“This can sometimes be hard if you have a 6-foot-5 male versus a 5-foot-2 female,” Groess said. “Being able to change that and make it still easy on the receiver is a big skill that we ask.”
Kaela Helton, a member of Team USA, agrees that few do that better than Brownlee.
“He has really good touch and consistency on his throws, and that makes him a really good mixed player,” she said. “When you’re throwing to women, the spacing and timing and how quickly someone can get to a spot is different. He’s able to calibrate his throws and adjust the mix seamlessly.”
Brownlee’s schedule is fairly straightforward: research and reviews during the day and Ultimate at night and on weekends.
“There’s never any tech event that’s happening at 7 p.m. on a Wednesday,” he joked.
That’s not to say there aren’t ever any conflicts.
“He’ll very politely ask our permission to not be with the team because he has to interview the head of Microsoft or he has to talk about the launch of this, that or whatever,” Groess said. “We as coaches just kind of laugh. We’re like, ‘Of course you can go get your own hotel room to interview whomever or to watch this product launch.’”
Brownlee’s “other” job has also caused quite the stir before, during and after matches.
His popularity is evident no matter where in the world the team is based. Hatchett said that at a recent training tournament in Medellin, Colombia, someone went up to Brownlee on the street and thanked him for guidance on buying a particular phone.
Helton said that at the World Beach Ultimate Championships this year outside Los Angeles, “you couldn’t walk a block without him getting stopped four or five times by people looking for pictures.” It got so bad she assigned herself a job to stay back with Brownlee and make sure he got to and from events on time.
He also has to deal with his fame at matches, with fans yelling from the stands and asking for photos and autographs.
Helton has even noticed it from opposing players. At a club tournament in Denver this month, she said, players asked him for photos as he was coming off the field between points.
Brownlee will no doubt have his fair share of attention at the World Championships, though he said he hopes it’s more for his play on the field than his online presence.
Team USA enters as the tournament’s favorites. It took gold in all three divisions — men’s, women’s and mixed — the last time the event was held in 2016 (it was canceled because of the pandemic in 2020) and believes the winning tradition will continue in 2024.
Groess said that France, Italy, Japan and Canada could all present problems but that the U.S.’ balance will be key.
“We don’t rely on one particular star,” he said. “So when we can have a player like Marques take the other team’s star, and we have the rest of our team that we can rely on. I think it’s a really nice benefit.”
Brownlee will be integral to Team USA’s chances of repeating as champions, but he said it won’t be the end of his professional playing career. Like his tech reviews, he has no plans to stop any time soon.
“If I’m getting worse or I’m not having fun, I probably won’t be playing,” he said. “Every year it’s been fun, and every year I’ve been improving, so I feel pretty good about that.”
