Islander savors big Ultimate Frisbee championship win

Last week, Lewis & Clark’s Ultimate Frisbee club team, Bacchus, notched a thrilling 15-14 victory over the Middlebury Pranksters to claim the team’s first-ever men’s national D-III college championship in the sport.

The championship match was filled with dramatic turns, according to Ultiworld sportswriter Josh Katz, who wrote that it would be “etched into history as one of the best D-III games of all time.” And it was also cause for celebration on Vashon.

That’s because one of the four captains for Bacchus, Levi Stahl, now a junior at Lewis & Clark, grew up on the island. He’s the son of Risa and Eliyahu Stahl.

Both proud parents were part of a roaring crowd of Bacchus fans cheering the team on throughout the tournament, played in Burlington, Washington, from May 17-19.

Risa’s joy in witnessing the championship game, she said, was “indescribable” — as was her and her husband’s pleasure at hosting 15 of the team’s 22 players who accompanied Levi back to Vashon on the day after the win for a celebration at his family’s home.

“I’m super proud of the team, and Levi,” Risa said. “They all worked so hard.”

Levi — whose role on the team is to guard the opposing team’s best handler — was singled out for special praise by Katz in his coverage of the championship win, calling Levi’s playing “crucial to the Bacchus victory.”

Katz also detailed the team’s dogged progress throughout the tournament leading up to the championship game.

“It was an incredible run through the bracket for Bacchus: they avenged numerous defeats to Whitman over the past three seasons, avenged [a] pool play defeat to Middlebury, and came out on top in two instant classics,” he wrote. “If they could write their own script for their first championship, I’m not sure it would’ve played out all that differently.”

One particular play in the game — an almost impossibly arching, balletic catch by Bacchus team member Leo Farley on the goal line late in the game — earned the number one spot on ESPN SportsCenter’s Top 10 Plays of the day.

From soccer to disc

In his high school years, Levi was part of another legendary team as a starting freshman on the Vashon High School soccer team that brought home the school’s first-ever 1A State Championship in 2019.

Despite pandemic interruptions, the team continued to shine in following years, with three Nisqually League championships as well as a district championship in Levi’s junior year.

For his contributions to Pirates soccer, Levi was named in his junior and senior years to the All-League First Team.

After his graduation in 2022, Levi set off to join the soccer team of Lewis & Clark, where he played one season before switching to Frisbee.

“I fell in love with the sport,” Levi said in an interview, extolling the sense of supportive camaraderie he has found woven into his experience as a Bacchus player.

“This team is much more than a team that competes to win, it’s a community that has been built up over the years,” he said, pointing out that Lewis & Clark’s women’s team also took third place in nationals. “We trusted each other and trusted our coaches, and at the end of the day we were the better team. And our families and alumni and the women’s team were there, cheering us on, which was so important.”

Levi also detailed his own journey through injury leading up to the championship.

Almost a year ago, he underwent surgery and rehab to repair a torn labrum in his right shoulder which had kept him off the field in his sophomore season with Bacchus. His rehab stretched for almost six months — even as he studied abroad in Prague during the fall of his junior year.

There, he had played — but with his left hand only — with a Czech club team called the Terrible Monkeys.

But after returning to Lewis & Clark, and finally playing with both hands again, he suffered another injury in January, breaking his left hand.

“I thought I was going to miss the whole season again, but [then] decided to play with my right hand only,” he said — noting that that the first time since January he had played without a brace on his hand was at the national championship games.

“I’d just wanted to contribute to my team,” Levi said, of his decision to keep playing. “I knew I could make up for my lack of offensive presence with defensive effort and by working hard.”

He pointed out that he wasn’t the only Bacchus player who had suffered injuries in the past year. Still, he said, he and other team members, who entered the national tournament with 20 wins and only three losses, had confidence they could go all the way this year.

“We knew that when we were full-strength we could do it,” he said. “Fortunately, the stars aligned and everyone was healthy at nationals, and then we went out there and played a higher level than we ever had before.”

What’s next for Levi? Summer club play in Portland, and then he’ll return as one of the senior captains for Bacchus in the fall — all the while keeping up with his studies in sociology and anthropology, which now have him on track to graduate with honors in the spring of 2026.

Levi, in his interview, was also quick to give shout-outs to mentors on Vashon, including McMurray Middle School teacher Tim Heryford (known to students as Mr. T.), who first introduced him to both Ultimate Frisbee and disc golf in two elective classes he had taken in middle school.

He also credited a strong Vashon Park District program of pick-up disc practices, for all ages, run by Vashon High School teacher and disc coach Nic Warmenhoven, at 7 p.m. on Monday evenings at McMurray or VHS fields.

Levi noted that he was not the only islander now playing Frisbee at a college level. Zach Van Dusen, who had also played Pirates soccer before graduating in 2021, had gone on to play Frisbee at Bates College, where he just graduated.

“We support each other,” said Levi. “It’s a testament to the Frisbee community. It’s small but tight-knit, and I want my friend’s team to do well too.”