Regional Update - Spring 2015
coming from U23 member Nick Wright and U19 gold medalist, Trevor Knechtel. Despite keeping the game within reach through half, the UVic open team suffered the same fate as their female counterparts. UBC’s defense capitalized on some crucial turns and secured the 15-11 win.
The Thunderbirds walked away from Centennial stadium with a pair of wins just as UVic had done the year before. The 300 scattered fans were treated to a delightful show of West coast college Ultimate. UVic and UBC will enter the USAU spring series in April looking to punch their tickets to the USAU College Championships.
Calgary Junior Ultimate Making Strides
Alberta By: Alex Ramadan
At best, the Calgary junior scene has been a ragtag collection of diehard kids that just want to play, a reflection of its competitive adult counterparts. When I started as a junior in 2001, I didn’t sign-up for anything because there was nothing to sign up for. You happened to know the right person, and you showed up.
Calgary Junior Ultimate
Photo: Alex Ramadan
There has always been a shotgun-type organization style to juniors in Calgary, a style that brings lots of energy, but struggles with participation. For the previous five years, CJU had been a one man show, with Tim Friesen doing a great job recruiting new players, sharing his passion for the game, and implementing new initiatives. After a last minute change in CJU leadership, 2014 was a struggle to recruit new players and build relationships with parents, but because of a concerted effort to clearly communicate and organize our events, significant strides have been made leading to a more promising 2015.
Over the past year, CJU has become more flexible to help promote participation. We have moved to smaller teams to ensure everyone plays a key role on the field. Last year, our community practices were a success and culminated with a team traveling to Edmonton for the Spirit of the North tournament. The competitively driven practices were less successful and did not properly align with our engaged kids. Instead, coaches and the more experienced kids formed teams that played in the adult leagues, setting the groundwork for a possible future competitive touring team.
Calgary Juniors Ultimate Photo: Alex Ramadan
This year we have had more time to organize with growth and retention as our two major goals. We want every kid to have an opportunity to play and provide them with a clear path to grow and succeed with the sport. We built a spring schedule that flows and builds from one event to the next, culminating with the highlight of our spring season: Showdown. We have our season opening March Madness Tag Team Tournament, followed by a three-week skills clinic
Ultimate Canada Magazine -
www.canadianultimate.com 25
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