Recognizing the top performer of the 2025 season.
June 10, 2025 by Edward Stephens in Awards
Each year, Ultiworld presents our annual College Awards. Our staff evaluates the individual performances of players from throughout the season, talking to folks around college ultimate, watching film, and look at statistics, voting upon the awards to decide those to be honored. The regular season and the college Series are both considered, with extra emphasis for performances in the competitive and high-stakes environment at Nationals.
After announcing the finalists in our First-Team All-American, we are proud to present Player of the Year, our most prestigious award. Our Player of the Year winner is the best performer of the 2025 college season, and the highest vote-getter for All-American honors. The winner is not eligible for consideration in any of our other individual awards. The runners-up are the second- and third-most vote-getters.
- All-American First Team
- Player of the Year
- All-American Second Team
- Defensive Player of the Year Award
- Offensive Player of the Year Award
- Rookie of the Year Award
- Breakout Player of the Year Award
- Coaches of the Year Award
- Full Awards Voting Breakdown
D-I Men’s 2025 Player Of The Year
Declan Miller (Carleton)
2025 was the Declan Miller season we’ve all been waiting for. The one-time high-schooler-on-Seattle-Sockeye, like so many Seattle prospects before him, took his talents to Northfield, Minnesota at tricky time for Carleton. CUT were mired in a slump, having followed their 2017 title and 2018 semis run with three utterly disappointing seasons that saw them either fail to make Nationals (2019, 2022) or forfeit games due to a COVID outbreak once they were there (2021).
Enter Miller, the human embodiment of an inflection point. Dauntless, high-spirited, and technical from the moment he put a cleat on the line, his attitude and on-field prerogatives immediately rubbed off on the rest of CUT. A hyperbole that rings with truth: Miller remade CUT in his image from the start. CUT never gave up on a play because their star freshman never gave up on a play; they never passed up promising scoring opportunities because the rookie would never let the moment escape without a try; they never wasted a possession because Miller kept setting an example through the stubbornness of his own reset cuts and throws; they continued to press on defense because Miller never gave it a rest. With Miller as the spark, the program was poised for a turnaround.
And then, with a knee injury, the turnaround stalled. Miller wasn’t healthy enough to play at Nationals his first year, and he re-aggravated the injury last season at Nationals. The team, despite obvious talent, could not withstand the loss or impairment of their field general.
This spring, after those two false starts, we finally learned how high the ceiling was for CUT with a fully operational superstar: a championship. I feel compelled to point out the obvious fact that, while he was indeed brilliant, Carleton did not lack for superstar efforts in 2025. It was a CUT season replete with tremendous individual performances from veterans and rookies alike.
And yet it is inarguable that the team could not have performed the way they did without Miller’s lead. It’s funny. To watch him play was not to bear witness to a superpower. Yes, he is a great individual player – that much is clear. Even on his own team, though, it’s hard to pinpoint what made him the best. Fin Fuhrmann matched him in conducting a possession. Daniel Chen was more likely to make an astounding catch on a deep ball. Ryan duSaire smothered top offensive threats. Nate De Morgan took deadly aim with his backhand. Axel Olson showed off perfectly nuanced control of forehands. Miller, without standing out the same way in any individual respect, was outstanding in every respect. He topped out as close to the maximal ends on every one of those discrete skills without sacrificing efficiency in any of them. In a way, his 2025 season was the closest thing to a perfect circle as we are likely to encounter in college play.
To wade into the murky waters of psychology – and to take a step back to view the larger picture of ultimate – I think this is what has made Miller the towering figure he is. By putting so much discipline and care into every aspect of his game, and by performing under the brightest lights and on the most far-flung backfields alike with so much heart, he became the division’s aspiration. Not only to his teammates but to anyone who watched him play. He represented the player we all wish we could be at our best: motivated, intelligent, tenacious, quick, opportunistic. We, too, want to exhibit the same mathematically-engineered balance Miller showed every time he stepped out to throw a forehand. We, too, want to lull matchup defenders into a pattern of utterly successful under cuts before unexpectedly darting deep to punctuate a three-throw hold. We, too, want to take responsibility for – and win – the Tobias Brooks matchup in the national title game.
It was overwhelmingly obvious in the end that it had to be Declan Miller, the most complete, the most determined, the most inspirational – and, in the final reckoning, simply the best – Player of the Year.
First Runner-Up:
Tobias Brooks (Colorado)
Second Runner-Up:
Mica Glass (Oregon)
