Optimism, Pragmatism, and Pro Ultimate's Role in the Local Community With Jenny Wei
Raleigh Radiance Executive Director on What Pro Ultimate Can and Should Be in its Community
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Jenny Wei on How Pro Ultimate’s Responsibility to its Community and More!
It can be easy to jump into certain patterns of thinking when it comes to professional ultimate. Speaking for myself, at least, I can get stuck and lost in questions of sustainability for the various teams and leagues involved in pro ultimate. I sometimes view pro and club in direct competition for resources and that splitting attention between the two is an inefficient distribution of our time and energy as a community.
I had wanted to speak with Jenny Wei, star player and new executive director of the Premier Ultimate League’s (PUL) Raleigh Radiance for a while, to learn more about the team and what piloting a pro ultimate team entails. Graciously, she made some time for me. And I came out of our conversation much more informed and optimistic about the broader ultimate ecosystem.
Having a conversation with someone so in tune with the inner workings of professional ultimate helped to challenge my preconceptions about the goals pro teams should be striving for, especially in relation to how they engage with their local communities.
The most immediate thing that jumped out to me is how Wei takes nothing for granted about the opportunity to play funded pro ultimate. The entire Radiance season is funded through league-wide initiatives like the Player Sponsorship Program, individual donors, and a few corporate sponsors.
With that privilege, the first things Wei highlighted were her “pitch” for why people or organizations should support Raleigh Radiance and the large “responsibility gap” between club and pro.
“The biggest thing is that we are a group of incredibly talented women and nonbinary athletes who strive for excellence in and out of the game and to impact the community positively.”
Why add in that last part? And what makes that pitch any different than club? Well, Wei highlights that from the support a team like Radiance receives, comes a desire from all parties to pay it back in some way.
”Because pro [ultimate] right now is fully funded by sponsors and individuals I feel like it is our number one priority to give that investment back to them. Not everyone, even on Radiance, necessarily feels that way, and I don't expect everyone to buy into that, but that is my personal opinion.”
She continues highlighting what that means for pro ultimate compared to club.
“Club is more of a time where you can focus on your individual goals and development. And it's not being selfish–everyone wants to achieve as an athlete. But I think on Radiance, much of that time is also spent engaging in the community.”
While Wei has done community service work on club teams in the past, she notes the expectation difference between the voluntary aspect of it on a club team, and the obligation she’s highlighted that comes with playing for Radiance.
“I would never expect [Raleigh] Phoenix to volunteer. We have as a team activity, but it’s not an obligation. If you play pro, you are signing up to represent Radiance and the community, and it’s in all our player contracts to spend a certain amount of time doing community service or engagement activities.”
However, Wei doesn’t view any of these different expectations as obligations as much as she sees everything with Radiance as an opportunity to grow the sport, specifically the side of the sport that highlights women and nonbinary athletes.
“We try to be super visible and accessible to anyone interested in the team, in the players, and in being a fan. It's certainly a lot more public-facing than club, and I think it should be.”
And in that work to be visible and accessible, Wei sees lots of potential avenues of growth to consider for the team, and pro ultimate in general moving forward.
“I think coming to [our home games] needs to be fun. I think Radiance can do a better job partnering with local businesses to make a game more interesting outside of just the game itself. Getting groups to go together would be good. For example, I have only ever attended a Durham Bulls baseball game because a group of friends, or my coworkers, or whatever organization I'm going with is going together.”
Some of that sentiment was put into action just over a week ago, when the Radiance and UFA’s Raleigh Flyers cohosted a fan day at Atomic Empire, a local game store.
But while Wei is certainly optimistic and ambitious in her goals for the organization, she also has a refreshingly candid take on the sport's current state and how long it will take to see big growth for ultimate.
“I generally have very reasonable expectations and goals for our organization. For example, every year, we talk about engaging the community and increasing viewership. It's not like I came in as the executive director and suddenly said, ’I bet I can get a thousand people at our games.’ Everyone has been trying their best and everyone has limited capacity, you know? Everyone is doing this essentially on a volunteer basis, so I understand that you can't expect to get everything when we are not giving everything either.”
It’s a very process-oriented mindset Wei takes into this role and its challenges. Especially those that, ironically, come with being in a notable ultimate hotspot.
“I will not think of it as a failure if the community isn't as engaged as we hoped they would be. Especially because the triangle is just so saturated, right? You've got so many college teams who travel a lot. They're asking for your viewership. They're asking for your money. You've got high school teams going to YCC or playing at high school nationals. They are asking for viewership and asking for money. Then there's club, and then there's pro. Even the people who have the capacity to give–a lot of them are still playing themselves in Masters or Grandmasters.”
Wei continued, “There's just a lot to split, you know? And Triangle Ultimate is such a big organization a lot of people wanna support their programming, which is also fair. They are very well deserving of support. We have to be realistic with the bucket we're working with and how much of that bucket we can scoop for ourselves.”
Unfortunately for Radiance, their opportunities to pull local eyes are more limited this year, with just two of their six games being at home. This means they have fewer opportunities than most PUL teams will have to put everything into action that Wei and the rest of the organization dream up for games this year. Despite being dealt that tougher hand from the scheduling, Wei maintains her balance between relentless optimism and pragmatism for the organization’s opportunities this year.
“ Sometimes less is more. Now, we can really focus on these two opportunities to get the crowd excited and bring people out, as well as partner with local vendors and organizations.”
It’s a lot to manage while also being a key contributor on the field for an incredibly talented Radiance team with big expectations for their 2025 season. Wei mentioned several times having to think about so many more things than she did before taking on the executive director role. But as she herself mentioned, the special part about this role is that it is such a unique opportunity to grow the game outside of the typical club season and engage with the local community in a way that the fully amateur side of the sport doesn’t, and shouldn’t feel obligated to do.
It is truly an impressive undertaking to put on just one professional ultimate game, let alone a full season. And if you’re interested in more, Raleigh Radiance kick off their 2025 season on April 5 in Los Angeles against the Astra.
If you’re in the area, make sure you find some time to go watch Raleigh Radiance in action on April 20 and June 7!
Interested in more Radiance content? Check out this story based on my interview with Radiance star (and newly-minted World Games selection) Dawn Culton here!
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About the Author
My name is Noam Gumerman (he/him). I am from Chapel Hill, NC, and studied Journalism and American Studies at Brandeis University. I am a journalist by trade and have been playing ultimate for over half my life. I love nothing more than combining those two interests. Contact me for discussions, feedback, story suggestions, and more on Twitter or Bluesky (@noamgum/@breaksideulti now too!) or email (noamgumerman@gmail.com).