A Life in Frisbee

Roling was nominated for the Callahan Award, the honor for the nation’s most valuable women’s Ultimate player. Courtesy of Kaitlynne Roling

The first thing to know about the Ultimate Frisbee career Kaitlynne Roling ’20 has built is that it was never meant to happen.

When she arrived on campus, she intended to play rugby and then soccer. But neither team would have her.

“When I didn’t get onto the UW club soccer team, I went to Frisbee tryouts,” she says. “The UW has two teams, Bella Donna, which is the A-team, and Atropa, which is the B-team. Bella almost didn’t take me, but there was a person I’d gone to high school with, and she said, ‘She’s an athlete. We should take her.’ And that was it.”

Roling played cutter on the UW squad — “Cutters are like receivers in football,” she says. She quickly established herself in the UW’s Ultimate community and helped lead Bella Donna to the Division I championship tournaments in 2016 and 2019. She was nominated for the Callahan Award, the honor for the nation’s most valuable women’s Ultimate player.

When Roling graduated, she saw an opportunity to continue her career as a professional athlete. She landed a spot on the roster of the Milwaukee Monarchs of the Premier Ultimate League, helping that team win the Premier Ultimate League Midwest championship in 2021 and 2022. Then she moved to Seattle and joined squads in higher-ranking leagues. In 2023, she joined the roster of Seattle Tempest of the Western Ultimate League and helped lead the team to league championships in 2023 and 2026. She also played for the coed Team USA in Beach Ultimate, and her squad placed sixth in the 2025 world championship.

Keep in mind that “professional” Ultimate is hardly lucrative, and even star players need a day job to make ends meet. “I get paid for a season,” Roling says, “but it’s like $50.” She also works as a high school Ultimate coach — her Seattle youth team won the U.S. Open girls’ championship in 2025 — and manages events for the League of Conservation Voters. Still, those are merely means to support her Frisbee playing.

“Frisbee isn’t my hobby,” she says. “It’s my life.”

Published in the Winter 2026 issue