Imagine if Alex Ovechkin and three of his teammates told the Washington Capitals they weren’t returning next year – unless the NHL put in a rule that three of the six players on the ice must identify as female.

Perhaps Markham Shofner, Alan Kolick, Joe Freund and Tyler Monroe aren’t quite as high-profile as the Capitals’ star attackers. They played last year for the DC Breeze of American Ultimate Disc League, where the financial stakes are a bit lower. At one Breeze game, after a particularly good throw and catch for a goal (the equivalent of a touchdown pass), a fan yelled, “That’s why they pay you the double digits!”

But they are indeed not playing. They’re not hurt, and they’re not complaining about the money. They just think women should have the same opportunity he has to be called a professional ultimate player.

“When I realized I was sad to be giving (pro ultimate) up, what I thought was that this is something women who are just as good as me, respectively, at ultimate never get to experience,” Shofner said. “And that doesn’t seem fair to me.”

The AUDL is officially an open league. Women can try out, and they occasionally make a team. Shofner’s sister, Jesse, played last season for the Nashville Nightwatch. She, like her brother, is among nearly 150 players who signed a statement pledging to boycott the 2018 season, which began 31 March. More players, like Monroe, joined after the statement was signed.

The boycotting players don’t want just a couple of women scattered through the league’s 23 teams. They want something much closer to 50/50 – perhaps through each AUDL club supporting a women’s team, or perhaps through mixed-gender teams.

Mixed ultimate, usually four men and three women per side, is popular at the club level, where most of the AUDL players compete for much of the year, either on men’s or mixed teams. The site frisbee-rankings.com counts 189 men’s teams, 84 women’s teams and 229 mixed teams. Mixed ultimate also was the only flying disc sport in the 2017 World Games, where ultimate legend Beau Kittredge and the USA won gold and Sarah Griffith got plenty of attention with a spectacular one-handed grab.

Mixed-gender events aren’t totally new. The International Volleyball Association of the 1970s, best known for 7ft 1in NBA legend Wilt Chamberlain’s appearances, included women, though often in confined defensive roles. The just-concluded Winter Olympics featured mixed doubles curling, mixed team events in Alpine skiing and figure skating, and mixed relays in biathlon and luge.

But the current standard-bearer for mixed play is Quidditch, the sport taken from the fictional universe of Harry Potter and adapted for flightless humans.

Title 9¾, an irresistible play on the law that boosted women’s college sports (Title IX) and the platform to find the train to Hogwarts (9¾), does indeed go one step (or ¾ of a step) farther than Title IX by explicitly welcoming trans athletes.

“Title 9¾ is a shining example of how gender inclusivity can not only occur in a younger, forward-thinking sport but can also contribute to its growth and success,” Major League Quidditch representatives said in a statement to the Guardian. “Quidditch strongly encourages mixed gender gameplay at all levels in ultimate and every other sport. We imagine a future where gender equality and inclusivity is the norm in sports, not the exception.”

Quidditch can be a surprisingly physical game. But unlike IVA volleyball in the 1970s, there are no designated roles for men or women. Ultimate works the same way.

“If you’re playing mixed well, it’s very seamless,” said Kelly Ross, a former University of Virginia women’s player and now co-captain of DC-area mixed club Rally (formerly Ambiguous Grey). “Everyone has their role but it’s not gender-specific. You really utilize both your women and men if you want to be a good team. You’ll see teams that don’t, and they don’t have success.”

Ross is part of a committee in the DC area working on gender-equity initiatives. But she is not boycotting the AUDL this season; in fact, she tried out for the Breeze. Several Breeze players are on the committee as well.

“I feel that there’s been an underrepresentation,” said Breeze player Delrico Johnson. “It’s easy to jump into a sport as a male and be recognized as good. When a woman does the same thing, you hear, ‘that’s good for a woman’ or ‘that’s good for a girl.’ I think this committee is focused on changing that stigma. If we see women on the same level as we do men, we can appreciate the same plays.”

The AUDL is listening, at the very least. The league has partnered with EuroStars, a touring team of European women’s players, for the Americus Pro Cup, in which the EuroStars travel the country and face US women’s teams.

“This year, we are embarking on a three-year agreement with the EuroStars as the centerpiece of our efforts to advance women’s ultimate, which is a part of our greater social agenda aimed at also addressing race and socio-economic inequity in our sport,” AUDL commissioner Steve Gordon said in a statement to the Guardian. “As we expand our efforts in these areas, we are keeping a close eye on the potential for growth of mixed ultimate and in fact, some of our teams are beginning mixed teams in early efforts to advance the mixed model.”

Indeed, several AUDL franchises have put together women’s or mixed teams to compete at least a few times over the summer season. The Atlanta Hustle have a female coach, Miranda Roth Knowles.

The teams’ actions are bringing some players back into the fold, Shofner says, but he and others aren’t quite ready to declare the overall effort satisfactory.

“A lot of people seem to want to go in the same direction but go different speeds, and that’s where you see a lot of the friction,” Shofner said.

And the boycott is shaking up the league. The initial list of boycotting players included several players from the defending champion San Francisco FlameThrowers, which plummeted to 13th in Ultiworld’s preseason power rankings.

But it’s not the most heated of conflicts. Shofner and the Breeze speak highly of each other despite his decision to boycott. The boycott movement itself isn’t particularly dogmatic – there’s no designated leader, and players haven’t taken a firm position preferring the mixed game or two single-gender teams per franchise.

Other efforts to professionalize mixed ultimate have popped up. The proposed United Ultimate League drew some support but fell short of its funding goals. A mixed Australian Ultimate League is due to launch this year, though it’s really more of a weekend tournament than a full-fledged league.

One clear factor in the gender-equity movement is generational. Ultimate started in the late 1960s but has gained momentum more recently, and Quidditch didn’t even exist in anyone’s imagination until JK Rowling started writing in the late 1990s. Most players in both sports played on college campuses, where academia’s interest in gender and equality issues is inescapable.

“I studied international development and human rights in school,” said Breeze player Aaron Langley. “Equity and equal opportunity is important to me and always has been. This is something where opportunities are not equal.”

And because ultimate is still young, particularly at the pro level, there’s opportunity to steer it toward a particular direction.

“I think the sport is still early enough in its infancy that the players can have a voice in shaping the way the sport will grow,” Shofner said.