Celebrating the best off-field leaders of the season.
June 23, 2026 by Alex Rubin and Aidan Thomas 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-I 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.”
- All-American First Team
- Player of the Year
- All-American Second Team
- Offensive Player of the Year Award
- Defensive Player of the Year Award
- Breakout Player of the Year Award
- Rookie of the Year Award
- Coaches of the Year Award
- Full Awards Voting Breakdown
D-I Men’s 2026 Coaches Of The Year
HC Sam Losen, HC Dylan Tunnell, HC Christian Foster, HC Calan Kirkpatrick, AC Marshall Lian (Massachusetts)
It can be cliche to give the coaching award to the champions, but this year the title winners were not just the best on the field. Dylan Tunnell, Sam Losen, Christian Foster, Marshall Lian, and Calan Kirkpatrick took a talented team and elevated their play to the dominant force that swept through the Series without playing a game closer than a four goal win. Despite playing .500 ball throughout the middle of the regular season, Zoodisc’s leadership put all of their puzzle pieces in the right places. Rookies like Cam Levine and Sam McCrory were given places to shine, Gavin Abrahamsson turned into a First Team All-American when unleashed on the D-line, and the team built a system around the talents of Jonah Stang-Osborne and Wyatt Kellman despite those two missing time in the previous years.
At Nationals, Zoodisc never wavered nor lost confidence. They were never down by more than two goals and took half in every game except the championship. While the players did all of the work on the field, the messages before games and the overall gameplan were clearly effective against the best opposition the country had to offer. With subtle adjustments and incredible self-belief, UMass took on their biggest challenge of the season and ended up with their biggest success.
– Alex Rubin
First Runner-Up
Luke Smith (Penn State)
After graduating key contributors on both sides of the disc, Penn State maintained their place among Nationals quarterfinalists while integrating new players into key roles. In his fourth season with the team, Luke Smith has helped transform an entire generation of Spank players into legitimate Nationals contenders. While nurturing the growth of star seniors Logan Piercy, Doug Hoyer, and Ethan Pigeon, Smith also put rookies like Becker Joseph and Nolan McClintic in positions to succeed and shine in their first season. In addition, Smith invested time into the entire roster such that when several D-line starters were unable to play at Nationals, Penn State saw significant contributions from players like Aaron Crothers, Evan Dagle, and Javier Gonzalez-Recober who were not expected to play as much as they needed to. With Penn State’s trajectory still going up, expect to see Smith and more Penn State players on these awards lists for years to come.
– Alex Rubin
Second Runner-Up
Nick Kaczmarek, David Berg, Dylan Best (Pittsburgh)
One of the biggest bouncebacks of the 2026 season, Pitt En Sabah Nur returned to Nationals and claimed a spot in the quarterfinals after failing to qualify in 2025. That resurgence alone is qualification enough for the Pitt coaching staff of Nick Kaczmarek, David Berg, and Dylan Best to claim a podium finish in COTY voting.
Pitt’s season was a masterclass in a variety of areas, as they successfully brought Micah Davis back into the lineup and saw their QB1, who was recovering from an ACL tear, develop into a Second Team All-American. Rookie Ezra Beidler-Shenk became a lethal two-way star, key contributors Julius Clyburn and Reid Duncan found new levels in 2026, and veterans Peter Kotz and Morey Averill, among others, played big roles down the stretch. Pitt showcased their ceiling in flashes throughout the season, beating eventual semifinalist Oregon, eventual quarterfinalist Penn State (three times) as well as North Carolina. Nationals saw them peak, with their only losses to the eventual finalists, and wins over North Carolina, Georgia Tech and Western Washington.
Now the challenge will be turning this resurgent campaign into a stronger 2027 that can see En Sabah Nur challenge for semifinals and beyond at Nationals, but this coaching corps has showcased an ability to squeeze every bit of talent out of their roster.
– Aidan Thomas
