Colorado Springs, Colo. (May 12, 2020) – Coaches for the men’s, mixed and women’s national teams that will compete at the 2021 World Championships of Beach Ultimate (WCBU) were announced today after careful consideration by members of our national team coach selection panel.
Bryan Jones (men’s), John Groess (mixed) and Samantha Broaddus (women’s) will help lead the U.S. National Teams in their pursuit of gold medals in 2021.
Returning after coaching the 2017 men’s team to a gold medal, Jones has continued to stay involved as a coach at all levels of ultimate. He continued his championship winning streak, leading the New York PoNY men’s club team to a national championship in 2018 and a semifinals appearance in 2019. After the University of Connecticut qualified for their first ever D-I College Championships in 2016, Jones helped lead the team back to the tournament in 2017 and 2018. Most recently, Jones has served as a selection assistant to the U-24 and WUGC national teams in 2019 and 2020, respectively.
Groess has been a part of the ultimate community for over 20 years since first playing the sport in high school. He is no newcomer to the international stage, playing ultimate in Madrid, Spain for two years, competing on their 2016 WUGC men’s team and both playing and coaching Quijotes y Dulcineas in the Spanish national series. In 2018, Groess became the head coach of the mixed club team, Minneapolis Drag’n Thrust. More recently, John served as a selection assistant for the 2020 WUGC Mixed National Team.
Broaddus returns to the international beach stage for the first time since 2015, this time as a coach. She competed on the Mixed National Team that took home a bronze medal at the 2015 WCBU in Dubai, was a Lei Out champion in 2015 and finished second at the 2016 and 2017 Beach Championships with the mixed masters team Over the Hill. She played the majority of her career with Washington D.C. Scandal (club), with whom she won two national championships and a bronze medal at the 2014 World Ultimate Club Championships. When not playing on the field, Broaddus is the head coach of Washington D.C. Grit, the club women’s team she helped start in 2015 and grow to be a top-20 team in the last two years, helping Grit make it to the game-to-go at regionals for the past four years.
Dates and the location of the 2021 World Championships of Beach Ultimate, hosted by the World Flying Disc Federation, have yet to be announced.
Applications for all teams representing the U.S. attending the quadrennial event, including tryout information for men’s, mixed and women’s national teams, will be made available at a later date.
