Cal Poly Club Ultimate Frisbee Men’s Team, SLOCORE (Core), has advanced to the finals of the USA Ultimate Division I National Tournament for the first time in the club’s history.
Core heads to the championship game after losing in the semifinals a season ago against the University of Massachusetts.
Despite never making it to the finals until this year, Core has qualified for the national tournament every year since 2019. They continue to develop high-level talent through players who have never played ultimate frisbee before college.
The champion of the Southwest Region with a now 40-4 record, Core came into Madison, WI as the No. 5 seed.
They won their pool, beating the likes of No. 4 Colorado 15-14 on the universe point.
Down 12-8 with about twenty minutes left in the semifinal match, Core went on a 7-1 run to beat the incumbent champion No. 1 North Carolina Chapel Hill.
Seamus Robinson, a fifth-year player and former captain, carved his path to stardom having only played ultimate once joining Core his freshman year. He played a big part in their postseason run and looks to keep making an impact in the finals.
Athletes who started in other sports have adapted well to frisbee. Players who join the frisbee program with no experience can still make it to Core.
Although his parents played ultimate frisbee in college and at the club level, Robinson never played until he attended Cal Poly. Carrying his athleticism from soccer, he quickly became an elite player on both sides of the disc thanks to his mentors.
“They’re really interested in putting effort and a lot of time into the sport, even though it’s kind of a silly sport,” Robinson said. “They showed me that sometimes you gotta go for it and put a lot of effort and work into something, and that drove me to want to be like them.”
It took some time for Robinson to fully understand the tactics at the highest level of ultimate, but being surrounded by high-level players during the season and offseason helped his field vision and game IQ.
Robinson as well as a few others on Core, have experience playing in the professional frisbee league called the Ultimate Frisbee Association (UFA). He played two seasons for the Los Angeles Aviators during his summers.
Although there are different rules at the professional level such as lower stall counts, playing at that level helped him develop his game mentally as he traveled around the country to play.
After Robinson became fully knowledgeable about the sport, he found his voice as a mentor according to head coach Tim Gilligan.
Robinson expects a lot out of the younger players and holds himself to a high standard. Gilligan says Robinson helps the team improve by paying close attention to everything on the field and watches game film to develop strategy and assess performance.
“He has no problems speaking up, and I think there’s a lot of respect that other players in the team have for him,” Gilligan said.
In this video, the team nominated Robinson for USAU’s 2024 Callahan Award, an accolade similar to Most Valuable Player.
Last season, Core nominated Calvin Brown who finished in the top five candidates for Callahan.
“There’s a couple of people in a long line of Callahan nominees from our team that are, in my mind, some of the most brilliant players I’ve ever met,” Robinson said. I’m super honored to be able to put myself on that list.”
Kyle Lew, a captain in his fourth year at Cal Poly, clicks well with Robinson on the field because they are both defensive-minded players.
“It seems like we’re in whatever when we’re on a point together we’re always on the same wavelength,” Lew said. “We always know how to help each other and how to cover each space. He’s a pleasure to play with.”
Lew knows that the team cannot do much to improve overall at this point in the season and that trusting each other and their game on the field will be imperative to keeping a winning pace.
SLOCORE currently has players who play in high-level ultimate clubs, leagues and even on Team USA. Now that SLOCORE has cleared the hump of the semifinals, they have to keep the mentality they had in the semifinals and carry it against Brown.
“It is truly the culminating experience of our season. It’s so cool just to go to a place and to know that you’re playing with the best of the best,” Lew said.
The championship game against Brown University will be streamed on Monday, May 27 on ESPNU at 1 p.m. PT.