May 20, 2025
By Evan Lepler
1. Presumed contenders taking tough early season losses
While Houston, Montreal, and Oregon all enjoyed epic wins as presumed underdogs, Colorado, New York, and Seattle were all licking their wounds and wondering how to best move forward.
Additionally, the Summit and the Empire both suffered two losses apiece this past weekend, a tough pill to swallow for a couple of teams with Championship Weekend ambitions.
“I was flabbergasted,” said Colorado’s Alex Atkins, who had 10 scores but also nine turnovers in the Summit’s two Texas setbacks. “Credit to the Havoc for wanting it and playing with a bunch of effort [...] I can’t speak for my team, but my takeaway is you have to want it more. Confidence is good, but I have to outwork the person across from me. Combine that with making the right decisions on when and when not to open it up.”
And while the Summit were more competitive against the Sol on Saturday, it was still another tough loss.
“I’m glad we came out with more fight in the Austin game,” said Atkins. “I remain optimistic about the season and our ability to get better. I know we can beat anyone in the league, but it won’t be easy and we’ll have to be willing to make sacrifices. My overall takeaway is I need to be better. I believe, especially in the Austin game, that if I am able to execute at a higher level, that takes us over the edge. This is my whole life, and I need to be better. I’m tired of losing, but I’m motivated to work and figure this out.”
Despite the pain, Atkins also acknowledged that these surprising results were a good thing for the UFA.
“Overall, I think you can see that the league is getting more competitive,” Atkins said. “We’ve already known that, but this week really hammered it home. You can’t sleep on anyone, which is awesome because it will force players to show up more consistently and creates a more entertaining product.”
The New York Empire have experienced more winning over the past half-decade than anyone, but now sit at 2-3 after a pair of overtime losses. Despite the winless weekend, Empire GM/Coach Matt Stevens still believes his team is more than capable of reaching its goals this season.
“There are of course frustrations from losing back-to-back overtime games, especially in a 12-game regular season, where every matchup is critical,” said Stevens. “For the record, wins and losses are all that matter, so evaluating good losses and bad wins is nebulous at best. With that being said, it would be short-sighted not to recognize that we were a play away in both games from a 4-1 record. For the first time this season, we saw consistent stretches of our team’s potential, and that was a team that could undoubtedly compete for a championship.”
Up next for the Empire, three more road tests at Philly, Toronto, and DC, starting with the Phoenix this Friday night.
“Now our backs are up against the wall,” said Stevens. “It’s up to everyone in the organization, from the coaches to the players, back office to medical, to realize that potential, and it started before we got to the hotel Saturday night.”
The Empire do expect to get Jack Williams and Antoine Davis, who missed both games this past weekend with minor hamstring and back injuries, respectively, back in the lineup for this Friday’s trip to Philadelphia.
As for Seattle, the Cascades are also feeling a major sense of urgency after their overtime loss to Oregon. They are presently 1-3, but a 1-5 record feels very possible, perhaps even probable, as they embark on a daunting two-game trip to Salt Lake and Oakland in Week 5.
“Yea, definitely a strange and frustrating start for us,” said Seattle’s Lukas Ambrose, who leads the league with eight blocks through four weeks. “Saturday’s loss to Portland was tough, no question. We’ve got all the puzzle pieces to be a high-level team, but we’re struggling to put them in the right places. The talent is absolutely here, but we’re still working through some chemistry gaps.”
Ambrose was especially frustrated with the way his team defended Oregon’s deep game on Saturday night.
“We knew they love to shoot, and yet we still got beat deep far too often,” he lamented. “Going 12-for-18 on hucks when we saw it coming and made a concerted effort to prevent that? That’s unacceptable. We’ve been talking a lot about individual accountability, and it just wasn’t there Saturday. But we know this, and it gives us something to work on this week.”
One year after a surprising Championship Weekend berth, the Cascades know it’s basically now or never as they head to face the Shred and Spiders on the road this week.
“Jack Brown had a great speech after the [Steel] game, reminding us that we have to deserve to win games through the effort we put in every week, and that we just didn’t this weekend,” said Ambrose. “The first two Oakland games were tough, but this one was a slap in the face, and it is a reminder that the margins in this league are small. I know we want it, now the team just has to earn it, which I believe we will.”
2. Boston's big weekend
For the second straight season, the Boston Glory authored one of the greatest two-win weekends any team could ever achieve, defeating New York and DC in a matter of just a few days.
On Friday against the Empire, the Glory let their 17-13 fourth quarter lead slip away, but recovered to win 19-18 in overtime. Boston certainly made some bizarre choices with the frisbee during New York’s 4-0 run to close out regulation, but Glory Captain Brendan McCann put the late collapse on the defense.
“To be honest, our D-line let them back into that game,” he said. “[New York] got hot, were scoring in the fourth under a minute each O-point. That meant a lot of time on the field for our O-line and ultimately led to those last couple breaks.”
It certainly felt like double overtime was imminent when the Empire trailed by one and moved the disc into the red zone with around 30 second left in overtime. But Boston’s Tyler Chan swooped in for a soaring block on Calvin Brown’s short dish toward Solomon Rueschemeyer-Bailey, virtually sealing the dramatic one-goal win for the Glory. There was certainly some contact between Chan and SRB, but the refs did not call a foul, saying it was incidental contact with both players pursuing the disc.
Both players offered thoughtful reflections on the play.
“I remember that they had advanced the disc to near the end zone and they were starting to play primarily small-ball running through their three guys,” explained Chan. “[I was] pretty tired from having to chase JR [John Randolph] around. I think that play he made a slash to the break side that didn’t get thrown to and then I looked back and saw Sol’s cut developing with Calvin looking at him, and I was in a great spot to try and jump it, so I went for it. In the moment, it felt to me like I got to the space a step before Sol and got the disc first. Felt relatively clean to me. Watching it back, I’m seeing that we both did tumble, so there was probably more contact than I remember. I don’t have a good answer on whether or not it was foul-worthy contact; luckily, we have refs to make that decision. The refs let the game be really physical up to that point, so it felt pretty on par to me.”
Despite the collision, Rueschemeyer-Bailey said he did not take the contact personally.
“It was a nice read by Ty to peel off,” said SRB. “I was blindsided—had no idea he was there—and he clipped my leg, hence the awkward landing. Not dirty or overly physical, but perhaps impossible for him to make that play without contact [...] At the end of the day, you have to win games decisively to avoid any officiating variance. We had a lot of opportunities to make winning plays that we didn’t execute on in the first, second, third, and fourth quarters. Excited to beat Boston when we host them later this season.”
Two days later, the Glory were back in action down in DC, a place that Boston had never previously won. Amidst some swirling wind, the Glory D-line seized control, scoring more breaks (eight) than Breeze holds (seven), as Boston prevailed 14-11.
“The main difference is that our D-line was a little more efficient at cashing in breaks early in the game,” said Chan, who finished the weekend with four blocks, two in each game.
Unfortunately for the Breeze, this game continued a tough trend of DC struggling to run their offense in windy conditions.
“I am also curious about where our throwers are having struggles in the wind,” said Breeze Coach Lauren Boyle. “And it’s a fair characterization after having three games were we didn’t play to our standard of excellence when there is wind…We will keep working hard, work-shopping ways to be more resilient with our systems when there is wind. After the game, that was the message. That we are excited to continue to work.”
At the same time, DC veteran Rowan McDonnell did not think the wind was an excuse.
“It wasn’t that windy,” said McDonnell. “It was good defensive pressure [...] That, alongside our offense not playing particularly clean, resulted in some long points and a low score. The conditions weren’t bad at all. Boston vs. DC has had some low scores in the past. It’s a gritty matchup.”
3. Sol surge past Summit
Under the radar, the Austin Sol just keep winning, improving to 4-0 after their 18-16 victory over the Summit on Saturday night. It was a wild affair, with the Sol building an early 7-3 lead before surrendering a 7-1 run that spanned the halves and put Colorado in front, 12-10. But the Summit ran out of gas on the second night of their Texas two-step, and the Sol closed with a late 3-0 surge to seal the victory.
“Entering the fourth quarter, the game felt like a coin flip,” said Austin’s Mark Henke. “This is my favorite situation to be in: the fourth quarter of a tight game. It all comes down to the D-line—who can create more pressure, get more blocks, and, most importantly, secure the most breaks? I knew it would come down to a defensive stand, and I liked my guys.”
Late in the game, after an Atkins throwaway, the Sol were out of timeouts but still meticulously worked the disc downfield and punched it in, the de facto knockout punch for the night.
“Noah Powell threw up a floaty ball to me, and somehow I came down with it—I’m not really sure how,” said Henke Shout out to some of our D-line handlers who moved the ball during this point; it required a lot of patience and poise. Guys like Saaketh Palchuru, Alex Janelle, and Oakley Armstrong won the game for us on that last break.”
Kyle Henke led the Sol with 482 total yards, six scores and three blocks, but he insisted that his little brother, Mark, was the team’s top star on Saturday night.
“[Mark] was the MVP of the game, skying Atkins multiple times and locking down Quinn Finer for much of the game,” declared Kyle. “[He] had a huge night.”
4. Atlanta continues to ascend
Of course, the Sol are not the only undefeated team in the South Division. With all due respect to every other contender, I would argue that the Atlanta Hustle have put together the most impressive resume in the league so far, adding a pair of four-goal wins over the visiting Carolina Flyers to their ledger that already included victories over Salt Lake, San Diego, and Los Angeles.
“Our goal was to take care of the first game and adjust for the second once we won the first,” said Hustle Coach Tuba Benson-Jaja. “When we went up by a few points in the first game, we started using some strategies to tire out the Flyers for the second game. We had three players, Tanner [Robinson], Jeremy [Langdon], and Christian [Olsen], who were all at the first game but would have to miss the second game. So in part of the third and all of the fourth, those three plus two others we planned to switch out between games played every defensive point and several of the offensive points. Their goal was to tire out Carolina’s handlers as much as possible. We threw in the zone defense to protect our cutter defenders from having to play too much, and in the fourth quarter we were able to limit most of our main guys. The comfortable three-to-five point lead gave us the luxury to make these adjustments.”
Following the 19-15 win in the resumption of the suspended game, the Hustle were instructed to leave the field, get some food, and then return for slightly abbreviated warmups. Carolina registered the first two breaks in the nightcap to build a 5-3 lead late in the first, but then a 7-2 Hustle rally changed the complexion of the game dramatically, and the Flyers never led again in Atlanta’s 22-18 triumph.
“It was a tight game through three quarters,” said Benson-Jaja. “Fortunately, we were able to pull away and get the win against a good Carolina program. So far this year we have done what we did last year against Carolina. We won two games at home, so the real test will be later in the season when we go to Carolina and face them at [their place].”
Both the Flyers and Hustle will host San Diego this coming weekend, as the Growlers travel to the east coast for the first time since joining the South Division.
“Our team is learning how to win in the face of adversity,” said Benson-Jaja, “and that is something that excites me. Our studs like Brett [Hulsmeyer], Austin [Taylor], Hayden [Austin-Knab], Brad [Seuntjens], Tyler [Randall] and more are being joined by up and coming Hustle stars like Franky [Fernandez], Alec [Wilson Holliday], Adam [Miller], and more. So it’s fun for myself and the coaching staff to watch but also to continue to guide these men in the direction that ultimately allows them to grow. I’m looking forward to our second meeting with Coach Kevin [Stuart] and the Growlers. We have made some defensive adjustments that we feel should give us additional edge against them this time around. My tribe is really excited to welcome them to Georgia, show them a good time, and send them packing with another L against us.”
5. Chicago storms past Wind Chill
The Minnesota Wind Chill were fired up for their first home game after last year’s stunning championship run, a celebratory event with the first 1,000 fans receiving free championship ring t-shirts. But the Chicago Union quickly muted the hometown enthusiasm, jumping on the Wind Chill 4-0 and rolling to a 16-11 road win on Saturday in St. Paul.
“The conditions were somewhat chilly and somewhat windy,” said Xavier Payne, who led the Union with 41 completions in his Chicago debut. “Some would say it was a Wind Chill game.”
Turns out the conditions far favored the Union.
“2024 Championship Weekend would tell you that [cold and windy were] what Minnesota would love to play in, but let’s not forget, Chicago is the Windy City,” said Union veteran Sam Kaminsky. “Lucky for Chicago Union, cold and windy has been the only weather we’ve practiced in. [Saturday’s] game was the first time everyone on the team wore shorts rather than pants while playing.”
The Wind Chill did have a red zone opportunity to break on the opening point of the day, but Minnesota failed to cash in and then was playing from behind the rest of the way.
“The momentum was decided on the first few points,” said Minnesota Captain Bryan Vohnoutka. “If we could’ve punched in that first break, gotten the crowd into it, and been able to roll out another D-line going downwind, that game ends up drastically different, but hindsight and what ifs are easy fodder. I thought Chicago came into this game well prepared…I think their physicality and intensity from the first pull caused some hiccups in timing and spacing. Add in a little gust of wind here or there and it seemed like things just snowballed. We also didn’t adjust well during the game.”
It was far from a pretty game; Chicago had 11 breaks and five holds; Minnesota finished with five breaks and six holds, with 26 total turns. The two teams combined to complete just 4-of-19 hucks, a meager 21 percent.
But the Union were still impressive in mixing in all their new pieces and seizing control from the start.
“Who didn’t play well?” Kaminsky asked rhetorically. “I think 19 of the 20 players got on the stat sheet for the Union. I literally don’t know where to start and who to talk about. We have two offensive QB1s running our D-line on the turn: [Xavier] Payne and [Pawel] Janas. We have tenacious defenders that guard multiple positions on the field: [Jace] Bruner and [Dylan] Nice. Then we have big boys we can guard the best of the WR1s in the league: [Simon] Dastrup and [William] Wettengel. And then we have some of the smoothest throws in the game with our loaded backfield on offense: [Kyle] Rutledge, [Brandon] Van Deusen, and [Henry] Goldenberg. And the impact of [Daan] De Marree is second to none. He just draws so much attention.”
Chicago was proud to win ugly on the road in their season opener, while the reigning champs immediately recognized that there was a lot of work to do going forward.
“I think [Tuesday’s] practice will be a fiery one,” said Vohnoutka. “There isn’t any room for additional performances like that. Our focus will shift to Pittsburgh. Call it a hunch, but I expect a very different looking team to show up to Highmark on Saturday.”
6. San Diego stacking wins against familiar SoCal foe
Sure, all three of their victories have come against the now 0-4 Aviators, but the 3-1 San Diego Growlers are a buzzer-beater away from potentially being undefeated against the teams on their schedule. They certainly hung tough with Atlanta—who they’ll see again this coming Saturday—and they handled their business at home against Los Angeles in Week 4.
“The team mentality going in was to build off that Atlanta game,” said Casey Wu, who led the Growlers with five goals, two assists, and one block in Friday’s 21-16 victory. “Over the past couple years we’ve had multiple one or two point losses to good teams, so [Head Coach Kevin] Stuart told the team before the game how even though a one-point loss to the division favorites can be viewed as a good result, it doesn’t mean anything unless we learn from it.”
The Growlers came out strong in their third meeting of the season with the Aviators, building a 5-1 lead through 12 minutes. LA kept it reasonably close and only trailed by two late in the third quarter, but a 7-4 finish gave San Diego a decent five-goal cushion at the final buzzer.
Matt Miller and Travis Dunn each produced over 500 total yards steering the San Diego offense, while Jesse Cohen led the Growlers’ D-line with four assists and two blocks. Max Gibson added three more blocks and completed both of his hucks, helping to orchestrate the team’s eight breaks.
“Last year, we were bottom five in the league in blocks, but we’ve really improved in that category so far,” said Wu. “The team has stepped up to the challenge this year as our D-lines are playing with much more intensity and our offense is doing a better job getting the disc back. Shout out to Jesse Cohen, who has typically been an O-line guy for most of his career, but has been huge for our D-line so far.”
The Growlers have a daunting doubleheader weekend again, but even a split of the upcoming two-game trip would be absolutely huge for the team’s postseason hopes.
“Looking forward to playing Carolina for the first time and a revenge match against Atlanta,” said Wu.
7. The UFA's first Callahan
Technically, three Callahans had already occurred through the first three weeks of the 2025 season.
Austin’s Oakley Armstrong caught one on April 25 against Houston, Atlanta’s Hayden Austin-Knab snagged a defensive score on May 10 in Los Angeles, and Detroit’s David Cox registered a Callahan in his Mechanix debut on May 11 against Pittsburgh.
Despite each of those moments, we still witnessed history in Week 4. This weekend in Oregon, we saw the first Callahan in UFA history.
Of course, I’m talking about Callahan Bosworth, the 21-year-old Oregon State student who made his Steel debut in Saturday’s overtime win over Seattle and become the first person named Callahan to ever play in the Ultimate Frisbee Association.
Sure, there have been 169 players in recorded UFA history who have caught a Callahan, the relatively rare play when a defender intercepts the frisbee in the opponent’s end zone for an instant score. And there are even 24 players who’ve registered multiple Callahans, led by Madison’s Jake Carrico, who’s currently the only individual with three career Callahans, a feat he’s achieved in just 27 career games.
But none of the over 3,400 players to take the field for a UFA game since the league was founded in 2012 have had Callahan as their first or last name. That all changed Saturday night, when Bosworth suited up for the Steel against the Seattle Cascades.
“I’m just excited to be on the field and representing Steel,” said Bosworth, prior to the game. “After trying out for the team and meeting the owners and having some friends on the team, it’s an incredible group of people…I’m totally stoked for professional ultimate.”
Was Bosworth the son of two ultimate frisbee fanatics who named their other children Greatest and Flick?
Not quite.
“My parents did not play ultimate,” he said. “My name, as well as my older brother’s, is just from a road map. There’s a tiny town named Callahan, just west of Roseburg, OR, and my parents thought it would be a good name.”
Fair enough.
Perhaps he wasn’t named in honor of Henry Callahan, one of ultimate’s original organizers for whom both the college award and the momentum-shifting defensive score were branded. But he did grow up tossing a frisbee in the park with his dad before joining his middle school team.
“Callahan is a sweetie pie,” said Steel Coach Timmy Preston. “A true character, with character."
Now, Bosworth can seek his first career Callahan on the professional stage.
“Sadly, I have never caught a Callahan in a game or a tournament,” said Bosworth. “I’ve gotten some in practices and tryouts, but never a serious game…I’m generally pulling and/or guarding downfield, so it’s less common for me to be in the space to catch one, especially in games.”
Odds are that Callahan won’t catch a Callahan in the UFA anytime soon. Less than five percent of all pro frisbee players have recorded one in their career. Among the 45 players in UFA history who’ve competed in at least 100 games, 27 of them have no Callahans on their all-time résumés.
But after this weekend, amidst all the other chaos and drama that’s transpiring around the league, you should recognize that it’s time to stay on the lookout for the very unlikely Callahan Callahan.
It probably won’t happen. But for the first time ever, it’s possible.
The Hammer
Memorial Day Weekend is typically a relatively calm UFA slate, though Week 5 in 2025 still brings a bunch of bangers. On Friday night alone, we get Carolina-San Diego and New York-Philly side-by-side at 7:00 PM/ET, with the Flyers and Empire, two teams that have combined to win four of the last five UFA championships, desperate to get back in the win column.
Later that Friday night, I’ll be on the call at Zions Bank Stadium for the rematch of last year’s West Division title tilt between Seattle and Salt Lake. That’s the free-to-watch game airing on the UFA Youtube Channel, while there’s also an intriguing Oregon-Vegas showdown, with the Steel seeking their second straight win and the Bighorns hopeful that they are also on the verge of their emotional first ever victory.
That all leads into five more games on Saturday, a slate that comes with the guarantee of victory for either Detroit or Indy. Unless the game ends in a tie, but that would be really sad for both.
Throughout the holiday weekend, the ultimate spotlight also shifts to the annual College National Championships, which are being held Friday through Monday out in Burlington, Washington. At this point, virtually every team in the field has top players with UFA ties, and the pro ultimate landscape will shift in a major way when the college kids jump back into the fray.
It’s a fascinating time for frisbee, and it’s a ton of fun experiencing this wild ride.
