Ultimate is growing as a sport. One D.C. high school is mastering it.

“It’s really crazy,” Jackson said after the game-winning catch in May, which secured the Tigers’ seventh DCSAA championship in the seven years the tournament has been held. “I started [playing] in seventh grade; now I’m getting jumped on by the whole team.”

In the D.C. area, ultimate is moving beyond the fringes of high school sports. The game — sometimes referred to as “ultimate Frisbee” — is entering a space with exponentially more athletes and better competition, with Jackson-Reed emerging as the class of the region. On Friday and Saturday in Salt Lake City, the Tigers will compete in the high school national championship tournament, which will feature the country’s 16 best teams.

They will be the fifth local team in the past two seasons to qualify, with the Madison girls joining this year.

“There’s a lot of great programs in the area,” Jackson-Reed Coach Dave Ohls said. “We place a lot of emphasis on creating opportunities for the top players to push themselves [while] bringing new people into the sport.”

As local teams ponder the sport’s next step, there’s still caution to their optimism. Field space, infrastructure and support, particularly in D.C., remain limited. There are signs of ultimate’s growing middle class — scheduling has become easier as more teams participate, and this year’s DCSAA championship game was the first decided by just a couple of points — but the sport’s footing varies from one school to another.

The Tigers, at the center of this challenge, plan for their nationally competitive streak to continue. But it’s just as important that others rise up alongside them.

“The people in the area, they want to see ultimate grow,” junior Marcus Lee said. “The sport itself already has such a great culture. And I think our team embodies that.”

Players ‘keep coming back’

Jackson-Reed has the customary hodgepodge of ultimate players. A handful picked up the sport from their siblings and played in middle school. Several joined from baseball, tennis, soccer and crew. One former player had parents who gave her a choice between bowling, ultimate or a long walk to school for more exercise. By her senior year, she was the captain of the girls’ team.

The basic rules are familiar enough for newcomers. Ultimate borrows from football, with throws, receptions and end zones where each team, composed of seven players, aims to score; as in basketball, athletes play offense and defense while cutting and defending throughout a single point. Similar to when a basketball player picks up their dribble, once a player catches the disc, they can only pivot and pass. If a player drops the disc or another team intercepts it, it’s a turnover.

“It’s definitely a sport that has a low wall to get into,” Jackson-Reed junior Matt Burris said. “And once people get started, they keep coming back.”

But when Ohls inherited the team a decade ago, a path to legitimacy looked daunting. Without the foundation of football or basketball, and because the team receives no funding from the school, Jackson-Reed needed time to get off the ground. In its first year, the team practiced on a 40-by-40-yard patch of mud at a nearby public park. Only two athletes, who now play professionally, took it seriously. There weren’t enough players for a full scrimmage. The girls’ team, which started with five seniors, went on a one-year hiatus when they graduated.

School Without Walls is also without a baseball field. The Penguins persevere.

Slowly, success and participation led to more success and more participation. Athletes brought their friends. Most took to the sport quickly and enjoyed it regardless of prior experience. After a few years, parents pushed for field space, and they upgraded to temporary use of Jackson-Reed’s football stadium. In 2019, the team finished fourth at the national championships.

“Now, when I go around and tell people I play ultimate Frisbee, I think they’re starting to know what that means,” Burris said.

These days, at least between the lines, it’s evident Jackson-Reed is no longer a start-up.

In late April, the Tigers scrimmaged against American University’s Stall 11, the team’s collegiate neighbor in Tenleytown. Despite a gulf in age, many of Jackson-Reed’s starters were just as tall as their matchups. But, Ohls warned his players, the college squad possessed a level of athleticism they were not accustomed to.

On the first point, the Tigers went up and down the field without a turnover as Lee, the team’s top scorer, laid out for a diving score. Within a few points, it became clear Jackson-Reed had the cleaner offense, with precise short passes catalyzing a narrow lead. When Stall 11 began to use its deep looks, the Tigers trailed. At halftime, his team down 8-7, Ohls spoke of defensive adjustments and mental fortitude. Jackson-Reed roared back to win, 15-12.

“In the fall, we recognized we had the potential,” Lee said. “We’ve been leaving it all out on the field, and it’s paid off.”

While the Tigers enjoyed the scrimmage, their performance against high schools generated the opportunity for a national championship bid. With a select number of sanctioned tournaments at the high school level, Jackson-Reed competed against teams from all along the East Coast. Twice, it beat Columbia (N.J.), the high school that claims to have invented the sport.

Locally, these days, there’s legitimate competition. In 2017, Arlington County made ultimate an official (and funded) varsity sport. More and more schools in Alexandria, Fairfax and Montgomery counties now field teams. At the DCSAA tournament, a record seven schools (plus three junior varsity teams) competed.

“Every year things change, but the continuity has been that Jackson-Reed has been awesome,” School Without Walls Coach Gabe Webster said. “And Ohls is so committed to the sport’s growth.”

The effort to increase the sport’s standing continues. In the fall, the coaches will put together D.C. boys’ and girls’ all-star teams. When Webster started coaching five years ago, none of his athletes played Youth Club Championships. Now 10 do.

But obstacles remain. The fight for field space is ongoing. Ohls, called ultimate a “semi-sanctioned” sport (it is a club sport, not a varsity sport); the DCSAA has guidelines written up for the single-day championship tournament, but guidelines for a season-long endeavor are still in the works.

If the legislation is not changed, Jackson-Reed is in danger of having its 75 athletes, spread across boys’ varsity and junior varsity and girls’ varsity teams, cut down to one team with 30 athletes next season. With a new athletic director coming in, the Tigers’ future is unclear.

“That would take out two-thirds of our athletes — that would be pretty devastating,” Ohls said. “But … operating as we are currently and still struggling with field space is probably the most optimistic outcome and, I think, the most likely.”

Still, the Tigers are thriving within their constraints. The program is humming and expects to be even better next season if it can continue as scheduled.

“We’ve had a lot of tremendous people come through the program,” Ohls said. “And that repeats itself.”