Name: Ben Katz

Hometown: Somerville, MA

Degree from UMass: B.S. in Building and Construction Technology

Current Employment: Chief Boiler Engineer for Able Services at Pfizer Inc

Ben and family

Current Place of Residence (who do you live with too?):

Somerville, MA, a half mile away from my parents. Unfortunately all my roommates are Middlebury grads but you can’t win ’em all, right?

Years with Zoo: 2010–2014 (Capt. 2013)- 5 years is the right way to go

Other Teams:

Star Fox (2011–2012)

Ironside (Practice player 2013, 2015, 2017)

Garuda (2013–2014)

Slow White (2016)

Major League Ultimate- Boston Whitecaps (2015–2016)

American Ultimate Disc League- Montreal Royal (2017)

Ben catching a goal on Slow White’s quest to win a nation championship in 2016.

Awards/Titles: Boston Whitecaps- MLU Champion 2015, Slow White- National Champion 2016

Where did you live when you went to UMass?

Freshman Year: Crabtree but spent most of my time in Orchard Hill or Brown House

Sophomore Year: Brett, living with BT

Junior Year through 5th Year: An apartment above the House of Teriyaki, with roommates including Peter Fenton, Sam Richardson and Kevin Norton. DJ and Bailey lived next door Senior Year.

Favorite Restaurant in Amherst: House of Teriyaki for sure. Swapped our WiFi password for food. If only they were open on Sundays…

Favorite Place: Puffer’s Pond, the UPub, the Rec Center

What is one of your best memories of playing with Zoo?

My favorite memory of Zoodisc has to be in 2014 when we made nationals for the first time since 1988. We had an awesome sideline support squad filled with alums who helped build the program and now passed the torch to us. It was special to share that moment with all of them.

I hope the younger generations of Zoo cherish and understand the success they are having, it is not something that is built overnight. All the generations that came before put in the work to get Zoodisc to where it is today and we are all rooting from the sidelines now.

What advice would you give your college self now if you could?

If I could give my college self some advice it would be to really study the older, more experienced players on the team from Freshman Year. Coming from high school to a team so loaded with talented players was fairly intimidating but if you get past that they have so much to teach you.

3 most important qualities of an effective ultimate player:

Field awareness: Be aware of where the disc is, where your team is, and where the other team is. This will allow you to play efficiently and allow your team to work together both on offense and defense.

Communication: Sometimes people have a natural connection with each other coming from years of playing together or a from a very similar approach to the game. In these rare cases non-verbal communication is possible. Most other times you need to yell at each other to get on the same page. Do not shy away from communication. Over communication is much better than no communication.

The ability to grind out points: Ultimate is often played in sub-optimal conditions. You need to be able to mentally and physically get through some long points. These points tend to come down to who wants it more. Make it you.

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