BRATTLEBORO — Imagine a high school team created, funded and coached by the players themselves.
Then imagine that same do-it-yourself team winning a state championship in its first year of existence.
It sounds improbable, but a group of Brattleboro Union High School Ultimate Frisbee players did exactly that as they recently captured a championship in a statewide tournament in St. Johnsbury. Brattleboro Ultimate went a perfect 5-0 on championship day to bring home the title.
The 15-player Brattleboro Ultimate team was launched by BUHS students Harrison Chase and Jeff Hetzel.
“After playing on the Compass School ultimate team last year, Jeff and I decided that a team in Brattleboro would have some serious potential,” Chase said. “With the [number] of athletes at BUHS and overall interest in Ultimate, we thought our team would be successful. So Jeff (who goes to BUHS) and I decided to organize and start a team in Brattleboro.”
With Chase and Hetzel as co-captains and co-coaches, the team was created and funded without any affiliation with the school. All the players on the squad paid their own way, including the full cost of jerseys, Ultimate Players Association (now USA Ultimate) registration and tournament fees and travel expenses.
“When Jeff and I put the team together, our expectations were high, but they were not met without hard work and a lot of organizing,” Chase said. “Jeff recruited players at BUHS, while I scheduled games and registered us for tournaments. Luckily, Ultimate is really one of those sports that includes new teams and embraces everything we brought to the sport.”
An obviously committed group from the get-go, Brattleboro Ultimate mostly played on the road against club teams and gradually improved throughout the season, going 19-9 overall while winning the Northfield-Mount Hermon B Division tournament, the Greenfield, Mass., B division tournament and a second-place finish in the B division of the St. Johnsbury Invitational, before the final state tournament.
On championship day, Chase, Hetzel, Gray Grandy, Adam Boyle and Isaiah Palmeri powered Brattleboro Ultimate as they knocked off BFA-Fairfax, St. Johnsbury and the Vermont Commons School in pool play, before beating Champlain Valley Union in a tough semifinal match to reach the title game.
In the final against Spaulding, also undefeated going into the title game, Brattleboro proceeded to a 13-4 win and a state championship in their inaugural season.
Quite an amazing feat, indeed.
“We were very surprised that our team won states,” Hetzel said. “We had no coach, no practice field and very little knowledge of how to run and organize a sports team. So, at that point, the idea of winning states would have seemed overly optimistic.”
“But as the season progressed,” he added, “we realized that we had a dedicated group of players, and the idea of winning states became increasingly realistic. That said, it still surprises me to think that we won states, considering how the odds were stacked against us at the beginning of the season.”
“It was truly a great year,” Chase said. “Next year, Isaiah Palmeri and Evan Darling plan to run the team, but I don't think they'll be associated with the school next year. As I understand it, the school administration is very careful about legitimizing the team with school affiliation and the process in which to get affiliation appears difficult.”
However, by not being associated with the school, Chase said that “we are also able to be more relaxed and of course, a student-run team.”