work really hard and we don’t feel bad about leaving anything on the table, then whatever the results are, we’re going to be happy with,” he said.
In his senior year, Hill built on his stardom. Instead of throwing the winning goal on universe point against Ave Maria, he caught it, as described above. And again at Nationals, Hill dropped over 30 assists and earned a spot on the All-American Second Team. With the release of a stellar Donovan video, it seemed Hill was destined to successfully close the Berry chapter of his career nicely as a decorated D-III all star.
But after Nationals, Hill’s next steps were focused on another year of eligibility: “I was thinking about going to the University of Georgia for my grad school program, thinking about Auburn, and was also thinking about going back to Berry for their MBA program. I actually did enroll in Berry’s MBA program this fall.” That’s when Davenport came calling.
College Career – Redux: The Decision
Hill first heard from Davenport head coach Mike Zaagman less than two months before he spoke to me back in January from his new graduate student apartment just off of Davenport’s campus in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The two had chatted briefly at College Nationals in May, where Zaagman floated the idea of Hill joining the Davenport squad, but Hill wasn’t interested at the time. When Zaagman reached out again in the middle of November, Hill was in the middle of a semester, living with his girlfriend, practicing with the Berry team (although not captaining), and spending lots of time with his parents4, who only live about two hours from Berry’s campus.
Nevertheless, the offer was intriguing. “[Zaagman] was really encouraging about how the team would be grinding together, on and off the field, and he also preached that the academic program that I’d be joining is a rigorous one, so that it would help me to get where I wanted to go,” Hill said. On top of that, Hill was offered a varsity athletic scholarship for ultimate frisbee, a level of institutional support that only two universities—Davenport and Oklahoma Christian, who both compete at the D-III level—offer.
Zaagman offered tons of support throughout Hill’s decision process. “There were a lot of moving pieces to how I would make this work,” Hill said. “[Zaagman] was really understanding and adaptable to my needs and concerns.” It was a hard decision for Hill, weighing leaving behind his support systems. “It was very scary, because it was so sudden.”
Ultimately though, Zaagman reaching out “was the perfect opportunity coming in at the right time,” said Hill. “Had it been a year later I probably wouldn’t have participated in this program, but because I have eligibility, and it’s a two year program, it just made a lot of sense for me.”
With his options out on the table, Hill made up his mind in only a few weeks, choosing to pursue frisbee and the varsity athlete experience at Davenport as opposed to the more traditional fifth-year and continued graduate school experience at Berry. “Early December was when I officially decided I was gonna go to Davenport,” he said. “It’s a unique opportunity, and I think it will push me as a person and a player for the long run.”
Adjusting to Grand Rapids
When I spoke with Hill, he had been on campus for about two weeks. I asked him what differences he had noticed early on. “The first difference is that there is a program set to help you succeed,” Hill said. “Back at Berry, you made whatever you wanted of it. If you wanted to get better at throwing you had to do that on your time. At Davenport, we have scheduled times when we are able to go to a specific part of campus and throw for that set amount of time. It’s a more professional experience.”
Whereas at Berry, missing a practice because of homework or equivalent reasons would have been acceptable given its club sports status, at Davenport, “if there is an expectation set, you have to follow that expectation,” Hill explained. “Both academic and athletic excellence are expected to be achieved… You have to factor that into your day and schedule.” Some adjustments, however, have been less pleasant: “Right now, the big thing is the snow is everywhere. Like yesterday, I had to drive on a couple inches of snow, and that was really freaky for me.”
The difference in institutional support also includes a dedicated athletic trainer who designs a workout program for the team. The team practices four days and has two lifts each week, followed by prescribed throwing sessions. “People want to work every single day to get better and to achieve our goals,” Hill said.
Davenport’s first couple of practices reminded Hill of playing for the UFA’s Atlanta Hustle and Atlanta Chain Lightning, the city’s elite men’s club team. “[They] feel very similar to when I would practice with Chain, where we would be scrimmaging and people are taking it personal in terms of winning your matchup, winning every moment,” said Hill. “That’s the way I’d say it’s similar–the intensity and also how many ultimate players from different places are coming together, collaborating… practices have been challenging. [My teammates] are really encouraging you to push yourself to be the best.”
In particular, Hill mentioned Kai Creed, a freshman who played for the Canada U20 men’s national team in 2024 and is a reserve for the U24 Canada mixed team for this coming summer. “He’s been pushing me each and every practice,” Hill said. “Every time I match up against him, I’m having to work a little harder, or think a little more about, ‘okay, how am I gonna get open? How am I gonna guard this guy in this situation?’” Bad news for the rest of the division, Creed has actually only been playing for a year and two months. “So, yeah, he’s legit,” said Hill.
The Future of Scholarships
Hill’s decision, though, was not just about this year, or playing for Davenport specifically. While players like Kyle Henke and Elliott Moore went to scholarship schools as pre-established stars, Hill is the first to do so after playing in Division III for a different institution. This makes Hill’s career, and decision, distinct. He is the first to have a “normal” D-III experience and then choose a scholarship over continuing that experience. Part of Hill’s motivation for doing so is increasing the reputation of D-III ultimate more generally.
“I see [my decision] as motivation for myself to be the best player I can in D-III to show everyone that D-III isn’t a cakewalk like everyone says it is,” Hill said. “I remember at [Hustle or Chain] tryouts in Atlanta, people would kind of talk behind my back about my play and would downplay it to, ‘Oh he plays in D-III of course he’s good,’ but I just want people to take it more seriously. And I think the scholarship will help in doing that, because it’ll bring more talent over to this division and show that D-III is as competitive as D-I competition.
“I just want people to not see D-III as the little brother, not to downplay it where players who play in this division aren’t counted out just because they played Division III ultimate,” Hill continued.
Hill sees scholarships as deeply transformational to college frisbee and the sport more generally. “The scholarship is a step forward in this sport gaining more visibility,” he said. “With more visibility comes more press, and then with more press comes more resources for the sport.”
In fact, the evolution of scholarships in ultimate was a key selling point for Zaagman in his recruitment of Hill in the first place: “[Zaagman] really sold me on how ultimate would trend in the direction of college scholarships, and how being a part of this team would help propel ultimate to become a more legitimate sport,” Hill said. He believes his success at Davenport could help accelerate change at other schools, too: “You’re seeing schools invest in ultimate frisbee and if we do well then other schools will be like, ‘We want to start getting into that’… I think this scholarship will help propel ultimate by bringing more eyes onto the sport.”
As for the future of scholarships in frisbee, Hill only sees further changes to the competitive landscape of college ultimate. “I think five years down the line, whatever schools are offering scholarship programs, those are going to be the ones that are winning championships,” he said.
Davenport 2025: Title Favorites?
This year, it’s no secret Davenport has its eyes set on a title. They were the most popular choice in our preseason staff picks to take home the national championship, as they add a ton of talent to a squad that made a surprise quarterfinals run in 2024. In addition to Hill and Creed, they added Alex Ballentine, a graduate transfer from Appalachian State who spent the last two summers playing for RDU in the club division, and Kale Peterson, who was on the Canadian U20 team with the aforementioned Creed. In their first sanctioned action of 2025 the Panthers went 3-0 at a weather-altered Commonwealth Cup, most significantly beating Oberlin 9-5, but they have also shown signs of an even higher ceiling, beating Michigan in unsanctioned play 16-12 on February 10th.
For Hill though, regardless of on-field, early season success, it’s more about the process. “My goals are to build as much chemistry as possible with my teammates, and learn how they tick, learn how they play, and then adjust, and then help them get better along the way,” he said. “Just growing with the team in general and being the best team we can be at the end of the year.” The Panthers will have the opportunity to continue this process this weekend at Huck Finn, where they’ll match up against D-I teams Chicago and Stanford in pool play and have a shot at 2024 D-I Nationals attendee Washington University in the bracket.
As for winning D-III Nationals, “Obviously winning a national championship with Davenport would be sick, but I don’t like having that expectation so early on,” Hill said. Frankly, Hill has his eyes set on much more, for himself, the division, and the sport.
Although some, including Collin, would say they were the outright champs considering they had already beaten BUDA, the team they faced in the final, prior to their lightning-shortened final matchup. ↩
Unless, of course, Carleton is an option, in which case you can experience the liberal arts environment and a competitive D-I team experience ↩
For more information on Berry’s sensational 2023 season, check out this article by Zack Davis ↩
His Dad, Ken, is well known in the D-III and broader Atlanta frisbee scene for acting like an NFL superfan on the sidelines of Hill’s games and tournaments ↩
