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