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ULTIMATE PLAYERS ASSOCIATION
4730 Table Mesa Dr.
Suite J-200
Boulder, CO 80305
800-872-4384
303-447-3472
303-447-3483 fax
YCC FAQ

FAQ for the UPA Youth Club Championships (experimental)

Q. Why not have qualification for the YCC like the adult UPA club  fall series: sectionals/regionals/nationals?

A.  We considered this option thoroughly.  A qualification structure like sectionals/regionals/nationals will quickly become stagnant.  A structure like this emphasizes winning.  In order for a team to play at the next level they must win.  Players that want to go to nationals will put together a team of all of the best players from the area.  These “all-star” teams will dominate the second and third tier teams at their qualifying events.  In addition, some adult sections are large and require a great deal of travel, just for sectionals. Teams, especially those made up of new or beginning players, will be discouraged from participating in the UPA Youth club series because they will be required to pay the membership fee for one weekend of uneven competition that may require distant travel.

A league structure emphasizes participation.  Leagues would ideally be made up of teams where the talent is evenly distributed.  Instead of paying for a weekend of uneven competition a league offers UPA members a season of fair and equal competition locally and the opportunity to compete for your league nationally.

Q. Why August?

A.  The timing of this event has been discussed extensively and was quickly narrowed down to August or October.  Youths’ lives are very neatly divided into four seasons: three school sport seasons (Fall, Winter, Spring) and the summer.  The event should be held at the end of one of these seasons, so as not to require multiple seasons of participation for players.  Since the Spring is already used for our High School Championships and the winter was impractical, August (the end of the summer) and October (the end of the Fall) were the only two logical choices. 

The advantages to an August event are:
  • Youth able to travel during the summer
  • Event could be extended in future to 3, 4, or 5 days
  • Adult club players that play in the fall would be able to coach
  • More choices for venues
  • Doesn’t conflict with Fall sports season
The advantages to an October event are:
  • Doesn’t conflict with Worlds every other year
  • Juniors may have other summer plans
Q. Why three divisions (Open, Girls, Mixed) instead of two (Open and Girls) or one (Mixed)?

A. This was another issue that was thoroughly discussed.  The argument made in favor of only a mixed was that if boys weren’t encouraged to recruit girls in order to participate then girls Ultimate would become stagnant.  The argument made in favor of all three was that there were some youth who prefer to play on single-gender teams while there are others who prefer to play on mixed teams and that the UPA should offer all three divisions. 

Ultimately, it was determined that we are capable of offering all three.  We felt that we should begin by offering all three.  In the future if we find that the divisions hamper growth the YAC will reevaluate which divisions the UPA should offer at the JCC.

Q. How come there are so few teams in each division?

A.  To begin with, this is an experimental event.  We are not quite sure how players/teams will respond to the addition of this event and the timing.  We are interested in keeping the number of teams low so that we can be sure to fill out all three divisions. 

Second, since we are interested in encouraging the growth of leagues by keeping the number of teams at this event limited we can create more of an incentive to form a league and have leagues sponsor teams if our field of teams is smaller.

As we gauge the interest in this event we can expand it in future years to include larger, and hopefully more, divisions.  One of the main reasons we placed this event in the summer was so that if we need to expand it in the future to include more days we would be able to.  It would be great if in 10 years there are U-19, U-17, and U-15 divisions for each of our gender divisions and each of those divisions has 32 teams.

Q. How come a player only counts as ½ a player if s/he plays in two leagues?

A.  The reason behind this rule is that we don’t want one area to take multiple bids to the NYCC because they have multiple leagues with the same players playing in both.  Imagine this situation:  City A has both fall and summer youth Ultimate leagues made-up of the same 100 UPA Youth Ultimate players.  City B also has both fall and summer youth Ultimate leagues each with 100 players but in City B there are no players that play in both leagues.  Without the ½ player rule city A would receive the same number of bids as city B even though city A has only ½ the number of UPA members.  The goal of this rule is to reward real growth in players and UPA membership.

Q. How do leagues determine their teams?

A.  That is up to the leagues themselves.  Each league can determine its own selection process to select a team that is most representative of the league.  Leagues can have each team choose one or more players to play on the league team, can hold try-out camps, or select teams using some other variation.  We suggest that in addition to skill and athleticism leagues take into account spirit, fair play, leadership, and attendance when selecting the teams.  In the future the UPA may institute guidelines for selecting league teams that includes a minimum attendance policy or other rules.
Last updated 04/06/2007 - 18:26