January 28, 2025
By Evan Lepler
Two years ago, we had the new pull.
Last year, the UFA implemented a new frisbee.
And this year, we will see a smorgasbord of new coaches.
Less than three months away from opening weekend of the 2025 season, perhaps the most underrated subplot this offseason has been the mad churning of the coaching carousel around the league. Presently, at least nine of the league’s 24 teams are expected to have a new head coach for the 2025 season, and that doesn’t even include a team like Chicago, who has announced a new co-head coach, Charlie Furse, to work alongside the returning leader, Dave Woods, or Oregon, who’s bringing aboard Chris Hancock to serve as a co-head coach alongside Timmy Perston. Overall, this development, with almost half the league making moves, is in stark contrast to the relative stability heading into last year, when only two teams—DC and Dallas—made full changes at the top of their coaching ranks ahead of 2024.
As a result, many teams have lost considerable continuity, something that will inevitably impact the coast-to-coast competitive landscape, particularly early in the season when all the new coaches are still getting their feet wet with the daunting and different UFA pace and ruleset.
After all, around nine months ago, the 2024 season began with two-thirds of the UFA head coaches entering at least their third year at the helm, with three teams—Carolina, Madison, and San Diego—having had the same voice at the top for at least a decade. This widespread stability undoubtedly lifted the sport strategically, creating some fascinating tactical chess matches between seasoned and experienced ultimate minds.
Now, two of the league’s longest tenured and most successful coaches, Madison’s Tim DeByl and Carolina’s Mike DeNardis, who both led their teams to a championship during their reign, have stepped down. It remains to be seen how ‘hands-off’ each will be, considering that they are both still the active owner of the Radicals and Flyers, respectively, but having a different voice leading gameday huddles and making dozens of crucial decisions every quarter will inevitably alter the DNA of those two mainstay teams.
Elsewhere, several other leaders who orchestrated recent playoff runs—LA’s Jeff Landesman, Oakland’s Dan Silverstein, Philadelphia’s Roger Chu, and Seattle’s Jesse Bolton—are all out as well. Some of these coaches stepped away on their own, while others were shown the door.
Every situation is unique, but looking around the league, there’s definitely a very different dynamic in terms of the amount of experience returning to the sidelines in 2025. With DeByl and DeNardis departing, the new dean of UFA coaches is San Diego’s Kevin Stuart, who’s entering his 11th season leading the Growlers in 2025. (Since 2022, Kaela Helton has served as his co-head coach.)
Only four other organizations—Austin, Chicago, Detroit, and reigning champion Minnesota—have had the same head coach since before the pandemic.
Of course, it’s not necessarily unhealthy to have turnover in the coaching department. We see this dynamic regularly in other pro and college sports. But stability is also a coveted commodity, both for owners and players. Furthermore, there’s a huge difference in having an experienced coach compared to a first-year overseer who’s figuring out game management and the frenetic flow of the UFA for the first time.
I remember what DeNardis told me when I asked him, prior to the 2024 season, about what the first of his 10 seasons as a head coach in the UFA felt like.
“Year one is so hard [for any pro coach],” said DeNardis. “You’re just thrown into a sausage grinder, and you have no idea what it looks like because the game is so much different [from college or club ultimate].”
So as you’re contemplating all the offseason movement, focused primarily on the big names shifting teams, don’t forget about all the meaningful coaching changes too. The right strategy can make or break a team. The way a pregame speech is delivered can send a powerful message through a locker room, one way or another.
Some teams are still in the process of making their plans official, but here’s a quick primer on the nine teams who will have a new head coach in 2025.
Carolina Flyers
2024 Regular Season Record: 9-3, Finished 2nd in South Division
Points/Game: 21.1 (6th out of 24)
Opp. Points/Game: 17.6 (7th out of 24)
After simultaneously serving as an owner and head coach since the Flyers’ 2015 inception, Mike DeNardis decided that 2024 would be his final year leading the team from the sidelines. In his place, he has hired Michael Avila, a prominent local high school coach in the Triangle. It will certainly be a big adjustment going from high school to pro, but one benefit for Avila is DeNardis is still the team owner and likely can make the transition easier while also serving as a knowledgeable sounding board before and after every game throughout the season.
Los Angeles Aviators
2024 Regular Season Record: 3-9, Finished 6th in West Division
Points/Game: 18.4 (14th out of 24)
Opp. Points/Game: 21.8 (20th out of 24)
Less than two years removed from a trip to the West Division Championship Game, the Aviators decided to move on from Jeff Landesman, telling Ian Toner in November that Landesman was no longer ‘the best fit at the moment.’ The team announced Jake Baumer as their new head coach on New Years Eve, elevating the tallest player in team history to the top job. Between 2019 and 2022, the 6’7” Baumer played in 19 games for LA, and he’s often contributed to the team’s WatchUFA.tv production as a broadcaster in recent years. Transitioning from the booth to the sidelines is no small leap, and it will be interesting to see what kind of tone Baumer seeks to set for the Aviators in his first season at the helm, with the team coming off a disappointing 3-9 campaign in 2024.
Madison Radicals
2024 Regular Season Record: 8-4, Finished 2nd in Central Division
Points/Game: 21.1 (5th out of 24)
Opp. Points/Game: 18.1 (8th out of 24)
The big news that Tim DeByl stepped down after leading the team since 2013 may not actually be as monumental as the headline initially seems, considering he’ll still be around the team and contributing to the Radicals’ defensive game plan as an assistant. I am curious to see how Jake Spiro, who’s worked alongside DeByl since the very beginning, looks to make his mark after being elevated to the team’s head coach after a decade-plus as an assistant. Spiro’s a thoughtful, focused, and dedicated leader, so odds are Madison won’t feel massively different in the post-DeByl era. But with Minnesota and Chicago both loading up on big name talent, more than ever the Radicals need to be a ‘greater-than-the-sum-of-their-parts’ outfit if they want to seriously contend with the Central’s clear emerging top two.
Montreal Royal
2024 Regular Season Record: 4-8, Finished 5th in East Division
Points/Game: 17.6 (17th out of 24)
Opp. Points/Game: 19.1 (11th out of 24)
The Royal’s head coaching spot has been a bit of a revolving door, with individuals staying the course for a couple seasons before moving on. Since the pandemic, Jon Hayduk and Alex Lemieux each have led the squad for two seasons, and Montreal has struggled to have much meaningful traction against American competition. Prior to their home victory over Boston in their 2024 finale, in fact, it had been 23 consecutive losses against non-Canadian opponents. Moving forward, Jean-Levy Champagne, the team’s co-owner, president, and former player, now also takes on the head coaching responsibilities. There is no doubt the Royal have a bunch of young, talented pieces, however there are also plenty of reasonable questions regarding whether the team will have enough firepower to compete for a playoff spot in the league’s fiercest, deepest division.
Oakland Spiders
2024 Regular Season Record: 8-4, Finished 3rd in West Division
Points/Game: 20.8 (7th out of 24)
Opp. Points/Game: 19.9 (16th out of 24)
Perhaps the biggest stunner of the 2024-25 UFA coaching carousel was the Spiders’ decision to move on from Dan Silverstein, who had led the franchise since taking over for Tyler Grant midway through the 2019 campaign. After going 4-8 in both 2021 and 2022, Oakland clearly made progress, improving to 7-5 in 2023 and 8-4 in 2024, when they advanced to the playoffs for the first time since 2017. As for who will be replacing Silverstein, the Spiders announced on Monday night that Caleb Merriam would be the team’s new head coach, alongside new assistant Joseph Ricks. Both of these new leaders have decent experience coaching amateur ultimate, but it’ll be their first opportunities at the pro level. Consequently, it will be especially interesting to monitor whether this team feels prepared for all the situational quirks that pop up in the UFA, particularly early in the season. From a talent perspective, though, the Spiders are definitely a team on the rise and one to watch as the new season nears.
Philadelphia Phoenix
2024 Regular Season Record: 5-7, Finished 4th in East Division
Points/Game: 17.4 (T-19th out of 24)
Opp. Points/Game: 19.3 (13th out of 24)
Roger Chu and Tom Glass, as head coach and assistant coach, respectively, reestablished Philadelphia as a perennially pesky opponent for the East Division’s preeminent powers, regularly taking DC and New York down to the wire over the past three seasons. But under their leadership, the Phoenix could not quite get over the hump, painfully enduring a plethora of painful heartbreakers along the way. In December, the team announced David Brandolph as the new head coach, along with new assistant Bill Maroon, pairing a couple ‘legends of the Philadelphia ultimate frisbee community’ to lead the squad in 2025. Unlike the Spiders’ new duo, both Brandolph and Maroon have some substantial history with pro frisbee. Brandolph was a key member of the original Philly championship team back in 2012, and he was also named Major League Ultimate’s Eastern Conference MVP in 2013, while Maroon’s extensive experience includes leading Philadelphia’s MLU franchise between 2013-2015.
Seattle Cascades
2024 Regular Season Record: 9-3, Finished 2nd in West Division
Points/Game: 21.7 (2nd out of 24)
Opp. Points/Game: 18.2 (9th out of 24)
After a surprising trip to Championship Weekend in 2024, Jesse Bolton chose to step away from the squad he led for the past two seasons. But the Cascades are bringing back last year’s assistants, Kelly Johnson and Casey Ikeda, with Johnson ascending into the head coaching spot. It’s cool that it no longer seems like a big deal at all when a female tops the leadership chart for a UFA team, as it’s become a relatively normal thing in recent years. But it’s also worth mentioning that Seattle will be one of at least four franchises—along with DC, Houston, and San Diego—that has a woman as either the sole head coach or co-head coach in 2025.
Toronto Rush
2024 Regular Season Record: 1-11, Finished 6th in East Division
Points/Game: 16.9 (22nd out of 24)
Opp. Points/Game: 21.3 (19th out of 24)
Unfortunately, it was a tough head coaching tenure for Adrian Yearwood, the former Rush on-field star who was a key cog during the franchises’s golden era of East Division titles from 2013-17. It wasn’t necessarily his fault, but the Rush’s winning tradition seemingly disappeared in recent years. To that point, after earning just a dozen victories in his first three seasons, Toronto slipped all the way to 1-11 in 2024. But the Rush re-boot has seemingly reenergized the organization, and Jamie Millage has taken over as the team’s new head coach. Millage played in seven games for the Rush over the past two seasons, and he also served as an assistant under Yearwood back in 2022. Additionally, the 40-year-old was named Ultimate Canada’s High-Performance Manager this past September. Figuring out exactly how to best integrate the team’s new European additions with the returning talent may not be simple or obvious, but the Rush, after a disappointing half-decade, are clearly back moving in the right direction.
Vegas Bighorns
2024 Regular Season Record: N/A
Points/Game: N/A
Opp. Points/Game: N/A
Less than three months away from their inaugural 2025 season, the Vegas Bighorns remain something of a mystery. The organization has not yet announced any player signings, nor have they officially secured a head coach. Earlier this month, Ian Toner reported that Richard Dana, a former USA Ultimate manager, was in talks to become coach, but nothing appears fully set yet. And beyond Joel Clutton, I haven’t even really seen or heard other rumors regarding who might actually be wearing the Bighorns jerseys when they first take the field in April. Perhaps the only thing we know for sure is that, aside from having a cool logo, the expansion Bighorns will also have a first-year head coach, giving them something in common with many other franchises around the Association. The league-wide newness in leadership will absolutely be a story to track as the 2025 season gets underway.