USA Ultimate

USTA Attends Nationals to Study Observer Model and SOTG

 

Frisco, Texas (Oct. 16, 2014) – As the visibility of ultimate continues to grow and USA Ultimate is able to foster more relationships with other members of the United States Olympic Committee, more and more groups are becoming interested in what makes our sport different. In particular, Spirit of the Game and the observer system have piqued the interest of several outside organizations. In that vein, Andrew Walker, Manager of Officiating for the United States Tennis Association (USTA), made the trip to the USA Ultimate National Championships in Frisco this week to learn more about the observer system, how it functions in a competitive environment and how it might be integrated into tennis.

 

"The USTA is undergoing a complete redesign of our officiating department and how we can best support our officials," said Skip Gilbert, USTA’s Managing Director of Professional Tennis Operations. "The article in the New York Times, speaking to how ultimate’s officiating model could be the best out there for youth sports, caught our attention.  We are very intrigued by the success of the observer platform in ultimate and [are] looking to explore how that model could potentially be used in tennis at the grassroots level.  That is why we are sending one of our officiating managers down to [the National] Championships to take a look."

 

As part of the learning process and introduction to Spirit of the Game and the observer system, Baker Pratt, USA Ultimate Manager of Competition & Athlete Programs – Youth, presented about Spirit of the Game and the observer system at the USTA’s Tournament Directors Conference yesterday morning in Orlando, Fla. 

 

"We’re excited that the USTA and other national governing bodies are intrigued by our Spirit of the Game philosophy and how we operationalize via our self-officiated model," said USA Ultimate Chief Executive Officer Tom Crawford. 

 

Walker will spend time watching games and how teams implement Spirit of the Game on the field and in the midst of elite-level competition, as well as learn about the organizational implementation from members of the USA Ultimate staff.

 

The USTA is the national governing body for the sport of tennis in the United States. The USTA was founded in 1881 and is the largest tennis organization in the world with more than 700,000 individual members and 7,000 organizational members, thousands of volunteers and a professional staff dedicated to growing the game.