Meet The 2023 ACL Pro and PDC Team Ultra
Team Ultra
Ultra’s ACL Pro and PDC Team underwent a number of changes for the 2023 Season. Coming back were some key players. Shootout #8 winners Tyler Parent and Brevon Valdivia return. They proved to be a great addition late last season. Also returning is the #7 ranked singles player in the world, Noah Almanza. He had a breakout year in 2022. Doug Zafft and Bagin’ Bill Hadley will continue to throw Ultra for their 5th season as ACL Pros. They ranked 25th in Doubles last season. Doug had a standout singles season in 2022 as well. This forms a strong foundation for 2023 from which to we built.
Checkout our Pro and PDC players here:
There are photos of each player in the link.
New Faces
For the upcoming season Ultra’s Mark Pryor, Rich Norman and Richard Morgan evaluated the talent when building the team. New players were brought into the fold to help shake things up. The goal was to give Team Ultra some strong doubles teams to compete for National wins.
The #27 ranked Doubles team of Tyce and Tubby Cobb joined the team for 2023. The Mississippi natives cited their preference for Ultra’s lineup of bags and a change in playing style they felt were better matched for them to win with.
Joe Kniesteadt who ranked at 29th overall in singles switched things up. For the 2023 season he has partnered with Team Ultra’s Jeremy Schermerhorn. Schermerhorn was tied at 27th in doubles last season with his previous partner Derek Singleton. This creates a formidable duo out of the state of Michigan. The partnership looks to be off to a great start. Joe K. and Jeremy finished second at National #1 and recently took home the Michigan State Championship.
Another team that came together was Mr. Stovepipe, Duncan Clemmer and Noah Almanza. At National #1 this newly formed team notched a bracket 3rd place finish. They now rank 9th overall in Pro Doubles. We look forward to seeing what Duncan and Noah can do together going forward.
Women’s Division
The ACL’s Women’s Division got a makeover for 2023. At the Pro Level, the ACL’s female Pros will no longer play Women’s Pro Doubles. Open Women’s Singles replaces Doubles. This allows women from outside of the Pro division to compete against the ACL’s best female players (Pro and PDC). To bolster Team Ultra’s female lineup, former World Champion Sarah Cassidy signed on to throw Ultra. She is excited to have a strong support team this season . Cassidy loves throwing the Ultra Viper. Breakout female player Yetty Irwan joined the team for 2023 too. She has already secured the New Mexico Open Women’s Championship and the Mountain South Women’s Singles Championship since joining Team Ultra. Rounding out our new Women’s players is rookie Gina Ramirez. Gina has been on a tear in the West winning the Conference’s two Women’s Singles tournaments.
Seniors
Not to be outdone by the incredible new additions in the Women’s Division, Team Ultra added former World Champion Double D, Daymon Dennis to the team. Dennis has an incredible amount of experience in the Pro Division. Jimmy Mcguffin partners with Double D for 2023. The duo finished 1st and 2nd overall in the new Open Senior’s Tournament at National #1. They join another former World Champion, Bill Hadley, on the team. Wisconsin’s Senior State Champion Steve Schroeder and Michigan’s Senior Champion Tom Walter round out the senior Ultra players. These guys all like playing some of the fastest bags in the Ultra lineup like Psycho and Psycho-X
Players to Watch
The Team Ultra lineup is deep. 54 Pro and PDC players are signed to the team. There is sure to be some breakout talent in the group. Some of the players to watch include Jeremy Frazier from Illinois. Frazier had a very strong performance at National #1. He finished 6th in his bracket with veteran partner Dave Sutton. Frazier ranks 25th in Pro Singles after National #1. He is ranked 7th in the ACL’s Open standings as of mid April.
Alan Rawls joins Frazier on the watch list. Rawls finished first in his Pro Singles bracket at National #1 making the ESPN broadcast. This is no easy task. Rawls had to work through a bracket of 64 ACL Pros to make TV. At the ACL’s Winter Haven Open, Rawls picked up the overall singles championship.
Another player to watch is Nick Williams. Nick had a solid rookie year before coming to Ultra. He has been playing even better since. He won the West Conference Singles Tournament in April. The bag change is sure to benefit his partner Andreu Labrador. Labs returns to throwing the bags that he used to make his way into the Pro Division.
Coming off a strong 2022 season is Ty Lopez. Lopez broke out at the ACL World Championships in August. He switched partners this season but that did not appear to slow him down as he and Team Ultra’s Eric Tscherne picked up a bracket 5th and sit at 17th overall in Pro Doubles after the Kickoff Battle.
Lopez’s former partner, Pedro Zazueta Jr. will be playing with his brother Moses Zazueta this year. This team is poised to do big things after a strong run in the Pro Shootout series in 2022. They already have won the West Conference’s Doubles Championship and the ACL’s New Mexico Open Doubles Championship. This is sure to be a team to keep on your radar.
Rookies
Lots of Rookies joined Team Ultra for the 2023 Season. Kentucky’s Ryan Hart, Texas’s Felix Vargas III and Jonathan Segura, California’s Corey Ballard, Wisconsin’s Dan Walker Jr and Blake Karnick, all join Florida’s Chris Kingsbury and Arizona’s Gina Ramirez as ACL Pro rookies throwing Ultra this season. This is a strong group with deep experience at the Open and Conference level events. Kingsbury notched a bracket win in Open Singles at ACL Open #5 earlier this season. This group will face a stronger than ever ACL Pro field. We believe they have what it takes to compete and win.
PDC
Team Ultra features some of the PDC’s top performers. Mason Morgado and Teanitia Lashley head the group. Both performed very well at the Kickoff Battle and secured spots in that weekend’s Pro Singles and Doubles brackets. Morgado had a solid run in Pro Singles and currently ranks 53rd in the Pro Singles Standings after National #1. He is the highest ranked PDC player in the ACL’s Pro division.
What’s Next?
Next up for the Pros will be the ACL’s Cornhole Mania which will take place May 19 thru 21st in Erie, Pennsylvania. You can follow our pros on our facebook page or their own social media platforms.
