If you play Ultimate, you've probably noticed a tattoo or two that has made you look twice. You suspect there's a story behind the ink, one that may inspirational, tragic, or downright hilarious — like the infamous player who had a rat in a chicken costume tattooed on his butt after losing 1 in 10 odds. Liz Clark, an Ultimate player and biologist based in Connecticut, felt compelled to search out and share these stories, and that's how Ultimate Ink was born. Check out Ultimate Ink on Instagram  and consider supporting the Ultimate Ink project with a donation through Greenbackr.

Savage: Tell us about yourself.

Liz Clark: I started playing ultimate in high school in Pittsburgh and was on USA U-19 in 2008. I played in college in North Carolina and now I live in Connecticut. I’ve been on a number of mixed and womxns club teams over the years, and I currently play for Metro North. I’m also a biologist! I build 3D digital models to figure out how different structures in animals and plants function. My specialty is on illuminating the biomechanics of unusual strategies for movement and locomotion found in nature. I work with engineers in Japan to design robots resilient to damage based on the animals I study.

Savage: Where did the initial idea for Ultimate Ink come from? 

LC: We all love ultimate because of the community, but having to secure a place in a social network based on our athletic ability can be a recipe for isolation and insecurity. I think we can do better to support our friends who are experiencing some kind of upheaval with ultimate, like getting injured, getting cut from a team, moving, taking a break or deciding to retire. I think it’s also important to consider how the things going on in our lives outside ultimate impact who we are on the field. I also wanted to hear more about the experiences of members of typically underrepresented groups in our sport as well.

I started Ultimate Ink to celebrate the connections we share with this sport, and to build a space where we can better support each other in what we’re going through by sharing our personal experiences with one another. Tattoos are incredibly intimate, and they provide a gateway for people to open up about their feelings, their histories and what they’ve experienced with an appealing visual draw.

Savage: Tell us about some of the stories you've heard so far in this project.

LC: One of the first stories we got was from Toby Sznaj who described how her journey with ultimate intersected with her experiences with bipolar disorder. I thought that story was incredibly inspiring, and I think it set a powerful tone for the project. I think the most touching story so far has been from Sean Stasiak, who got a matching tattoo with his best friend and teammate Topher Kazanski who tragically passed away. Alix Robbins’ story is super badass — she describes getting her college program to nationals and making it to the pros while raising a child.

Savage: What about your own tattoos? What are your favorites and what are the stories behind them? 

LC: I have two. I have a sun on my back that was inspired by the design of one of the first discs I ever threw. I remember seeing it at one of my first practices and thinking that I would get it as a tattoo if ultimate ever became important to me. Five years later, when ultimate had become firmly woven into the fabric of my life, I pulled the trigger. I was really competitive at the time, and it served as a reminder to work hard to be my best for a sport that I truly loved. I stopped playing ultimate for about six years, and I got my second tattoo, a tree on my wrist, for the first team I was on when I came back. It serves as a symbol for my next stage with ultimate, where my focus is on contributing to the community by being mindful of the person I want to be on and off the field, while also working hard to achieve my goals as a player. 

Savage: Do you think a lot about the kinds of tattoos you're going to get or are you more spontaneous? 

LC: I always encourage people not to rush the decision to get inked since it will be on your body for the rest of your life! But I have to say I do love finding people who have gotten tattoos from losing odds — they’re hilariously common in the ultimate community, and usually pretty awful. We featured someone who has a rat in a chicken costume on his butt from losing 1 in 10 odds. The guys on Sin the Fields loved it so much that they talked about it on their podcast and even sent him a free T-shirt!

Savage: Why do you think tattoos are a special part of the ultimate community? 

LC: I’ve been really surprised at how many ultimate-inspired tattoos are out there — for every team I talk to there’s usually at least one person that has one. I think tattoos are a creative way to commemorate powerful experiences or relationships, as well as remembering something, or someone, that’s important to us. I’ve found that it can be really difficult to explain the meaning behind my tattoos to people who ask, especially to those outside the ultimate community. Now, I can just direct them to Ultimate Ink!

Savage: What do you plan to do with the money you raise through Greenbackr? 

LC: The best way to find new Ultimate Inkers is to do it in person. Over the past year, I’ve been traveling to tournaments to chat with people about the project and encourage them to share their tattoos and stories with us. I’m planning on using the money to cover the costs from the project so far and expand the scope to reach a diverse range of storytellers in the future.

Savage: What are your future plans for the project?

LC: We have a lot of great stories lined up that we’ll be sharing over the next few months. I’d also like to start doing more targeted calls for stories around certain subject matter, or long-form interviews with people in our community with unique perspectives. I’d also like to keep encouraging people to write and submit their own stories to us regardless of whether or not they have ultimate tattoos — the tattoos are awesome, but the project is really about sharing our experiences and love for the sport with each other.

Savage: What are your favorite ultimate snacks?

MN: I love cured meats. If I have any say in the team snack cooler, there will always be some prosciutto or salami in there.

JM: I’m not a huge snacker. Give me a full meal. To that end, I like getting a can lentil soup and an avocado. Easy way to stay full on the cheap. Frozen fruit is also fantastic when it’s hot.

Savage: What skill have you practiced most in frisbee?

MN: This may be silly, but probably just talking. On the field communication, sideline help, chair heckling. I've been told I can be loud effectively, and I don't shy away from projecting my voice.

JN: Probably throwing.

Savage: Can you tell us about the most meaningful moment in your respective ultimate careers?

MN: I'm not sure if anything tops winning a YCC tournament back in 2009 with Seattle. Taking a gold medal (or crappy piece of plastic) home, and having your name in the UPA Archives is pretty sweet. I've also won the Moscow Indoor Tournament twice in my career, which not a ton of people can say that they have done.

JN: That’s a really hard one—the game has been so good to me! There were a few years where I helped run clinics in Panama for a 2-week stretch in January, and the time when we were starting up, a woman came up to me beaming, talking about how what she had learned the previous year had been paying off ever since and how it had made playing so much more fun for her. Seeing her gain that confidence meant a whole lot. On the field, making Nationals my last year at Virginia and semis my last year on Truck are two big ones.

Savage: Ultimate seems to be at an important crossroads right now. What direction do you expect it to go, and what would you hope for ultimate's future?

JN: I used to think the ultimate world was this thing I could fully grasp—like as long as I kept an eye on things and talked to lots of people, I could understand all of its angles. These days, it’s clear to me how ridiculous that thought has always been. I think frisbee will keep going in all kinds of ways for all kinds of people, and there’s only a big narrative to the extent that people imagine one. I recently played in a local beach league where $5 got you two games and lunch afterward. And the ocean was the sideline.  

I guess what I’m saying is that one place my mind goes here is what might essentially be described as ultimate "going corporate," and how at first pass I don’t love that notion. But that isn't a new phenomenon—Jose Cuervo was sponsoring tournaments in the '90s. And on the personal level, my entire career has happened in the context of people wanting to take ultimate beyond just being a game and being this thing to consume. I was into 5 Ultimate stretchy shorts in college, and pro ultimate gave me some of my fondest memories. And yet I still think of the frisbee world as pretty welcoming and quirky and all that. 

I guess I just hope ultimate continues to be fun, becomes more welcoming for more people, and does for more people what it has done for me, which is serve as a forum for stopping to think about how sports and community and personal stake and responsibility all overlap.

MN: I don't know if I'm the one to call all the shots here, but there was a club player coalition meeting in DC where we discussed the ultimate community and making things more accessible and accepting for everyone. Things like that certainly need to keep happening, and I believe we as players are going in the right direction.

I guess what I'll say is that in 2011 we went to college sectionals for a bid fee of $150 and it was hosted by a dude that was quite involved in the ultimate community. The fields were good, the weather was fantastic, there was a keg on site and a party in Missoula that night with food and beer provided. This coming season, our club sectionals bid fee is $600 and it's being ran by a for-profit company. I would appreciate an explanation for this, cuz it just ain't right.

Savage: You both have ties to Seattle and Virginia/DC ultimate. Do you have any observations about how those ultimate communities compare?

MN: I'll start by saying that both communities are really awesome, and there are a lot of very cool people involved in both cities. One thing I've noticed is that in Seattle, there seem to be more folks that are ALL IN on frisbee. Like, at every skill level, there are people that go to every dang tournament they can. Like 35 tournaments a year. I don't know if I just don't see as much of that in DC, so that could just be a perception. People in Seattle also play a ton of goaltimate. I miss goaltimate. 

I think the DC community is more team-oriented. There are a number of teams that do a lot within their own team structure. Maybe that's just me getting older and less social though, because I know things are going on, but half the time I would prefer sitting at home with the pup!

JN: I agree with Matthew: they’re both great places to play ultimate. I think he’s onto something about Seattle having more people who are straight-up ultimate-obsessed, which I think comes from the overall culture just being different. Here in DC, there’s just a stronger magnet that pulls people into the mainstream, whereas in the Northwest, I think it’s just more common to have people who really march to the beat of their own drum, and so you naturally have ultimate players who take more unique paths. And I think all of that has led to Seattle being an innovator with ultimate, from on-field stuff to using the sport to make cultural gains. There’s just a little more “what angle can I come at this sport from?” and more willingness to go all-in on that angle. That’s what I see, anyway.

Savage: Both of you guys have been playing for a long time. Any words of wisdom for other ultimate siblings out there?

MN: I feel like we have a rather unique situation, since we have lived on opposite sides of the country for the majority of our ultimate careers. I would say to take every chance you have to play with each other. If you aren't on the same team, or in the same city, get workouts in during holidays and go to pickup games together. Talk to each other about ultimate and life. It's the 21st century, so we're both blessed and cursed with the gift of communication!

JN: Yep to all of that. Even with the teammates you’re closest with, it’s rare that any of them don’t know you primarily as an ultimate player. That’s not the case with a sibling, which is something to relish. 

Savage: Any ultimate heroes or heroines?

MN: Hero: I find it hard to put ultimate players on a pedestal for idolization, but I definitely used to get pretty hyped about some of those mid-2000 Sockeye teams. Ryan Winkelmann comes to mind as a dude that worked hard, and was just really cool on and off the field. Jonathan and I got the chance to work with him at the camps out in Seattle, and he's a hilarious dude that is down to teach you a thing or two if you ask.

JN: Coming up in the game, I idolized Ben Wiggins pretty hard. I liked how good he was at throwing and how he talked about the game in a way that always seemed to say "I know the conventional wisdom says to do that, but have you thought about it like this?" I really like the way he thinks, at least publicly. 

Savage: What's the most memorable game you've witnessed or been a part of? Set the scene for us. 

MN: College Regionals 2013. We were playing UW (gross) in the last game of pool play. We had gone down 2-6 or something like that and I sort of just turned it on. Ended up getting involved in every point and playing one of the best games of my college career. Brought the score to 11-11 with us receiving, when one of my friends, Jeff Landrie, promptly turfed the centering pass off the pull. Naturally, UW punched it in for the break and promptly broke us again to win 13-11, but that game was darn fun. We then went on to lose to Oregon B in my last college game ever. Good times. 

JN: Easy. The 2009 Open final at Club Nationals, Chain vs. Revolver. This was my first Club Nationals, and seeing a team as dialed in as Chain was… I had just never seen that before. This was before Nationals happened in a stadium, so I was sitting on one of the front endzone line cones with some good friends who I had graduated from college with a few months prior, just talking frisbee and taking it all in. Our captain, Robert Runner, was playing big minutes for Chain, and seeing him dominate these top players with the exact same throws and moves and attitude that he had spent the last four years dominating us with at practice… that added this element of pride to it. The whole thing felt like this welcome to a new level of ultimate for me. I don’t think I’m painting a great picture here, but it all still glows in my head.

Savage: Favorite Neeley family memory?

JN: So tough! The time my dad saw us pretending to smoke cigars and then went to the store and came back with a pack of cigarettes and told us we had to smoke them because if you kids want to do that crap, why don’t you really do it… and then both of us crying and apologizing and seeing how unvirtuous we had been… that was pretty good.

Savage: Between the two of you, what's the tie-dye shirt count? Any favorites and the story behind them?

MN: I think I have 5 sitting in my drawers, with the best one being the Lithuanian Grateful Dead basketball shirt. That one is top-notch and gets a lot of shout outs. Just this past AUDL season the guy making my sandwich at Wawa geeked out over it, and we had a nice conversation about the Dead. Always cool when strangers connect over things like that.

JN: Off the top of my head, I’m counting 6, so 11 between us. Woulda expected a little higher. No great stories with mine, but I did only pay $.05 for my favorite one. Bought it right before spring break my junior year. It’s served me well ever since.

Savage: Who is more likely to start a jam band when he hits 40? What's the band name?

MN: I have to imagine that's Jonathan. He's been actively learning to play guitar. I'll definitely be ready to sell grilled cheeses and cooler beers in the lot when tour kicks up though!

JN: That’s nice of you to say, but that project has been on hold for a while. But Vault is pretty much a jam band if you're willing to look at it that way. We helped start that last December. 

Savage: Who are your favorite writers and why?

MN: Jeff Sullivan from fangraphs is one of my favorite internet writers. As a big baseball fan, and Mariners fan, he helped my friends and I cope with what was, and still is Mariners baseball. He's pretty witty, and did a good job of keeping things in perspective when dealing with a team that hasn't made the playoffs since 2001. He's moved onto better things, like writing about interesting teams and players, but he still has our hearts.

JN: There's a thinker named Eckhart Tolle blew my worldview open two summers ago, and I revisit hist stuff pretty frequently, especially a book called The Power of Now. Along those lines, I also like Thich Nhat Hanh and Alan Watts a whole lot. I just got introduced to Neil Gaiman and have had a hard time putting his books down. I like a lot of New Yorker writers — Malcom Gladwell, Jia Tolentino, and Rachel Aviv all come to mind. My favorites tend to evolve, and I'm sort of a slow book reader so I don't always feel like I have time to get into a critical mass of a single person's work. But the Gaiman thing is showing me a little about how cool that can be.

Savage: This one's for Jonathan. What's the best biking city you've been to? What can you tell us about bike lanes? Are bike lanes even important?

JN: DC is pretty great, and people here should remember that. Nationally, we’re right behind Portland in terms of number of people riding, and we’re up there on miles of bike lanes, both of which make riding safer and more fun. Of other places I’ve been and have tried to bike, I had a lot of fun in New Orleans, and they’re building a ton of new lanes there. And Seattle is really great too—our dad still lives there and I work for a company that has an office there, so I go out once or twice a year, and I’ve done some bike commuting while there. What’s crazy is that in all of those places, riding your bike can still be pretty unsafe on the whole. And even in the places where a certain bike lane or street feels super safe, that’s just a function of where in town you are. If it’s a white area near the city center, you can probably ride pretty safely and comfortably. If you’re in a community of color that was probably redlined and still being starved for resources, the roads tend to be super dangerous for everyone. Luckily there are some smart people in all sectors who are talking about this problem more.

To sum all this up, though, what I really know is this: parking is going to kill us all. We’ve got to walk back this whole “storing my 2-ton hunk of personal property in the street is my God-given right” thing. Quit it with the parking, everyone. And build the freaking bike lanes.

Professional women's ultimate frisbee has officially arrived in Southern California with WestCoast Women's Pro Ultimate, and Savage is proud to be outfitting the Los Angeles 99s and San Diego Wolfpack as they kick off their inaugural season. Check out their official collection of ultimate frisbee jerseys and shorts in their team shop, and read our Q&A with the 99s' Felicia Yang below.

Savage: Tell us about your background in ultimate.

Felicia Yang: I started playing intramurals as a freshman at USC. My very first tournament was Sean Ryan Memorial in Santa Cruz. I had a terrible time and vowed that this tournament would be my last. The next week practice rolled around and I needed a break from schoolwork, so I sucked it up and went back. I ended up finding ultimate to be a fun way to get exercise, relieve stress, meet new people and take a mental break from the college grind. It took some time after college to commit to the club scene, but now I'm hooked and ultimate is a huge part of my life.

Savage: What's the part you played in bringing WestCoast Women's Pro Ultimate to life? 

FY: I was very disappointed to learn about the attempt for a similar event in 2018 that didn't come to fruition. I believed that the Aviators and Growlers ownership had genuine intentions of creating opportunities for women to play and be seen, and needed a hand in bringing those intentions to life. They didn't get the help they needed last year, and I saw this as an opportunity to take action and contribute my logistical organization skills to promote change. I believe that if I care enough about something—visibility and opportunity for women in ultimate in this case—then I need to put forth my best effort to make something happen. Otherwise, I don't have a right to complain that it doesn't exist. 

Savage: Who are some other key players we should know about? 

FY: Katie Killebrew is a long-standing leader in the ultimate community. I first met her while playing at USC and she was one of the most welcoming, inclusive, energetically loud people around. She's dedicated much of her time toward coaching and captaining women's ultimate in Los Angeles over the last decade. She's one of the people who I constantly see taking action to contribute to a cause that she cares about, and I admire her dedication.

Many of the other women on 99s and Wolfpack have also dedicated time toward coaching and captaining. This includes Jenny Norris, Lizzy Cowan, Sheila Robles, Ali Webster, Amy Lee, Linda Venema, Lisa Shipek, Sheliemae Reyes, Simrit Khalsa, Stacy Tran, Allison Brown and Annie Kean. How amazing is it to see how much these women care about the community and what they're willing to give back. I know I missed people too, so apologies for that.

Savage: Why do you think WestCoast Women's Ultimate is important? 

FY: There's been so much momentum behind empowering women in our society recently. As an engineer in a male-dominated aerospace industry, showing that women belong in sports is just as important as demonstrating that women are equally capable in an academic, professional, and engineering setting. Visibility of diverse people in all of these fields is imperative in continuing to push for more equity in our society. This pro series is just one step in pushing toward a future society that is more inclusive and provides equal opportunities to a broader range of people. Women in other sports have been amazing role models in paving a path toward better representation, from Venus Williams in women's tennis, Ronda Rousey in MMA, the 99ers in women's soccer, and Becky Hammon in men's and women's basketball.

Savage: Tell us about the educational component of WestCoast Women's Pro Ultimate.

FY: The most important thing right now is shifting the mindset around women's sports and showing everyone that they are just as entertaining and impressive to watch as men's sports given the same level of resources and development. When we aim high and create an excellent product, then we are more visible to different populations including children. This will give people something to strive for, and will shape the future of ultimate and of women's sports.

Savage: How do you hope this will evolve?

FY: I hope that professional ultimate can become sustainable in general.  How amazing would it be to have resources and income to offset the cost of playing at high levels? The benefit of professional leagues is to grow ultimate and make it more accessible for people to watch and play, but growth comes with some downsides that I think the community needs to be wary of. Visibility is great for growth and equity, and I hope the ultimate community can maintain its closeness as it becomes self-sustainable.

STEM Ultimate coach Joe Norskov is the best kind of role model. The Knoxville resident is using Ultimate and his connections to help advance the mission of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. It’s a cause that’s been dear to his heart since he learned that a teammate was struggling with the disease. Since then, he’s made it his mission to help find a cure. 

Recently, Joe was nominated as for the 2019 class of Rising Stars by the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. As part of that, he’s raising money for the organization. At press time, he’s raised nearly $8000 toward his $10,000 goal. You can help Joe reach his goal by shopping this exclusive "Joe Norskov" jersey. Proceeds from this jersey's sales will be contributed to Joe's fundraising campaign. 

Savage is proud to count Joe as a longtime customer, and we recently sat down with him to get to know him a bit better. Here’s what he had to say.

Savage: How did you get your start playing ultimate? What do you love about the sport? 

Joe Norskov: My older brother attended University of Colorado in 2002, which I believe was two years prior to Beau Kittredge's first season. I mention Beau because the iconic Beau Jumps Over a Guy YouTube video was a moment in my life. While my brother never played for the Mamabirds, he attended lots of pickup games and brought home the sport to me. I tried and failed to get people at my high school interested, but luckily when I tried in college I had a senior co-founder who was well versed in student government. We started the team at my alma mater Maryville College in 2005 and were the bad news bears of D3 college ultimate. Crowning achievement: we beat Harvard's B-team at B-Easterns one year for maybe like 13th place (possibly lower). Many of those teammates became lifelong friends and 4/7ths of my groomsmen at my wedding were college teammates.  

Two main things I love about ultimate: there's an inherent beauty of a disc in flight and the community is incredible. I gave a Pecha Kucha talk in May 2018 that outlines many of the reasons I believe ultimate can help society improve. Conflict resolution, accountability, and being able to laugh at oneself are incredibly important life skills. Those skills are common in ultimate players. 

Savage: What's your involvement in the Knoxville scene? What makes it special? 

JN: The Knoxville scene has given me a lot and I am just trying to give back. Analogy: If you ride on the bus for a while, it's only fair to take a turn driving. I am on the board for Knoxville Youth Ultimate as treasurer and run our winter goalty league as a board member for Knoxville Ultimate Club. This is the sixth school year I've been involved with youth and am the assistant head coach of L&N STEM Academy. We placed seventh in the nation last year at Cut's national invite tourney in Rockford, Illinois. For the adult club, I've been captaining summer, fall, and winter leagues for four years and have been running winter league for three years… Knoxville ultimate is a community that has been pushing for high level ultimate in all the right ways for years: youth and co-ed or women's ultimate. What makes the Knoxville scene particularly special to me is that I met my now wife on a summer league team five years ago.

Savage: When did you start taking an interest in fighting Cystic Fibrosis? Can you tell us about your friend? 

JN: I met him playing ultimate in college and his name quickly became a verb on our team. Pulling a Chris Allen meant you made some ridiculous shot that most people couldn't, or otherwise performed far above average. His first year of playing he was just a cut above everyone as a natural athlete. At one cold tournament, we noticed his hands turning a little blue and we started asking questions. He explained he had this disease since birth that caused among other things poor circulation. Over the course of our years together on the ultimate team, I could see him declining a bit due to the other terrible effects of CF. Luckily in 2012, the drug Kalydeco was released and it worked really well for him. We were able to play summer league together with many of our old college teammates in 2015. Our dismal record didn't reflect how much fun we had.

Savage: Tell us about your Cystic Fibrosis Foundation campaign.

JN: My campaign is part of my nomination for the 2019 class of Rising Stars by the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. Rising Stars are outstanding young professionals in the Knoxville community recognized for their commitment to volunteerism and career achievement. My work with Knoxville Youth Ultimate was a major contributor to my nomination. As part of this award, I pledged to raise funds for the organization. I have happily doubled my initial goal and have since increased it twice. It is amazing to see such incredible generosity for such a worthy cause.

Savage: Have you found that the ultimate community is supportive of charitable causes like this? 

JN: The local ultimate community has been huge. Friends of mine realized the opportunity and decided to make a Knoxville ultimate table at the black tie gala that will honor all Rising Stars. Many other people in the ultimate community have pitched in as well with individual donations. Other charitable causes in the past have included helping to fund Knoxville's youth teams when they traveled to their first national tournament (Knoxville high school women's team placed ninth last year at the national invite as well — they're awesome!), helping to fund medical bills, helping after a skiing accident, volunteering to clean up a local park of invasive plant species in exchange for field access, and many, many others.

Savage: Anything else you want to add?

JN: Before starting this fundraising campaign as part of receiving my Rising Star recognition, I was very averse to asking for help, donations, or sponsorships. This process has taught me that people want to help, donate, and sponsor if you ask. You just have to ask.  

Elon Ultimate's Big Fat Bomb is one of those teams Savage has been working with for longer than we remember. We love making ultimate jerseys for this crew, because they look so dang good wearing them. I mean, just look at them. Here, seven questions with BFB's Ethan Gould. {And here, Big Fat Bomb's Team Marketplace.}

Savage: What does your team name mean?

BFB: It's a heart attack of a sandwich at Paulie's Pub. What more do you need?

Savage: Tell us about a team highlight from the past year.

BFB: This. 

Savage: Where's your favorite place to play? 

BFB: Myrtle Beach. We are excited for Easterns Qualifier after going to D-III Easterns three years ago. (Savage will be there too as the official merchandiser!)

Savage: What makes your team unique? 

BFB: Bomb embraces anybody. If you can breathe and you want to play ultimate, you're welcome on our team. We also have been playing with an unique side stack like Revolver.

Savage: Who are some of your MVPs and what sets them apart? 

BFB: Everybody is an MVP if everybody plays their role and does their job. Team wins > individual wins.

Savage: How does your team celebrate a win? 

BFB: Team "Big Fat Bombs" at Paulie's. We win tournaments and our bellies deserve a treat! 

Savage: What's your hype song?

BFB: "Rise and Shine," J. Cole. ITS A BANGER.

Ultimate fans everywhere have been buzzing about the trailer for a new documentary that promises to tell the untold story of racial, class, and gender equity in the sport of ultimate frisbee. We talked to The Sky Is Red documentary producer Julia Johnson about her background in ultimate and filmmaking, and the next steps for this much-anticipated documentary.

Savage: What's your role in developing The Sky is Red documentary? 

Julia Johnson: I was approached about this project after Lili (Gu) and Brittany (Kaplan) had already been initially connected. They each had two different ideas about some type of video project, both about ultimate and touching on different topics that we now showcase in The Sky Is Red, including gender equity, the history of women in ultimate, racial equity, and class equity, and how all those things play together within the ultimate community as well as the part they play in the larger sports culture.

We pulled on elements from each and strengthened what already overlapped and took that frame of mind and found the stories we wanted to highlight and tell in this film. As the EP and originally the only producer on the project, I sit in on most of the creative story meetings, and have the space to provide feedback and provide input into any of the decisions as an equal third. Due to the nature of the filming schedule and the need for someone to take on all the logistics, that fell toward me and more of the creative work fell to the two directors, but now that we are off the road we are restructuring and all developing this project together. It is very much a development process despite having filmed most of it already, and it will be through the end.  

Savage: Who else are you working with? 

JJ: The two other main people on this project are Brittany Kaplan and Lili Gu. They are co-directing, and Brittany is also editing. Lili is helming any treatments or writing that needs to be done. The three of us are producing the film together, and I am currently an Executive Producer on the film also. We all of course wear many other hats as well in this process large and small. In terms of filming, we were very fortunate to be joined on the road by Tim Toda who was our DP (Director of Photographer) and Mia Greenwald who did production sound and has done all our graphic design as well. 

Savage: What's your background in film and ultimate?

JJ: I began playing ultimate my freshman year of college at USC. My dorm mate dragged me to practice, and soccer wasn’t going to start for a few weeks. Let’s just say I never made it to soccer tryouts. I knew of ultimate frisbee as a sport from growing up in Atlanta and my brother played in high school, but it took me a while to connect my brothers “ultimate” to the “ultimate” I had started playing. After going to a few practices, I never looked back and jumped pretty full force into the sport and the community. I played four years at USC on the Hellions of Troy, including captaining, and I have played club with LA Reign, LA Viva, and San Diego Wildfire. I currently play for Seattle Underground.

I studied Film and TV Production in college along with business law. I learned pretty early on that production and specifically producing was where I wanted to land. I have worked producing a number of things from shorts to music videos to events to live TV, but this is my first foray into a feature film. I currently work on staff, full-time on a production team for an advertising agency in Seattle while continuing to work on TSIR on my lunch breaks and late into the night.  

Savage: You raised nearly $77K on Kickstarter... Were you surprised by the response? What will this kind of budget allow you to do?

JJ: I don’t think surprised is the right word. I very consciously worked to manage my personal expectations during this process. Of course I was hopeful that we’d raise as much money as possible, but at the end of the day Kickstarter and fundraising in that way is not how projects get the money they need in totality. It is 100 percent necessary to get the project off the ground, and it is as much a way to gather a following and spread the word as it is to get liquid money up front. I am so thankful for every single person that has shown us love and sent us money they were able to donate. In fundraising and working on grassroots projects like this, it’s really important to trust in the work you are doing, but not to the extent of being too hopeful and thinking you’ll get money that you don’t get. I live by the motto “Hope for the best, but prepare for the worst.”

We wrote this on the Kickstarter page but in order to get this film completed we need at least $600,000. For the 16-week tour alone we spent about $150,000. We would never have been able to go on the road like we did without the amazing support of our Kickstarter participants, and I do want to be upfront about what it takes to get a project like this through to completion. We surpassed our original set goal on the Kickstarter platform, and that was amazing. Deciding what that goal should be was a really hard part of a lot of conversations between Brittany, Lili, and myself. In the end, we settled on $65,000. It felt great to end up surpassing that goal, and I had to really be grateful for that without letting the idea that it was only step 1 of our financial needs cloud the success in our campaign. 

Savage: Why do you think so many people stepped forward to contribute to this project?

JJ: It’s really easy to say that our project needs to be completed so people’s stories can be shared and that we as filmmakers are doing important work. I think it’s harder to recognize that this is just one vehicle that can help our community and the greater sports society on righting a lot of inequities and that it isn’t “the answer”. No one knows what is the “right” answer. We can all just contribute to the process in ways that we can, and at the end of the day, for me as a filmmaker, that means touching people through empathy and through sharing stories and experiences with an open heart and an open mind. I think people in the community believe in us and our project. I think they trust our team to approach it with the perspective of everything I said above and most importantly giving agency to the people who are sharing their stories with us and being vulnerable. 

Savage: At what point are you in filming now? How is it coming along?

JJ: Right now we are doing a lot of production work that got put on hold while on the road. This includes the less glamorous work of production like accounting and contracts and more fundraising and planning. We will need to film a few more scenes, revisiting our main subjects and capturing the passage of time since we saw them a year ago, but the bulk of our filming is done. Once we get the funds, we will then be able to rendezvous as a group and shoot the remaining scenes with our subjects’ schedules. 

Savage: When will the film be released? 

JJ: The short answer is we hope to have it done and on the festival circuit by 2021. The long answer is that it totally depends on funding and a lot of other variables in and out of our control. All of the three leads work full time because we need to be able to support ourselves, and so while we devote as much time to this film as possible, we are very dependent on funding. 

Savage: Anything else we should know about it? 

JJ: You can check out our new website that we dropped with the trailer at skyisredfilm.com AND we are very much still appreciating and in need of monetary donations. You can head to our website to donate as well via PayPal or contact us at skyisredfilm@gmail.com for mailing checks or alternative ways to help, including connecting us with any other donors. 

The last few weeks, we've been interviewing some Savage teams that were headed to D-III College Championships in Illinois. Now, we're moving on to the D-I teams, starting with Stanford's Bloodthirsty. Thanks to Jack August Kimmel for answering these questions for us.

Savage: Any pre-game rituals?

JAK: Stanford Bloodthirsty is a team full of goofy, fun savages, and we use these traits to our advantage when facing off against opponents. Before each game, we focus on bringing the hype and energy from the very first point to the very last point of the game, and this starts with our warmup. In our warmup jog, our team does a chant that we learned from a former player who grew up in Mali, and although nobody knows exactly what it means, it certainly gets our team focused and energized. Right before the game, we end our warmup by huddling tightly and unleashing the hype through a chant or cheer.

Savage: How do you celebrate a win? Mourn a loss? 

JAK: Our team thrives on the energy and swagger that comes from our intense defense and systematic offense on the field, but our sideline also plays a large role in maintaining high energy levels throughout the game. To keep this enthusiasm stable, we cheer after every point, win or lose, knowing that we need to immediately focus on the next point. Ultimate tournaments are often structured such that games are played consecutively, meaning we need to not only be able to carry our energy from point to point, but also from game to game. That’s why, win or lose, we are sure to always maintain focus on the next game, and engaging in ridiculous cheers and playing music helps remind us who Bloodthirsty is: a team full of goofy, fun savages.

Ironically, one aspect of our team’s cheers that set us apart from other teams is our unashamed willingness to steal cheers from other teams. We aren’t Ducks, Hodags, or Airsquid, but if a cheer sounds catchy or cool, we have no problem using it. But when we aren’t copying cheers, we’re usually yelling about Crab People, Shrek, Solar Shields, or the number 4.

Savage: Who are your MVPs?

JAK: The three captains that have led our team throughout this season are the MVPs of our team. Gabe Hernandez, Allan Ndovu, and Drew Mathieson have inspired and motivated us to play for each other and have fun no matter the outcome of a point or game. Our team will surely miss these three seniors next year, and they have created a team culture and demanded a level of play that has brought us back to nationals for our second straight year. 

Considering that swagger is such an important element of our team culture and identity, we would be remiss not to mention the role our Savage Ultimate apparel and uniform play in maintaining our team’s swag.  Look good, feel good, play good. It’s that simple. When our team is repping the joggers and the quarter-zips in warmups, the parents are wearing the team T-shirts, and by game time we all have on those Savage jerseys, we know we are absolutely stunting on our opponents. Pair these with our signature sunglasses, the Solar Shields, and add in a chant about the number 4, and there is no stopping us. We can’t thank Savage Ultimate enough for keeping our swagger at maximum levels and ensuring that we not only play well, but we also look good while doing it.