Photo by Derek Frazer – UltiPhotos.com
JULY 29, 2024
By Marley Pope
In the spring of 2021, Brown University’s ultimate frisbee team returned to action in Tampa, Florida to open their season, but there was one glaring problem.
Their best player, John Randolph, suffered an injury and Brown’s chances of success in the tournament plummeted without him. No one expected a group of underclassmen led by Jacques Nissen to step up in dramatic fashion to win the tournament.
“That [injury] could have been all she wrote for the tournament for us. But instead, the keys were turned over to the rest of my class, and we steered the offense and ended up winning the tournament. That proved we could still succeed despite our youth and inexperience,” Nissen said.
The tournament served as a breakout for Nissen, who was a sophomore at the time, and showed a glimpse of Brownian Motion’s future with him on the field.
“When Jacques came in as a freshman, I slotted him right into the ‘QB1’ spot," Brown head coach Jake Smart said. "He hit the ground running with attention to detail and effort level that set the stage for him.”
After five years at Brown, his time in Rhode Island culminated with a national championship, defeating a Cal Poly squad that was 40-4 and on a 15-game win streak going into the championship game.
“It felt like a crowning achievement after five years of hard work. Having come close to winning in the past and feeling the agony of defeat to getting over the hump was really rewarding,” Nissen said.
Nissen was named D-1 2024 Men’s Player of the Year by Ultiworld. He was also one of five finalists for USA Ultimate’s 2024 Men’s D-1 Callahan Award.
“I don’t think a bigger role exists. He touches the disc every other or every third pass. We ask him to make every high-pressure throw that the team needs. It’s not quite as simple as ‘do your job' for him. It’s like, ‘go win the game’,” Smart said.
Nissen tallied 13 goals and 38 assists in the national championship run spanning eight games, a top-five performance in national championship history. Brownian Motion was the lowest-seeded team to win it all since 2011, and he facilitated the offense from start to finish.
“Who will be the next Jacques Nissen? You would think that after watching him set fire to the game’s fiercest competition with a radical mix of swagger and stateliness that players across the entire ultimate ecosystem will rush to imitate his game in the coming years,” Ultiworld writer Edward Stephens said on Nissen’s performance.
Smart mentioned Nissen’s mentality as something that sets him apart. His willingness to prepare and individual accountability create an extremely high bar that Nissen consistently strives for. At the same time, Nissen’s playful persona balances out the intensity and focus of his game.
Photo by Derek Frazer – UltiPhotos.com
It all started during middle school recess when Nissen first played ultimate, just looking for something to do. From there, he joined the middle school team and continued into high school, leading to a professional career.
Nissen showed supreme talent at an early age when he played with the Jackson-Reed High School (formerly Woodrow Wilson High School) team as an eighth grader. He was rostered by the DC Breeze at 17 years old but had to wait until he was 18 to play an actual game. He tallied 14 points across five games in his first Ultimate Frisbee Association (UFA) season.
“Jacques's tempo and versatility with his throws help make a big field bigger. His first step and change of direction is so quick that defenders have difficulty limiting him,” Breeze head coach Lauren Boyle said.
Nissen’s baseball and track background gave him certain tools needed to play ultimate. He dropped baseball in high school and continued to run track to aid his fitness for ultimate.
Born in Urbana, Illinois, Nissen moved to DC when he was three years old and has stayed in the district ever since. His younger sister also plays ultimate with UC San Diego and the top mixed team in the DMV region, DC Rally.
Nissen is a borderline veteran, given his five years of experience with the Breeze, but teammates Rowan McDonnell and Tyler Monroe coached him at different points of his youth career. That dynamic of being so young but being elite gives Nissen a sense of confidence.
“I am a confident person in general, but I have to check myself. My first year of college, my athleticism was not where it needed to be. At every level, it takes time to rebuild that confidence,” Nissen said.
This season, Nissen has stepped into a larger role on the team, not just offensively. His 39 defensive points played this year is a career-high and is more than his previous four seasons combined with the Breeze. The coaching staff loves to use him as one of their top crossover players.
“I am relishing the opportunity to play defense and guard opposing teams’ handlers. That has been my biggest role change this year,” Nissen said.
The Breeze has a lethal D-line on the break, ranking in the top ten in the UFA in break percentage and first in D-line conversion rate. The two-way play of guys like Nissen and Cole Jurek makes the D-line look like the O-line, creating another dimension of the game for DC to exploit.
“This year and a little bit last year, he’s gotten substantially better at defense. In finals, he gets a D from the weak side on a guy and steals what should have been a break for Cal Poly,” Smart said. Brown went on to score on the next possession in the early moments of the game where momentum could have swung either way.
Nissen faces off against former college opponents just about every week, including his former Brown teammates and alums.
“Elliot Rosenberg and Jason Tapper both play for the Boston Glory. There are plenty of Brown alums like [John] Randolph and Solomon Rueschemeyer-Bailey who both play for New York [Empire],” Nissen said.
Ultimate has given Nissen a community of people to relate to and develop relationships with no matter where they are in the world.
“It’s really done a lot for me socially. It provides a safety net where I go to any place in the country, even across the world, and know that I can build a community with ultimate players,” Nissen said.
