July 18, 2018

Models Announcement: Robin Ellis-Cockcroft, Louise Bentham, Daniel Arias Garcia, Kelsey Gibboney

Our second model reveal includes four great applicants who we knew deserved to be part of this project. If you haven't seen the first round of reveals, click here.

Robin Ellis-Cockcroft

Robin switch to ultimate seemed like a total 180: he grew up play rugby, a sport that he says had an aggressive culture (hazing, obscene banter and a need to intimidate your teammates). He distinctly remembers walking into the sports hall at his school and seeing Sophie and Megan throwing a frisbee, and he knew he wanted in.

What we really like about Robin is that this rugby athlete who comes from a dominantly male background was able to use two strong female athletes as his role models for the sport, which is something we believe should happen more. Young boys and girls should be able to look up to any athlete, no matter the gender.

Robin also co-coached his university team with Alejandra, another strong female role model in his life. He believes that promoting gender equity in our community is a must, and hopes to one day move to the South Pacific and help create the first women's mixed Fijian ultimate while doing his work in renewable energy engineering.

Finally, Robin understands how important the ultimate community is to players. It's support and inclusion helps his sister overcoming every day battles, because "the ultimate community never demands you to be a certain thing." Reading Robin's story sent chills down our spines, and if you ever have the chance to meet this remarkable player, take the time to hear his story.

Send us photos from Fiji, Robin. Welcome to the team.

Louise Bentham

Louise's application was short and sweet. She started playing ultimate when her brother introduced her to the sport 5 years ago and she's never looked back. 5 years later, and she's heading to Worlds with her team! The feeling of being a part of something bigger than herself motivates her to continue pushing herself to be better.

We chose Louise to be a model because her values directly align with ours. Here is an excerpt from her application: "I work in the construction industry and fight sexism daily. I want to prove that being smart and having muscles and strength as a women IS sexy!" We couldn't have said it better ourselves!

We are excited to have Louise not only as a model for our clothes, but a role model to women around the world. The Future is Female, and Louise is helping us get there. Welcome to the team.

Daniel Arias Garcia

Daniel Garcia comes from a country filled with some of the funnest yet most competitive ultimate players in the world: Colombia. Daniel credits ultimate for changing his life, from changing his way of thinking and approaching problems, to using it as a release valve to escape the violence that was sometimes present in his neighborhood.

Ultimate is important to Daniel because he's committed half of his life into it, it's made him laugh, cry, helped him meet awesome people and has given him passion. We chose Daniel to be our model because we're excited to have someone represent the Colombian community who is so in love with the sport. His passion for ultimate is infectious and we want him to continue sharing the sport he fell in love with to other people.

Keep being a shining beacon in your community, Daniel. Welcome to the team.

Kelsey Gibboney

Kelsey has always been a leader in her frisbee community. Having turned down a Division 1 soccer scholarship, Kelsey captained her college ultimate team 4 of the 5 years she was there. Now, Kelsey has started a new club team in her city and she is putting the work in to ensure that someday they will be great. Kelsey also coaches high school teams where she regularly leads discussions about gender equity, fairness, and diversity.

However, the main reason we picked Kelsey to be our model is because of what and who she represents. Kelsey struggled to feel like she was part of a family, but ultimate did that. On top of that, Kelsey told us that she was never able to identify with anyone she saw in media due to either lack of representation or negative representation. We see that as a major flaw in our system, and we want to give Kelsey a platform to inspire and provide love and confidence to people in our community.

We are excited to have you represent us and other gender non-conforming people in our community. Welcome to the team, Kelsey.