The Rutgers Men's Ultimate team is excited to announce their third
annual fall high school/juniors tournament, the Rutgers Grease Trucks
Classic, on the weekend of November 14-15, 2009, on Rutgers' Cook
Campus in New Brunswick, NJ.
The tournament fee will be $160 and we will be accepting between 16-20
teams, with each team expecting to see 3-4 games per day. Food and
water will be provided on site, and the tournament will include the
chance to learn about the Rutgers Mens' Ultimate team, buy discs for
sale, and watch (or possibly even participate in) the Saturday night
club showcase game, which last year featured former Nationals
qualifier teams PoNY and Pike. Some teams that attended last year
included PA, NJ, and NY state champions Pennsbury, Columbia, and
Stuyvesant High School respectively, as well as Easterns qualifier
Watchung High School (NJ) and NY States 2nd place finisher John Jay
High School.
_________BIDS__________
We hope the tournament to serve as a unique, season-finale opportunity
for those teams that attend. If interested, or possibly interested,
in attending then please send in a bid to ru(DOT)tournament(AT)gmail
(DOT)com with the following information:
1) "Rutgers Juniors 2009" and your team name in the subject line
2) your 2009 spring season results (leave blank if a first-year team)
3) number of players you graduated last spring (leave blank if a first-
year team)
4) a list of all current seniors on your team
5) a phone number by which you can be reached (please indicate whether
home or cell)
6) contact info for any other captains or coaches on your team
The bid deadline is October 31st, and PLEASE NOTE THAT all bids are
non-binding, so if in doubt, send in a bid anyways. Teams will be
notified as to whether or not accepted on November 1st, and any
subsequent teams who submit bids after the deadline will be put on a
waitlist along with the other teams not accepted into the tournament,
so it never hurts to send in a bid late.
See you all come November.....
-Machine Ultimate
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Rutgers 3rd Annual Fall Juniors Tournament: Grease Trucks Classic, Nov 14-15
Monday, August 17, 2009
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
2009 UPA HS Western Championships - SEHS (part 1)
2009 UPA HS Western Championships - SEHS (part 1) from luke johnson on Vimeo.
Option click here to download the ipod version.
Quicktime Download (720p), click here to download the ipod version.
2009 UPA HS Western Championships - SEHS (part 2)
2009 UPA HS Western Championships - SEHS (part 2) from luke johnson on Vimeo.
Option click here to download the ipod version.
Quicktime Download (720p), click here to download the ipod version.
Sunday, June 28, 2009
[Video] Sharon High Highlights - and media coverage!
^ the A team
^ the B team
From Coach Dave Christiansen - "The A-team finished third in the state tourney for Division 2 and our B-team won the D3 state championship tourney"
The team also garnered some awesome local press. Click here for the article.
Become a fan on Facebook! or Follow us on Twitter @PlayUlt - Help spread the word about high school ultimate.
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Next Level Ultimate Camp
Attention Players!
High School teams sending 4 or more players to Next Level Ultimate Camp will now earn significant reductions off all of their player's admission fees! Contact nextlevelultimate@gmail.com to get an exact quote for your team!
There is still space available for this summer! Join players from all over the country for 5 days-5 nights of advanced training from some of the top club players in the country! Each camper will receive a one-on-one assessment upon arrival and departure of the camp. We guarantee improvement in your game!
Check us out on Facebook at:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Madison-WI/Next-Level-Ultimate-Camp/77468191374?ref=ts
Or our website:
www.nextlevelultimate.com
The full registration form is posted on the application page, and makes registration quick and easy!
Look forward to seeing you this summer!
Next Level Ultimate Camp
July 25th-30th :: Madison, WI
Boys :: Ages 14-18 (including Fall 2009 College Freshman)
Monday, June 22, 2009
[Video] Seattle Academy at Westerns 2009
Highlights from Seattle Academy's trip to Westerns 2009
See a sick ultimate video lately? Shoot it over to playultimateblog@gmail.com and if it is in fact sick, we'll post it here. I'm going to try to post at least one video per week usually on the weekends. Or, of course you can always put it in the comments.
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Sunday, June 21, 2009
[Video] Watchung Hills 2009 highlights
Some solid stuff from Watchung Hills - a little more documentarian flair than the normal highlight videos we post but great soundtrack and great highlights as always.
See a sick ultimate video lately? Shoot it over to playultimateblog@gmail.com and if it is in fact sick, we'll post it here. I'm going to try to post at least one video per week usually on the weekends. Or, of course you can always put it in the comments
Become a fan on Facebook! or Follow us on Twitter @PlayUlt - Help spread the word about high school ultimate.
Saturday, June 20, 2009
[Video] South Eugene @ Seattle Invite
Seattle Invite - SEHS from glossjohnson on Vimeo.
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Thursday, June 18, 2009
Comment policy update and a strongly worded note
Listen up.
If you post a comment from here on out with profanity you will have your IP address blocked.
You are a reflection of this sport. This site is read not only by players on a few teams but by teachers, coaches, fans, administrators, parents, UPA officials, news media and I'm sure others. The way you act, the things you say and the things you write are a reflection of this sport.
When you play naked points
Ultimate does not have the luxury of being so widespread that individual actions do not affect it. When you play naked points you indicate that all ultimate players do not take their sport seriously and that they lack the credibility to wear appropriate uniforms. When you yell out obscenities from a sideline you show however many few fans might have graced you with your presence that you are not capable of conducting yourself in a professional manner, that you are not worthy of their time.
When you post profanity on one of the few ultimate-centric websites available you tell anyone who might come across it that there obviously is nothing constructive, or useful, or purposeful to speak of in this sport because the most you can muster are a few four letter indictments of another team.
I will not stand for it here. You have a responsibility not only to your own reputation but to the reputation of your sport. Your actions do not only reflect on your lack of vocabulary or waning moral character but of the larger community of which you are a part. You are an ambassador for this sport in every aspect of what you do, like it or not. Maybe you don't consider yourself defined by this sport, but for better and for worse you define it.
Consider this the next time you feel compelled to constrain your comments within such an embarrassingly small lexicon.
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Wednesday, June 17, 2009
[Ultimate in the Papes] College decisions and state champs
Ultimate coverage from papers around the country....
- Continuing in our vein of posts from a few days ago Carl Butt out of Springfield, Il garnered some local media attention for heading to the University of Chicago after starting his high school's ultimate program.
- Elsewhere the John Jay Air Raid garnered a nice long article with a photo for their performance in the NY state champs. Even more impressive is the fact that there was NOT ONE PUN! in the entire article. It was a seriously written news piece on a local teams performance. I might suggest attaching it to press releases you send to your local paper (especially in NY) to show other local media outlets covering the sport.
- Medfield in Massachusetts grabbed some coverage for their state champs efforts as well.
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Tuesday, June 16, 2009
[Video] Needham 2009 highlights
Some highlights from Needham's 2009 season
See a sick ultimate video lately? Shoot it over to playultimateblog@gmail.com and if it is in fact sick, we'll post it here. I'm going to try to post at least one video per week usually on the weekends. Or, of course you can always put it in the comments.
Become a fan on Facebook! or Follow us on Twitter @PlayUlt - Help spread the word about high school ultimate.
Monday, June 15, 2009
Grow HS Ultimate in the US: Organize
A note: consider this my aria and culmination of more than 4 years following and reporting on high school ultimate in the United States - it's long, and wonky, but I think it could provide a decent starting base for a serious, focused, and measurable result-driven discussion on the future of high school ultimate.
The UPA has made strides in the past few years.
The maps posted the other day show that HS Ultimate in the US is indeed reaching its tentacles out into the inner reaches of the country, however, there are still communities and states that have no high school ultimate presences.
It doesn't have to be this way. The plan and model I propose could create active leagues in all 50 states within the next 3 years if implemented effectively. Further, It would nearly (if not entirely) pay for itself (assuming successful execution) and would provide the UPA with much steadier financial standing in the years to come.
The model is community organizing. Paid staff individuals working on the grassroots level to create and sustain leagues as an occupation.
The Need for Change:
Too often leagues only exist where an individual has decided to give up his or her time of their own volition. This is a model, to be sure, but it slows growth, it puts the burden on individuals who in all likelihood are not going to be able to continue doing this forever. And undeniably, someone who is able to commit to league and team creation with 100% of their time will be able to have better results than someone who can only work in the hours remaining after work and on weekends.
States and areas without competition are essentially at the mercy of a college player who might move to town, or a retired club player who would like to start a local league. Its entirely up to chance and not sustainable - if that player burns out, or moves away it is possible for these leagues to fall apart if someone doesn't step up.
The passive approach must go, the purpose of a national organization is to aggressively promote and expand the sport. This is how other sporting organizations work (e.g., lacrosse, bowling etc), not only as a tournament "sanctioner" but active promoters of the sport. It is what is done between publishes of the newsletter and between the competition UPA series that will determine the future of this sport, whether it hangs on the fringes or whether athletes nationwide will at least have the chance and the choice to play.
The Model:
Similar to union organizing, or more notably and recently the Obama presidential campaign, the UPA should begin to hire statewide organizers. They would fill the role of the already created "State Youth Coordinator" but they would be compensated based on specific and challenging goals.
These state youth coordinators (organizers) would start in the population centers to help foster the creation of teams. Predominantly this would mean recruiting and retaining volunteer coaches and assistant coaches to help start teams at individual schools. For areas without any presence whatsoever this might mean organizing an initial pickup game, or doing demos during gym classes and school assemblies. The organizers would be required to report back daily (or weekly) on their progress - teams started, players involved, games played, next steps etc . This is important: there would be quantifiable and definite metrics to judge progress and to base goals on.
These organizers would be directed by regional coordinators (maybe based on the new UPA competition structure) who would also in turn have specific goals and would report to the UPA headquarters.
Salaries would have a base amount but would also have incentives built in for effective organizing - percentage increase in teams created perhaps, or games played.
To fund these new positions the $20 UPA dues and player fee would be collected from each player on ALL teams (this is already the standard charge, one could argue the cost could be raised without much detriment but we'll base our model on that number). As opposed to only the players who end up playing in state championships or other UPA sanctioned tournaments. This would make all of these leagues "UPA Sanctioned" (read: insured), and all in all just make it more professional. A $20 fee is next to nothing when it comes to youth sports. I can't ever remember playing T-Ball even for a fee like that. In the real world this level of monetary commitment is not hard to collect - especially if done in a clearly delineated manner: there are deadlines and you must pay to play before the season starts... as in every other sports league ever. Contrasts with the current model which sometimes collects the $20 at the tournament site on the first day of the state champs. While this might cause some growing pains at first the benefits long term will be many times the hardship.
Pittsburgh's PHUL is a great example of this: every individual player must register online and pay the fee before the start of the season. Sounds logical doesn't it?
Keep in mind also that these are community organizing positions, not Wall Street jobs. What I am proposing is done under the assumption that those who would take the positions would be doing so for love of the sport and an interest in the outcome, as opposed to money. The salaries just make it financially feasible.
We are talking in the $25-$30,000 range per organizer. The hours would be long, of course, but the work would obviously have ebbs and flows depending on the season. In the summer perhaps the best way to help spread the sport in the area is running an ultimate camp, maybe that would be another metric - at least one ultimate camp in every state (can you imagine the repercussions of something like that). In the falls it would be trying to recruit new players and new schools. Maybe winters would be discussing funding with school administrators, and springs would be more tournament organization. To be sure, this would be a year round job.
To reemphasize as well, these organizers would live and work in the communities that they are trying to organize. They would attend the games and go to the PTA meetings, they would be active members of the community. Further they need not only be concerned with formation of high school teams alone, for example they could organize summer camps for middle schoolers at a local park (usually community parks are always looking for activities like this to offer, $50 per week per kid and they get to learn the basics of a new sport).
The job and challenge of these organizers would be to work with whatever infrastructure is already there to improve and connect it. For example, there are colleges nearby - recruiting these players to coach the high school teams. There is a local summer league - working in partnership to help promote the youth league and connect it with the umbrella organization. There is a club team in the area - connect high school coaches with these players to run clinics or practice demos. All of these groups have something to gain from a high school league - whether it be great new recruits in later incoming classes, or more players in the pickup and summer leagues - high school ultimate is the future of the sport. If there is a preexisting league, adapt it to fit the larger goals and expansion of the UPA model.
The Concrete Dollars and Sense:
Ok, so lets put some actual numbers in, A minimalist 50 state strategy would look something like this...
- $20 income per player
- Assume an average team size of roughly 12 (a better organized team would have more obviously).
- Gross income is roughly $240 per team (this is of course before incomes from tournament fees, official UPA merchandise purchases - discs, sweatshirts, official gear from champs, fees from Ultimate camp dues etc; and on the other side before outflows of field reservations etc)
To put this in context, Minnesota and Massachussettes both have more than 80 teams on score reporter, PA is somewhere around 75. I am sure in all of these states there are other teams that play who aren't on Score Reporter. In other words, a full time employee could very easily get these states over 100 teams in the first year. And thus a $24,000 salary.
A brief aside: to put these ideas in a bit of context and maye even give them some legitimacy these goals are entirely attainable, I worked for the Obama campaign during the 2008 election and we started with basically no contacts in an area and were expected to develop teams of volunteers to make phone calls and knock on doors. Within 4 months in the small town of Scranton, Pa we had dozens teams with 20 to 30 members each. My point being, working year round with local league and college team resources, using almost identical strategies one could easily make these goals and then some. Further, ultimate is fun, and damn near viral. "Go outside and play" is a much easier sell in a lot of ways than "come to our office and make hundreds of phone calls with people yelling at you".Keeping the different levels of establishes leagues in mind, it might be a good idea to tier the release of this plan - first to these states which are already set up with 50 teams or more, then to states with 25 or more, then to the blank slates. On the other hand, those states with more players will probably continue to exist no matter what, whereas starting with blank slate states might yield better results in the long term.
Even if the plan did create an initial financial output and net loss from the UPA's budget (which is entirely possible, if not likely) it would be worth it.
There is an exponential return on recruiting athletes to a sport at a younger age - irrespective of the altruistic motives of spreading the sport. From a purely utilitarian and financial perspective if a person starts as a UPA member in college and pays an average $30 dues for the next 20 years you are gaining around $600 in fees. If you can get that same player when they are 13 or 14 that figure turns into closer to $700. Nothing to scoff at when you consider the scalability.
It is in line with these same principles of consumer behaviors that McDonald's has play places and Happy Meals at their restaurants - if you recruit patrons or participants earlier they will have more time, money, and energy to devote to your cause.
Further, from a financial point of view the investment in youth ultimate has a ripple effect down the line. Look at literally all of growth in ultimate so far - it all traced a single point Columbia High School's parking lot. Those students went to college and spread the sport and the rest is history. I'd wager that for every dollar invested in recruiting high school players you get it back 3-4 fold when they go to play in colleges and recruit their friends to their teams. God knows freshman year I went door to door in Pitt's dorms trying to convince my new neighbors to come out and play with us.
On an entirely different thought track, investing in these organizers also gives the local leagues an incentive to pair up with the UPA. As of right now large leagues like PADA, DiscNW don't have much incentive to partner or be member entities with the UPA, which in turn takes away from the UPA's credibility and weakens their standing. If each league could see that for a $2-3 per person fee in their summer league dues they would not only receive UPA field insurance but also a paid employee that would be working to expand youth ultimate in their area and in turn strengthen and grow their local league it would provide them much more incentive to become affiliated. This in turn would increase the UPAs total membership outside of purely those who play in the series and the ones who pay for the magazine and recruit the more casual or recreational player - the types of individuals that make up the vast majority of ultimate's player base.
This expanding fund base could be used as seed money to employ these organizers to new communities. And so on.
Alternative Revenue Sources
The above so far has strictly relied on player funding, which while very pure might only be part of the solution. Assuming the UPA were able to implement this plan (which they are) instead of having loosely affiliated leagues which come together for a tournament or two a year they will have hundreds to thousands of teams that are playing under their umbrella on a daily basis during the season.
This allows a change in the advertising pitch from "Would you like to sponsor or advertise at our tournament - there are 16 teams per division and two divisions?" To.. "Would you like to advertise on our national official youth disc - it will be printed more than 10,000 times and be in the hands of a target demographic of 14-19 year olds with some level of disposable income."
Also with advertising, you could have a subset of the Ultimate News email newsletter geared specifically towards the youth scene - especially given the thousands of new email addresses you are recruiting with the organizers. This could easily include an ad with identifiable statistics for an advertiser - clicks etc. If you are sending this email out to 10,000+ kids you can suddenly start to generate some revenue and attract larger advertiser range - instead of Discraft or VC Ultimate for a few hundred dollars you could lock in a Powerade or other lower level sports equipment or fitness corporation looking for better brand awareness.
Assuming the level of competition is expanded to this level (hundreds of high school teams in every state) the sport becomes more attractive for media coverage - hell sport stacking gets coverage on ESPN 2, gotta think with 5000 high school teams in the country and growing you could convince the VS network to slide over the 2 am on Sunday morning slot.
My only point with this is that with the growth there are opportunities for even more rapid acceleration - if it is managed proactively and efficiently. It can't be an additional responsibility thrown on an existing staffer you need to bring in an Ad rep or sales representative to market Ultimate to these companies.
The Applicant Pool:
But could you find 50 individuals willing to prolong more lucrative careers to teach and expand ultimate? If only there were close to 800 college ultimate programs graduating students every year... Oh wait! There are. Assuming each school graduates on the low side around 3 seniors, that would mean you would have a pool of roughly 2400 to recruit from per year. Not a bad place to start and certainly not the only pool to draw from, as I'm sure at a least a few of the current SYC, coaches or league organizers might be interested.
The Conclusion:
The point of all this is the following: ultimate is a great game, and there are a ton of people already playing, but it deserves the widespread recognition and access that any other major sport has. It is a great activity for high school students to get involved in, for all the reasons you all already know. Kids everywhere should have an opportunity to play in an organized league, and it shouldn't be fate or someone else's work schedule that decides if they ever get that chance.
To be sure the organic grassroots growth of the sport will continue, every time an errant disc is thrown in a park and lands at the feet of a spectator ultimate reaches out to another potential player and possibility. But there is so much more that could be done.
The UPA has as its mission to advance the sport of ultimate in the United States. It is time to start actively doing this. It is time to set up a network and support structure of paid personnel around the country to advance the sport of ultimate at a grassroots level. The UPA has this capacity right now, and within 3 to 4 years organized high school ultimate leagues with more than 100 teams in all 50 states can become a reality.
Have different ideas? Put 'em in the comments.
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Sunday, June 14, 2009
A notice: things might slow down again
Later this week I will move to Chicago, Illinois to start my training with Teach For America, its intensive 12-14 hour a day sessions 6 days a week for the duration of the summer, and then in August I will start as an elementary school teacher in one of Chicago's most under performing schools working to hopefully reduce the achievement gap in America. So, unfortunately, the likelihood of me being able to post as much as I would like will be extremely diminished.
I hope to still check in, but I wanted to warn you that if things get slow, there is good reason.
If you are interested in joining the site as a contributor please email me at playultimateblog@gmail.com - we have an incredible list of people who currently contribute or have contributed in the past (you can view them by scrolling down on the right hand side) - if you are a long time reader and are in touch with a local league or team we would love to add your voice to the chorus.
I just want to say that it has been a pleasure writing here for the past 4+ years, I hope you have enjoyed some of what we have been able to put together, there certainly has been some lively discussion in the past. More than 206,000 visitors viewed the more than 675 posts on PlayUltimate nearly half a million times - all to tune in for some high school ultimate news and commentary. I am extremely proud of what we have built here together, and I hope you have enjoyed the site over the years.
I encourage you to continue to visit and comment and spread the word about high school ultimate. Also, search through the archives if you ever have a question about something ultimate related, chances are it has been discussed here at some point or another.
Tomorrow I'll post my plan to grow high school ultimate in the US in an active and immediate way, it will be long but I hope you'll read it.
Thanks for stopping by, and as always...
Play Ultimate.
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Saturday, June 13, 2009
[Open Thread] Suggest a "Best Practices" topic
Every now and again we run a feature on the site called "Best Practices" where we solicit opinions and advice from the community on a particular topic relevant to high school ultimate players - running practices, drills etc. What would you like to hear about for the next best practices?
Throw it in the comments. (remember you can use your Facebook profiles to comment now, or anonymously if you aren't proud of what you are writing)
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