Originally posted a tad over 3 years ago, wonder if anything's changed?
Sunday, December 18, 2005
Role Models for "Young" Players
So this issue has bugged me for a little bit, and since it is the "off-season" for most high school ultimate players, i figured i would bring it up.
first off a little exercise...
1. name five nba players
2. name five nfl players
3. name your top 5 sports role models from any sport
not too hard eh? ok now try this -
name five upa club players
name your top five ultimate role models
for most high school players, this is where the difficulty comes in. as a sport, we dont have, at least as far as i can see, those players that are universal. everyone that plays basketball has heard of michael jordan. everyone that plays soccer has heard of pele, for cycling - lance, etc.
as a sport i think this is something perhaps we are lacking. we have the local role models, the coaches, the alumni of your teams, perhaps local college players you've seen play, etc. but what we lack is the nearly idolized distant role model. the one you watch from afar, perhaps send for an autograph.
so - to the point of this long rambling post. if you disagree with me, who are the universal role models for ultimate? (name names) and if not, have you seen any players (lets keep it in club, which is undeniably the closest thing to pro for ultimate right now) who are worthy of such acolades?
i wanna hear names here. and if you cant answer either of the above questions, how about this one - do you think ultimate needs or wants a michael jordan?
Maybe even more interesting from that post was the discussion it engendered in the comments. - Check it out for yourself.
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