The Colorado Summit is a men’s professional ultimate Frisbee team based in metro Denver. Tim Kefalas, who coaches the ultimate team, says a few people sent him the poll when they saw "Summit" as an option for the new NWSL team.
He and others on the team are worried that people might have voted for the Summit without realizing there is already a team with that name here.
“We're super excited that there's another sports team coming to Denver,” Kefalas says, emphasizing that the ultimate team supports Denver NWSL and looks forward to welcoming them to the state. “I think it would be a little bit confusing if there were multiple sports entities in town that were the Colorado Summit. ...We're not the biggest mainstream sport, but we're definitely growing and building out some of that awareness.”
The Summit play in the Ultimate Frisbee Association, which was the American Ultimate Disc League before rebranding in 2024. The team played its first season in 2022 after two of the club’s owners — Matt Krei and Darin DeLay — had acquired the rights to put a team in the state in 2014.
Currently, 24 teams play in the UFA, which officially licensed the Frisbee trademark in 2024 at the time of the name change. The Summit play at Marv Kay Stadium in Golden on the Colorado School of Mines campus.
“It's a super awesome venue, a great atmosphere, great energy at the games,” Kefalas says, noting around 1,000 fans purchase tickets to each game. “We've really worked hard to establish ourselves in the Colorado community.”
The Summit has already had postseason success, too. The team reached the semifinals in 2022 and made the playoffs in 2023, but missed the postseason last year.
Tryouts for the 2025 season were held in January and the preseason is currently underway, Kefalas says. Last week, the team made a splash by signing former NFL wide receiver Rodney Adams to the roster.
“It's kind of uncharted territory, but really fun stuff that we're pioneering here,” Kefalas says.
NWSL Name Mixup
Before the Summit started playing, the team’s owners struggled to find just the right name before landing on the Summit.Eventually, they decided on the Summit because the name fits with their values.
“We've really worked hard the last four years to build up what the Summit means to us and what the Summit means to Denver and Golden,” Kefalas says.
Kefalas agrees that the Summit might be the best name on the Denver NWSL poll, but he admits he's a little biased. The other options for the new women's soccer team: Denver Peak FC, Colorado 14ers FC, Denver Elevate FC, Denver FC and Denver Gold FC.
Of those, he likes the Colorado 14ers, intended to honor the state's numerous 14,000-foot mountain tops, best.
“I've grown up in Colorado my whole life and 14ers are a big part of my background, so that was a pretty cool name to me,” Kefalas says. “Something that's pretty iconic in Colorado is the 14ers, and folks take a lot of pride in hiking them.”
Kefalas says the ultimate team has a trademark pending for the Colorado Summit and hopes the fans — and Denver's NWSL ownership group — select a different name.
"In an ideal world we just get to welcome in a new, awesome sports team to Denver," he says.
Denver's new soccer club will begin play for the 2026 NWSL season as the league’s sixteenth team. The ownership group solicited names from a fan launch event for the team in January as well as on social media and consultation with fans. According to the NWSL Denver franchise, leadership is aware of the Colorado Summit ultimate Frisbee team.
“We have not decided on a team name yet and are reviewing the results of the fan vote in addition to considering the many creative submissions we received," a club spokesperson says.
The Denver NWSL group shares that over 15,000 people voted in the naming poll before it closed on February 26, although exact results aren't expected to be shared publicly.
“Every submission and suggestion will be thoughtfully reviewed as we work toward unveiling the club’s official name, crest, colors, and brand identity at a later date,” the team adds.
The NWSL group is still interested in hearing other ideas for names and is early in the process, including looking into possible trademark issues, according to the club. Eventually, the new soccer team plans to connect with the Colorado Summit, along with other local professional teams in the city, to get to know the Mile High pro sports community.
A good place to start: the Colorado Summit's first ultimate regular season game on April 26. The season opener will be a doubleheader with professional women’s ultimate team, the Colorado Alpenglow, which won the 2024 Western Ultimate League championship.
