USA Ultimate

Colorado Springs, Colo. (Oct. 29, 2015) – USA Ultimate, the national governing body for the sport of ultimate in the United States, announced today a new alliance with the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) through their SCOUTStrong® Healthy Living Initiative.

The SCOUTStrong Healthy Living Initiative aims to integrate active lifestyles, healthy eating and emotional fitness into everything that the Boy Scouts of America does through alliances, campaigns and updated programs. Ultimate is now a part of those efforts. 

"Here at the BSA, we are committed to promoting healthy, active lifestyles through our SCOUTStrong Healthy Living Initiative, and we’re excited to further these goals in teaming with USA Ultimate," said Boy Scouts of America Strategic Innovation Manager David Roberts. "Ultimate is a great way to encourage physical fitness and fun, while also teaching good sportsmanship and teamwork through USA Ultimate’s Spirit of the Game principles, which are very similar to our Scout Oath and Scout Law."

Ultimate is now a featured sport on the SCOUTStrong website, alongside programs from organizations like the United States Olympic Committee and USA Triathlon. Inclusion in the SCOUTStrong program provides exposure for the sport of ultimate to scouts all around the nation. BSA’s adult leaders will have access to USA Ultimate’s Learn to Play kits to help get their Cub Scouting, Boy Scouting and Venturing units playing ultimate. The kits provide all the resources and materials necessary to introduce the sport and get people playing. 

Goals one and two in USA Ultimate’s current strategic plan account for increasing the visibility of ultimate and growing youth, college and league ultimate. Teaming up with the Boy Scouts of America allows for continued development in those areas by working to bring ultimate to millions of kids who might not otherwise be introduced to the sport.

"We’re thrilled to be teaming up with the Boy Scouts," said USA Ultimate CEO Dr. Tom Crawford. "We believe our organizational values align really nicely; the pure fun of ultimate combined with our Spirit of the Game ethos makes us a perfect sports and healthy lifestyle team. We can’t wait to see thousands of Boy Scouts discover and have a blast playing our amazing sport."  

Since the Boy Scouts of America was founded in 1910, the organization has included more than 62 million Cub Scouts and more than 52 million Boy Scouts/Venturers, accounting for more than 114 million youth served by the Boy Scouts of America to date. Those youth have been supported by more than 33 million adult volunteers. 

This new alliance was made possible through USA Ultimate’s membership in the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) and the networking opportunities provided for USOC members to meet with and introduce their programs to multi-sport organization members like the Boy Scouts of America, Catholic Youth Organizations and YMCAs.

Scouts play ultimate at the 2013 Boy Scouts of America National Jamboree in West Virginia
Photo credit: Boy Scouts of America

USA Ultimate is the national governing body for the sport of ultimate in the United States. USA Ultimate is a United States Olympic Committee Recognized Sport Organization serving more than 50,000 members and working to advance the sport of ultimate in the United States by enhancing and promoting character, community and competition.

The Boy Scouts of America provides the nation’s foremost youth program of character development and values-based leadership training, which helps young people be "Prepared. For Life.®" The Scouting organization is composed of nearly 2.4 million youth members between the ages of 7 and 21 and approximately 960,000 volunteers in local councils throughout the United States and its territories. For more information on the Boy Scouts of America, please visit www.scouting.org.

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