It’s the fall of 2014. Evanston Township High School in Evanston, Ill., is hosting a pickup ultimate frisbee event on their football field. 

Then-freshman Nick Pappas shows up with a friend. Pappas is different from everyone else; he’s never played ultimate frisbee before. Today would be his first time.  

By the end of the day, it was even more clear that Pappas was different from his peers. 

He was better than everyone else. 

By a lot. 

Like … a lot. 

Nothing about Pappas’ physical appearance screamed “star athlete”, but he was displaying unreal speed and athleticism. On offense, Pappas kept getting open; not a single person could contain him. On defense, he was everywhere; it felt like there were ten Nick Pappas’ on the field at once. 

This went on for several more pickup games throughout the fall. Hunter Latson, another newer player who was in the year as Pappas at ETHS, was one of those peers who watched Pappas in awe. When asked what he was thinking to himself while Pappas was reigning terror, Latson gave a hilariously honest response. 

“Holy s***, this guy is crazy,” he said. 

And the funniest part about all of it?

“He wasn’t really trying,” Latson said. 

Pappas is currently a rising star for the Chicago Union of the American Ultimate Disc League (AUDL), the best and most popular professional ultimate disc league in the United States. Before that, however, he became a high school frisbee superstar and later played a huge role in rebuilding the men’s club ultimate frisbee team at MU.

Evanston

Pappas hails from the Illinois suburb of Evanston, approximately a 40-minute drive from Chicago. Pappas grew up playing numerous sports such as soccer, baseball and track and field. 

When high school came around, however, his desire to continue with the trio of sports waned, prompting him to search for a new sport to play. After dominating at that first pick up game, it didn’t take long for Pappas to find his new passion. 

It was at ETHS where Pappas developed a reputation for being one of the most terrifyingly athletic players on the frisbee field. His sports background of baseball as well as track and field helped Pappas immensely with ultimate frisbee, where skills like hand-eye coordination, speed and agility are arguably the three most valuable skills to have as an ultimate frisbee player. 

While he wasn’t a standout on offense, Pappas made a meteoric impact on defense with not just elite athleticism, but an unrivaled level of intensity. 

“I’m not a thrower, but I will run and jump with anyone,” Pappas said. “I find the best player on the [opposing] team, and I make it my job to not let them get the disc.”

When he tried out for the ETHS ultimate frisbee team, the Wildkits, later that fall, Pappas was the only freshman who made the squad. After a stellar first season with the Wildkits, Pappas was named a captain by his coaches prior to his sophomore year. He captained ETHS for the remaining three years of his time in high school, where the Wildkits dominated en route to a handful of league championships.

Missouri

Pappas committed to the University of Missouri in the spring of 2018 with the intent to major in strategic communication; he also planned on joining the men’s club ultimate frisbee team. Before he arrived on campus, the captain of the team, Colin MacGregor, reached out to Pappas asking if he was going to join the team. MacGregor, who was from Chicago, had heard about Pappas through others who’d seen him play in other Chicago suburbs. 

For someone who was set to enter MU without any already-existing friends to lean on, it was comforting for Pappas to know that he had people who already seemed to like him on campus. 

“These guys already wanted me on the team,” Pappas said. “I already had friends at a school where I didn’t know anybody else. On that first day [of practice], I actually met some of my friends that I still have today.”

Despite the warm welcome, the team’s start that season wasn’t very hot … or warm … or even room temperature. To put things bluntly, they weren’t very good. While everyone seemed to always enjoy themselves playing for the team, there never seemed to be a real desire to be a competitive squad, and the results played out accordingly. The Tigers would continuously get shellacked at tournaments and never placed well in sectionals – the first stage of college ultimate playoffs occuring every spring. 

Understanding that something needed to change if the Tigers ever desired to become a formidable ultimate frisbee team, Pappas ran for captain prior to his sophomore year at MU and was ultimately elected to the position by his teammates. The season was ever-so-slightly better than the last, but the spring season came to an abrupt and premature end due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The following season was a wash for MU ultimate frisbee. The team was unable to have regular practices – only 10 players were allowed on the field at a time, with each one being required to wear a facemask. Because of the limit, the team had to split their practices up into three sessions so everyone got a chance to play. Along with the strict practice restrictions, all tournaments were canceled.

However, there was a silver lining: the restrictions proved to be a wake-up call. Pappas was suddenly running out of time; he only had one season left at MU. If he was going to accomplish what he wanted to accomplish – qualifying for regionals, then hopefully nationals –  it needed to happen now. Pappas had a newfound sense of urgency that he wanted to pass to the rest of the team. 

“It was like ‘alright, if we’re going to spend our time doing this, let’s actually put in the work’,” Pappas said. 

Part of the culture shift started with Hunter Latson, Pappas’s high school friend who attended MU and had been Pappas’ teammate on the ultimate frisbee team since they were both college freshmen. The summer of 2021 proved to be pivotal for the prospects of the program, as Pappas and Latson brainstormed how to get everyone to crank things up a few notches. 

“The first thing [Latson] told me was ‘dude, I want to play frisbee again.’ And I was like ‘what do you mean? We already play frisbee.’ And he said ‘No. That COVID stuff sucked. Let’s actually be good. I’m going to run every day.’” 

This was a level of commitment rarely seen on MU ultimate frisbee. Despite initial skepticism, Latson actually walked the walk or, in this situation, ran the run. 

“I said ‘you are not going to run every day.’ He ran every day,” Pappas said. “Once I saw that he wanted it, I knew that was the domino that needed to fall in order to get everyone on board.”

Latson’s all-in mentality is what Pappas wanted to infuse into the rest of the team from the get-go, and it worked. After a preseason meeting where Pappas outlined his goals to the rest of the squad, team-wide work ethic skyrocketed. During practice, players would consistently push each other to be better. There was a level of intensity and focus that had never been present, and as a result, practices were far more productive. 

During one particular practice, the team was scrimmaging. A deep throw intended for Pappas went up; while he usually came down with these throws, this time was different. Pappas made a ridiculous layout catch that would’ve made St. Louis Cardinals diving-catch savant Jim Edmonds proud.  

“He did a chest-high layout, caught the disc, stood up, spiked the disc and yelled ‘it’s that easy!’,” current MU Ultimate Frisbee president John Marsh said. “That was the moment we realized that this wasn’t just some pickup frisbee scrimmage and that we were really working towards something.”

While turning into Superman for a moment is far from easy, that wasn’t the point. What mattered was everyone realizing what was possible through hard work and dedication. While it may sound cliche, it was the truth. Pappas spoke of an increased desire to work hard within himself, going to the gym more than he ever had and caring about ultimate frisbee more than he ever thought he could. Pappas had always possessed a burning competitive spirit; the diving catch was simply a product of combining that with an uptick in persistence, which sent a message to the entire team. 

“We started taking frisbee more seriously because we saw how good someone could be at it,” Marsh said. “That was really exciting for everyone.”

There were even noticeable results outside of practice. People started to talk about frisbee with a genuine desire to know more about the sport and to get better at it. Tournament trips to places like Chattanooga, Tenn. and Austin, Texas helped bring the team closer together. 

The on and off-field improvements yielded predictably improved results. Throughout the 2021-22 season, MU played a handful of positively memorable games, even in losses. When playing the University of Minnesota and Carleton College – two historically excellent ultimate frisbee programs – the final score was extremely close at a regional tournament in Wisconsin. 

Arguably the best game, however, was a victory at Missouri Loves Company (an annual regional tournament hosted in Columbia during the fall) over Illinois Urbana-Champaign, who’d qualified for nationals the year prior and retained most of their core from that team. 

“We were hyped,’” Pappas said. “That game was a huge confidence booster.”

That spring, MU qualified for regionals for the first time in program history. While the Tigers were eliminated by in-state rival Washington University (who eventually qualified for nationals), the Tigers were in a far better place than they ever had been. 

“Even though we didn’t get to where we wanted, I was so happy we’d gotten there,” Pappas said. “I couldn’t believe how close we’d become. It was an overwhelming feeling of pride, especially knowing that we left [the program] better than when we came in.”

Pappas had one of the best individual seasons in Missouri ultimate frisbee history. He was nominated for the Callahan Award at the end of the season, which is given to the most valuable player in college ultimate frisbee. 

His menacing defensive talents were on full display all season long, including during the game against Washington University at regionals where Pappas almost single-handedly willed the Tigers to victory despite nursing a serious ankle and knee injury.

“He definitely should’ve stopped playing, but he put himself on the field every single point,” Marsh said. “He put everything on the line.”

Most of all, however, Pappas had not only improved as a player, but as a leader, too. For example, Latson spoke of Pappas developing an ability to not just point out when a player did something incorrectly, but how they could avoid that mistake in the future. 

“He was always sending positive messages in [our group chat],” Marsh said. “He was super well-spoken, especially at the end of practices.”

Pappas also felt that he’d developed a greater understanding of ultimate frisbee at this point of his career, as the sport is extremely unique. Contact isn’t allowed, players call their own fouls, and if there’s a disagreement, the players involved are expected to politely work it out amongst themselves. If a player makes a good play, the opposing player involved in the play will often congratulate them. The seemingly odd expectation of kindness is officially known as “spirit of the game”, a concept that’s preached maintaining a high standard of sportsmanship that dates back to the sport’s origins in the 1970’s.  

While Pappas was against a lot of these rules when he first started (especially coming from sports like soccer and baseball that naturally fostered relationships with opponents), just like he did with his frisbee skills, he evolved. Now, he appreciates the friendly competitiveness that makes ultimate frisbee a one-of-a-kind sport. 

“I found it a little weird sometimes,” Pappas said. “But this sport is awesome.”

This past year was the Tigers’ best season yet, finishing fourth at regionals behind University of Colorado Boulder (ranked 3rd nationally by USA Ultimate), University of Texas at Austin (9th) and Washington University in St. Louis (29th). MU’s highlight of the tournament was a victory over Colorado State, a top-50 team in the nation according to USA Ultimate. While Missouri was eliminated by Texas, the Tigers were competitive with a Longhorns squad that was not only a top-ten team in the nation, but a team that qualified for nationals and battled eventual national runner-up University of Massachusetts Amherst to the last point in the quarterfinals.

While Pappas had graduated from MU the season prior, the 2022-23 season was an extension of the foundation he and the rest of the departed captains from the previous season helped build.

“There’s definitely a bond we all have now,” Pappas said. “We can talk any time about anything. The team is what’s going to keep us together.”

Chicago Union

Pappas knew he wanted to play in the American Ultimate Disc League when he saw Chicago’s AUDL team – then called the “Wildfire” – in-person for the first time during the 2016 season. At the time, the Wildfire were going through a rough stretch, as they ended up finishing that season with a paltry 4-10 record. 

“This is it? I can beat these guys,” Pappas remembers thinking at the time, perhaps with a slightly inflated ego. 

It turns out that Pappas was right — sort of. After trying out for the Union a handful of times, he finally made the squad as a practice player in 2022. Pappas was made a rostered player shortly after and appeared in a handful of games for Chicago that season.   

Similarly to the professional levels of many other sports, everything is bigger in professional ultimate frisbee. The field is wider and longer. The players aren’t just skilled in their sport , but are elite all-around athletes.  

Pappas’ “welcome to the league” moment came against the Minnesota Wind Chill in July 2022, when he was tasked with guarding Cole Jurek, a 2021 Callahan Award nominee from the University of Minnesota who’d played high-level club and professional ultimate frisbee for several years. 

“He dunked on me,” Pappas said. “It felt like he was able to read what was happening a throw or two in advance. It was really impressive stuff.”

Despite the down performance against Jurek, Pappas put together a stellar rookie season for the Union, scoring at least one goal in all eight games he appeared in, including a five-goal explosion against the Detroit Mechanix on July 10.

As a team, the Union enjoyed their best season in 2022, finishing with an 11-1 regular season record en route to their first division championship in franchise history. The Union took down the Carolina Flyers in the semifinals, but fell to the undefeated New York Empire in the championship game. 

“We were playing so hard and so physical, but they kept finding ways,” Pappas said. “Their throws were perfect. Their cuts were perfect. Everything they did seemed to be perfect.”

As the Union look to defend their division crown in 2023, Pappas has seen an uptick in playing time, as he’s appeared in all seven of Chicago’s games thus far. He’s established himself as a reliable defender with countless highlight-worthy plays.

When reflecting on his frisbee career, Pappas is grateful for the ultimate frisbee community he’s been a part of for almost a decade. Ultimate frisbee is a unique sport; unlike many other professional sports leagues, being a professional ultimate frisbee player isn’t usually a full-time job. The AUDL season lasts less than three months during the summer, and most players have jobs outside of ultimate frisbee. With the lack of a full-time salary to go along with a high level of commitment to the game, pursuing ultimate frisbee beyond the college level is far from a lucrative endeavor, which makes Pappas appreciate those who do continue with the sport into adulthood. 

“Everyone does this because they love the game that they’re playing,” Pappas said. “There’s such a mutual love for frisbee that’s so different from anything else I’ve played.” 

Edited by Chase Gemes | cgemes@themaneater.com

Copy edited by Mary Philip