Celebrating the best off-field leaders of the season.
June 23, 2025 by Anna Browne and Theresa Diffendal 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.
Our final D-III award podium is for the Coaches of the Year. 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 we feel “we know it when we see it.”
- Player of the Year
- All-American First Team
- 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-III Women’s 2025 Coaches Of The Year
Keith Raynor (Wesleyan)
Coach of the Year going to the championship-winning team is not exactly a revelation. Best rookie in the division? Check. Player on the POTYium? Check. Arguably one of the deepest teams in the division? Also check. How much then can we credit such a team’s success to the head coach?
It must be said that Raynor’s first year as Wesleyan’s coach also coincided with their first year ever having a coach. Typical in Division III, Raynor himself frequently cited the captain’s leadership as critical to Vicious’ mental and on-field success. Raynor’s most notable impacts, then, came in the form of game management, from tweaking lines to crushing tape on opponents. Not many would choose to start the OPOTY runner-up on defense, and yet there was Scout Noble trotting out to pull in the bracket as Wesleyan flexed more upwind/downwind lines. Rather than running top players out point after point and wearing them down over the course of a long tournament, Milo Brown and Nat Sweet were crossed over on special deployment for critical break opportunities to create separation in a contest’s early goings. And we can’t discount the up-skilling of borderline BPOTY players like Sofia Canoutas-Nadel, Susannah Cornell, and Mackenzie Bunnell, with Raynor putting them in positions to flaunt their strong defense.
The literal crowning achievement is, of course, Wesleyan’s championship showing against Haverford/Bryn Mawr. Vicious Circles were the only team all season to truly crack the Sneetches’ zone, as their clearly-drilled offensive principle of targeting the break side–paired with the talent to hit those shots–left defenders trailing and receivers wide open. And this wasn’t all players’ ability, as Raynor admitted to taking advantage of Nationals tape by pulling in outside help to go through Haverford/Bryn Mawr’s games and codify a game plan. This level of dedication to strategic planning and execution was present all season long and is ultimately what won Wesleyan their first national title, and Keith Raynor Coach of the Year.
– Theresa Diffendal
First Runner-Up
Yara El-Khatib, Linda Morse, and Liz Hart (Haverford/Bryn Mawr)
With such a strong, experienced team, there is little that a coaching staff has to do to bring a team like Haverford/Bryn Mawr to Nationals. Where a coaching staff excels on a team like this is helping them level up to being a title contender. Coaches Linda Morse, Liz Hart, and Yara El-Khatib did just that. With Morse returning for her second year coaching and Hart and El-Khatib joining her in their first season, this iteration of coaches brought endless experience in big game environments, most notably Morse and Hart’s playing experience with AMP in the Club Mixed Division.
Such high-level exposure allowed the coaching staff to help the Sneetches maintain mental resilience when they found themselves down in a game. The coaches encouraged their squad to continue to play their game, and if they did so, the comeback would come. Facing their first true obstacle at Nationals against Middlebury, the Sneetches got the first break of the game to take the lead 4-3, and they never looked back. In their first deficit of the tournament in the final, the coaches called a timeout as Wesleyan ran up the score early for a mental reset. Again at half, down 8-4, Morse could be seen building players up in the huddle, turning their minds to the remainder of the game. And both times the on-field effects were apparent, as the Sneetches punched in their first score and then tied Wesleyan 7-7 in the second half.
Mental toughness wasn’t the only thing this coaching staff excelled in. D-III has a history of being player-led, and when Ultiworld reporters talked to Morse and Sonia Nicholson, Morse encouraged Nicholson to do most of the talking. When asked to add her thoughts, Morse echoed Nicholson’s sentiment, saying “the Sneetches have such an amazing culture that’s centered on themselves,” but encouraged the team to not rest on the early lead – “We have good tools and things that we can do better…that is going to raise our level.” Knowing when to step in or step aside is what sets this coaching staff apart.
– Anna Browne
Second Runner-Up
Jacob Artz and Chris Beaulieu (Lewis & Clark)
The biggest shock of the year featured Lewis & Clark Artemis on a Cinderella run throughout the last two months of the season. Artemis proved they were a threat to the NW region earlier in the year, finding wins against Portland and Puget Sound at D-III Grand Prix. This success against the defending national champion continued throughout the year, with Artemis getting the best of Portland in all five meetings, most crucially a 13-6 win in the NW game-to-go.
While success against a national champion struggling with high turnover is one thing, Lewis & Clark did not take their attendance at Nationals as the peak of their season. Instead, they gave St. Olaf a challenge in pool play, even taking an early lead. While they were unable to hold on, opening games hot became Lewis & Clark’s strongest asset throughout the tournament. They started strong, putting the opposing team’s offensive-line on their heels, and never looked back. This success was instrumental in their upset win against preseason favorite Carleton College Eclipse and regional rival Whitman.
The key to turning early advantages into wins was the teamwide buy-in to strategic adjustments. “The team got out some Nationals jitters,” Jacob Artz said of the St. Olaf game, which helped them hold onto the lead in future games. When time came for the bracket, “Strategically, we forced [Carleton] to have to take really difficult break throws, and that generated some turns,” with Beaulieu adding, “We gave [the team] the green light.”
Artemis also had some of the highest energy at the tournament, with endless sideline cheers and hype for every score, especially the breaks. This focused and involved team culture starts at the top, with Artz and Beaulieu establishing a community where everyone feels valued and bought-in, even with one of the largest rosters at the tournament.
– Anna Browne
