Dylan Freechild makes Rhino Club Team & HL Video

Though I am sure there are many high schoolers out there who have now been picked up on the various Club teams around the nation, Dylan Freechild of South Eugene was a late pick by the nearly completely new Portland, OR team Rhino. Here is our first highlight video.

Summer Solstice XXX 2008 - Rhino HL from glossjohnson on Vimeo.

New contributor!! Russell Taylor

We have some exciting news on the blog, we are proud to announce the latest addition to our team of contributors - Russell Taylor from NYC.

Russell will be posting shortly with a bio to let you know a little bit more about himself.

On the other side of things - i have accepted a job with the barack obama presidential campaign and as such will be very much removed from the blog until around november 7th-ish. i'll stop back occasionally, but in the interim the rest of the awesome team of contributors will be holding down the fort.

hopefully you all have a great ultimate-filled summer and early fall. when school starts, recruit recruit recruit, but most importantly - play ultimate.

Ultimate coverage in the news... some musings

So i was looking around to see the last time the NYT covered ultimate, and stumbled on a few things...

the 1989 New York Times...

Running, diving, catching and striving constantly to move downfield toward an opponent's end zone. The game is not football, but Ultimate Frisbee.

the 1999 New York Times...

MOMENTS before the start of their regional championship match two weeks ago, players from the world champion Ultimate Frisbee team Cigar huddled on the sidelines. They sized up their opponents, plotted defensive strategies and reviewed the rule on interference from pine trees in the end zone. Then they each grabbed hold of a white disk. ''All this talk is making me dizzy,'' they chanted. ''Yo, baby, yo, baby, let's get busy.''

Complete with wonderfully quaint mis-characterizations and almost-truths such as this...

Soon, the Discraft -- considered more stable than the Wham-O Frisbee that gave the sport its name -- sailed the length of the field and was caught by an opposing player.

A two-fer ladies and gentlemen - the discraft flew through the air, and also, Wham-O Frisbee gave the sport its name. But alas, coverage of any stripe in the world's most widely read newspaper is acceptable. As the saying goes - any press is good press. And as the saying goes in ultimate: "wait... press? what press?"

Well here's the trend, nationals seems to get covered with a full article of some length about once every 10 years, so where are ya New York Times, its about time for another article?

What's more interesting to me are these paragraphs...

The pace is similar to that of a soccer or lacrosse game, and thus requires a great deal of athleticism from its participants.

To explain the game, players often use a medley of analogies to other sports. ''The sprinting is like in hockey,'' said Dan Haar, 40, a member of Ashtray and a business writer for The Hartford Courant. ''The scoring is like football, the offensive flow is like soccer and the defense is like basketball.''

In the 40 years since the sport was created we can't figure out a way to describe our sport to non-players in a way that does not invoke another sport. Why is that? Do you ever try to explain baseball to someone by comparing it to another sport? I would say rarely, you explain the objective and the rules.

But here is the kicker....

But some wait for the day their sport will be played on a bigger stage. David Chaiken, who learned to play in Prospect Park in Brooklyn 20 years ago as a teen-ager, recalled a trip to Germany in 1989, when the Miami team for which he was playing performed in an Ultimate demonstration for the World Games. This year, World Games officials decided to include Ultimate as a medal sport at its 2001 competition in Japan. ''It took 10 years for that to happen,'' said Mr. Chaiken, who when not tossing Frisbees is the executive chef at Johnney's Fish Grill in the World Financial Center.

Yet Frisbee, as a sport, remains unfamiliar to many people. ''The perception that it is something you do on the beach with dogs is still out there,'' Mr. Chaiken said. ''It's still a grass-roots thing.''

Ok two things here.

1./ a personal pet peeve - and some ultimate players love this - "haha we play ultimate, with dogs!!" stop. just stop. this is done, when someone says this to you, kindly inform them of the sport you actually play. take your sport seriously. that article was from 10 years ago. the same joke is still funny now? that quote is from 10 years ago. 10 years ago.

It didn't help people realize that what you do doesnt involve a dog, and repeating it now wont help either.

2./ yes, ultimate is growing - there are more high school teams now in many cities than ever before. but...

The event was the culmination of sectional and regional competitions involving about 500 teams nationwide

That was from 1989... 20 years ago. There aren't that many more club teams now, which is very interesting to me. High school is exploding, college is as well to an extent. Summer leagues are more packed in my experience, but it seems club teams are remaining around the same level give or take?

What does this show - that roughly the same number of people want to play competitively? That most new additions to the game of ultimate have been recreational players?

This is a long and winding post, i realize. But i hope it spurs some discussion, ultimate in the media is a valid topic of discussion. Is ultimate-validity something that can be achieved by a conventional PR campaign by the UPA? (not that this has or will occurred) or is it something that is possible via a viral or street team style campaign? (something along the lines of youtube videos and posting the ten simple rules on light posts and city walls)

Or is it something that is just not achievable?

Let's hear some thoughts

Open thread: what's on your mind?

Open thread time... discuss whatever you wish

Coming very soon - new contributor announcement, a new summer series of posts gearing up for the fall, and more. If you have requests for content on the site, throw em in the comments.

We are still looking for a comments "god" - would you like to delete other people's words at your heavenly will? Read all the details here



--
remember to visit PlayUltimate on facebook!! help spread the word about ultimate

YCC Rosters: DEVYL (Open)

1. Adrian Galbraith-Paul (Lower Merion)
2. John Stavinga (Wissahickon)
3. Matt Stavinga (Wissahickon)
4. Justin Principi (Pennsbury)
5. Elijah Karoly (Pennsbury)
6. Matt Bode (Pennsbury)
7. Justin Baughn (Pennsbury)
8. Dennison Bechis (Pennsbury)
9. Zach Kauffman (Pennsbury)
10. Evan Sacks (Pennsbury)
11. Brian Li (Watchung Hills)
12. Jacob Price (Watchung Hills)
13. Loren Whitaker (Columbia)
14. Alex Holtz (Columbia)
15. Jeremy Golden (Columbia)
16. Tim Morrissy (Columbia)
17. Jordan Taylor (Columbia)
18. Mike Sender (Columbia)

A reminder to YCC team coaches, captains, managers etc. Please send your rosters to playultimateblog@gmail.com when they become available.

Want to play god? (looking for comments moderator)

So one of the awesome features of the new comment system is that you can promote any (logged in) user to "superuser" status so they can delete comments, remove offensive things etc.

We are looking for a few people to fill this position.

If you want it you must do the following...

1. be a registered member on the site (free, you can sign in with your OpenID that works on a ton of sites)
2. be a regular commenter
3. have a positive karma rating from other commenters
4. be in the top 10 on the commenting leaderboard
   

Since as of right now only two people have used the full-on signed in features it won't be hard to get into the top ten. However you must be signed in and be a regular commenter.

This is not to say you need to give up your anonymity. You can still log in with any name you want, logging in just means that people will be able to tell that it is you posting the comments. This way people can't impersonate you, and you have the opportunity to play god for the summer.

Use this thread as an opportunity to log in and throw your name in the mix to play god for the summer.

PlayUltimate will be announcing new contributors within the next week. If you are interested in becoming a contributor please email playultimateblog@gmail.com

Open Thread: What does your team do during the summer?

Well, high school leagues are done for the year, YCC teams are almost all yet, WUGC team has been selected. But that leaves a lot of players and in a lot of cases whole teams without high school ultimate to play.

So an open question - what does your team, or the players on your team, primarily do (ultimate-wise) during the summer?

• Play on club teams
• Summer league
• Summer practices with HS team
• Individual workouts for your HS team
• Frequent pickup games
  
• Occasional pickup games
• Read PlayUltimate (and other ultimate websites) incessantly
  
• Relax and forget about ultimate for a while

Something else? Throw it in the comments.

There is also a poll up on the right hand side of the site, feel free to vote!



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YCC 2008: Philly SEPDA out of tournament

Philly SEPDA will not compete in the 2008 YCC tournament.

After difficulties fielding numbers for tryouts, Philly's mixed team was not able to complete a roster in time for the UPA deadline. Many of the players from last year's team will be playing for DEVYL, a team which will draw heavily on Columbia and Pennsbury talent. Most of the interested players that did attend this year's Philly tryouts were sophomores or juniors though, and (very) early indications point to an intention to attend in 2009.

No word yet on who will replace SEPDA in the tournament, the YCC 2008 website has Cincinatti down, but I believe this is a result of the copy&paste of last year's website, rather than the actual situation.

Last year SEPDA finished 2nd in the Mixed division to Atlanta, in 2006 they won in the open division.

This leaves the mixed division with...

Denver Youth Summer League - Denver, CO - Youth/UPA
Eugene Youth Summer League - Eugene, OR - Youth/UPA
BUDA High School Spring League - New England - HS/UPA
Disc Northwest High School Spring League - Seattle, WA - HS/UPA
Minnesota High School Spring League - Minneapolis, MN - HS/UPA
Atlanta, GA - At-large
Nashville, TN - At-large

via upa.org

WUGC 2008: UPA Team USA Bios released

The UPA has released player bios for the 2008 WUGC team.

They have put up stuff for the coaches as well.

What I find most interesting at least from the Open side is the "years playing" category. The lowest is 3 years, but almost all have more than 5. Meaning almost all have played more than just high school disc, somewhere between 6-10 years of playing seems to be the norm.

Is this an interesting turning point for our sport, or just a coincidence? To play at elite hs levels is it necessary to be introduced to the game at a much younger age?

This seems like a developing Tiger Woods effect of athletics in general. Or like i said, maybe it is just coincidence...


40 Days until WUGC 2008 in Vancouver, the anticipation builds... Check back here all summer for the best coverage of high school ultimate

YCC Rosters: BUDA (Open)

This is an unconfirmed roster posted in the comments of a previous post, will confirm as soon as possible...

2008 BUDA New England YCC team (open)

1. Amos Adams (Amherst Regional High School)
2. Tom Allen (Needham High School)
3. Tom Basset (Penn State University / Needham High School)
4. Spencer Diamond (Amherst Regional High School)
5. Evan Doucett (Andover High School)
6. Ben Feng (Georgetown University / Phillips-Andover Academy)
7. Max Gillett (Lexington High School)
8. Conor Hickey (Andover High School)
9. Ryan Holmes (Needham High School)
10. A.J. Hutchins (Longmeadow High School)
11. Matt Jerry (Amherst Regional High School)
12. Jeffery Kelly (Longmeadow High School)
13. Peter Login (Longmeadow High School)
14. Corey Mindlin (Hofstra University / Needham High School)
15. Evan Ponchick (Amity Regional High School)
16. Gain Robinson (Greely High School)
17. Ryan Rzepka (Longmeadow High School)

Reminder: If you are a captain or coach of a YCC team please send your roster to playultimateblog@gmail.com as soon as it is available. Thanks!

YCC Rosters: Pittsburgh Impulse (Open)

The Pittsburgh Impulse has released it's roster for the 2008 YCC competition....

1. Alex Thorne
2. Allen Rakers
3. Amar Rao
4. Ben Funk
5. Chris Lippert
6. Cody McInnis
7. Colin Conner
8. Collin Hite
9. Dylan Burns
10. Jack Gazdik
11. Jack Ross
12. Jeff Olko
13. Max Thorne
14. Nathan Hess
15. Nico Virgi
16. Pat Earles
17. Phil Stahlfeld
18. Ryan Smith
19. Seth Weidman

More rosters coming in in the next few weeks, stay tuned here for more details. (If you are a coach of a YCC team please send your roster to playultimateblog@gmail.com when it becomes available)

YCC Rosters: Pittsburgh Moxie (Girls')

Pittsburgh has released their women's YCC roster for 2008....

1. Maria Bajzek
2. Gina Barber
3. Jamie Blair
4. Meredith Burger
5. Jojo Buss
6. Kelly Casey
7. Jamie Diskin
8. Nicole Elway
9. Robin Eng
10. Rachel Federonko
11. Emily Fisher
12. Chelsea Grindle
13. Kassi Kaiser
14. Ivy Kentzel
15. Becky Lowrie
16. Bailey Moorhead
17. Hannah Muehl
18. Anna Rakers
19. Ellie Shaul
20. Kara Stoever
21. Sarah Zapletal

More rosters to come in the next few days, comments welcome...

YCC Teams List Finalized

The finalized YCC teams list was released on the 10th.

I'm looking forward to another phenominal weekend of Ultimate in Blaine!

From here:

Girls Division
Cincinnati Youth Summer League - Cincinnati, OH - Youth/UPA
Denver Youth Summer League - Denver, CO - Youth/UPA
BUDA High School Spring League - New England - HS/UPA
Disc Northwest High School Spring League - Seattle, WA - HS/UPA
Madison High School Spring League - Madison, WI - HS/UPA
Minnesota High School Spring League - Minneapolis, MN - HS/UPA
PHUL Spring League - Pittsburgh, PA - HS/UPA - Announced Roster

Mixed Division
Denver Youth Summer League - Denver, CO - Youth/UPA
Eugene Youth Summer League - Eugene, OR - Youth/UPA
BUDA High School Spring League - New England - HS/UPA
Disc Northwest High School Spring League - Seattle, WA - HS/UPA
Minnesota High School Spring League - Minneapolis, MN - HS/UPA
Atlanta, GA - At-large
Nashville, TN - At-large
Philadelphia, PA - At-large - Withdrew

Open Division
Cincinnati Youth Summer League - Cincinnati, OH - Youth/UPA
Denver Youth Summer League - Denver, CO - Youth/UPA
BUDA High School Spring League - New England - HS/UPA - Announced Roster
Delaware Valley Youth League - DE/NJ - HS/UPA - Announced Roster
Disc Northwest High School Spring League - Seattle, WA - HS/UPA
Madison High School Spring League - Madison, WI - HS/UPA
Minnesota High School Spring League - Minneapolis, MN - HS/UPA
PHUL Spring League - Pittsburgh, PA - HS/UPA - Announced Roster

Youth = club based league (all non-school-based teams)
HS = some or all school-based teams in league
UPA = UPA sanctioned
At-large - unaffiliated team

edit - I added links to the announced rosters thus far. - Matt

Looking for new contributors...

PlayUltimate is looking to add contributors - especially in states that we do not currently have coverage. If you are interested in a position please email the site at playultimateblog@gmail.com

If you live in Colorado, Minnesota, New York, Virginia, Maryland or Georgia and you are interested please let us know. If you live somewhere else but are interested we would love to hear from you.

If you have any questions about what being a contributor would entail, just shoot us an email.


A reminder as well if you like PlayUltimate become a fan on Facebook! Help publicize the sport and the site!

Churchill HS Girls Westerns 2008 HL

People have been waiting for this one for a little while. Sorry to have taken so long with it. This is the 2008 Churchill HS Girls HL from the Western Championships held in Independence, MS. There are at least one or two hl plays from each team we played. If there are teams who would like to have their full game footage, please send me an email and I'll see what I can do (luketimjohnson(at)gmail.com).

If you want to see this video in HD, you can click on it for a 1280x720 streaming version.


Churchill HS Girls 2008 Westerns HL from luke johnson on Vimeo.