Coaches
Abe Chiswick
Abe began playing ultimate, as many people did, at summer camp. His first organized competitive ultimate was for NYU’s Purple Haze in their inaugural seasons. After moving to Israel, Abe searched out the local ultimate scene and has been deeply involved ever since. He helped found Haifa’s Hucking Crazy club team, which ten years later is one of the most stable and long lasting teams in the country. He has worked and volunteered with the Israeli Flying Disc Association running...
Abigail Skerker
Abby fell in love with ultimate four years ago when looking for a community in college at Brown University. She was immediately drawn to the sport by the controlled spontaneity of the cutting strategy and the spirit of the game, which values everyone as unique individuals instead of just players. She is currently the captain of Brown’s Disco Inferno ultimate team. This experience is both an incredible culmination of four years of college frisbee and the beginning of a lifetime filled with more...
Allegra Johnson McKee
Allegra is from Seattle, WA and can’t wait to coach at camp UP! She first discovered Ultimate in 6th grade, and now plays as a sophomore on Syzygy at Carleton College. On the field, she is a cutter who loves sprinting deep and getting up in the air. Allegra is passionate about using sport to find similarities among differences and to break down barriers, and has coached soccer in Costa Rica and South Africa. Off the field, she loves to bake yummy pastries, read mystery novels, and look at...
Andrea Del Balso
Andrea currently lives and works in Boston, but she originally grew up in Coldwater, MS, where there were more cows than people! Despite her small town roots, she has always had a passion for learning about and experiencing the world around her, as well as educating and empowering others. She has worked for a number of U.S. universities in both student affairs and international education, and it was during her first university job after grad school that she encountered Ultimate Frisbee. Wanting...
Chris McDaniel
Chris is an eternal optimist, a compulsive list-maker, a lover of the outdoors, a lousy driver, and a messy cook. She is constantly surrounded by an amazing group of people she feels privileged to call her family and friends. Chris started playing ultimate in 1992 and met her future husband on the ultimate field shortly thereafter. Since then, she’s been a regular at local pick-ups and leagues.
Claire Shoyer
Claire discovered Ultimate in 2010 when she was placed on her summer camp’s Ultimate Frisbee team instead of the dance team. It was the best second choice she ever got! The first (and only) sport she has ever played, Ultimate changed Claire’s life as she continued to play throughout summer camp, high school, college, and local summer leagues. This sport has given her the confidence to lead a group of people as a handler on the field, it has encouraged her to be physically active, and it has...
Dan Tapuach
Hometown: Tel Aviv, Israel
How long you have been playing frisbee: I’ve been playing Ultimate for 8 years.
With what community you work: Daburia, Kfar Tavor, Buena Nujidat, Tuba Zangaria
Brief history of playing experience: Playing ultimate since 2003. Have been playing in different club teams around Israel along the years, and some competitive ultimate in the States. In 2011 became a coach for the Israeli national youth teams and flew as a coach to EYUC 2011 in Poland....
Giordana Rock
Giordana (AKA Gio) was known in high school for this superlative, “Most likely to power the whole city of Metropolis with one single laugh.” She naturally falls into the position of Cheer Captain on every team she’s been on, lifting the spirits and passion of people around her. Gio has played ultimate since 2007, meeting lifelong friends and even her husband during her eight years playing in Australia. She was honored to captain the Brisbane Women’s teams from 2012-2016,...
James Hix
James began his Ultimate ways in 2008 at Eastern University with the Exiles. To put it honestly, the Exiles were an incredible group of people that drew James into the sport. Since then, it has never been the absolute thrill of pulling down a beautiful huck or the blood-pounding exhilaration of tearing up the dirt right behind your mark that has driven James; it has always been about the supportive camaraderie of the light-filled people who pat you on the back with a smart comment after dropping...
Jesse Marquisee
Jesse has been playing ultimate since 2005. In high school Jesse played YCC and for Edina High school’s Green Lantern ultimate team. In 2014 they won the MN High School Ultimate for the first time in school history. That summer he was an LIT at Ultimate Peace. Jesse loves meeting new people. Besides Ultimate and Peace, Jesse likes traveling and learning about airplanes, trains, ships and graveyards. Jesse is currently working on his Masters in Cognitive Systems Engineering at the Ohio State University....
Jim Levine
I began playing in the late 1970’s at Tufts University. In the early 80’s seven members of the Tufts team joined with players from other teams to form the Hostages, a Nationals level club team that played together for four years and was regarded as a team that was way more than the sum of its quirky parts. In the late 80’s I played on the University of Michigan’s college national team, and then bounced around playing for ever more low key teams, winding up in the Mercer...
Johanan Lau
I’ve chased plastic since high school, mostly in Malaysia, Singapore and around South East Asia. Ultimate has brought me wonderful friends and family, and spending time with UP has been (still is!) one of the best things I could ever have done!
Josh Seamon
Josh has been playing, coaching, and organizing Ultimate for more than 25 years. After playing in High School in Amherst, MA, where he was on the inaugural HS national championship team, he migrated west and played in Claremont, CA. Two months after graduating from Pomona College in ’02, Josh found himself teaching HS Math at St. Johnsbury Academy in the northern reaches of VT, far away from large groups of organized Ultimate....
Joshua Rubenstein
Josh first coached at UP in 2013 and is thrilled to return to camp this summer! He began playing ultimate at Garfield HS in Seattle and has since played for the Whitman College Sweets, IM champion Gummy Bears FC, and at pickup games on three continents and counting. In addition to ultimate, Josh loves spending time hiking, skiing, and biking. He can generally be found pondering the climate crisis and his next culinary adventure. If you spend too much time with him prepare yourself for puns of...
Lauren Pichard
Lauren Pichard has been playing ultimate since middle school and developed a passion for the sport through its strong sense of community and core value: Spirit Of The Game. She first discovered Ultimate Peace through a school project in a history class called The Modern Middle East and resonated strongly with the organization’s mission and core values. She is excited to deepen her existing friendships, forge new bonds, and create an environment where campers feel comfortable enough to express...
Mary Andrews
My name is Mary Andrews and I am so excited to be returning to Ultimate Peace this summer! For the past two years at UP I have been an LIT and loved every minute of it, and I am so honored to be able to coach a team this year, as well as serve as a mentor for the second year NA LITs. I currently play for the Colorado College Women’s Ultimate team Lysistrata’s Tools, and I have been playing tons of ultimate since 5th grade! I am a first year at Colorado College, and in my free time I love...
Noémi Blome
I have always loved sports and when I discovered Ultimate at university in the UK, I never looked back. It was the perfect (temporary) cure for any essay crisis and I loved playing for – and ultimately captaining – my university team. Since then, I have tried my best to find an ultimate team wherever I go and, amazingly, this was never hard! Off the pitch I am studying ‘International Relations’ with the aim of working in mass atrocity prevention in the future. I’m usually known as the...
Rachel Winner
Rachel started playing ultimate in 2005 when she joined the Dickinson College Jive Turkeys as a freshman. She captained her senior year and dabbled in international play in Argentina, Brazil, China and Mexico. She played mid-level club in Tennessee and North Carolina and capped her competitive career with Cahoots from Asheville, NC before moving to the Middle East for a change of scenery. She joined UP as a volunteer in 2014 and as a staff member in 2015. She is the director of the Leaders-in-Training...
Reilly Geritz
Reilly is a freshly-minted grad of the University of Richmond, in Richmond, Virginia, where she played on the Women’s Ultimate Team, the Richmond Redhots. She loves being outside, petting great dogs, eating new foods, and traveling. She can’t wait for her first year at UP!
Ryan Anderson
Ryan started playing ultimate with the American University Dirty Ladies. She currently spends most of her time organizing ultimate for others to play both locally and regionally. She’s unsure where she’ll be playing next, but she knows it will prioritize remembering that we all do this for fun and love.
Sam Losen
Sam has been playing Ultimate for the past seven years starting at Lexington High School, and now at the University of Vermont. He learned about Ultimate Peace from his cousins who have attended as campers. This is his first year coaching at Ultimate Peace, and he is ecstatic about the opportunity.
Selena Kleber
Selena started playing Ultimate at Grady High School in Atlanta, Georgia and now plays on the UNC Pleiades team. She has always been attracted to the sport because of the spirit, energy, and cool people involved in the community. She is studying Public Health with a possible minor in Spanish at UNC, Chapel Hill. She loves camp and the outdoors more than anything!
Steven Andrews
Steve’s introduction to pick-up games of “Frisbee Football” started at UMass Amherst, back in 1978.
After cheering on his own children from 4th grade to high school and college Ultimate teams, he re-established his love for the game through adult pickup games, middle school coaching, and Ultimate after school programs.
Steve brings twenty years of experience as a teacher leader, specializing in emotional and behavioral programs for pre-teens and teenagers.
He’s been part...
Stu Downs
I have enjoyed the sport of ultimate since 1979 when I joined Dartmouth College’s nascent band of misfits. I was lit up quickly by the energy, ease and enjoyment of a game of ultimate. Furthermore, I fell in love with the model of spirit of the game and the amazing humans I witnessed upholding this spirit routinely in competition. What followed was 15 years of open division play for Atlanta’s Chain Lightning, a few years of Master’s fun, some coaching at the University of Georgia,...
Vicky Negus
Vicky learned to play ultimate as a gangly 18 year old at Brandeis University in Boston, Massachusetts. She quickly fell in love with the sport and learning to throw a flick. Her constant nagging of friends to play and throw with her helped her learn enough to make Brute Squad (Boston’s top women’s club team) in 2011. She has played the past 9 seasons with Brute Squad, and won 3 National Championships with the team. Vicky believes that ultimate is a joyous, special sport played by...
Will Christopherson
Will’s been playing Ultimate since his first summer camp in Minnesota, way back in 1994. After college he moved to warmer climates, and has now represented Australia 7 times (mostly in Beach Ultimate)! He’s been lucky enough to travel all over the world to play – USA, AUS, Portugal, Italy, Phillipines, Japan, UAE, Czech Republic, and England, to name a few. He’s proud to be the WFDF Beach Ultimate Committee Rules Chair and current Head Coach of Chilly Ultimate Club in Melbourne,...
Staff
Adam Shimoni - Admin
Born in Jerusalem, raised in the states. Returning and connecting with Israel throughout my life has always made me feel very connected with the Country and even more so with the People. Living in a country of Peace and feeling connected to a country of pain inspired me to want to bring people together from a young age. Began playing Ultimate in 2004 and falling in Love with the sport and the concept of Spirit of The Game. When I found out about Ultimate Peace and the AMAZING work it does to create...
John Schmit - Admin
Born and raised in Minneapolis, MN, John grew to love ultimate at summer camp, until it became his passion upon joining his high school’s first Ultimate team in 2002. Since then he has played 16 years of high school, league and club ultimate. John coached at Minneapolis South High School for eleven years, plus two years of Minnesota Superior youth club; and more recently, team Mexico at the World Championships of Beach Ultimate, and Barcelona’s premier club, Bravas....