Sunday, August 17, 2008

3 Years... Where do we go from here?

So the question is simple. With a new season approaching, and change in the water with the UPA and specifically the youth division... What do you want to see change?

What do you see taking place in the youth division?

What will be the biggest changes?

What could be the best and worst changes made?

Posted by Lukester at 12:28 PM

Comments (15)

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Ben's avatar

Ben · 869 weeks ago

I think the overall quality of youth ultimate will have a net increase hopefully throughout the country though i can only accurately say that it will increase in NJ. Middle School programs are popping up throughout jersey in Westfield, Pingry, and Maplewood/South Orange At the high school level players from non elite level teams are making an effort to learn the game outside of the NJ ultimate bubble. Players from throughout NJ are attending NUTC so they can play the game the fundamentally correct way. Additionally, at least in NJ i hope the sport spreads to urban communities. In Mapso we have long term thoughts to expand our ms program to the bordering urban community of Newark and/or irvington. Its exciting to know this is possible after what monroe did at westerns.

My main question I wanna throw out there is what can be done to get ultimate into communities and culture where it isn't popular yet be it urban, rural, etc?
Ben Swerdlow
CHS 08 and middle school coach
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cha ching's avatar

cha ching · 869 weeks ago

How about Natties..a little bit less spirit, not a lot but enough that people quit getting upset about dumb things..umm every team is required to have a coach, observers at Nationals...everybody reads the rule book at least 3 times...a lot less hucks, anddd ryan thompson gets off blogspot and moves on..thats about it
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J.K.'s avatar

J.K. · 869 weeks ago

Ben, from personal experience it is tough to get ultimate into communities where it isn't popular. I'm from the suburban Midwest, where ultimate, even among kids who are familiar with the game, is largely regarded as a laid-back, let's run around in our bare feet, smoke a bowl, "semi-sport". Parents don't perceive it as legitimate, so they pressure their kids to play all the conventional sports and maybe run track in the spring if they don't play anything during that season. Unlike certain areas of the country (NJ, northwest, MN, WI, etc...), kids DON'T grow up seeing organized teams playing and don't tell themselves that that is the sport they want to play.
My high school class was a little bit of an expception, because a big group of us played a lot of pickup in the summer and on the weekends. We actually organized somewhat last spring and played in the Denver East Invite (taking 5th after only 6 weeks of practices). But, the team quickly fell apart after that because they didn't feel obligated to have any sort of long-term commitment. Our school's A.D. wouldn't help me at all b/c all his attention was on the "real" sports. ...
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J.K.'s avatar

J.K. · 869 weeks ago

...I don't think there's really anything that the UPA can do about problems like this, and maybe it doesn't even have to considering the growth of ultimate right now. I think it takes grassroots efforts by individuals and organizations who know the sport and really wanna spread it. But until most of the country starts to embrace ultimate, the same schools are going to dominate year-to-year for a while.
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Hopkins #6's avatar

Hopkins #6 · 869 weeks ago

As far as nationals go, I cant say that there is anything the UPA could have done about easterns this year due to weather, but as for westerns... was the notice of Junction City and Churchill HS not attending so short that they couldn't have found more teams? I know of one team in Minnesota (Eastview) that gave Hopkins a run for its money in a quarterfinals game. But didn't apply for westerns because they were only in their second year as a team. Just to use this team as an example, but a lot of teams at westerns finished behind teams that weren't at westerns in their state tournament, Like lakewood and colorado. Due to the lack of 16 teams at westerns, the seeding and schedules were messed up for the sunday of the tournament. My team played two pool play games the first day with about a 3 hour bye between them. I was not pleased with westerns this year, and I would say that the UPA could have done a better job. A little more time put into the youth division would go a long way.

PS
Anymore news on Seattle and the UPA for next year?
1 reply · active 868 weeks ago
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anon's avatar

anon · 869 weeks ago

2008 Westerns could have been the most pathetic shitty tournament I have ever played in. And at a National level. I dont know that much about the system to choose the location, but the fields we played on only had about half the grass grown in. That, combined with the schedule and weather, made a lot of teams regret making the flight out there. My team played 5 games, 3 against teams from our own state... in horrible conditions.
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Jason Becker's avatar

Jason Becker · 868 weeks ago

I'd like to see a CENTRAL division championship, in addition to Easterns and Westerns Fledgling teams from the lower-Midwest are unlikely to commit the time and money required to attend national championships. We need a subdivision of this process, maybe even down the the regional level, like college. It's my sense that the juniors scene has already expanded sufficiently to make this change necessary and wise.
1 reply · active 868 weeks ago
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Anon's avatar

Anon · 868 weeks ago

I agree completely, that would allow a more accurate nationals selection/seeding process. Especially in the girls division where it is hard to accurately seed teams that haven't played eachother enough. With something as amall as a region, I don't think that many people would complain about the travel of a bus ride with a maximum of just a few hours.
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Dopest Shit From the's avatar

Dopest Shit From the · 868 weeks ago

Yeah I think people know that the upa can't control the weather, but the location was ridiculous. There are NO teams from MO, and they knew that the fields were like that when they set it up. I mean who was in the finals? WA and OR teams. It would have made sense if it was in OR, CA, or WA... I feel that it would be fair since YCC is in MN, so each team has to fly once not twice. The UPA should plan things out better, also what kind of food was there at Westerns? oh yeah nothing.
1 reply · active 868 weeks ago
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J. Becker's avatar

J. Becker · 868 weeks ago

There are 14 teams in the St. Louis area. 1 that I know of in KC. Unfortunately, they didn't go. My guess is, as I said, they are relatively new and didn't feel up to natties-level competition.
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Dopest Shit from Wes's avatar

Dopest Shit from Wes · 867 weeks ago

Then why put it there if they aren't going to play.. Put it some where wil they will have a team play from there... And even if, don't put Westerns/ Easterns so close to YCC, its not fair for the teams who have to fly twice, and teams that get to drive once...
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Dopest Shit from Wes's avatar

Dopest Shit from Wes · 867 weeks ago

*twice not once
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Henry Spruth's avatar

Henry Spruth · 866 weeks ago

A Central division seems like a fine idea, but what about more well-organized, well-advertised tournaments that are prestigious enough to attract teams from a few states away? Speaking from the Upper Midwest perspective, it's great to have tournaments like Madison Mudbath, Hopkins Hustle and even Hold Back The Snow within a day's drive. I don't think these were big UPA orgainzed events, just teams who thought they could run a tournament and told everyone they knew. I guess I'm saying, Central teams: if you want a big Central tournament, don't wait around for the UPA to do it for you. Depending on scheduling, I'm sure some MN teams would come down.

Dopest: I know it must suck to have to fly across country twice. Missouri did seem like a weird place to have Westerns, but I'm not sure it's fair to have it in the Northwest every year either. I like the current system of switching the location around every year because it keeps the cost equal on average... if it's too far away Sophmore year you can go the next year when it's closer. I'm sure the UPA hopes some local team from Missouri will say "we weren't going to go to Westerns, but since it's 20 minutes away, why not?" therefore growing the sport outside of established ultimate communities. Plus don't forget that not everyone who goes to Westerns plays YCC and vice versa. True it was really nice for me and the other 3 guys from my team who played YCC, but for the others who do stuff in the summer it would seem unfair.

-Henry
Minneapolis South
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Dan's avatar

Dan · 852 weeks ago

What about a YCC that is more like AAU basketball? Teams would be based out of cities, but they would not have to be tied directly to high school leagues or youth club leagues. Play for 3 months over the summer at tournaments across the country *(number of tournaments would be dependent on number of participants). No "championship" per se, each tournament is important, though the "champion" would be crowned by how well they did overall over the summer. I'm envisioning multiple teams from all the power centers of high school ultimate, along with teams from cities where ultimate isn't big yet in high school sports, but doesn't need to be (for instance, I definetely believe I could get a solid team of 14+ together from Dallas, but most of them don't go to the same schools, and there isn't really a league of any kind). I think that could be one of ways of helping growth in areas that aren't really open to high school ultimate yet.

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