For the first time in over a quarter century, the Portland Red Tide qualified for the USA Ultimate Club National Championships. Portland earned its spot by placing third at the Northeast Regionals in Devens, Massachusetts, in September.

It’s the first time the Red Tide reached the national stage since qualifying for the tournament in 1998 and 1999. The Portland program was founded in 1988 and is one of the oldest surviving teams in the nation.

This year’s tournament, which started Thursday and runs through Sunday, takes place in San Diego. The Red Tide are 0-5 in the tournament after a going 0-3 in pool play Thursday and losing two consolation bracket games on Friday.

When an observer, Ultimate’s equivalent to a referee, determined Henry Babcock did not commit a foul and scored Portland’s winning point in the regional third-place match against Phoenix, a club from Ottawa, Ontario, team members piled onto the Cape Elizabeth native to celebrate its national tournament bid.

Danny Bronshvayg, a four-time captain for the Red Tide, looked for former captain Davis Ritger during the celebration. The two were instrumental in rebuilding the team’s culture after the pandemic.

“We had talked about this being a possibility,” Bronshvayg said. “Both of us, I think, knew it was a possibility, but I don’t think we really, truly believed that it could actually happen. And we just kind of hugged, and we’re like, ‘Oh my God. This is real.’ It was incredible.”

When Bronshvayg joined the team in 2021, it was grappling with low numbers in the wake of COVID-19, and the exodus of homegrown talent choosing to play in larger Ultimate markets.

“I remember the thing that I would always hear is like, ‘Ah, man, Boston keeps stealing our players. Boston keeps stealing our players,'” Bronshvayg said. “My biggest thing going into becoming a captain (in 2022) was that’s got to stop happening. And it’s not so much of a victim (mentality), like, Oh, they’re stealing our players. But what can we do to keep those players here?”

Some changes, like starting an Instagram page, streamlining internal communication and creating a thorough practice schedule four months before tryouts began helped show current and prospective players that the new Red Tide captain was serious.

It helped when Babcock, named the best Ultimate player at a Division III college or university in 2017, decided he would return to the Red Tide, his former team, in 2022. And so came many local players who the Donovan Award winner coached in Maine Ultimate’s Youth Club Championship and high school programs. Over the past two years, more professional and Team USA-caliber players, like Rocco Linehan, Chuck Cantone, Cole Moore and Noah Backer, have joined the ranks and bolstered the energetic, young squad. Portland went 23-6 in tournament play this season heading into nationals.

The energy extends into the Southern Maine Ultimate community, as many former Red Tide players have rallied around the current team. Rich Young, former president of Maine Ultimate, helped organize a fundraiser at Bayside Bowl in mid-October. Over $16,000 has been donated online to help fund travel, lodging and tournament costs.

“I don’t play Red Tide for myself,” Bronshvayg said. “Ultimate is fun, I enjoy playing Ultimate, but I do it for my teammates, and I do it for the community and for the people that have come before me. … You have these guys that come out of the woodwork that still live in Maine, whose kids play in Maine Ultimate, they coach Maine Ultimate youth leagues. This whole community, in a way, was started by Red Tide, and it’s cool to see these players come out and genuinely be so excited for us and so happy that we were able to accomplish this.”

Of the 16 teams that qualified for nationals, Red Tide was seeded last.

The Portland-based club also represents the smallest market. The next smallest club is from Minneapolis (population approx. 428,000), a city more than six times larger than Maine’s largest (approx. 69,000). The Red Tide aren’t even the biggest team from Portland, as the Oregon-based club Rhino looks to defend its championship crown.

“I don’t know that we feel a lot of pressure,” Bronshvayg said before the tournament. “I think there’s a lot of excitement. I think we don’t really have anything to prove. I think we’re just going out there and if we can get a win in pool play against one of these teams, that would be quite the story. I don’t think it’s impossible, like I think we can do it if we have a good game. Our O-line is really experienced and really good. Our D-line has a lot of fire and a lot of athleticism. There’s a reason we’re going to Nationals. I don’t think it’s a fluke, and I think we could beat some teams out there, for sure.”