YCC Teams Announced

The UPA's post is right here.

Hooray for another fantastic weekend in Blaine! :)

Worlds Tryouts - Atlanta

Word on the street is that Ollie Honderd played just as well as his Michigan teammates at Centex. Who else impressed? Who looks like a lock to make the team, and who would you pick? 40 players attended tryouts - some unheralded players seemed to make a splash, like Nick from Florida, while other players didn't quite seem to belong. Let's hear all of this weekend's Worlds chatter.

YCC Bids Accepted

Will Deaver notified accepted teams of their status this evening for the 2008 Youth Club Championships on August 9th and 10th in Blaine, Minnesota.

What teams were accepted? What teams weren't? Who are the 2008 favorites in each division?

Post-Junior Worlds West Coast Try-out (Girls)

So, the thread on this last weekend has grown and is quite interesting, but as at least one commenter noticed... there was no discussion of the girls' side. So, for those of you who attended this last weekends' Try-Out, what was the ladies division looking like? Who stood out? Was the try-out completely different than the open division? What elements separated the girls from one another? Who attended that surprised you?
(photo: credit to Jason Mechler from YCC 2007)

Post-Junior Worlds West Coast Try-out

The first weekend of World Try-outs are over and all the hopefuls are on their ways home to Oregon, California and probably a few other states...

After a vigorous weekend of drills, scrimmages, timed mile, and even small group interviews, the players fortunate enough to have been invited leave with a wealth of new ultimate knowledge they will be able to take back to their programs.

For those of you who attended, let us know how you felt it went. What aspects of the try-out were most difficult? What was easiest? What shouldn't have been a part of it and what stood out as essential?

Who do you think should make it after seeing the diversity of talent present? (If only 10 could be picked from the west coast, who should it be?)

Reminder: commenting policy

Hey all,

A reminder about PlayUltimate's commenting policy. This has been mentioned before on an as-needed basis within the comments but recent events make it necessary to announce to the broader community.

If you plan to comment you may not....
- use profanity
- use vulgar language
- make ad hominem attacks
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Any violation of the above will be deleted immediately and should problems persist we will

You are encouraged to....
- log in when you comment so people know its you (you can do this with any supported OpenID username)
- remain constructive and add positively to the conversation

Don't make us take the comments private, we pride ourselves on the democratic nature of the site - anyone can comment at any time without any restraints. Don't make us change that.

As always if you have individual comments, questions, anonymous tips you can email the site at playultimateblog@gmail.com

Lets keep it classy

2008 SLUJ Preview

Games start this week, so click below for a team-by-team preview of what 2008 has in store for St. Louis Ultimate Juniors! Keep in mind, this is just one (extremely intelligent and well-informed) guy's opinion, and in no way reflects the positions of SLUA, SLUJ, or its affiliates. All rights reserved.

Desmet: Tough to topple, Pete’s boys will certainly continue to hover near the top this year. They always seem to pull great athletes from the student body, and under Pete’s tutelage, they always run a crisp, precision offense and a high-energy defense. There’s no reason to suspect this year will be any different.

Francis Howell Central: I’m of two minds about what to expect from my squad this year. We were able to recruit a few very athletic seniors this year, but they’ve never played the game, so much will depend on their progression as the season begins to take shape. I’m not sure I’ve EVER had this many respectable throwers on the team, either. If we’re able to coalesce and form a Team, the potential is there . . .

SLUH: Apparently, there’s been an ultimate explosion at SLUH. With a new coach and a new JV program, this just may be the year that SLUH makes a bid to return to their former glory. For those not in the know, up until three years ago, there were two ultimate teams in St. Louis—SLUH & Desmet—but for the past couple of years, SLUH has been rebuilding (they were very young two years ago, less so last year). It should be interesting to see what the year brings for “St. Louis Ultimate High.”

Priory: The offseason has caused more turnover for this team than a 30 mph crosswind! Nearly their entire lineup graduated. This is not hyperbole. A player told me, last year, that there was only one player on the team who was NOT a senior. Still, the Jeromans’ great success last year should have been enough to draw some quality athletes into the program, and the consistent leadership of Br. Alban should keep them in the hunt.

Marquette: Marquette will be a major contender this year, I’m certain of it. They’re returning a fair number of players and keeping the talented coaches (and players) Jack C. & Tim M. Last year, they were fast but a little raw. This year, I’m looking for them to clean up the offense and make a push to challenge Desmet one more time. Grudge match, anyone?

Vashon: Definitely the top candidate to surprise, Vashon had a difficult season last year. Spotty attendance and very little practice time had them dropping games left and right. This year, however, coaches Chris M. & Ben T. tell me they’ve brought in the school’s crème de la crème, including but not limited to a D1 football recruit and the school’s 3 best female basketball players. They’ve been practicing in the gym for weeks, so maybe last year’s problem of having no reliable forehands on the team will be corrected for this year. If they have a few kids who can handle the disc, look out for the Wolverines in 2008.

Kirkwood: I haven’t a clue what to expect from Kirkwood this year. Last year, they had to combine with Webster Groves just to field a team; however, as I said . . . I have zero knowledge about their team this year.

CBC: Coach Matt R. tells me they’re very young this year and lost several key players last year; however, one thing that has ALWAYS been true of the purple people eaters at CBC: they improve over the course of the season. Just how much remains to be seen.

Chaminade: Brand new team, brand new coach, brand new fun for St. Louis Ultimate Juniors. Like Kirkwood, I know almost nothing about this team.

Clayton: What an improvement they made over the course of the season in 2007! They were practically a different team by the end of the year! I’m fairly sure their captain graduated, but they may be another candidate to surprise this year, depending on how many of those other, most-improved players they retained.

Parkway North: Unable to pull out a single win last year, the Vikings have impressed the league by remaining hungry for more and returning in 2008. I’m not sure if it’s true, but they seemed young last year, and so they may find themselves better off this year (what with a brand-new team in the league and an added JV team to battle).

JV Roundup: Of the league's JV teams (Francis Howell Central, Desmet, SLUH), it looks like Desmet will be the team to beat. Recruiting at FHC didn’t go as well as I had liked (with regard to the number of kids who came out), and SLUH’s JV program is in its very first year. Desmet’s is in its 3rd, I believe, so you’ve got to expect some success from that kind of stability. Still, look for FHC to surprise some of the league’s less established teams.

NUTC 2008

We all want to play Ultimate year round. In the fall many people participate in intramural leagues, and some teams start their seasons right when school starts. In the spring we all dive head-first into our team's season, soaking in every moment of Ultimate glory. In the summer our options thin out. Some of us go off to play on club teams and some of us are lucky enough to have wonderful summer leagues to participate in. Well, there's another summer option out there:

Have you ever wanted to be surrounded by 100 other youth Ultimate fanatics just like you?

Have you ever wanted to play Ultimate all day every day for a solid week?

Have you ever wanted to receive instruction from some of the top coaches and players in the country?

Have you ever wanted the chance to sky/hand block/mark up against Baecher, Mullen, Robison, Flynn, Avirgan, Kershan, or Tunnell?

The National Ultimate Training Camp is an overnight Ultimate camp for kids aged 14-18. Orchestrated by Tiina Booth and George Cooke, NUTC runs over the course of three very active sessions on the beautiful Northfield Mount Hermon campus in Northfield, MA. Each day kids from around the world receive training, play Ultimate, and socialize in the most Ultimate-centric environment on the planet.

In 2006 212 campers attended. In 2007, 278. The camp is capped at 300 campers and we are almost certain we will hit that number this summer. So, if you're interested in attending, register early!

The camp's website is located right here: www.nutc.net.

To register head on over to: www.lsse.org.

You can hear Tiina and George talk about NUTC in this podcast.

NUTC 2008 -- it's the place to be.

Pennsbury's Quest for School Recognition

Some of the country's most distinguished high school programs are legitimized at their high school with recognized varsity status. Amherst, Paideia, NMH, and the Northwest School all have the recruiting edge of being school-affiliated. Even lower-level programs at some schools, such as New Jersey's Watchung Hills and Ridgewood, have achieved some measure of varsity status, be it as a varsity activity (like marching band) or varsity sport. Pennsbury is kind of a new kid on the block, with a program relatively young and their rapid rise to success began four years ago, when they won their first Pennsylvania State Championship. Read on for the full Q&A with Pennsbury captain Isaac Saul.

Playultimate: When did Pennsbury start pushing for school recognition?
Isaac: Well, we started pushing for recognition probably three or four years ago, after we won our first State Championship. To be honest, before than we didn't have much interest in being school recognized, they never respected us from day one. And, of course, they had their reasons not too, but all in all we have always been a group of good kids who really just loved the game, and the reason we have had success is because these kids dedicate their lives to the game. It has always come first, before school, girlfriends, pretty much everything except family. It's quite the obsession.

Playultimate: What was the school's initial response?
Isaac: I couldn't tell you the schools immediate response, but all in all it was a big fat no. They didn't want to worry about us, they didn't think what we did was an actual sport, they didnt care that we won states, they figured it was just a tournament of 5 or 6 teams. They had no interest in supporting us, and still to this day I don't think they give us the respect we deserve. I mean, you told someone you played ultimate in our school and they laughed. You either got, "oh do you play with dogs?" or "ultimate frisbee? you mean smoking pot?"
No one ever understood us, or understood why we loved the game and everything that came with it so much. I can tell you though, the first meeting my co-captain Justin Principi and I had with the school went something like this... "Hey how are you guys this morning?" Athletic director and principle.. "pretty good, so we wanted to talk about getting our team some school recognition?".. "well we can't give fund you or give you fields, your not a part of the state AAAA sports program, and we don't want to pay for jerseys." So that was pretty much the end of that meeting.

Playultimate: What obstacles did you face in getting school recognition?
Isaac: I think the biggest obstacle we faced in getting the school recognition when getting over the stereo type that this was not a legit sport. No one believed we went to organized tournaments, or practice, or had offense and defense. I never really knew what they thought about us, maybe that we were just a bunch of kids who threw a frisbee around and wanted to call ourselves a team? Who knows. The bottom line was that they didn't want to give us fields, wouldn't fund us in any way, they didn't even put us in the club pamphlet for the school (which features about 90 other programs outside of the 6 or 7 major varsity sports).

Playultimate: What does it mean for the team now that you're an "official club sport"? Are there benefits/restrictions?
Isaac: Now that were an "official club sport" it means a few things. It is pretty much all positive, I mean because they aren't involved in PHUEL the local league, they can not put any restrictions on us. Nothing holds us back as far as traveling like Paideia or Amherst etc. The benefits are pretty substantial. We can fund raise in school, post flyers, make announcements, we have an EOP or free period for ultimate now (they have EOPS for all the other clubs, even game film for the football team) and in general we can promote ourselves as a Pennsbury Falcon team. Pretty much everything except funding and school restrictions. This, in my eyes, will hopefully bring in a huge recruiting class this and next year. I mean, my biggest fear is the team falls off when I graduate because my family won't be involved anymore. That is pretty much the heart of this whole thing, we want as many teams and players as possible, and being able to advertise the team as a legitimate school sport will (hopefully) help that greatly.

Playultimate: Do you have/need a school employee as a coach? Or any coach?
Isaac: Right now, our coach is Parent of a student in the district. He has two children who are both in Elementary School and is pretty much a great help and backbone to have as someone we can say is our adult supervisor. I also want to make a HUGEEE shoutout to Mr. Ketschek. He is a teacher in the English Dept. at our school and has pretty been working so hard behind the scenes with us forever. He has been a huge help, he runs the yearbook and got us in it the last two or three years, AND, he is the teacher who is directing our EOP. We have 4,000 kids at our school, and its split up into two buildings of thousand. They are all one campus, but they're called East and West. Well, 200 kids alone, just in the "East" building applied for this EOP. We're hoping that we get the same numbers out to our tryouts coming up in March. But Mr. K has just been an all around great help and an awesome connection to the school. He has been backin us up all the way.

Playultimate: Is there anything I didn't cover? Something you'd like to add about the process, recognition, the future, advice for other teams, etc.?
Isaac: There isn't much we didn't cover. I mean all I can say to the people trying to do this is don't think JUST about your school. We went to the community first, the parents, the kids. I mean we essentially went over the school. I was emailing the supervisor of the district, not just the head principle. The school will ignore you as long as they can, thats a fact I have come to accept. They don't want more to worry about. But approach the community, go to township meetings, look up email addresses on your school calender, go to community day, we did all of this just to get our name out there. Its a long process, and this is only the beginning. I want to be fully school recognized soon, but who knows? I just want to come back in 10 years, and see Pennsbury Ultimate at Easterns, or Nationals, or States, or whatever the biggest high school ultimate tournament of the year was.

I also want to make a plug for our tournament, Born to Dive April 19th and 20th. It is being hosted on our huge campus with awesome fields. This is all a sequel to everything you just read, its gonna be the first time we play in the spot light of our school and we wanna make a huge splash so send in a bid !!! Its posted up on score reporter on www.upa.org, if you don't wanna go there you can just email me RedskinsIMS2@hotmail.com. Its gonna be sick fields, sick teams, and lots of fun. VC ultimate will be there and possibly a college showcase game.
==============
Are there any other schools out there facing a struggle to receive recognition from their schools? Some teams, like Columbia, are completely unaffiliated with the school's administration. Others decline representation because of restrictions placed on by the school. Can someone from a school with restrictions, like Paideia, weigh in on the tradeoff?

DiscNW Spring Reign 2008

Spring Reign is the premier opportunity for youth players to play two days of high quality coed 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 competition in the northwest!

There will be divisions for elementary school, middle school, 9th grade, and high school teams.

Food and water will be provide for all players on both days of the tournament. Official tournament merchandise will be sold at Event Central. We will have a trainer on site.

When: Saturday and Sunday, April 19st and 20nd, 2008.

Where: Burlington, WA. Skagit River Park.Team Fees: The tournament fee is $275. Elementary team fees will be $150 for one day of games (Saturday - 3 games).

Registration: Registration is now OPEN! Go to http://springreign.discnw.org for more information!