Last weekend,
Woman Scorned ended our Fall season with our last tournament at Harvest Moon. It was a phenomenal tournament on pretty much every level and WS definitely went out with a bang...but that isn't what this blog is about, sorry... I'll hammer those out over Thanksgiving break between
turkey and leftover turkey.
As the rain comes down and temperatures drop to near freezing levels, my mind can't help but to jump to the spring season...or at least the preparation for spring season. Spring season, for most college players, is something near holy. Not only is it the time when we get to go back outside and play ultimate, it is the time for real competition! Watching WS improve drastically with each Fall tournament drives my excitement for spring even higher.
In the Midwest (or at least northern part of the US), things work a little differently. For many schools, winter becomes a time when ultimate is not easy to play.
Woman Scorned has been fortunate enough, in past years, to have access to a decent sized turf for practices twice a week. This
Spring's flooding in Ames took that turf away from us and the future of its return is still TBA. Many schools are forced into gyms or tracks which limit even tossing a disc more than 50 yards, much less playing a realistic game of ultimate.
At club nationals this year, the West Coast pretty much took care of business. The ultimate influence and opportunities in those regions are well advanced and continue to grow. Their ability to play ultimate outside nearly year around also helps maintain interest in the sport. (I remember at 2009 College Nationals the
Oregon girls were asking me about how we play ultimate in the winter with all the snow. The gave me a pretty funny look when I joked with them and said we had heated fields we played on.) These are some of the luxuries that, unfortunately, we don't have in the Midwest.
Although there are limits put on us by weather, many programs have not let it hinder them. Even in the past few years, more and more programs are stepping up and using the winter season to push their team to the next level. Teams like Woman Scorned,
Saucy Nancy,
Bella Donna, and many others have instituted attendance policies to require dedication and increase the expectations of the team. For many teams, winter is the perfect time for teams to improve their athleticism and conceptual aspects of the game. Incorporating sprint workouts, lifting, and plyos are just a few ways that players can utilize the time indoors to gain a step up come spring time. Conceptually, resources like
the-huddle,
ultimaterob, and other experienced players can be utilized to better understand the sport.
Collaboration between programs can be an important resource as well. Although each team has it's secret weapons, sharing information on successes and failures can help each other's programs to avoid mistakes and take steps in the right direction. Winter scrimmages and indoor tournaments are another priceless opportunity when there is 4 feet of snow outside. Last winter, WS held a scrimmage with
SOL and Bella Donna. Although it was only a one day event and there was only one turf to play on, the opportunity to play competitive ultimate was enough of an incentive to drive 5 hours. Being able to provide free housing and a free field made this trip feasible financially for all three teams, and the team connections that grew from this experience were just and additional benefit.
With the
new regional boundaries and bid allocation regulations announced by USAU this Fall, there is a lot of buzz and excitement going around. WS will no longer battle Bella Donna or SOL for a bid to nationals, but instead we pick up southern teams that we have historically seen less, like
Washington University WUWU,
St. Louis University's SLULU, and
Kansas University Bettys. The new boundaries, however, maintain several old rivals like Saucy Nancy, Syzygy, and Luther (among others). The new bid allocation system increases the number of regions from 8 to 10 and promises 1 bid per region with the remaining 10 bids allocated by strength with no cap on the number of strength bids each region can earn.
This new system definitely opens up the table for stronger regions to get more teams to nationals and potentially increase the level of competition at the College Nationals tournament. However, this also increases the need for teams to attend high level tournaments in the spring time (also perform well and correctly submit their rosters) like
College Centex and
Midwest Throwdown that are centrally located to allow teams from multiple regions to attend. Unfortunately, attending tournaments like these require a lot of traveling for teams and an increase in cost which many smaller programs just can't afford. At USAU Club Nationals this past month, there was a
Women's Leadership Task Force meeting, at which the development women's ultimate was discussed and plans were initiated to develop and advance playing opportunities for women. The formation of
Without Limits is another exciting frontier in the women's game and the reach of their skills clinics is growing with each new tournament.
All of these changes and initiatives are enough to get anyone excited about women's ultimate. It is obvious that the sport is growing as a whole and the women's division is stepping up as well. My hopes are that the new regional boundaries and increased opportunities for women's teams will challenge elite programs to continue to prove themselves, allow "on-the-cusp" programs to take that jump and commit to their goals, and inspire smaller, growing programs to close the gap and prove themselves competitive. Through the work of so many in the past, our sport has come a long ways, but there is still quite a distance to go for women's ultimate, especially in the Midwest. There is definitely a force, that is very much alive, and many amazing people working hard behind it to share the love of ultimate and achieve what we know is possible.
