Holiday Support for the Scholarship

For any of you who have not finished (or started) your holiday shopping, here's a reminder that you can support the PHUL Scholarship when you purchase through Amazon.

Have your holiday shopping support PHUL, use this link and the scholarship gets 5% of your order: http://tinyurl.com/PHUL-Amazon

More details in last year's post:
http://phul-ultimate.blogspot.com/2008/12/holiday-giving.html

Announcing CPU U-19 Winter League

PHUL and CPU are running a U-19 (under 19) winter league this year starting at the end of the month. This is a clique league like "Regular Winter League"

Teams are encouraged to form with both high school and college players (of eligible age) by mixing up schools. You can play with your own HS team if you're too scared to make new friends, but you are certainly not required to do so. We will be accepting 8 Open teams and 4 Girls teams on a first come first served basis.

Where: Neville Island Golf Dome (Robert Morris University Island Sports Center)
What: Indoor Ultimate for Youth Players
Who: Anyone who is under 19. (19th birthday not before 10:46pm on 12/18/2009)
When: Friday nights 8:45pm - 10:45pm
Dates: Nov 27, Dec 4, 11, 18
Divisions: Open and Girls Divisions. 8 Open teams and 4 Girls teams.
Cost: $300/team. $25 discount if registered (check arrived) by 11/11 at 11:11:11 PM ET (That'd be $275/team).

Fun stuff: Each girls team may name one captain. If you captain a girls team you'll receive a free PHUL Hoodie.
If you were on North Hills and won PHUL Winter League 2008, we have a free PHUL Jersey for you.

Games will be played 5 v 5 on fields the same size as the First Night Of Flight fields which is roughly 23ydx55yd. Games will be 55minutes long, the same as CPU Winter League. All teams will have at least 7 games. Rules will be 2009 CPU 2009 Winter League rules (Sub on the fly).

Please reply to this post or e-mail DarrenShultz@phul-ultimate.org to express your interest. Please list what team you represent. To confirm your spot please send a check made out to "PHUL" for $275 or $300 (see above) to:

PHUL
Attn: I love Winter League
100 43rd Street
Pittsburgh, PA 15201

or make arrangements to drop the check off with Darren... but good luck finding him.

Your CPU U-19 WL Commissioners,
Darren Shultz & Ben Banyas

Being a team can be more than playing Ultimate

One of the great things about team sports is the bond that can form between you and your teammates. My fondest memories of Ultimate stem from my senior year of high school at Hampton. That 2005 edition of the Hampton Ultimate Club was as tight nit and close a group as I've ever been apart of. Everybody got along, there was very little in-fighting and people worked hard for one another. As a captain, you can't ask for a better situation.


I really believe that cohesion among teammates plays an important role in the success of a team. Sure, you need talent and you need athletes and you need to outwork the opposition. But intangibles can really play an important factor in the how well your team does on and off the field.


How can you foster this type of bond among your teammates? Not everybody who wants to play Ultimate is going to be friends with each other. If you're going to spend as much time as you will together, you might as well try to keep it as conflict-free as possible.


An important step starts at the top, with the captains and veterans of the team. Making an effort to make all players feel like they are included and setting the precedent that everyone is all a part of the team is vital. If the captains don't look to involve everyone, nobody else is going to.


Next, consider developing team rituals that include everyone. After a game, we headed to Wendy's. Everyone, teammates, fans, family, the other team, whoever, were welcome to come. To the best of my knowledge, this tradition continues today for the team. We also did team warmups, a regular pre-game cheer, and a post-game game of Monster Truck Rally. These types of small but expected rituals bring a group of people closer together. Go do something social with everyone on the team.


Setting the expectations at the top and making sure everyone feels included is vital. Conflicts will arise and will have to be taken care of, but a team that gets along will practice better and work harder for one another. Fostering that type of environment could take your team over the top and snag yourself a PHUL championship. At the very least, you'll have a great group of friends and fantastic memories to take with you forever.

Congratulations Jodi Lincoln on being named as a PHUL Corps Member

Congratulations to Jodi Lincoln who has officially been accepted as our second member of the PHUL Corps for PHUL 2010. Jodi was a member of the '09 PHUL Council and is the captain of the CAPA girls team. Jodi was accepted to the Corps for her ongoing work on a girls Gym Demonstration program and grant application. Welcome Jodi.

Congratulations Jay Sehgal on being named as a PHUL Corps Member

Congratulations to Jay Sehgal who has officially been accepted as our first member of the PHUL Corps for PHUL 2010.

Jay was a member of the '09 PHUL Council and is the captain of the North Allegheny High School Boys team. Jay was accepted to the Corps for his completion of the PHUL 4v4 tournament, his existing work on the Entertainment Books Fundraiser, and extensive work updating our 2009/2010 official contacts database.

Welcome Jay.

Club Team History - Pittsburgh Forge

We had hoped to have time to do an overview of all the Pittsburgh based club teams competing in the UPA Series to follow up on our alumni post regarding Founders Sectionals. Due to time constraints we have a unfinished overview of Forge, but we'll share with yinz. Good Luck to Wildcard, The Muff 'n Men, Forge and Swagger U this weekend at Club Mid-Atlantic (Open, Mixed and Women's) Regionals

Forge:

Forge is the current "main" Club Open team, formed out of a combination of Burgh ('05-'07) and Sir Duke ('07), both of those teams having their origins in Run ('01-'04), which was created as a feeder team to the club team "Powder Keg" in 2001. Powder Keg prophetically exploded after one year, leaving Run as the only Open Club team in Pittsburgh at the start of the decade.

Team Histories: Run: http://www.pittsburgh-ultimate.org/teams/run/results.php3

Pittsburgh Men's Club team final standings '01 - '09:

• Run 2001: 4th at Founders Sectionals, 13T at Mid Atlantic Regionals
• Run 2002: 6th at Founders Sectionals, 9T at Mid Atlantic Regionals
  
• Run 2003: 1st at Founders Sectionals, 6th at Mid Atlantic Regionals
  
• Run 2004: X at Founders Sectionals, 9T at Mid Atlantic Regionals
  
• Burgh 2005: 3rd at Founders Sectionals, X? at Mid Atlantic Regionals
  
• Burgh 2006: 2nd at Founders Sectionals, 5T at Mid Atlantic Regionals
  
• Burgh 2007: 2nd at Founders Sectionals, 6th at Mid Atlantic Regionals
  
• Sir Duke 2007: 4th at Founders Sectionals, 7T at Mid Atlantic Regionals
  
• Forge 2008: 1st at Founders Sectionals, 4th at Mid Atlantic Regionals
  
• Forge 2009: 2nd at Founders Sectionals, Seeded 4th at Mid Atlantic Regionals
  

Congratulations Geoa Geer on being named PHUL Girls Division Commissioner

Congratulations to Geoa Geer who has officially been named as the Girls Division Commissioner for PHUL 2010.

Geoa is a new member of our staff, and is the Allderdice Girls team coach. Welcome Geoa.

2000 Impressions and a new video

The PHUL blog has hit 2000 impressions. To celebrate we're releasing an old, pre-PHUL video on Facebook. This video shows highlights from the the 2nd match-up between Seneca Valley and North Allegheny. The first was over Thanksgiving break of 1999 (11/27/99), won by SV. This second match resulted in a 22-20 win by NA after a 3 hour long match in the rain.

The video can be found here.

You can find team histories for NA at http://www.pittsburgh-ultimate.org/cgi-bin/league/team.pl?league=PHUL;team=NALL

and SV at: http://www.pittsburgh-ultimate.org/cgi-bin/league/team.pl?league=PHUL;team=SVAL

Collecting Past PHUL Photos

PHUL is collecting any photos from the community that include past or current PHUL players. If you would like to share an album or individual files, please send them to photos@phul-ultimate.org

Photos will be posted on our facebook page.

Ultimate In the Wall Street Journal

An article in the Wall Street Journal mentions Ultimate for exercise: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203440104574404831543246854.html

Congratulations Justin Burdett, PHUL Middle School Commissioner

Congratulations to Justin Burdett for being selected as the PHUL Middle School Commissioner for PHUL 2010.

Justin has played many roles in Youth Ultimate over the years. He was the captain of HUC, the Hampton Ultimate Club in 2004 and 2005, during their 2nd and 3rd years as a team. Justin secured Club status for the team at their school his senior year. While attending Penn State University Justin founded CPHUL, the Central Pennsylvania High school Ultimate League, a sister league to PHUL. Justin has acted as PHUL's Outreach Director and was instrumental in our securing of NRG as a sponsor for PHUL in 2009. Justin is also involved as a coach for Pine-Richland High School as well as currently holding the job of PHUL Coaching Coordinator.

PHUL MIddle School Commissioner

As hinted at last Monday:

A new job has been posted for a Middle School Commissioner in PHUL: http://www.pittsburgh-ultimate.org/bboard/viewtopic.php?f=57&t=15571

Applications are due before the end of the week.

PHUL Alumni at UPA Founders Sectionals

This weekend 6 Pittsburgh teams will travel to the UPA Founders Sectionals across three divisions. In the Open division will be Forge and Swagger U. Steel Reserve (the "2nd team" to Forge) will not be playing. In the Mixed Division The Muff 'n Men will represent our city. In the Women's Division, Pittsburgh will be competing as part of a regional team as Wildcard. The local women's college teams from Pitt and CMU will be competing respectively as Danger and Money Mellons.

Open Division:

• Forge, seeded 1st: (6 of 21 players)
  
  - Ben Banyas(C), Fox Chapel '01-'02
  - Bob Liu, North Allegheny '05
  - Chris Brenenborg, Central Catholic '03-'06
  - David Vatz, Mt. Lebanon '01-'04
  - Hao Su, Mt. Lebanon '04-'06
  - Ryan Smith, Montour '07-'08
  
  
• Swagger U, seeded 7th: (13 of X? players)
  - Alex Thorne, North Hills
  - Allen Rakers, Hampton
  - Ben Funk, North Hills
  - Chris Lippert, North Hills
  - Colin Conner, North Hills
  - Colin Hite, North Hills
  - Jack Ross, North Hills
  - Jay Huerbin, Hampton
  - Jeff Olko, North Hills
  - Max Thorne (current PHUL player), North Hills
  - Nick Kaczmarek, Bethel Park
  - Pat Earles (current PHUL player), North Hills
  - Ryan Earles, North Hills
  

Mixed Division:

• The Muff 'n Men, seeded 5th: (5 of 27 players)
  
  - Brian "Red" Grace, Taylor Allderdice '02-'04
  - Bulgan Buuch, Shady Side Academny '04-'05
  - Greg Wilson, Fox Chapel '07
  - Laura Perkins, Fox Chapel '05-'07
  - Maria Bajzek, Oakland Catholic '07-'09
  

Women's Division:

• Wildcard, seeded 1st
  
  - Chelsea Grindle, North Hills '06, North Hills Girls '07-'08
  
  
• Danger (Pitt), seeded 5th
  
  - Anna Rakers, Hampton Girls '07-'08
  - Bailey Moorhead, Mt. Lebanon Girls '08
  - Rachel Fedoronko, Hampton Girls '08
  - Robin Eng, Fox Chapel '08
  - Shannon Helfer?
  
  
• Money Mellons (CMU), seeded 7th
  
  - Roster unknown
  

Good luck to all PHUL Alumni and Pittsburgh players this weekend!

The PHUL Corps

A new job has been posted as an opportunity for youth leadership in PHUL; the PHUL Corps.

Application: http://www.pittsburgh-ultimate.org/bboard/viewtopic.php?f=57&t=15553

To join the Corps, potential members must define and complete a project for the league. Once they prove their chops they are given an official position and more resources to continue their work. Feel free to post comments or questions on the application link above.

Ultimate Frisbee Gym Demos are back

I'll admit, sometimes I get weak and throw "Frisbee" into a title for search engine reasons. Bridging that gap between bringing in those who don't yet know the sport, and promoting the actual name can be a conflict of interest.

Solution? Flatball.... But that's for another day. For now,

PHUL is once again offering to run gym demo programs at high schools and middle schools in the Western Pennsylvania region. For more information please contact: Pat Hammonds at pathammonds@phul-ultimate.org. A description of the program can be found below:

The Pittsburgh Ultimate League Gym Demonstration program, started in 2004, was created to deliver high quality instruction in the rules and skills of the sport of Ultimate to high school Physical Education programs. A team of six college and club level players will travel to middle and high schools in the area and teach the classes for the entire day. Two of the instructors begin by explaining the rules of the game, teaching the basic skills required, and then compete in a 3 vs. 3 demonstration game with the other instructors. After this, the students compete in various activities, depending on their age and skill level. These can include the students competing in their own 3 vs. 3 games, a full game with the students competing against the instructors, or skills practice and drills.

Middle School Ultimate in Pittsburgh

Middle School Ultimate is where it's at. Just ask Seattle, with 52 middle school teams in their DiscNW league in 2009: http://www.discnw.org/events/SpringMS/Teams.html

While we'd rather lead than follow, it's time for PHUL to play a bit of catch up.

PHUL is offering middle school gym demos and paid coaching positions for middle school teams. For more information, post a comment.

A job description and application for a Middle School Commissioner, will be posted soon.

Community event: Wild Art Wild Trails Festival, Mt. Washington

This Labor Day, Monday September 7th, 2009, the MWCDC (Mount Washington Community Development Corporation) hosted their first annual Wild Art Wild Trails Festival. The event featured a community clean-up of an illegal dump site and a festival later in the day. Debris collected during the clean-up was made into art by local artists, and children in the area were encouraged to come out to Mt. Washington Park where they could climb a rock wall, listen to live music and learn about Ultimate in Pittsburgh. Thank you to those volunteers who attended to help promote the sport of Ultimate and to Nicole Shannon for leading PHUL's involvement in this project.

The last we heard, the MWCDC was attempting to use sports (boxing) to revitalize a local park by adding an adult presence and activities after school hours to a currently vacant and problem area. PHUL applauds the efforts to use sports as a way to improve the community, safety and health of local children.

For more information on the event see the original press release: [link expired...]
For more information on the MWCDC: http://www.mwcdc.org/

Offensive sets

Long time no blog. Let's skip the apologies and get back to it.

I'll try to follow this up with some real data, but to start. It seems over the last decade that a Vertical Stack offense has been pretty much phased out of top level club play. The same seems to be happening in PHUL in the last 1-2 years; moving from a vertical stack to some form of spread or horizontal stack offense. What offense does your team run?

1. Vertical Stack
2. Horizontal Stack
3. Spread
4. Other

From some casual observations and hearsay (that could be wrong, we'll try to get some real data soon), here are the primary offenses of current PHUL Open teams.

Horizontal Stack: North Hills, Hampton, Fox Chapel, Woodland Hills
Spread: Pine-Richland, North Allegheny, Plum
Vertical Stack: Mt. Lebanon, Franklin Regional, Montour?, Mars, Seneca Valley, Shaler, Pittsburgh Allderdice
Other:

Unknown: Upper St. Clair, Shady Side Academy, Moon, Ligonier Valley, Butler, Bethel Park, Gateway, Plum, Central Catholic, Peters Township, CAPA

PHUL 2009 Registration is now live

http://www.pittsburgh-ultimate.org/bboard/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=14366

The PHUL Bounty System is live!

I originally explained this idea in a previous blog post: http://phul-ultimate.blogspot.com/2008/11/growth-and-carrots.html

PHUL is now officially offering a monetary incentive to... heck, anyone, who "closes" a new PHUL team for us. The short version is this: Form a new PHUL team, get the cash money. In slightly more detail:

1. Take a look at this sheet (which will be updated over the next few days): http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=pWsoYzdfRKfJbah_fbnR_Qg
   
   
2. If you call/talk/convince a player/captain at the school listed to start a team for PHUL 2009, you receive 50% of the bounty listed in the appropriate column. The other 50% is used to reduce the sign-up fee for the first 10 players on that team.
   
   
3. If you want to help start a team but don't have the time to be the "closer" you can be a donor. Simply send a check to 165 Morewood Ave, Pittsburgh, PA 15213 made out to "PHUL" and indicate in the memo section what team the donation is for. We'll use your money to increase the bounty on that team, thus increasing the chances of that team forming.
   
   
4. Names of closers will be listed on a Bboard post at http://www.pittsburgh-ultimate.org/bboard. Same with names of donors if they wish. If you wish to remain anonymous please request so, but come on...
   

----------------------------

The fine print: (This could get a bit tricky, but all you need to know is above, this is to settle any disputes that may arise and to handle all foreseen situations)

1. A team can not claim the bounty on itself. However the first 10 players that register and pay and have UPA memberships for that team will receive 1/20th of the bounty each. A $100 bounty will mean $50 to the closer and $50 to the first 10 players, or $5/player.
   
   
2. A girls team member may claim the bounty on an open team and visa-verse.
   
   
3. There are no bounties for JV teams. There will be other incentives offered by the league to form JV teams.
   
   
4. There is a floor on the price of registering for PHUL at $10. So if a bounty for a particular team goes over a limit that would reduce the player fee in PHUL to less than $10, the extra goes solely to the closer. For example, if the fee in PHUL is $45 then this limit would be at $700. 700/20 = $35 off per player, 45-35 = $10)
   
   
5. Bounties only exist for teams that have not existed in the PHUL spring season since 2004.
   
   
6. You must be able to explain why you are the one who "closed" the team (convinced them to be 100% in the league in 2009). All disputes on this matter will be settled by Darren Shultz.
   
   
7. When you begin working with a contact to from a potential team, it is in your best interest to e-mail the commissioner of that division and CC Darren Shultz, or to call both of those people. This is to ensure that the admin is in the loop as early as possible about the work you are doing.
   
   
8. PHUL Admin/Staff are eligible to participate.
   
   
9. Prize money (bounty) may be split, but only with the mutual agreement of the winners, otherwise the league will determine who the sole winner is.

Six-Burgh

Way to go Steelers!