The men’s club ultimate frisbee team at the University of Denver practices year-round. For the coaches, this can pose a challenge. They are asked to lead and teach players, many of whom have never played a game of sanctioned ultimate in their lives, in sometimes-freezing temperatures as late as 11:00 p.m. On top of all that, they can’t forget the fact that they have work in the morning.
Sandford Brown, affectionately referred to by his players as Sandy, is one of these dedicated instructors. Coaching alongside Colorado frisbee veteran Phil Lohre and DU alumnus Teddy Carr, Brown has his own pedigree of success that enriches the advice he is eager to give out.
Brown started his frisbee journey in his freshman year at Colorado College. It wasn’t until his fourth season that he fell in love with the game, when he joined a mixed-gender club team in Colorado Springs. Ever since, it has been club frisbee that has transformed him into the player he is today.
“It really just depends on how hard you want to go,” said Brown. “If you can play and you’re willing to come to practices and work out hard, you can get to the top.”
Brown is no stranger to being at the top. After playing for two years with Denver Inception, he joined Denver Johnny Bravo: the best men’s club ultimate team in the state, who have made it to the USA Ultimate club National Tournament every year since the turn of the century.
In 2022, with Brown appointed as one of the team’s captains, Johnny Bravo broke through and won their first national title in eight years.
“I think I was a strong influence in our team’s culture and identity,” said Brown of his captaincy. “Helping us remain positive but also intense at the same time, balancing that line of intensity and being a fun team to be on and play against.”
This summer, however, Brown switched teams. Instead of continuing to play in the men’s division, he once again joined a mixed-gender club: Fort Collins ‘shame.’ ultimate frisbee. While his former teammates on Johnny Bravo suffered a heartbreaking loss in the semifinals of the men’s division, Brown became a back-to-back champion with shame. in October, being the first to embrace his teammate who caught the title-winning throw.
Ever since Nationals wrapped up two weekends ago, Brown has been thinking about how the two titles stack up.
“The Bravo title was meaningful because I had been on the team for four years, and a captain for two, so to see that effort and time coalesce into a championship was really special. With shame, I was a bit more along for the ride. I had a pretty big on-field role, but there are players that had been on the team for seven, eight-plus years … to see the relief and joy and fulfillment of my teammates winning this year was special,” Brown said.
However, shame. was not the only ultimate team Brown played for this summer. He also found himself on the roster for the Colorado Summit, the professional frisbee team that plays in the American Ultimate Disc League (AUDL), contributing 4 goals, 3 assists and 10 blocks in his seven total games played, Brown played more of a defensive role for the Summit. Even so, the increased structure and competitiveness made him feel as though he was living out his dream.
“You put yourself in the mindset of a real pro athlete. How am I gonna go about my day here preparing for this game? When do I get my meals in? When do I get my pregame nap in? That was a pretty cool thing to experience this year,” he said.
Despite a heartbreaking loss to the Los Angeles Aviators in the AUDL playoffs, Brown’s back-to-back club championships and professional experience make him more than qualified to coach the club ultimate team at DU. Fall quarter of 2023 represents his first season back after a short hiatus, and his successful summer has only made the experience more rewarding.
“It’s been a blast,” said Brown of his DU coaching experience so far. “I love the group of guys and the culture, and it’s really fun working with different players of different abilities and experiences to help them get to that next level.”
“From what I’ve seen of our squad so far this year, I think we can do very, very well out there. We have a ton of athletes who don’t have experience, and we have players coming in that have played ultimate before. I don’t want to push the team in a direction that the players aren’t willing to go … but I want the team to strategize on how to best achieve [their] goals.”
The competitive college ultimate season begins in January, when both the DU men’s and women’s teams plan to travel to Phoenix, Arizona to compete in New Year’s Fest 2024—a tournament in which the women’s team took first place in 2023. As for Brown, he hopes to lead DU to success, but his own playing career is far from over.
“I just turned 30 in April… I’m just as hungry now as I was three, four years ago. So I want to keep going and see what else I can do,” he said.
