Pittsburgh Ultimate

Hello Pittsburgh Ultimate!

I'm that bearded guy from St. Johnsbury VT who ran a coaching clinic down in your city last year. You may have also seen me coaching a BUDA YCC team over the past couple summers.

I'm also running for an at large position on the UPA's Board of Directors.

I've put up a page detailing all of the information that's currently available on my candidacy right here: http://vyul.org/content/view/72/96/

What I would like to know from you is:

What is Pittsburgh looking for in a Board candidate?

How can the UPA better serve the Pittsburgh Ultimate community?

Would you like to hear my position on any issues in particular?

....anything and everything you'd like to say about the UPA.

Josh, no particular questions for you at this time (nor answers to your questions above), but I don't think you'll mind. What I'd like to do is address the CPU (the community, not the board), and say this:

Everyone,

Having the opportunity to vote Josh into the UPA BoD is one of the best chances we've had as UPA members in recent history to really get things right. I won't go into the details of what Josh believes or stands for b/c that's what his candidacy statement and this discussion is for, but I'd like to make a few comments on his character.

Josh is a fantastic guy, his passion for Ultimate combined with his ability to really "get it" makes him something special. Josh knows what's right for the sport, but if he didn't he's sure as heck find out b/c of his honest desire to know what you, the membership, really want. Josh's energy is mind blogging and I'm very excited that he's taken this step. Plus, he's eaten at Primanti's, so he's got some Pittsburgh in him.

Vote for Josh.

Then call up your best friend and make sure they vote for Josh too. Let's show how much of an impact Pittsburgh can have when we get behind someone great who's ready to push us all ahead.

Thanks for the kind words Darren!

One note: While I have indeed eaten at Primanti's I still have a lot to learn about how to handle those MASSIVE sandwiches. When I'm out there next February running another coaching clinic my goal is simply to eat as much as falls on my shirt

That's a hell of an endorsement Darren, he's got my vote.
Henry

Hey Josh -

The fact that Darren speaks so highly of you speaks volumes. Add to that the fact that you have taken the time and effort to speak to communities and get opinions is reason enough for me...

But, to just put you on the spot (and this question relates to my passion as well) can you desribe your vision for the online presence?

Best of luck with the election.

Dave

Dave: When people think of the UPA website I want them to feel impressed. Right now the site does not have much of a welcoming feel, many things are hard to find, and there is not much to regularly bring visitors back to the site. Even though there is a wealth of information and functionality on the site, the experience of using the site isn't very smooth.

In designing a new online presence I would first focus on fixing what's already there. First, there has to be a better way of presenting the massive amount of information that upa.org contains. Even though I visit the site all the time, I still find it hard to find certain items. I do not know exactly what the breakdown would be, but I would like to work with a group of people to come up with something new.

Second, as the UPA is already doing, I would like to examine the online rostering system. Don't get me wrong, I actually really like the existing system, but there are lots of people out there that have problems with it all the time. I think a big part of those problems have to do with people not being familiar with how the system works, but there may be a way to smooth the whole system out some more.

Third, I would like UPA.org to be a forge that brings together all of the various sources of Ultimate information. For example there is the tournament list right here and the RRI tournament list right here. Then there are the tournaments that are just listed on RSD. I want the UPA.org to host the be all end all tournament/event list that is actively populated by many people.

Fourth, I want there to be more of a reason for people to come back to the site. I want to see a massive media gallery built in to upa.org -- Something like a free version of UltiVillage along with a spectacularly huge image gallery. Along the lines of having a reason to come back, I want the UPA to host it's own forums. I love how each ultimate community has its own forum, but I want the upa to host the most active one, or at least one that can replace the need for my favorite (sarcasm) all-time repository of Ultimate knowledge -- RSD. Right now upa.org is mainly just a basic information site -- it has deep info, but nothing interactive. I want fresh content. I want the UPA magazine published online.

Lastly -- and this relates to many of the points above -- I want the site to look nice. I want clean, simply, and utilitarian.

These are not easy things to change -- They will require money, and that's one thing Ultimate players have a weird view on. How many times have yo heard something like, "I want the UPA to do this, and this, or this, or this." right along with, "Why they heck are they charging me $40!".

Note: I do realize that people have very legitimate reasons for not liking the membership fees, but that's another issue that I'd be happy to address if someone would like me to.

All I'm talking about is... a better web presence is going to required a solid amount of cold hard cash. It cannot be another volunteer project. What's online now, while functional, is undocumented, unscalable, and unstable. A system needs to be designed that can handle the continued growth of the sport.

Josh,

College ultimate seems to be the most popular of our three competitive divisions (youth, college, club) in terms of number of participants and the media coverage (CSTV) its championships provide, although the growth of youth ultimate is obviously extremely encouraging. What are your feelings about aligning the collegiate competition with the NCAA? It seems that, in particular, women's ultimate has a great chance to be considered an "emerging sport" with the NCAA should ultimate choose to go that direction. (see criteria: http://www1.ncaa.org/membership/members ... s/criteria ).

What are your thoughts on the structure of competition from a tournament style competition to individual game structure? The individual game style seems to be adopted by more and more by high school leagues. Having played in both tournaments and individual game competitions, I prefer the latter much more.

Thanks for your responses in advance.

Josh -

Thanks for your thoughtful reply - and again - best of luck with the election.

Dave

Justin:

Re: The NCAA: I think aligning collegiate competition with the NCAA is absolutely something that should be explored in depth. At the moment I really don't know enough of the specifics to be able to come to any serious conclusions, but I certainly think it's something that should be explored. Reading over the criteria on that page, it is clear that womens college Ultimate could certainly make a run for 'emergent status'.

I've heard lots of heated debate about this topic -- Lots of people absolutely do not want an organization like the NCAA telling Ultimate players what to do. I'm really not sure how much that worries me since if Ultimate becomes an NCAA sport, there can always also be club teams. This is similar to the idea of refs in Ultimate -- Just because they are used on one level doesn't mean that have to be used on all levels.

Honestly I would be really interested in finding out what it would be like to have Ultimate be an NCAA sport. I wonder if any serious discussion has been had between the UPA and the NCAA on the issue?

I think Ultimate players are conditioned to feel like they have to build a system every time they want to do something new, or grow to a new level. Seeing what the NCAA might be able to do for the sport of Ultimate is a new way of approaching growth and one that could potentially be a huge boost to the sport.


Re: Tournaments vs. Single Games: Way up here in Northern Vermont we're pretty far away from... well, everything. What this means is that while we do have a couple teams within 1.5 hours that we can go play, the majority of our travel times are 3 hours in each direction. With those kinds of numbers, single games are particularly feasible, especially when we can travel the same amount and play 5-6 games in a weekend. What this has translated into is that 95% of our games over the past 5 years have been at tournaments. This also means we play a huge number of games -- Last season my girls played 39 games and my boys played 37.

After being so conditioned for tournament play at SJA, I've taken that to every team I have coached since then.... and I have come to LOVE tournament style competitions... BUT I think that is almost entirely because of my geographic isolation and my burning desire to have my teams play as many games as possible.

If I lived down in MA I am sure I would be taking my teams to as many single games as we could manage... AND... as many tournaments as well. If I was in an area with enough teams close enough together to run regular games, that would mean we could also run regular tournaments.

So, I guess what I am getting at is that I don't see the two styles of competition being mutually exclusive. If I could design my dream schedule it would be a weekday single game every Wednesday, a single day tournament every other Saturday, and a weekend long tournament every other weekend.

I know that there are many very successful and happy leagues that play lots of single games and a few tournaments. I guess I just wouldn't be able to give up the efficiency of weekend tournaments. I live for them. I love them. I actually spend too much time at them I think

At this point in my life every time I see a field of any kind I mentally map out Ultimate fields and calculate what kind of tournament I could run on the site.

Bottom line: I think each league/team needs to do what suits each league/team.

Regarding the NCAA:

I believe (not positive) that women's ultimate had a chance to be NCAA 5-10 years ago but ultimately decided against that. I think that now the decision would lean in favor of NCAA-sanctioning, although the pitfalls and extra regulations that go along with that would need to be examined in detail. I don't see men's ultimate going along any time soon.

i wish that someone on the team here at hampton would get a scholarship for ultimate

Brandon, that's a little random.... but... if someone from Hampton applies for the PHUL Scholarship then maybe they will.

Hello everyone,

I just wanted to remind ya'll that the voting deadline is coming up this Wednesday at Midnight.

So, if you haven't voted yet..... login to you UPA.org account and vote!

In case you missed the news I managed to snag one of those at-large positions.

Cya in February (at the coaching clinic)!