From teen to the big stage

The progression from youth/high school ultimate to college, especially in the bay area, is from sloppy to amazing, and this is a problem for the kids and the game as a whole. Any youth player in the Bay Area high school ultimate system will have a hard time transitioning into the college game, except for the few players coming out of a certain few systems (Dark Meat/Red Hand). Seattle youth go from high school to college with ease. The boys and girls from the great north west are already playing against team USA caliber players/teams and they also have the ability to play year round in high school and league play. The Yay Area or Nor Cal youth ultimate only get to play in few tournaments which gives them maybe 6-8 tournaments for the entire year. There are some things that the coaches and organizers for the Bay Area youth community need to do to progress the kids into that next level a lot easier.

First, the Bay Area needs utilize the amazing club teams in there own backyard, National Champion Jam and Nationals Semifinalists Revolver, by hosting youth jamboree's and clinics involving those teams. Players might get inspired if someone other than there coach, which only one in the Bay Area currently plays for a national caliber team, is instructing them. I don't know if Jam and Revolver would be willing to trade field space for help at a clinic, but if Jam and Revolver want to continue there ability to pick from great players, then they would benefit in the future by helping out. Also in these clinics the college scene would benefit if they hosted clinics. UC Davis, UC Berkeley, LPC, Santa Clara, UC Santa Cruz, and Sonoma St., are the colleges that these players from around the bay have to choose from with Ultimate teams. Even though I am a current and near future LPC alum I would love to see the bay area colleges producing high caliber club players, which in turn can come back and pay back what they recieved in the past.

Another thing that the bay area elders need to do is have more tournaments and or leagues. This upcoming season all coaches should come together and decide on what they want out of the year. Not just let it be what ever it is. Berkeley has started this by having a winter league. The winter league on paper and in theory was a great idea. It fell short on what it was thought to be, but not that there is an outline, the league can be built on and become great. What if there were multiple sites for the league and it was considered and Open League with two divisions. Teams after spring tournaments would decide what division they wanted to be in and after a month of playing league play top four teams would play for the championship. Also, there are not enough tournaments. Yes there aren't that many teams so everyone plays each other 3-8 times a year, but you can only play so much against your own team until practices get boring and redundant. This is an idea, but will need to be discussed with all of the coaches and coordinators.

The last sentence leads into the third, possibly the most important, thing that needs to be done; coaches need to talk more. The coaches should get together at least four times a year to discuss how the seasons are going, what needs to be changed and what needs to be worked on. Also why can't the coaches have some say on what is going to happen with the state championships. Some people think that there should be open and women's divisions and others think youth should stay mixed. These are the types of discretion's that could be discussed face to face.

The kids in this area are thirsty for ultimate and to expand there abilities. It is pathetic that Thousand Oaks High School, who never plays ultimate other than on Friday's just for fun and don't even know the rules are winning one game against teams that practice multiple times every week. I blame that on the coaches and yes that means I'm pointing the finger at myself too. We as coaches need to get our egos out of there way and let them grow. I hope this next year gets better and is not so elementary.