ULTIMATE: AN EMERGING SPORT VERMONT’S EXPERIENCE BOB JOHNSON ASSOC. EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR VERMONT PRINCIPALS’ ASSOC .
ULTIMATE – NOT FRISBEE!!!!!!!
How did we get started? • Summer 2014 approached by VT Youth Ultimate League (VYUL) • Represented 16 to 20 high school teams and wanted to know how to get “sanctioned”. • VYUL is a state chapter of USA Ultimate (based in Colorado) • No state had “sanctioned” Ultimate through their state association.
1 st Meeting • Representative attended from USA Ultimate in addition to VYUL Board. • H.S. teams were currently participating in in- state, regional and national competitions. • VYUL wanted to come under VPA umbrella in order to “legitimize” the sport within the various high schools and to have their students get the same level of recognition. • Everyone knew there had to be give and take in terms of expectations and rules.
Issues • Culture – VYUL used to doing things on their own. Would now be under VPA/School umbrella. • Number of games – VPA Spring season is 16 games. Number of games was not an issue. Number of multi-day tournaments was. • Academic/Athletic rules – Ultimate would now be under a school’s eligibility rules.
• Membership fees – USA Ultimate required students to pay a membership fee to be involved. VPA rules/state law prohibits “pay to play”. USA Ultimate agreed not to charge a membership if teams were playing only within VT. If a team was going to out of state tournaments, they would need to pay a membership fee. • Coaches Education – all Ultimate coaches needed to meet VPA Coaches Education requirements. Not an issue due to USA Ultimate Coaches Education requirement/level of certification.
Final Approval as Exhibition Sport • November 2015 – VPA Activity Standards Committee approved Ultimate as a 2 year Exhibition Activity.
What have we learned? • + involves a large group of students that were previously not being served. Did not impact other Spring sports. • + legitimized Ultimate as an activity so that they could now receive support from their schools. • + brought Ultimate under the VPA umbrella which provided more structure (rules, etc.)
• + is cost effective. Uniforms disc and cones are only costs (no officials). • + Ultimate teams are very supportive of each other. Competition has no referees/officials (they are having them now at the collegiate level). Participants settle fouls, if needed, coaches step in. • + - culture of the sport is very positive. However, VYUL did have some issues with its members in “giving up control” and losing their “independence”.
• - scheduling. Even though we had a school AD who was the in-state scheduler, teams would make changes in their schedules and often times would not tell their AD, but would just contact the other school. • - communication – within VYUL, communication is great. Communication between schools and Ultimate coaches was not. Some schools agreed to have an Ultimate team, but then did not get involved.
What’s Next??????? • VPA Ultimate Committee has to go to VPA ASC this August to ask for permanent sanctioning. ASC has the option of 1) granting sanctioning, 2) having Ultimate continue as an Exhibition Activity for another year or 3) deny sanctioning. • It is a tremendous activity that is extremely positive. Sometimes the phrase “it’s like herding cats” comes into play. • Questions?????????
Recommend
More recommend
