At The Ultimate Foundation, we believe the future of ultimate frisbee isn’t just bright, it’s being built by passionate community members on the ground. Sometimes, those visionary leaders are exactly who you’d expect: seasoned coaches or long-time dedicated volunteers. And sometimes, they are the rising stars themselves – like Leah, Sophia, and Katie, three high school ultimate players who are actively shaping the sport’s landscape for generations to come.
For these young women, ultimate wasn’t just another sport; it was a discovery of something special. “What really drew us to ultimate over other sports was the community,” they shared. “Everyone was so welcoming and encouraging. It was also nice because you can decide how competitive you are with it, and how involved you are, unlike other sports where it can be all or nothing.”
These three dynamic young leaders, all playing for their high school teams, identified an opportunity to bridge the gender disparity they observed through their own youth ultimate experiences. “The idea first came to us when brainstorming ideas for our service project,” they recalled. “In middle school, we were never given the opportunity to play girl-matching frisbee; it was always mixed frisbee playing against either mixed teams or open teams. We then got the chance to play girl-matching frisbee on our high school teams and had such a positive experience that we wanted to bring that opportunity to middle schoolers.” Their ambition was clear: to expose more elementary and middle school girls to ultimate frisbee and to help “close the gender gap in ultimate frisbee” by creating a Frisbee Girl Scout Badge program.
Their short-term goal was to introduce younger girls to the sport, ensuring they had a fun and engaging first experience. To achieve this, they filmed multiple instructional videos covering ultimate basics, how to do fundamental throws, and the crucial concept of Spirit of the Game. Their long-term vision extends further: to encourage these newly introduced girls to join middle school ultimate teams and local youth ultimate programs.
However, like many grassroots initiatives, they faced a practical challenge. They anticipated “not having enough materials” to stock a central Girl Scout shed with discs and cones, which would be essential for participating in the badge program. This was where The Ultimate Foundation, through the USA Ultimate New Start Grant program, provided crucial support.
“Having a New Start Grant Kit from The Ultimate Foundation meant that we were able to provide discs, cones, and extra resources for the troops that were not able to provide it for themselves,” Leah, Sophia, and Katie explained. “It allowed more people to have access to frisbee in the Girl Scout community and allowed us to put our funds into other portions of our project.” This free New Start Grant kit directly addressed their anticipated material shortage, transforming their ambitious vision into a tangible reality and enabling them to focus on inspiring and leading.
Through their initiative, designed for over 50 elementary and middle school-aged participants, Leah, Sophia, and Katie are introducing the sport to a new cohort of young players. Their project highlights the immense potential of youth-led efforts and the direct impact that resources like USA Ultimate New Start Grant Kits can have on supporting community-driven growth.
“We think that it’s really cool that we get to be leaders in the community even though we are still in high school,” they said. “We love getting to see the younger kids grow up within the ultimate community. We also think that it makes frisbee look cooler to younger kids when they have the opportunity to engage with teenagers who still play.”
Looking ahead, Leah, Sophia, and Katie have clear hopes for the sport’s future. “We hope that the girls’ youth ultimate community grows, so that more girls are willing to try frisbee,” they articulated. “We found that younger girls can be hesitant to try frisbee, especially if their local team is mostly or entirely made up of boys.” Their work is a direct step toward making this hope a reality, aligning directly with the Girls’ Ultimate Movement’s mission to increase girls’ participation and create more welcoming environments.
These young leaders also shared valuable advice for other youth players eager to make a difference: “Find a group of friends or other people who share your enthusiasm for the sport. Get people involved and work together to reach your desired goal. When we first started, we weren’t sure how we were going to actually make our badge a reality, but we did a lot of research by contacting people in our community who were affiliated with Girl Scouts and Frisbee. Finding people in your community who you can work with is really the first step.”
Leah, Sophia, and Katie are not just playing ultimate; they are actively working to expand its reach, demonstrating that the future of ultimate is truly in dedicated hands. The Ultimate Foundation is proud to support and empower initiatives like this. The ability to provide USA Ultimate New Start Grants and support community heroes – young and old – in giving a kid their start in ultimate depends on the generous contributions of our donors. Every “First Pass Free” donation helps us continue this vital work.