Changes to 2013 College Awards Program
Posted: April 18, 2013 12:03 PM
Boulder, Colo. April 18, 2013 - USA Ultimate announced today an expansion to its annual College Awards, a program of peer nominated and voted awards to honor excellence in the college ultimate community.
Since the creation of All-Region teams and Freshman of the Year awards in 2002, participation in the college division has more than doubled. As the division has evolved to better meet this rapid growth, more categories have been awarded. In 2009, the awards program expanded to award Coach of the Year for each region, as well as the naming of 2nd Team All-Region.
Starting this year, the awards will evolve to include D-III All-Region Teams. With the D-III track now firmly established within the college competitive structure, D-III All-Region Teams will recognize the top players from D-III Conference teams that opted for the D-III series route. Regions without at least one D-III Conference Championship will not be included for this award.
Another change this year is the expansion of the Freshman of the Year award to name a seven person All-Freshman Team for each region. This category will be open to all Freshman in the region regardless of D-I/D-III status. Freshman of the Year will still be awarded in each region as a result of the voting. Likewise, for both D-I and D-III All-Region, the overall individual winners will now be recognized as Player of the Year for that region.
This year's timeline is as follows:
- Nominations open Friday April 19th, and will remain open through 5pm MT Thursday April 25th. (EDIT - this has been extended to 5pm MT May 6th)
- Voting will open Friday April 26th (EDIT - this has been changed to May 7th)
- Voting will close at 5pm MT Friday May 10th (EDIT - this has been extended to 5pm MT May 15th)
- D-III All-Region will be announced Wednesday May 15th (EDIT - this has been extended to May 17th)
- Coach of the Year, D-I All-Region, and All-Freshman will be named Tuesday May 21st
College team organizers and coordinators will be contacted with instructions on how they can nominate players from their region for these awards. Please contact your regional director if you have not received these instructions by this weekend.
Have any questions or comments? We welcome community feedback and discussion made in a respectful manner. Please refrain from profanity or personal attacks, as such public comments negatively reflect on our sport and community.