As winter quarter came to a close, anticipation peaked for the biggest collegiate ultimate Frisbee tournament of the term. Friends and family frequently confronted recent business graduate and one of the 2024-25 SLO Motion A team captains, Brooke Nishida, with the same question. “How do you feel about the Northwest Challenge?” people asked her.
Her main response: “I’m nervous as sh–.”
Gameday arrived and the stakes were high. SLO Motion, Cal Poly women’s ultimate Frisbee club team, were missing three key players due to academic conferences and vacations. They were facing the highest level of competition going into the 2025 Northwest Challenge in Seattle, according to Nishida. The buckets of rain pouring from the sky, courtesy of Washington weather, were an unfamiliar battle.
The team got closer than ever to winning Nationals and closer in their team bond. All season long, they worked as a community to their best potential, according to Nishida.
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Even with a daunting series of setbacks, including multiple injured players and weather, Nishida wasn’t facing it alone. 24 teammates were fueled to do what Nishida thinks they do best: have the skill set and the mental strength needed to be competitive.
“When we got there, even though we’re missing those key players, it allowed for so much development and for so many people to step into bigger roles,” Nishida said.
This year, SLO Motion became the first team in program history to make it to the USA Ultimate D-1 College Championships, or as they call it, nationals. This year’s tournament was held during Memorial Day weekend in Burlington, Washington.
The Men’s team, SLOCORE, also competed in national’s this year. The team placed fifth in the competition and won first place in the SoCal Sectionals and Southwest Regionals. The team is currently ranked #6 in Ultiworld’s College D-1 Men’s ranking.
SLO Motion’s growth through adversity
Playing with adversity is not foreign to SLO Motion. Cece Hildreth, the second previous A team captain and recent computer science graduate, said the team continued to thrive at other tournaments, such as this year’s Santa Barbara Invite, another that fell victim to difficult weather conditions.
“Sometimes that gets teams down with just horrible weather, and people are just not happy,” Hildreth said. “But somehow we pulled through, and we had so much fun in that game.”
The fun didn’t stop at the Frisbee field — SLO Motion went home satisfied with their game results.
“We crushed,” Nishida said. “I think that was just another turning point of, like, wow, this season is different. Something’s in the air.”
According to Nishida, SLO Motion started their competitive team, or A Team, last year. She said that this year leading up to Nationals was a “building year of figuring out the kinks,” such as developing a bigger roster and bringing together skills by focusing on team culture.
“The preparation came before we knew we were qualifying,” Nishida said during spring quarter. “We’re just having our normal practice, and I think the only difference is we’re not making any sort of crazy strategic changes, it’s more just like grinding it out.”
SLO Motion’s practices are far from quiet. Teammates chat and play music across the lower sports field.
As Frisbee players, SLO Motion would do scenario-driven exercises, talk about individual and team goals and always work hard at every single practice. But more importantly, the team knew to foster their bond, as they equally dedicated their season to not only performance training, but to strengthening friendships on and off the field — a powerful combination that served them on the road to Nationals.
“We get personal,” Hildreth said. “We kind of open up our feelings to each other because in that sense we get closer, but we also understand what people want to get out of this team.”
SLO Motion fosters connection on and off the field
Along with their weekly team dinners, the team partakes in “secret sister,” a ritual where teammates exchange snacks, drinks and handwritten encouragement before every tournament. Nishida and Hildreth also created a buddy system where players get grouped together to check on each other throughout the season.
“We play with our best friends,” Nishida said. “The competitive spirit that we have is all built on the love and trust we have with each other.”
According to Nishida, ultimate Frisbee is a self-officiated sport, relying mainly on this “spirit” of the game, where players are responsible for making their own calls with honesty and fairness.
“I think for us, spirit of the game comes from, first of all, loving ourselves,” Hildreth said. “When we’re on the field and not letting anything bring us down, and then in doing so, we’re not also bringing the team down.”
According to Nishida and Hildreth, UC San Diego’s women’s ultimate Frisbee team has been SLO Motion’s toughest rival. They often get to “universe” – when both teams making it to the final point of a tied game. Three out of the four times they’ve played each other have been this tight.
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But beyond this competitive rivalry, SLO Motion enjoys facing UCSD. These games fuel them to work even harder on the field.
“They push us and we push them,” Hildreth said. “At the end of the day, we all love Frisbee. But when we’re on the field, we get down. We are running, and we’re trying our hardest.”
Cal Poly’s SLO Motion tied for ninth place along with UCSD in the final rankings. This brought their Nationals debut and the 2024-25 season to a close.
“These are people that if I see them on the street like a couple years from now, I will not hesitate to go up to them,” Hildreth said. “I feel like I can always go and talk to them about different things and hang out with them and not feel like we don’t know each other.”
Update: This article was updated at 11:19 p.m. on Aug. 19 to fix a grammar mistake in the first section. This article was updated at 2:00 p.m. on Aug. 25 to include additional context on ultimate Frisbee at Cal Poly.