PlayUltimate contributors -- Chris Vanni

Name: Chris Vanni
High School Team: Senior @ Lower Merion High School Babganouj (Ardmore, PA [outside Philly])
College: Going to attend Queen’s University (Kingston, Ontario)
Currently Living in: Still Bala-Cynwyd (outside Philly)
Years Playing: 2
First Heard of Ultimate: 9th grade (for real)
Ultimate Accomplishments: Created real team at LM, which has already met with some success. Hoping to make this spring one full of accomplishments
Favorite Tournament: Definitely Kitkat last fall… but that’s because it’s one of only two we’ve been in. Hoping for many more tourneys this spring.
Accomplishments in Regards to Journalism: Sports statistician for our paper, the Merionite (only way to get Ultimate in the paper)… and Voice of the Aces, and videographer for our school’s sports teams (many appear on LMSDtv, our local cable access channel). Also participated in KYW's Newstudies program, and will have a news piece aired on Philly's news radio station, KYW (about Ultimate, no less!) in April.
Mentors/Role Models: Mark Rosser, Paul & Christina Minecci.

I think the first time the sport of “Ultimate” entered my consciousness was in elementary school, when I was a cub scout, we played outside on the lawn once. It stayed in the back of my consciousness until freshman year, at Harriton high school, when a group of us would skip out on school functions like assemblies and play a little on the back fields with some student teacher. Upon transferring to LM, someone started an intramural league that was… at least close to Ultimate 5-on-5, no boundaries, no subs… very different, but the seed was there… Ultimate was really appealing to me. Junior year, someone handed me contact info for Mark Rosser (organizer of PHUEL), and I zipped off an e-mail, attended a captain’s meeting, assembled a team, and boom, we were off. LM started off last year with 2 wins, 13-0 and 15-1, and we thought we were hot stuff. This fall we’ve begun to mature quite a bit (a 15-3 loss does that to you). Now I’m hoping to lead LM to success this spring, play for Philly’s YCC team, have successful spring and summer PADA seasons, and go on to a successful college career at Queen’s... and beyond.

My love of the game has led me to join on this site, and do crazy things like organize the PHUEL standings (CB East currently leads, at 3-0). Did you know PHUEL standings are done to encourage games played? 3 points for a win, 1 point for a loss. Fun stuff.

junior worlds open thread

an open thread to discuss whatever your heart desires (concerning the junior worlds team)

rumors have it that the official announcement is coming soon......

Slopfest V - CHS HL Video

CHS Slopfest V Highlight Video

It has taken me nearly a full month to finally find the time needed to put towards this project, but the Highlight Reel is finally done. You can check it out by heading over to the CHS video page or by clicking the links below:

SlopfestV HL (ipod video - mp4 - 19.9MB)
SlopfestV HL (mpg - 34.4MB)

Cowtown Classic - Vacaville, CA

Alameda tops Castro Valley 15-9 in the Finals of the completely California Cowtown Classic.

This was a crazy tournament with 10 CA teams battling all weekend in the first ever Cowtown Classic. Players were greeted by 30+ mph winds on Saturday, which kept games long and goals scarce, and they returned on Sunday for sunny skies and a mild breeze. Scores can be found at:

http://www3.upa.org/scores/tourn.cgi?div=65&id=2308

This tourney gave many Local teams an opportunity to play eachother, and definitely served as a preview for the Northern California HS State Championships, which go down in Santa Cruz, CA, April 29th and 30th

I officially leave this open for any comments, questions, or stories about this weekend. Ka-Blam.

PHUEL Preview

The spring is upon us in Philadelphia, and while the free Rita’s water ice has been distributed, it snowed on Monday morning, which tells us how far away from perfect Ultimate days we really are. That hasn’t stopped some teams from playing and predictions from being made. So here’s how one captain sees the league shaping up:

1. Pennsbury Peyote

These guys are competing at a national level. With a core group of players full of experience and talent (and still juniors), and powerful junior captain Noah Saul leading the charge, Pennsbury looks to continue their fall domination of PHUEL into this spring and beyond. They’re missing Kevin Venose from the fall, but should survive the loss easily. They’ve done all this without a coach, even.

After a disappointing loss to St. Joe’s Prep in States last year, they’re looking to be a force in Easterns this year. They’ve already knocked off last year’s #2 Columbia convincingly—can they compete with Amherst?

2. Wissahickon (2-0)

State (and city) champs last year, they’re minus one superhuman Andrew Ip, but still return a very talented team. A subpar performance at last year’s Easterns casts some doubt on PHUEL’s national power, but don’t doubt it. And don’t count out their competition with Pennsbury this year. In Fall Brawl, they only fell to the Peyote 15-11, and actually defeated powerhouse Columbia 14-12 (the same Columbia that beat Pennsbury in pool play).

3. Lower Merion Babaganouj (2-0)

Even though this is my own team, I still consider us an enigma. With close victories over CB East and the Pterodactyls in the fall, and a loss to Columbia, who beat Pennsbury and Wissahickon, this is the logical place to rank them, though. LM fields a VERY athletic team, from track captains (who quit for Ultimate) to varsity basketball players, to crew rowers (they’re a cult, have you seen what they do?), a coach who has won nationals (on OLD SAG in 2002) and a strong alumni base coming back to help us along, they’ve got the ingredients to compete. Can Babaganouj match LMs state champion girls tennis and boys basketball teams?

4. CB East Nasty (1-0)

Led by senior Eddie Peters, CB East is a deep, well-disciplined team under coach Rob Olson. They are capable of hanging with most teams, and have not been totally shut down even by the top teams.

5. Pennsbury Pterodactyls

It’s quite astounding that one school can field two teams in the top 5, but this is no B team. The split that divided the Peyote and the Pterodactyls is not one of skill, though we’d all put on our money on the Peyote, but make no mistake about it: these kids can play.

Other possible contender(s)?:

Germantown Friends Donkey Punch (1-1) (A team lacking numbers, they showed a lot of fight in a close 13-11 defeat to Lower Merion to open the spring season. What can we expect from them? I missed the game, but here’s what one of our players had to say: “They were a quick, powerful, and well-conditioned team. When on offense, they were tiring to mark because they made very few mistakes.”)

New faces:
Conestoga
Haverford High (some Central League representation…)
Haverford School (confusing, I know)
Plymouth Whitemarsh (If their Ultimate team is as fast as their basketball team, we’re all in trouble)

Missing from the top picture from last year:
Cheltenham Spirit Animals (I don’t know much, but they dropped from state runners-up to a poor performance in Division II of Kitkat. One can only surmise last year’s senior class was what carried them)
St. Joe’s Prep Hawks (0-2) (Graduated the senior class that founded Ultimate at SJP from last year, including Matt McCabe and Mike Panna)

And the rest (At least, a couple I have comments on):
Prep Charter (Awesome coach in Benjamin Dziedzic, a young team with some definite potential)
Neshaminy Llamas (The best spirited team in PHUEL, and that I’ve ever seen, no question)
Cardinal O’Hara (Great spirit, great female players)

Look for PHUEL to start really kicking into gear around April 2^nd: The Penn Park Potluck in Morrisville, organized by Pterodactyls captain Kevin Taylor will put Wissahickon, Lower Merion, and the Pterodactyls on the same field and let us see some good Ultimate and some good comparisons. And, of course, Hiphoponpop on April 15^th is the defining test of the area. Here’s to another year of PHUEL dominating PHUL (and CPHUL?) in a more organized State tournament this year.

cheer up little one...

you are a sad boy or girl. all your friends have their favorite basketball teams to imitate and root for. they are highly televised and now, in march, everyone is going - crazy - about their college teams. there are upsets, cinderella stories, holding seed and buzzer beating shots.

but yet you are sad. why, poor boy or girl, are you sad?

"because basketball is exciting and all, but i just really want to root for my favorite college ultimate teams. everyone else is filling out brackets, and playing in their fantasy leagues on yahoo, and im all alone"

fear not despondent child! the beautiful gift of the internet is here to save the day.

through the magic of UltiVillage and UltiCentral, you too can now enjoy activities formerly reserved for the "mainstream" sport minded.

ok, so enough wierd psuedo story telling. heres the deal, the most talked about, prestigious college ultimate tournament in the country is about to happen this weekend - Centex. put on by the Cultimate corporation, held in austin, tx the tournament is exclusively invite only.

that is, the top 24 teams (as decided by the tournament directors) are selected and invited to attend.... and then they do.

so basically every one of the top teams in the country will be in Austin, TX over the weekend for some of perhaps the most hotly contested games in the country.

exciting eh? well there is MORE!!!

since its such a big deal and all, UltiVillage will be there filming, and as they do with many of the premier tournaments in the country, they offer fantasy ultimate - you choose 7 players (out of about 40ish) and based on their stats in the finals game (assists, goals, turnovers etc) you get a certain number of points. the winners of the fantasy (highest points overall) will win ultimate DVDs, and several random entrants (this is all free) will receive a free download of the finals game. (UV also has 10ish clips online of some of the possible fantasy pick options so you can get a look at em before selecting)

well thats pretty swell.

but what about brackets you ask?

cue UltiCentral. register yourself as a player, then click on the link on the main page to fill out who you think will win what games and then the brackets after that. they offer this for both the mens and womens half of the tournament.

so there you have it - march madness for ultimate. be sad no longer.

... consider this an open thread to talk about your selections for fantasy or the brackets.

need help picking teams/players? http://www.collegeulti.com is a good place to start

Junior Worlds team - stay tuned to PlayUltimate...

the tryouts have all finished, the impressions are all but made, the hype has been let to air out.
now theres really nothing left but the choosing. so keep your sets tuned here sportsfans, cause when the teams are announced PlayUltimate will be the first on the scene with all the information.

for now though, those who went to tryouts - any thoughts? how was the level of comeptition? did you feel like there were obvious differences between different programs the players were coming from? how do we think the USA is going to stack up against the rest of the world? thoughts on the prospect of playing on behalf of your entire country?

(quasi monthly) state of the blog address...

and the legend grows...

PlayUltimate community please welcome...

Dan Raabe
Josh Seamon
Chris Vanni

who will be reporting on Wisconsin, Vermont and eastern PA respectively. thus bringing the grand total to 18 contributors hailing from 14 different states. we arent there yet, but we are moving in the right direction.

thank you for all of your continued support, and i (along with all of the other contributors) look forward to seeing where this little experiment can take us.

below the fold are multiple images for your enjoyment

Below the fold action...


so this is what the current United states looks like in terms of PlayUltimate Contributors



also during this past month you have set a record 6th!!!! consecutive month of increased traffic for the site, during which we passed the landmark 10,000 visitor -

and then on the RSS feed side of things, activity seems to have leveled of a slight bit, while still being much much higher than when we first started out...



just a helpful hint, if you want to be the first one in the know, RSS feeds are a great way to stay on top of everything thats going on. when you subscribe (just click on one of the links on the right hand side of the page underneath the heading "site feeds") you will get a little update every time the site is updated, automatically. you can also sign up for the email updates which work the same way.

PlayUltimate Contributor - Mike Mullen

Name: Mike Mullen (Bald Guy in picture)
Currently Lives: Seattle (Born and Raised)
Currently Coach: The Northwest School Varsity Boys Ultimate Team (Seattle), The Northwest School Girls Varsity Soccer, and middle school soccer, basketball, and ultimate. (Coached some HS basketball, track, and softball too back in the day)
Current DiscNW Organizational Stuff: Board Member, Youth Committee, Co-director of Seattle Youth Ultimate Camps, Boys HS League Coordinator.
UPA Organizational Stuff: As a member of the youth advisory council, helped spearhead the formation of YCC and the splitting of HS Nationals into Westerns/Easterns.
Why My HS Program has been successful: 1. Great feeder program with great middle school coaches at my school. 2. I coach soccer and basketball, so I can get the best athletes at my small school to play ultimate. 3. I don't get in the way of my team.
Best Ultimate Moments: (In no particular order) 1. Winning Westerns with a group of senior guys that I had been with since they were 6th grade basketball and ultimate players. 2. Watching former players play at the highest level of the game while playing with great intelligence, integrity, and intensity. 3. Watching a former player winning a college national championship and realizing that my program wasn't a dead end.
Favorite Quote: "I have learned much from my teachers, even more from my colleagues, but I have learned the most from my students." -Talmud

PlayUltimate contributor - Jeph Bullard

Name: Jeph Bullard
High School Team: Cheltenham Spirit Animals, DVFS
College: University of Arizona
Current Teams: University of Arizona Sunburn
Currently Living in: Tucson, AZ
Years Playing: This will be the 5th
First Heard of Ultimate: From my freind Nick Ongpauco who was just starting out on the team at CHS
Ultimate Accomplishments: Helped take CHS to the finals of 12 straight tourniments, Started a team at DVFS highschool that was granted varisty status by the school.
Favorite highschool Tournament- Terminus was pretty cool

PlayUltimate Contributors - Miranda Roth

Name: Miranda Roth
High School Team: The Paideia School (Atlanta, GA)
College: Carleton College (Northfield, MN)
Grad School: University of Washington (Seattle, WA)
Currently Living in: Seattle
Years Playing: 8
First Heard of Ultimate: 7th Grade
Ultimate Accomplishments: Played two years for Paideia Gruel, 4 years for Carleton Syzygy (including a second place nationals finish and a Callahan Award), 1 year for Washington Element (another second place finish), 2 years for Atlanta Ozone (second place world finish), 1 year for Minnesota Bati, in 3rd year with Seattle Riot (including two national championships and current captain), played for 2000 Junior national girls team (won gold medal), played for 2005 world games national team (gold medal), coach of Washington Element and Seattle Moho, assistant coach 2006 junior nationals girls team

PlayUltimate: The Money Issue

Photo Courtesy Bil Elsinger

Some day PlayUltimate will be a magazine and it will probably look a lot better than this. Until then, here's a little preview. "The Money Issue"
Let's face it, sports cost money and ultimate is no different. The one advantage ultimate has is that players usually front the money for their own equipment. Unfortunately, most high school teams are club teams rarely receiving sufficient if any funding from their schools. That means teams need to go to outside sources for funds. Here's my little guide to raising funds (some call it fundraising) for your HS team.

1. Basic Fundraising needs to be split into three different categories to be properly addressed: school fundraising, ultimate community fundraising, and at large fundraising.

a. School fundraising is just as it sounds: raising money at your school. The most basic concept is something similar to a bake sale. My team has been selling donuts outside of the school cafeteria during first and second hour. Krispy Kreme runs a sponsorship deal for schools if you have a school official contact them. Otherwise, it is tough to make a large profit. We sold donuts for $1 (they cost approximately 50cents without the fundraising discount) while playing disc 1. We did not make a great deal of money (~$45), but we did something else. The advantage to fundraising at school is that you create exposure, which may be more important to developing teams. You can also sell custom discs (which you can order through www.discraft.com or www.wrightlife.com . Wrightlife is a little easier to work with, but discraft is a little cheaper. Both offer discounts to UPA members).
b. Ultimate Community fundraisers involve getting area players to give you money. Most areas have local adult leagues. Talk to the organizers of said leagues and see if they'll let you sell Power Bars and Gatorade at weekly games. If they are willing to let you fundraise you can pick up sports drinks and bars in bulk at Costco or Sam's Club, etc. Again, this is not a huge fundraise, but combined with disc sales and asking for donations, can easily generate enough funds for a tournament fee.

The best fundraisers involving the ultimate community consist of tournaments. Reasonable tournament fees can range (depending on quality) from $100-$300 per team or $5-$30 per player. My recommendation would be to talk to the league directors about setting up a league sponsored tournament (that way you won't be as liable). The easiest tournaments are simple, one day hat tournaments with round robin play moving straight to finals. If you have the fields and organizing capacity I highly encourage you to host an entire tournament. Be sure to get someone with insurance to endorse the tournament (whether it be your school, the UPA, or your local league). That way if someone gets injured, you aren't liable.

c. At large fundraisers involve the outer community. Tons of local restaurants would be more than happy to host a "team night". These team nights can be great fundraisers. The idea is to generate business for the restaurants on low-traffic nights (ie Tuesday-Thursday) in exchange for a share of the profits (usually around 10-15%). The amount raised will probably be between $90 and $250 dollars. Again, you should be asking for donations. Last year my team, in order to raise money for Westerns travel, stood outside of a local sandwich shop with signs and a box for donations. We made ~$110 dollars from the restaurant plus $50 in donations from people driving by (we did it at a stop light, please don't run into the street asking for donations). Candy companies will run fundraisers for school clubs and these seem to work great (all of the choirs at my school do it and it seems to pay for a good chunk of travel to Europe). The car wash is another idea that can generate a small chunk of money ($5-$10 per car + optional donations). If you can find an area church or business to host it, you don't have to worry too much about space, water, etc. Any other sort of fundraising you can think of is great.

2. Sponsorship is the Mecca of all team endorsements. It is, however, very difficult to get a company to simply give you money. One day teams will be highly endorsed, receiving free travel and equipment and even getting paid. Sockeye will be sporting Pepsi jerseys by Patagonia and facing up against Furious in their new Coca-Cola, Nike duds. Until then, you have to prove to companies that you can offer them something in return for their endorsement. Your best bet is to go to EVERYONE in the area. That means hitting every restaurant (especially local chains) and every company you can find. Offer to sew patches to jerseys, put their names on a banner, or hand out gift cards or coupons at tournaments (or, if you're school will let you, at school). VC is offering a cool deal on their single color classic jerseys with a one color screen print. The deal is 20% off for high school teams. What are they getting in return? By offering the deal, VC hopes to generate enough sales to buy the jerseys in greater quantities, thus cutting costs and receiving the same, if not a greater, profit margin. The idea behind a sponsorship is that both sides benefit (usually the Sponsor more than the sponsored). Here's what you want to do: either write a letter like this:
Dear Company X,
My name is _______ and I am with the _______ High School Ultimate team. We are currently seeking sponsors for our 2006 season. In exchange for your sponsorship (in the form of monetary donations or whatever you may be able to supply), we will _____________ (what are you offering?). In the past we have had great success (you want to show how much exposure they will be getting for their dollar). We won __________ and place __ place at ____________, etc. This year we will be participating in ________, __________, and _________. We expect a very successful season this year. I would very much like to meet with you concerning a possible sponsor ship. Please call or email me any time. Thank You,

Joe Ultimate (phone) (email address)

The idea is to emphasize how much exposure you can get them. If it is a food place tell them all of the different things you can do to generate interest. If they are a clothing supplier, perhaps they would be a good source for jerseys, so tell them you will be like walking, running, talking advertisements. In addition to simply handing in the letter, you should try to talk to the manager. This way you know that they will actually take a look at your letter. You may encounter one, very often recurring problem. This is that many chains have no power on the local level. Instead they must "forward the information to the regional office". Chances are you will never hear from the regional office unless you either get lucky or go talk to them yourself. So go, go talk to them yourself. Hopefully you will have some good success. Your best bet, however, is to go to local chains or businesses owned by people you know. Remember that EVERYTHING helps, so always be willing to take whatever donations you can get.

Until ULTIMATE is all over TV and we have a few full print magazines (and no, CSTV does not count as Ultimate being on TV, not really), we have to rely on ourselves to generate interest and funds. Some day companies will be coming to us seeking teams to sponsor, until then, good luck, and I hope this (sort of) short guide has helped.

-harrison fast

Churchill HS no longer on top...

This last wednesday afernoon Churchill dropped the 12 game winning streak it had started this last fall after the first regular season match-up with South Eugene HS took place across town. A full game write-up is availabe on the CHS website (this write-up I actually finished, while Slopfest Tournament one still seems to escape my grasp). Click here for the run down of the game. With no more regular season match-ups for CHS or South Eugene before Spring Reign, what will this mean for the seedings?

One thing is for sure, Oregon will be bringing some serious talent to Spring Reign, the Northwest's largest HS and MS Mixed tournament (at least until this fall when the Eugene Juniors' program hopes to host 64 HS teams at its first ever tbo2006).

Colorado + Predictions

State 2005. Arvada West vs Cherry Creek

Ski season is, sadly, nearing its end. That means that the junior scene in Colorado is finally getting up and running. Two weeks into the season, here's a quick update.
The Second Annual East Invitational tournament will take place in a few weeks (April 8-9). The tournament will be the first opportunity for many teams to play eachother. Even sooner, Colorado State's Rocky Mountain Invite (RMI-March 24-25) will have a high school division this year. High school teams slated to play in RMI: Denver East HS, Arvada West HS, Broomfield HS, and "a few others" (quoted from one of the CSU Hibida players). It should be interesting to see these teams match up in tournament play.
To most of you, none of these names ring any bells; there is a reason. East HS makes an annual trip to the Madison mudbath, Cherry Creek HS (my team) headed to westerns last year, and five Coloradans made it to the Seattle junior team USA tryouts this year. Other than that, most of Colorado ultimate is very much contained to, well, Colorado. This year, however, Colorado plays host to Westerns and I'm hoping that all that changes.

Current Rankings in Colorado (based on UPA Score Reporter RRI):
1. Broomfield 2-0
2. Arapahoe 2-0
3. Denver East 1-0
4. Lakewood 1-0
5. Colorado Academy 1-0
6. Dakota Ridge 0-1
7. Arvada West 0-1
8. Jefferson County Open School 0-1
9. Fairview 1-0
10. Denver North 1-1
11. Boulder 0-2
12. PS1 0-1
13. Columbine 0-1
14. Monarch 0-2
Unranked: Cherry Creek, Regis, Overland, Grandview, Watershed School, possibly more.
Surprises: Jefferson County Open School nearly upset Lakewood in a 14-16 loss. I'm not certain of the circumstances, but I'm surprised as Jeff Co seems to be eternally underdeveloped (they are a middle school/high school combination) while Lakewood is the obvious pick for the state title.
With that said, here are my predictions for state in May (expect them to change as more and more results pour in).

1. Lakewood- The team is incredibly deep. They have enough players that they could likely form and A, B, and C team if they so desired. Their only shortcoming may be their neglect to develop newer players. They have an experienced core that should have few problems leading the team to a victory.
2. Broomfield-The only team that was up and running in the fall (competing in Club Mixed Sectionals). I also believe they lost few players and had a reasonably strong season last year.
3. East- Though they lost two of their strongest players in the last year, they return with tons of experience including all-star players. Being coached by an elite club player can't hurt either.
4. Cherry Creek- (my team) This is more of a goal than a prediction, but bias is an obvious problem with any player written prediction. Also, I would be disappointed to do any worse. CCHS has never finished below 6th place in a Colorado tournament.
5. Colorado Academy- Colorado Academy is one of the teams in Colorado that seems to step up to the plate every year. Some of their success may come from the fact that they have such a strong soccer program (that gives them a ton of ulti players). I expect them to return yet again.
6. Fairview- Although they did not show much experience in the fall preview tournament last year, they are being coached by Richter (Bravo/ex-Mamabird) and Hector Valvadia (sp?). I'd expect any team coached by such world class players to perform well in a slightly underdeveloped ultimate atmosphere such as Colorado.
7. Jefferson County Open School- This is based purely on speculation. They have a solid captain returning at handler and have a fresh crew of kids who want to learn and play the game. They may be a bit of a surprise for a lot of teams at the upcoming East Invite.
-------
That is the end of the predictions I'll make, if I make too many, it's just easier to be wrong.
-harrison fast

Seattle Spring Reign Coed Youth Ultimate Tournament 2006 - The Largest Youth Tournament in the World!

Hey all,

Some information below about what was once pretty much the definitive high school and middle school ultimate tournament for the Western US and Canada. It is still pretty much the best coed youth tournament around as far as competitive teams go as well as size. Back before any of the Seattle High Schools played single gender (single gender began in Seattle in the spring 2004), this was the championship that meant everything.

2006 Welcome to Spring Reign 2006 - The Largest Youth Tournament in the World!

The middle school and high school tournaments will take place on April 1-2, 2006 in Burlington, WA.Up to 70 teams at one site!

What: Spring Reign is the premier opportunity for youth players to play two days of high quality Ultimate! There will be multiple divisions to accommodate various skill levels. Teams from Washington, British Columbia, Oregon, Manitoba, California, and beyond will be attending. This tournament will have some of the best high school level competition in the northwest! There will be tournaments for middle school, 9th grade, and high school teams. For an explanation of these classifications please refer to the Registration page.

When: Saturday and Sunday, April 1st and 2nd, 2006. Captains and coaches meeting will take place 30 minutes before the first pool play game on Saturday morning at Event Central. Pool play games will take place all day on Saturday, and elimination rounds will be on Sunday.Where: Burlington, WA. Skagit River Park.

Registration: Registration for Spring Reign will be done on-line at the DiscNW web site again this year. Follow the links to the tournament information page at http://www.discnw.org/ for more info.

stuffs from the internet...

gotta blog through the slowness, right?

over at "Process of Illumination" Hh posted this about inspirational speeches and coaching a high school team.

definitely worth a read.

YCC Teams Selected

c/o the UPA website...

8 Youth Club Open teams
Denver Summer Youth Ultimate - Denver, CO
Madison Youth Spring League - Madison, WI
Minnesota High School Ultimate - Minneapolis, MN
Pittsburgh High School Ultimate League - Pittsburgh, PA
Austin & Houston High School Leagues - Austin/Houston, TX
Disc Northwest Youth Spring League - Seattle, WA
New England High School Ultimate League - New England
Philadelphia High School Ultimate Eductional League - Philadelphia, PA

8 Youth Club Girls teams
Denver Summer Youth Ultimate - Denver, CO
Madison Youth Spring League - Madison, WI
Minnesota High School Ultimate - Minneapolis, MN
Disc Northwest Youth Spring League - Seattle, WA
New England High School Ultimate League - New England
(3 bids available)

8 Youth Club Mixed teams
Minnesota High School Ultimate - Minneapolis, MN
Pittsburgh High School Ultimate League - Pittsburgh, PA
Youth Ultimate Cincinnati - Cincinnati, OH
Disc Northwest Youth Spring League - Seattle, WA
New England High School Ultimate League - New England
(3 bids available)

so wadaya think? fair choices? obvious favorites? im noticing one missing team from the Open side of things (who was there last year) - wheres Georgia? other than that there are two new teams - Philly and Denver, the rest are returning from 05 performances.

other areas (california, oregon, north carolina etc) were bids sent in? or were there no organizing factors? i wanna hear everything you've got.

also any thoughts on why it is only an eight team (per division) tournament? why not a standard 16 for open at least (if there are that number of teams with interest)?

mixed and womens - who is going to round out those last 3 bids?

Phew! well we're back...

a week without updates... how did you survive? rough things i know.

there was a glitch within blogger which labeled us as a spamming blog (We arent), and we have just now been allowed back to post. so... yay!

thanks for the patience, and now back to the discussion...

Easterns and Westerns Open Thread

so the deadlines are very quickly approaching, if your high school team wants to travel to Pittsburgh or Boulder, CO this May for the premier tournaments in the united states you had better get your stuff together quick.

applications are due in 16 days!! who has applied? who is going to? who are the shoe ins? stuff is hitting the fan in the high school ultimate world and thus an open thread to talk about it.

(psss - keep it quiet but playultimate is about to hit their 10,000th visitor - thank you!)

PlayUltimate Contributors - Josh Seamon

Name: Josh Seamon

Team I Coach: St. Johnsbury Academy Arctic Circle

Club Team: I currently play for Essex Seven, a mixed club team out of Portsmouth, NH.

College Team: While attending Pomona College in Claremont, CA, I spent four wonderful years playing for the Claremont Braineaters.

High School Team: I was lucky enough to play for Tiina Booth for two years at Amherst Regional, in Amherst, MA.

Years Playing: 14

First heard of Ultimate: In 7th grade during gym class. We played on pretty large fields with end zones that had no back boundary. All I can really remember of those games is putting up backhand hucks no matter how close I was to the end zone.

Favorite Tournaments: Amherst Invitational (as a HS player), President's Day (as a College player), Potlatch (as a Club player), Amherst Invitational (as a HS coach)

Notable Ultimate Accomplishments: As a coach: Founding boys and girls varsity teams at St. Johnsbury Academy. As a player: Winning HS Nationals in '98.

Ultimate Mentors and Role Models: Jethro Yu, Jim Pistrang, and Tiina Booth.

What I do in the Ultimate community: I coach the St. Johnsbury Academy Ultimate teams, run VYUL, spend way too much time worrying about fields and prepping for the SJA Invite, meet fantastic people while running UPA Coaching Certification clinics, meditate on how to contribute to the UPA's newly created Women's Outreach Committee, strategize how I'm going to run the New England High School Ultimate League's YCC 2006 Open team, and continually recruit anything that breathes to play Ultimate.

Stats - is there value in ultimate?

I have been thinking about this one for a while. Is there any real value to ultimate stats?

The first stats I ever saw published were about a year ago when Ulti-Village came into existance and created the first fantasy score system for the elite club open division. The purpose was to generate traffic to their website and enthusiaism for the game (that is my assumption), but since their inaugural debute of a stat sheet, there has not been anything since (at least that I have seen)... Now in my third year of coaching, I have been asked more and more often by students how they can individually improve their game. I usually have been able to give a few pointers, but these were the moments that I wished I had something concrete to go back to and say, "hey, you're dropping 2 discs per game or you're throwing away 5 passes a tournament or you have a 95% catching percentage"...

So, sometime last year, with the help of my captains, the CHS team developed a statistic system that records 21 individual stats and gives a fantasy score for each player. Our system is divided into 12 positive & 9 negative categories. Each of the positive and negative sides have offensive and defensive stats. They are:
POSTIVE/OFFENSIVE:
-Assists
-Goals
-Layout Goals
-Completed Hucks (over 35 yards)
-Callihans
-Touches
-Layout Touches
POSTIVE/DEFENSIVE:
-Handblocks
-Footblocks
-Stalls
-D's
-Layout D's
NEGATIVE/OFFENSIVE:
-Throwaways
-Dropped Disc
-Footblocks
-Handblocks
-Stalls
-D's
NEGATIVE/DEFENSIVE:
-Callihans
-Touches (given up on the live side)
-Breaks (while on the mark)

If you had stats of your games, would it be helpful? For a look at how well our players are doing, you can see the recently completed stats from all of the Churchill HS games at this last weekends Slopfest V tournament by going here:

A Team Saturday Pool Play Games:
01 (CHSA vs Bitney Springs) - [13-01]
02 (CHSA vs De La Salle) - [W-L] (no video taken as it was a forfeit game, so no stats)
03 (CHSA vs Terra Nova) - [13-01]
Quarter Finals: (CHSA vs GBK Prep Hercules) - [13-06]
SemiFinals: (CHSA vs Castro Valley) - [13-09]
Finals: (CHSA vs Alameda) - [15-11]

SlopfestV - Photos

They aren't professional, but you can check out the photos taken by the CHS Team at slopfestV in Castro Valley, CA here:
Full Album - 876 shots
Highlights - 70 shots