Breaking: Major changes for Youth ultimate in the U.S. - No more Easterns/Westerns

No more nationals. No more easterns. No more westerns.

This is the gist of the plan announced by the UPA today. The plan advocates a move towards state championships only.

Effective Spring 2012 easterns and westerns will disappear and will be replaced by 4 regional championships.

Read the whole plan here, and we would love to hear your thoughts in the comments.

Right idea? Wrong idea? How does this change the map of competition? If the effects did take place this year, who would win each region?

The UPA also announced changes in YCC bid allocation, and Team USA selection process. Perhaps most disappointing about all of these announcements is the fact that the site set up to announce them is called, "The Ultimate Change". Really? I mean really? This is the last change ever for youth ultimate?

The changes are pretty sweeping. Thoughts and comments?



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UPA Releases Championship Applications

Today the UPA released applications for the three youth division championship tournaments of 2008. High School Easterns will be held in Pittsburgh on May 10th and 11th, 2008, and High School Westerns will be in Independence, MO on the same weekend. The fourth rendition of the Youth Club Championships will again be in Blaine, MN - this year on August 9th and 10th.

The Easterns and Westerns applications can be downloaded here, and they're due March 21st. The YCC application can be downloaded here, and it's due March 7th. Will YCC's fill every division this year? There are guaranteed spots for every UPA-sanctioned youth league - what leagues and HS leagues will be submitting bids?

Weekend Open thread - Easterns Edition

If you hear the scores, put em up - Easterns seems to have live updates on the score reporter site, but any reports from the fields would be welcome im sure.

The big show...

• Easterns, open - Score Reporter - PlayUltimate preview
  
• Easterns, girls - Score Reporter

State Championships...

• Maryland, mixed - Score Reporter
• Maryland, open - Score Reporter
• Oregon, mixed - Score Reporter
• Colorado - Score Reporter

Other tournaments...

• Hotchkiss Invite - Score Reporter
• St. Johnsbury Invite - Score Reporter

Thus far according to the score reporter everything seems to have progressed to seed except for Northfield Mount Hermon and Madison West possibly flipping. Scores from the last round of play should be up shortly. Needham vs. North Hills should be a hell of a game (or i guess it was, its over now). Yorktown seems to also have silenced some critics or at least made a case for their seed, going 3-0 on the day.

Play-in games will start at 4:45pm tonight deciding who will face off against the four #1 pool finishers. The action starts again tomorrow at 10:30am, by 5pm tomorrow a champion of the east will be crowned.

If you have updates or scores from any of the tournaments post em as comments.

UPDATE - 3:52pm - Pennsbury up 10-8 on Amherst in the finals of Easterns. Check the comments for the most recent updates

2007 Easterns seedings announced...

Pool A
Pennsbury
Princeton
Madison West
Northfield Mt Hermon

Pool B
North Hills
Needham
Memorial
Fieldstone

Pool C
Amherst
Colombia
LC Bird
Sycamore

Pool D
HB Woodlawn
Univ School of Nashville
Lexington Catholic
Middletown

And the girls...

Amherst
University School of Nashville
Memorial
Columbia

Andover
Amherst JV
Stuyvesant
HB Woodlawn

c/o UPA Score Reporter - Open, UPA Score Reporter - Womens | Official Tournament Site

Whats interesting to me is how much the upper seeds have played each other. Seems like a high level of travel is becoming to norm, or at least expected if you want to become an elite high school team.

Also interesting that many of the top programs in the country have both open and girls teams. Perhaps it can be inferred that the reason these teams remain at an elite level is because of their commitment to developing a fundamentally sound program for ultimate - including jv teams, open and girls teams etc.

Easterns Womens Teams Announced

Drum roll please...

Massachussetts
Amherst Regional HS-Varsity (Amherst, MA)
Amherst Regional HS-JV (Amherst, MA)
Andover HS (Andover, MA)

New Jersey
Columbia HS (Columbia, NJ)

New York
Stuyvesant HS (New York, NY)

Tennessee
University School of Nashville (Nashville, TN)

Virginia
Yorktown/HB Woodlawn (Arlington, VA)

Wisconsin
James Madison Memorial HS (Madison, WI)

[information c/o UPA Easterns Website]

Easterns Teams Announced!

Here they are...

Connecticut
Middletown HS (Middletown, CT)

Kentucky
Lexington Catholic HS (Lexington, KY)

Massachussetts
Amherst Regional HS (Amherst, MA)
Needham HS (Needham, MA)
Northfield Mt Hermon (Northfield, MA) - New England Prep School Ultimate League

New Jersey
Columbia HS (Columbia, NJ)
Princeton HS (Princeton, NJ)

New York
Fieldston HS (Bronx, NY)

Ohio
Sycamore HS (Montgomery, OH)

Pennsylvania
Pennsbury HS (Fairless Hills, PA)
North Hills HS (Pittsburgh, PA)

Tennessee
University School of Nashville (Nashville, TN)

Virginia
LC Bird HS (Chesterfield, VA)
Yorktown/HB Woodlawn (Arlington, VA)

Wisconsin
James Madison Memorial HS (Madison, WI)
Madison West HS (Madison, WI)

[Information c/o the UPA Easterns website]

Easterns/Westerns Deadlines in Two Days!!

Easterns and westerns applications are due in two days!!! Who has already sent in a bid? Who plans to fax them last minute? (is that even possible?)

Since so much of the country has yet to thaw/dry out how hard do you think it will be for the UPA to come up with the top 16 teams for each event. Do you think the bid deadline should have been later to allow for teams to see how they fair in the first few games of spring?

Chat away folks.

[UPA Easterns/Westerns Homepage]
[UPA Easterns/Westerns Application] (.doc)


(come back tomorrow and let us know where you are going to college, the second in our monthly College Choices segment will be posted.)

Easterns/Westerns - Bid deadline almost here - (March 23rd)

From the desk of Director of Youth Development Meredith Tosta -

The March 23^rd due date for applications to the 2007 HS Eastern and HS Western Championships is quickly approaching!

Go to the Youth Division page for information about eligibility and the application/selection process and to download an application. We are looking forward to an exciting spring of high school Ultimate! Email Will Deaver and Meredith Tosta with any questions.

Thank you!

Meredith Tosta
Director of Youth Development
Ultimate Players Association
4730 Table Mesa Dr. Suite J-200
Boulder, CO 80305
Phone: 800-872-4384 ex 115
Fax: 303-447-3483

That said, who has applied? Who plans to apply? Given the likelihood of certain applications, who do you think the Quarters or Semis of each will consist of?

Lets hear it in the comments...

Easterns/Westerns/YCC Apps availiable now!

From the desk of the upa...

Applications for 2007 HS Easterns, HS Westerns, and Youth Club Championships are now available. Go to the Youth Division page for information about eligibility and the application/selection process and to download an application. These are some of the most exciting and anticipated events on the Youth Ultimate calendar! Talk with your HS team or league about getting involved.

Youth Club Championships - league-based team applications due February 28
HS Easterns/Westerns - applications due March 23

[...]

Meredith Tosta

Director of Youth Development

Ultimate Players Association

if you plan on applying/attending, leave a comment, lets have a really really early look at the competition...

PlayUltimate Mailbag: Easterns and Westerns Scheduling

Fresh from the inboxes of PlayUltimate -

I am new to the youth ultimate blogging scene, so forgive me if this topic has been
rehashed over and over but I believe the issue is the number one problem with the junior championship series and that is graduation conflcts with Westerns and Easterns.

I understand that the HS tournaments fit best for the UPA after college, before summer, not in the fall because of club. Some have argued that April is too early and June is too late, but I argue that the date should never be set on any high school's graduation. It is inherently discrimatory. It is unfair. In the last 5 years of coaching ultimate Nationals and Easterns has fallen on our graduation date 3 times. Paideia, one of the top ranked HS teams in the nation has had similar conflicts. I admire Mike Baccarani and his crew. I have never heard him complain once about this issue. I am not that strong. Its wrong and I wish I could enact change. I've spoken with Will and Kyle and emailed board members in past years, but all in vain. So, we plan on taking a Freshman-Junior squad to Easterns this year. There will be no complaints on the field, but the bottom line is it isn't fair.

Sincerely,
David Wu, Coach
Lexington Catholic HS

So what do you think? Should the UPA ask for all school's graduation dates? Should they accept all the teams and then select a date that allows all to attend? Or should things remain as they are now?

As a fan of the game it stinks not to see a top team at the most prestigious tournament, essentially the closest thing to a national championship we have for high school teams at the moment. But is there a feasible way of correcting this? I know my high school graduation was a weekend in early June, as i think most schools in the area were. But is there regional disparity here?

On the same subject, it is also my personal opinion that all state championships should happen before easterns and westerns so that they can be taken into consideration when admitting teams. and in the same line of logic, local league and city championships should be held before states. NFL playoffs are going on right now and as im sure you have heard, it is referred to as the second season, the games take on a whole new level of athleticism and competition because teams are now fighting for survival. But i digress, the connection here being, in some ways it can be unfair to judge a team's regular season individual games for a tournament such as easterns or westerns, because who knows who had a test that day or perhaps playing time was mixed up. Whereas with the direct progression a more accurate depiction of who the best teams are late in the season will come to the forefront.

Agree? Disagree? Let's hear it.