Honor Roll: 2024 Dean's List


August 19, 2024
By Evan Lepler

Compiling the "Honor Roll" each week is, admittedly, an inexact science.  

I watch a lot of ultimate every weekend, but it’s impossible to see everything. Statistics are informative and helpful, but also imperfect and occasionally misleading. Furthermore, even if  everyone could see every point and digest every number, reasonable minds inevitably would  still disagree. 

I try to value winning. Of course, it also matters who you beat. I strive not to be completely  swayed by certain stats without putting them in context, but sometimes the numbers are  indeed overwhelming. 

Obviously, it’s inherently troublesome to craft individual praise in a team sport. There were  several circumstances during the season when a particular team delivered a brilliant all-around  victory, but maybe the success was too widespread and balanced to elevate any single person.  While others may see it as a disrespectful snub, I often view it as a true team tribute if no one  person receives rave reviews after a marquee result or two-win weekend.  

There’s also the dynamic that I select seven players every week, regardless of whether there were four games or 14. Some weeks there’s more competition than others, so there’s no doubt  that considerable elements of good fortune and happenstance are involved in who gets  recognized each week.  

With all that said, here’s a compilation of all the individuals who earned a spot on the "Honor Roll" over the past 15 weeks of competition. While there are definitely some noteworthy names  that are absent, it’s also a decent snapshot of the best players in the league throughout the  2024 season. 

First, here are some facts and figures: 

• Between 13 regular season weekends and two playoff weekends, 82 different players earned a spot on the Honor Roll this year. 

• An elite crew of 13 players made the "Honor Roll" multiple times, and just six players were  recognized on more than two weekends.  

• The Atlanta Hustle had eight different players earn honors, while the DC Breeze, Seattle Cascades, Carolina Flyers, and Oakland Spiders each had six guys find their way into the  weekly scintillating seven. The New York Empire, Madison Radicals, Salt Lake Shred, and Minnesota Wins Chill each had five players apiece.  

• The Dallas Legion and Portland Nitro were the only two teams that never had a player on the "Honor Roll" this season.  

Here’s a look at the 2024 honorees, starting with the best of the best: 

The Four Timers Club  

Lukas Ambrose, Seattle Cascades 
Jeff Babbitt, Boston Glory 
Tobe Decraene, Montreal Royal

Curiously, these are three guys who were all new to their teams in 2024, but not players who are lacking in recent accomplishments. Ambrose claimed Rookie of the Year honors with Los Angeles last year, Babbitt was the 2023 UFA MVP with New York, and Decraene, who was Ultiworld’s European Offensive Player of the Year in 2023, will be one of the top candidates for UFA Rookie of the Year in the coming weeks. 

Three-For-All 

Brett Hulsmeyer, Atlanta Hustle 
Allan Laviolette, Carolina Flyers 
Lukas McClamrock, Atlanta Hustle 

This trio of South Division stars made the Honor Roll three times each, and this group includes a couple MVP candidates in Hulsmeyer and Laviolette, along with a guy in McClamrock whose  All-UFA caliber season unfortunately got derailed by a late-season injury.  

Twice Is Nice  

Noah Coolman, Colorado Summit 
Walker Frankenberg, Oakland Spiders 
Anders Juengst, Carolina Flyers 
Jordan Kerr, Salt Lake Shred 
Elijah Long, Carolina Flyers 
Jonny Malks, DC Breeze 
Jack Williams, New York Empire 

This would be a fun seven-person line, eh? Probably a better O-line than D-line, but still very strong either way. It is interesting to note that our upcoming Championship Weekend will feature only five players—Ambrose, Laviolette, Juengst, Long, and Malks—who received multiple "Honor Roll" shout-outs during the season.  

Solo Selections  

Raekwon Adkins, Oakland Spiders 
Kelsen Alexander, Madison Radicals 
Nate Astrom, Chicago Union 
Alex Atkins, Colorado Summit 
Christian Belus, Carolina Flyers 
Elliot Bonnet, DC Breeze 
Tobias Brooks, Carolina Flyers 
Marques Brownlee, New York Empire 
Matthew Burke, Oakland Spiders 
Justin Burnett, Atlanta Hustle 
Orion Cable, Boston Glory 
Simon Carapella, Boston Glory 
Elliott Chartock, New York Empire 
Oliver Chartock, New York Empire 
Luc Comiré, Toronto Rush  
Lucas Coniaris, Indianapolis AlleyCats 
Dex Dremann, Chicago Union 
Travis Dunn, San Diego Growlers 
Thomas Edmonds, DC Breeze 
Khalif El-Salaam, Seattle Cascades
Mark Evans, Austin Sol 
Jake Felton, Detroit Mechanix 
Quinn Finer, Colorado Summit 
Terry Gaither, Detroit Mechanix 
Miles Grovic, DC Breeze 
Anthony Gutowsky, Madison Radicals 
Noah Hanson, Minnesota Wind Chill 
Will Hoffenkamp, Pittsburgh Thunderbirds 
Levi Jacobs, Indianapolis AlleyCats 
Ben Jagt, New York Empire 
Pawel Janas, Los Angeles Aviators 
Anthony Jirele, Minnesota Wind Chill 
Sam Kaminsky, Chicago Union 
Josh Klane, Minnesota Wind Chill 
Sterling Knoche, Madison Radicals 
Mike Kobyra, Atlanta Hustle 
KJ Koo, San Diego Growlers 
Gordon Larson, Minnesota Wind Chill 
Jeremy Langdon, Atlanta Hustle 
Ben Lewis, Houston Havoc 
Bobby Ley, Atlanta Hustle 
John Lithio, Chicago Union 
Spencer Lofink, Seattle Cascades 
Evan Magsig, Oakland Spiders 
Garrett Martin, Seattle Cascades 
Adam Miller, Atlanta Hustle 
Jacob Miller, Salt Lake Shred 
Nanda Min-Fink, Colorado Summit 
Elliott Moore, Austin Sol 
Tony Mounga, Salt Lake Shred 
Mikey O'Brien, Seattle Cascades 
James Pollard, Philadelphia Phoenix 
Zeppelin Raunig, Seattle Cascades 
Pieran Robert, Madison Radicals 
Ben Sadok, Boston Glory 
Grayson Sanner, Carolina Flyers 
Will Selfridge, Salt Lake Shred 
Pat Shriwise, Madison Radicals 
Evan Swiatek, Austin Sol 
Austin Taylor, Atlanta Hustle 
Jake Thorne, Oakland Spiders 
Jasper Tom, DC Breeze 
Max Trifillis, Philadelphia Phoenix 
Jason Vallee, Oakland Spiders 
Bryan Vohnoutka, Minnesota Wind Chill 
Jeff Wodatch, DC Breeze  
Aaron Wolf, Seattle Cascades 
Chad Yorgason, Salt Lake Shred 
Jimmy Zuraw, Houston Havoc 

Amongst this collection of coast-to-coast talent, you have a bunch of potential All-UFA  performers and a handful of players who enjoyed one especially phenomenal weekend. Suffice to say, if you put all these names in a hat and randomly selected seven, you’d likely have a  pretty strong line. 

One thing I definitely did with a little more intention this season was try to celebrate key D-line contributors, as it’s often easy to overlook some of the league’s premier defenders in favor of  the more eye-popping offensive stats. Last year, among the 70 players that made the "Honor Roll" through the first 14 weeks, only 17, about 24 percent, were primarily D-line dudes. This  year, 26 of the 82 players honored were noted for their defense, and that uptick to almost 32  percent does not include Jeff Babbitt, who finished second in the league in blocks despite playing 81 percent of his points on offense.  

I recognize there’s still strides to make in this area, but we’re moving in the right direction.  

In closing, here’s a team-by-team glance at the number of different players each team had on  the Honor Roll during the 2024 season. (If a player made it multiple weeks, they are only  counted once on this list.) 

8 - Atlanta Hustle
6 - Carolina Flyers, DC Breeze, Seattle Cascades, Oakland Spiders
5 - Madison Radicals, Minnesota Wind Chill, New York Empire, Salt Lake Shred
4 - Boston Glory, Chicago Union, Colorado Summit
3 - Austin Sol
2 - Detroit Mechanix, Houston Havoc, Indianapolis AlleyCats, Philadelphia Phoenix, San Diego Growlers
1 - Los Angeles Aviators, Montreal Royal, Pittsburgh Thunderbirds, Toronto Rush
0 - Dallas Legion, Portland Nitro

There’ll be one more Monday "Honor Roll" coming next week, and odds are high that it will  prominently feature several or the league’s most recent champions. 

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