Congrats to our lord and savior Benjamin “Iced by an Inter” Katz! After willing his team to an undefeated regular season, Katz dragged their worthless shells to an undefeated playoff run! To cap off a wonderful playoff weekend, Katz and the New York Empire thrashed the Roughnecks and the AlleyKatz in back to back games.

While we at Ben Katz Official Website enjoy a good gloating session, Katz, as always, remained a loyal team mate, a spirited competitor, and a good sport. Off the field, he could be seen high fiving his team, providing the coaches with detailed analysis of each point, and teaching life lessons to the young fans on the sideline.

Before we hear from our esteemed Kolleague Katz, a word from some of his lesser known Teammates:

Ben Jagt: Honestly Katz taught me how to throw both a flick and a backhand. Before I joined the Empire, I had to just hand the disc over to a handler. Thanks to Ben, I can now throw 30 feet with a flick and backhand. Also I am the lesser Ben

Harper Garvey: Whenever I get nervous on the field, or start to think twice about throwing a full field hammer, I remember the first thing Katz ever said to me: “Dos lebn iz nit mer vi a kholem—ober vek mikh nit oyf.” “Life is no more than a dream- But don’t wake me up!” With this in mind, I let it fly, knowing that Katz will always have my back. I owe everything to him…

Grant Lindsley: I have been playing Ultimate for a long time, and whenever I step on the field, I feel that I am the best player out there. It isn’t ego- it is just a fact. The only time that changes is when I am out there with Katz. Katz reads between the lines of the game of Ultimate- Everyone else is basically playing school yard kick ball, and Katz is out here playing 10 dimensional chess. He makes me feel threatened, excited, and inspired all at the same time.

Jeff Babbit: When I started college at University of Amherst, I was a lost soul. In the morning I would wake up, and instead of going to class, I would just gaze across the pond on campus, searching for direction. Day after day I would stand by that pond, while life continued for everyone else throughout the college, my fellow students busying around like ants on an ant hill. I knew I had to start my life, but I could not figure out which path to take, so I stood by the pond, waiting and watching the ducks.

One day, I felt a hand on my shoulder. Startled, I turned around to see a short man with kind, grey eyes looking back at me. “Hi, my name is Ben” he said. “You look tall and fast; ever thought about playing ultimate frisbee? The rest is history.

Beau Kittredge: I was recruited to the NY Empire with two simple words. “Ben Katz.” Ever since I jumped over that dude I have been the most famous ultimate player alive. The fame changed me. Before I came to the NY Empire, I was chasing money, fame, fortune, and power. I was starting leagues, I was ending leagues, I was winning championships, I was losing championships, etc… Some rich dude paid me a ton of money to live in his guest house. I was in better shape then ever before, but I’d never felt so alone. When I had the chance to leave it all behind, and spend my time with Katz, a player I’d always admired from afar, I had no choice but to uproot myself from Santa Fe or wherever and move to NYC.

Ben showed me the way to a meaningful life. He shared the book Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind: Informal Talks on Zen Meditation and Practice by Shunru Suzuki with me, and highlighted this quote: “The person who can freely acknowledge that life is full of difficulties can be free, because they are acknowledging the nature of life – that it can’t be much else.” 

Wow! Inspiring words from some of his proteges on the NY Empire. BKOW reached out to the sister of Katz for some insight into how he became such a Killer on and off the Field and Kourt;

His third word was Ball…

He’s 8… He goes to play Makhanaym (Yiddish Dodgeball), I’m at A and C and a pattern that would mark the rest of our camp life occurs: someone comes to get me because my brother’s been injured in some way. It seems in his eagerness to chase a runaway ball, he ran smack into the light pole. As people tell it, he was running so fast, his arms and legs slammed together around the pole and the light flickered. When he got up, he was VERY upset that they were making him get checked out in the infirmary. He wanted to keep playing...
(BKOW Note: This story is a legend at Camp Kinderland, but it has morphed into the light bulb fell out off the pole, to even the entire pole was knocked over)

There’s also the time where during a race, he separated the ligaments connected to his hip. He injured himself on the turn, and completed the race in second place…

…As a kid, we went to the YMCA after school, where they had a pool table and ping-pong table. Ben quickly out-grew playing his peers and moved on to playing (and beating) the counselors.

What a man! Thank you to P Katz for the stories.

While Ben Katz did not give an official quote for this story, we would like to call out Ultiworld, The AUDL, and the R/Ultimate Reddit community for not believing in our friend, Ben Katz. Any Bozo watching the championship game could see that Katz is the glue that holds the NY Empire together. We don’t know what is next for Katz, but we hear that he recently started an instagram account, and most likely will begin selling pre/post workout shakes on there!