The Case Against Scholarships in Ultimate
Y'all been watching the Percy Jackson show?
Scholarships in Ultimate Frisbee are supposed to be the next big thing. They have the power to do extraordinary good in the community. Bringing people to academic and athletic experiences beyond their own individual means, improving the visibility and infrastructure of the sport, and providing meaningful and realistic careers for people within the sport.
We’re a long way off from that future.
As you may know, I was offered a scholarship to play Ultimate for Davenport University in Grand Rapids, Michigan, over the summer. Let this be my official announcement that I have dropped out of the program and school. Thanks for the hype here, though.
To be clear. I am writing and publishing this against every piece of advice I’ve been given. I’m not trying to burn bridges or bite the hand that fed me. Yet, as a writer, I need some sort of outlet. Writing this has the chance to bite me in the ass in the future in a variety of ways. But I care too deeply about this sport and protecting those involved to go quietly into the night.
This may not reflect well on me within the Ultimate community. To be honest, I’m not sure I care anymore. I’m tired of being taken advantage of in this sport. I’m tired of the people in charge of this sport neglecting its participants. And to some extent, I’m putting some faith in you all, the readers, to have my back.
I had an awful time on the men’s team. As I’ve alluded to in previous posts, and if you ever talked to me about my Ultimate experiences, you may know I have a long and difficult relationship with the sport. Most of the difficulties are due to abusive relationships with coaches and other authority figures. With the greatest disappointment imaginable, I can report that it was more of the same on the men's team. Unfortunately, thanks to the more official relationship between the school administration and the team, the admin has been entrenched in its support for the coach rather than the student-athletes. My efforts to address my issues within the program have failed.
However, I am not here to trash anyone specifically, as much as I have wanted to write that kind of article at different points over the last few months. Instead, I want to use this platform to a.) inform recruits about my experience and b.) advocate for better student-athlete protection by USAU.
I believe scholarships are the future of this sport’s “legitimacy.” Look at college football. So few players manage to turn their sport into a career, but thousands upon thousands are given access to an education they otherwise wouldn’t and can use the sport to springboard themselves to incredible opportunities they wouldn’t have otherwise had. And in that vein of thinking, it is absolutely unacceptable to have no oversight of these brand-new programs by our sport’s governing body.
Across the sport, thanks to its grassroots nature, we rely on a lot of volunteers, especially for coaching. I’ve had numerous awful experiences with improperly vetted adults in charge of children, highlighted by one of my former coaches remaining on this notorious USAU list. It’s time to meaningfully protect players from the kinds of people that end up on these lists. Because I know that list is incomplete. When I was interested in adding someone to it, the reporting link on USAU was broken, and I ran out of steam trying to contact someone from the organization to follow through with the process.
What does more oversight look like? Well, now that there are multiple schools making these scholarship programs a reality, there needs to be some sort of oversight. Instead of focusing so many resources on the elite club division, there needs to be a more assertive position looking after the division in which a huge portion of the player base starts. Other sports have the NCAA regulating every single interaction Universities can have with their athletes. We do not need to go that far. But we need some sort of oversight into who is being put in charge of these programs, what they’re allowed to do at them, and a hand that is shaping the evolution of the sport. There are too many bad actors in sports, especially in coaching, to adopt a laissez-faire attitude for something so important.
I don’t really care what it costs to make this happen. There are people I met and became friends with at Davenport who gave up far more than I did to attend. People who stand to lose much more than me if they were to leave. Coaches and Universities hold people’s educations, financial well-being, personal relationships, and so much more in their hands. Because as much as we like to joke about this sport, it is a huge part of so many of our lives. And I am so tired of that not being appropriately respected.
As far as me personally, I’m not sure what’s next. I’ve never been less motivated to play, just a few short months after gearing up to go as hard as possible. I wanted to stay involved with the women’s team, but the AD has ghosted me for the last week plus after telling me that wasn’t a good idea. (I know it’s the holidays, but I replied to the email the same day).
If you want to hear more specifically about my experience, I’m happy to share more. Feel free to reach out. Happy New Year :) Here’s to a better new year. God knows I need it.
Action Steps
It’s a bit of a shot in the dark, but if you’ve had a bad experience with a coach or authority figure in the sport and you’d like to chat about it, spread awareness, or find someone to support you, please don’t hesitate to reach out.
About The Breakside
This newsletter aims to tackle what I see as a gap in the present coverage of Ultimate as a sport. I hope this newsletter will provide an outlet for important yet overlooked people and stories to receive the coverage and perspectives they deserve.
My resolution for 2024 is to keep this up more consistently. I’ll do my best.
About the Author
My name is Noam Gumerman (he/him). I am from Chapel Hill, NC, and I studied Journalism and American Studies at Brandeis University as an undergrad. I was one of the captains of Brandeis TRON, the open division team. My claim to fame within the Ultimate community is running the @being_ulti account during the week of the 2022 WUCC tournament. I currently write for ClutchPoints Sports. Check me out here. Contact me for discussions, feedback, story suggestions, and more on Twitter at @noamgum or via email at noamgumerman@gmail.com.
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