A couple shots from the first night of youth summer league (last Wednesday). The Riot team did a great job of keeping it fun for both the beginners (as young as to-be-3rd-graders) and the more experienced players (some to-be-6th-graders).
This Saturday DiscNW will host their annual Field Day — a fun hat tournament in the morning combined with a picnic lunch and carnival/skills games in the afternoon. The event is a fundraiser for the youth ultimate activities supported by DiscNW.
I attended last year and was amazed at all the ultimate jerseys, shorts, and other gear that was handed out as prizes! I also enjoyed the format of the morning games in the low-key division: one point was played by the kids on a team; the next by the adults.
The event will take place from 9am to 3:30pm Saturday (June 14, 2014) at Magnuson Park Sports Meadow. Players should arrive at 8:30am to warm up and sign in. Pre-register as a individual, small group, or team. The registration fee is $35/player, or $100/family of 4 or more. More details.
Everyone is encouraged to participate — from seasoned veterans to beginners, from 8-year-olds to 108-year-olds. Bring your friends and families to introduce them to the awesome sport of ultimate. In the morning games there will be a “Friends and Family” division, designed for elementary and middle school players and their parents, coaches, and other adult friends.
Field Day is a fundraising event to support the Youth Development Fund (YDF) and the Youth Club Championship Scholarship Fund (YCCSF). These funds allow us to promote youth ultimate to new groups, support the participation of underserved populations, and provide financial aid for players both playing in local events and traveling to represent Seattle at the USA Ultimate Youth Club Championships in August.
Do you want to get a good introduction to ultimate before you start playing as a 3rd grader? Would you like to keep your skills sharp as you prepare to compete in middle school?
If so, then you should sign up for the 2nd annual summer youth league in Seattle! It’s happening on the 5 Wednesday evenings in July and they had awesome t-shirt designs last year! The format of each 1.5-hour evening is 30 minutes of instruction/practice and then two 25-minute 5-on-5 co-ed games.
Registration is due on June 14. As of early June, they are about half full.
Details:
While the standings for the 2014 spring elementary league are ranked according to wins on the DiscNW site, below is a version of the standings ranked by spirit score. Perhaps the counterpoint (antidote?) to the increasingly competitive world of adult ultimate is glorification of the Spirit of the Game in youth ultimate?
If so, it is particularly fitting that the team with the most Spirit in the entire league comes from the youngest of the divisions. Congratulations to T. Marshall 3/4–Mooses from Division C, winners of the 2014 spirit award with a high score of 4.86 averaged over 7 games!!
And, with no further ado, here are the winners of each division!
| Team | Overall | Division | Spirit | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Won | Lost | GF | GA | Won | Lost | GF | GA | ||
| Whittier WUF Gang | 5 | 2 | 56 | 47 | 3 | 2 | 37 | 34 | 4.71/7 |
| T. Marshall 5th Grade -Purple Reign | 4 | 1 | 40 | 38 | 4 | 1 | 40 | 38 | 4.60/5 |
| Bryant Blasters 5th | 1 | 6 | 40 | 53 | 0 | 6 | 29 | 51 | 4.57/7 |
| JSIS Lightning Goats | 4 | 2 | 52 | 37 | 3 | 2 | 41 | 34 | 4.50/6 |
| Three Cedars Waldorf Echo 5-3rd Grade | 3 | 2 | 43 | 33 | 2 | 2 | 33 | 29 | 4.40/5 |
| Evergreen 5th Grade | 1 | 5 | 33 | 49 | 1 | 4 | 30 | 43 | 4.33/6 |
| Wildcats – SCDS 5th Grade | 5 | 0 | 54 | 25 | 4 | 0 | 43 | 24 | 4.20/5 |
| Team | Overall | Division | Spirit | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Won | Lost | GF | GA | Won | Lost | GF | GA | ||
| Seattle Waldorf School 5th Grade | 2 | 4 | 37 | 52 | 2 | 4 | 37 | 52 | 4.67/6 |
| UCDS2014 | 4 | 3 | 58 | 49 | 3 | 3 | 47 | 45 | 4.57/7 |
| Blasters 4th/5th | 5 | 2 | 64 | 40 | 5 | 1 | 57 | 32 | 4.43/7 |
| Eton Phoenix Yellow | 1 | 6 | 31 | 67 | 1 | 6 | 31 | 67 | 4.43/7 |
| Sanislo Allstars | 3 | 4 | 52 | 46 | 1 | 4 | 35 | 40 | 4.43/7 |
| Bright Water Elementary A Team | 0 | 6 | 17 | 46 | 0 | 4 | 13 | 31 | 4.33/6 |
| Salmon Bay Elementary 4/5 | 1 | 6 | 37 | 64 | 1 | 4 | 31 | 43 | 4.29/7 |
| Bertschi School—Bugaboo FC | 5 | 2 | 54 | 44 | 2 | 2 | 27 | 34 | 4.29/7 |
| West Woodland Wildcats | 4 | 3 | 48 | 50 | 4 | 2 | 42 | 39 | 4.29/7 |
| Assumption St. Bridget Bulldogs | 6 | 1 | 61 | 34 | 4 | 1 | 47 | 28 | 4.14/7 |
| T. Marshall 5th Grade–Meese | 5 | 3 | 59 | 58 | 5 | 2 | 56 | 47 | 4.12/8 |
| Pacific Crest Montessaurus | 7 | 0 | 74 | 18 | 5 | 0 | 52 | 17 | 3.57/7 |
| Team | Overall | Division | Spirit | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Won | Lost | GF | GA | Won | Lost | GF | GA | ||
| Bryant Blasters 3rd/4th | 4 | 3 | 43 | 44 | 3 | 3 | 33 | 41 | 4.57/7 |
| Daniel Bagley Stingers | 1 | 6 | 22 | 56 | 0 | 5 | 12 | 46 | 4.57/7 |
| Bright Water Elementary B Team | 3 | 3 | 38 | 35 | 2 | 3 | 29 | 32 | 4.50/6 |
| Olympic View Elementary | 3 | 4 | 36 | 45 | 3 | 2 | 29 | 26 | 4.29/7 |
| Evergreen 4th Grade | 7 | 0 | 76 | 22 | 5 | 0 | 49 | 18 | 4.29/7 |
| Uco-op Blue Cheese | 5 | 2 | 56 | 43 | 5 | 1 | 51 | 33 | 4.29/7 |
| Soundview Dolphins – 3rd-5th | 1 | 6 | 24 | 57 | 1 | 5 | 23 | 46 | 4.14/7 |
| Eton Phoenix Blue | 5 | 2 | 47 | 39 | 4 | 2 | 39 | 35 | 4.14/7 |
| Laurelhurst Bears 3/4/5 grade | 4 | 2 | 41 | 43 | 2 | 1 | 30 | 24 | 4.00/7 |
| Flying Saucers (wallingford consortium) | 2 | 5 | 40 | 48 | 1 | 4 | 27 | 38 | 4.00/7 |
| Salmon Bay Elementary 3/4 | 4 | 3 | 54 | 37 | 2 | 3 | 32 | 32 | 3.86/7 |
| Wildcats – SCDS 4th graders | 4 | 2 | 57 | 35 | 3 | 2 | 48 | 31 | 3.71/7 |
| Team | Overall | Division | Spirit | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Won | Lost | GF | GA | Won | Lost | GF | GA | ||
| T. Marshall 3/4–Mooses | 3 | 4 | 42 | 45 | 3 | 3 | 38 | 37 | 4.86/7 |
| JSIS Lightning Goats 2 | 5 | 2 | 53 | 41 | 5 | 1 | 49 | 28 | 4.57/7 |
| Green Lake Dragons | 1 | 6 | 24 | 66 | 1 | 3 | 15 | 40 | 4.38/8 |
| Evergreen 3rd Grade | 3 | 4 | 43 | 37 | 3 | 2 | 34 | 19 | 4.29/7 |
| UCo-op 3rd Graders | 0 | 7 | 20 | 65 | 0 | 4 | 13 | 35 | 4.29/7 |
| Laurelhurst Bears 3/4 grade | 3 | 1 | 31 | 14 | 3 | 1 | 31 | 14 | 4.25/4 |
| St. Thomas Falcons | 4 | 3 | 42 | 39 | 4 | 1 | 36 | 19 | 3.71/7 |
| Wildcats – SCDS 3rd Grade | 1 | 6 | 20 | 58 | 1 | 5 | 20 | 44 | 3.71/7 |
Seattle Country Day School had the lowest Spirit score in every division in which they competed (A, B, & C). The lowest scoring team in the A2 division was Pacific Crest Montessaurus. Because SCDS and Montesaurus had the most wins in Division A and A2, it is tempting to suggest that the dominant teams generally get the lowest Spirit scores. However, based on wins in Divisions B & C, SCDS ranked 4th (out of 12) and 7th (out of 8), respectively.
Looking at all the spirit scores versus the % of wins (within a division), it appears there isn’t a strong correlation, though the overall slope is negative.
The mean Spirit score is about 4.3.
So generally, the more you win more likely it is your spirit score will be (slightly) lower. But the relationship barely holds in division B and the slope is positive in division C.
Registration is open for another week if you’d like to put in a bid for the 2nd annual Spring Jam co-ed elementary tournament. The competition will take place on Saturday 5/31 from noon until about 3pm in Lower Woodland Park (field #02).
This year the tournament has an exciting new format — 5 vs 5, instead of 7 vs 7 — and if it is well-received the same reduced team size may be used next year in the 2015 Spring Elementary League. While the primary intent is to ensure that each player gets more contact with the disc per point, an added benefit may also be reducing the likelihood of collisions/injuries between players who are just beginning to play the game.
Register by next Thursday, May 29 at noon for $65/team here — http://www.discnw.org/events/springjam/ — but note that bid acceptance is on a first-come-first-served basis.
Another great twist in the normal rules for this age is to allow the offense to choose the nature of a 3:2 gender ratio. After each point is scored, the incoming offense can choose to field 3 girls and 2 boys, or 2 girls and 3 boys. The defense must match by gender for that point.
Other details:
Fields will be abbreviated (70 yards long; 25 yards wide; 15-yard end zones)
Games will be hard capped at 60 minutes (no soft cap).
Games are to 11 points or until the hard cap, whichever comes first.
Teams each have one 90-second timeout per half, regardless of overtime (different from USA Ultimate rules).
This should be a fun experiment for youth ultimate in the Seattle area. Overall, this portends a great direction for Spring Jam, an event that from 2010-2012 was aimed at novice and intermediate high school players who wanted to try a single-gender tournament.
Here’s hoping this format and location works well for the growing number of elementary teams in the greater Seattle area. Maybe it will work so well that it will become the Spring Reign for elementary players, allowing Disc NW to use the limited field space in Burlington to accommodate more middle and high school teams in the future?