Jarrod Banks grew up in South Africa where Ultimate is a relative unknown. In high school, he played a myriad of sports before settling on squash as his competitive outlet. Banks segued into Ultimate in his first year at University when a friend introduced him to a pickup group. This quickly snowballed into an obsession, and Banks found himself craving the tournament weekend experience (which was a twice a year kind of thing at the time). He was fortunate enough to be selected for the South African U23 Mixed team in 2015 (WU23 pre WU24) and the Open team in 2016 (WUGC) and from there, he decided he wanted to play at the highest level he could.
In 2018, Banks had the opportunity to move to the US and took it. Since then, he's enjoyed several years playing in and around Virginia. He had a very enjoyable 2019 season with the Breeze before moving to Blacksburg (go Burn) in 2020 to complete a PhD in Aerospace Engineering. He's looking forward to being back in the DMV full time and hucking some plastic.
Hometown: Durban, KwaZulu Natal
