USA Ultimate Competition Working Group Meeting: Beach Update
Posted: December 14, 2017 03:53 PM
2018 Events, Outreach Clinics, Rules Updates Discussed
Colorado Springs, Colo. (Dec. 14, 2017) – USA Ultimate’s Competition Working Group met in Denver last weekend for its annual meeting to discuss various aspects of the sport’s competition structure across competition divisions – youth, college, club and beach – as well as outreach. The meeting included eight USA Ultimate staff members, two members of the board of directors and 25 key volunteers and was held over two days. Following the meeting, we are releasing summaries of each smaller group’s discussion. The youth competition and outreach recaps were released earlier this week. College and club updates will follow.
The beach working group consists of USA Ultimate Events Manager Byron Hicks along with four regional beach directors - Kimberly Beach (East Coast), Becky LeDonne (Great Lakes), Sean McCall (Gulf Coast) and Keegan Uhl (West Coast) - and at-large member Russell Gaskamp.
2017 Beach Working Group
L-R: LeDonne, Gaskamp, Uhl, Beach (on screen), McCall, Hicks
The beach working group started their weekend by welcoming Russell Gaskamp to the ranks. Gaskamp, the tournament director for the U.S. Beach Open and a member of the LAOUT board, will serve as an at-large member of the group. Together, the group confirmed plans to hold three USA Ultimate-sponsored beach events in 2018: Beach Westerns (potentially rebranded) and the Beach Championships in the spring, and the U.S. Beach Open in the fall. A fourth beach event is on the horizon for 2019.
The beach working group also continues experimentation with gender rules. In 2017, the U.S. Beach Open used a 4 v. 4 competition format with two men and two women on the field at all times. In 2018, Beach Westerns and the Beach Championships will implement the World Flying Disc Federation’s (WFDF) Gender Rule A, which requires teams to switch gender ratios every third point.
As part of efforts to continue the growth and development of beach ultimate, the group discussed the possibility of adding youth and/or college divisions to the U.S. Beach Open next year. They also outlined plans to run Learn to Play and/or Girls’ Ultimate Movement (GUM) outreach events on the beach beginning in 2018. They hope to run at least one event with a local disc organization next year. In addition, the group hopes to develop relationships with local organizations that maintain active beach divisions to expand outreach activities.
The beach working group also discussed upcoming help they will provide WFDF as they begin updating their beach division competition rules next year.
Stay tuned to usaultimate.org for more summaries from the 2017 Competition Working Group meeting. The college division recap is up next.
Previous 2017 Competition Working Group Updates:
2017 Competition Working Group
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