High School Ultimate Day Camp!

It's been a great week of Ultimate at the first ever Montpelier Ultimate Day Camp!

Here are some pictures!
https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/112466424557140473909/albums/6037774225305913377?authkey=COjj4t-XwIqfrwE

Looking forward to next week in which is for Middle School aged kids!

Wrap up

Now that the season is over there are just too many highlights to mention here. 

Winning the State Tournament was of course a highlight, but to break it down further, perhaps the highlight was when we pulled ahead by 3 points instead of 2. Or perhaps it was the sweet IO flick to Kirby in the endzone that finally won the game. Perhaps it was Reed's no-look throws to his brother. Ok, it was not that. Or maybe the highlight was when Ian caught a diving Callahan against Colchester - a throw that was going to their star player Noah. We were down I believe at that point, perhaps 5-2? And then they didn't score again; we came back to win 5-15. It had been my fear earlier in the day that we would not be focused enough on the first game that we would be knocked out by losing to Colchester, and that fear was increasingly manifesting until that Callahan. Ivan got bookends (both the D and the score) against St. J. That was such a spirited game. So good. 

Then there was co-winning the spirit award, shared with the team that got dead last. What an honor, to both win the tournament and the spirit award. I love that our girls co-won the spirit award as well! I love that when they heard they co-won it with Lyndon someone exclaimed "Oh I LOVE Lyndon!" This sort of thing affirms to me that Ultimate is doing something right in the world of sports. 

I wish I could speak more to the specific highlights from the Girls Team or the B Team, but I can't be everywhere. 

Winning coach of the year was pretty nice too. The whole thing was sort of a blur at that point. 

With our final round robin and end of the year party done at this point, I guess I'll say thank you to all who supported us this season! We're always looking to improve, so if you have suggestions please get in touch! See you next season!  

Tomorrow is Massachusetts!

The Ultimate Season has _many_ highlights for me, but one of them is definitely the camping trip. And it all starts tomorrow! 4pm we'll be meeting at the roundabout at the high school looking to load up vehicles and get underway as soon as we can.

Here's a reminder of things to bring:

Things to bring: Students should bring the following items: a green tee-shirt (or jersey), white tee-shirt, cleats, clean change of clothes, discs (optional), sneakers or camp shoes, rain gear, chair (optional), umbrella (optional), sleeping bag, sleeping pad, flashlight, plenty of snacks, toiletries, and a large water bottle. We will bring several tents, however it is our policy to sleep in all male or all female tent groups only, so if you have a tent please bring it in order to separate such gender-based tenting groups more easily.

If a student hasn't brought in their permission slip, that must be done.

As people arrive there will be 3 check-in stations. One for permission slips, one for the $20 for camping and one for the $10 for pizza. Then we'll load up and head out to the Northampton KOA!

Very exciting!

Let me know if you have any questions! anneofvermont at gmail .

Ultimate game schedule for the week 5/12

This week, all three teams have an away game Tuesday at BFA Fairfax. We'll be leaving the high school at 2pm. I haven't heard back as to whether the games are simultaneous or sequential, so I don't know what time we'll be back. So to be on the safe side, let's say 8pm. Maybe earlier, though.

Wednesday for B Team: Mount Abe is bringing their team here. They're new this year, so it should be a good game for our B team crew. Game time is at 4:30pm.
Wednesday for Boys Varsity: Maybe a round robin at CVU with Mill River. It depends on if Colchester pulls out of that round robin, and if I can get the vans and another driver.

Thursday, all three teams: We host Lyndon Institute. All games start at 4pm.

Friday we leave for Pioneer Valley at 4pm! Woohoo!

Ultimate games this week

For Tuesday (our away game at Lyndon), all three teams will be leaving early from school just like we did last week. We'll leave the school at 2:15. We should be back by 6:30pm. 

Wednesday the Varsity Boys have two home games at 4pm and 6:30pm versus Spaulding and Brattleboro, respectively. 

Then Thursday all three teams have a home game at 4pm vs. St.J.

Capital City Classic review and This Week (starting 4/28)

Wow, it's been a little while since I updated this.

This last weekend the women had a great tournament, the Capital City Classic, where Montpelier High School hosted six teams from Vermont and Massachusetts. BFA Fairfax ended up winning the whole thing, going undefeated for the day. The Spirit Award went to the varsity team at Northfield Mount Herman. As the tournament director, it went about as well as one could have hoped!

This coming week we have LOTS going on. Here's the short version:

Monday: Home game versus Rice for the B team at 4pm, and for the A team at 5pm.
Tuesday: Away games for Varsity Boys, Girls, and Mixed B all at St. Johnsbury Academy, we'll leave the school at 2:30pm, not sure when we'll be back.
Wednesday: regular practice for all
Thursday: Home games for each team vs. BFA Fairfax, all starting at 4pm.
Friday: regular practice for all
Saturday & Sunday: Champlainships for Varsity Boys

I'm looking for drivers for this weekend in case you're available and interested!

Schedule Update! OUTSIDE! Finally!

It's just too beautiful. I can't take being inside any more. SO! In spite of what was posted earlier, the Boys Varsity Team will meet this week 3:15pm-5pm OUTDOORS! We may end up at the State House, but either way. It's outside!!

Mixed B Team will start their regular practice schedule this week meeting Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays 4:30pm-6pm.

Gym Time Update 4/8

Tonight practice is open to all 3 teams 8:15-9:15pm
Wednesday guys at 3:15pm, girls at 7:45pm
Thursday guys at 4:45pm, girls at 7:45pm
Friday open practice for all 3 teams at 7:45pm

Though... I'm really hoping that we're outside by Friday. We'll see... :)

Update on gym time

Tomorrow's practice is at 7:45 for everybody, and then 3pm on Friday for the guys and 7:45pm for the girls.

Next week is still up in the air as the coaches only plotted out gym time through this Friday. The assumption was that we'd be outside by then, which at this point, doesn't seem likely.

Matt, the AD, should have a schedule for gym time out tomorrow.

Practice for the next couple of weeks

These next couple of weeks are going to be tricky because we don't have a ton of gym time, and the girls haven't had tryouts yet. So we're calling all of this "open practice" meaning anyone - varsity and B boys and girls. We'll see how that goes.

Monday we have the gym at 3:15pm for the women and 7:45 for the men. Tuesday at 6:45 for a combined, open practice time. Wednesday, Thursday and Friday are all combined, open practices at 6:45pm. For the guys, I'll start having one-on-one conversations tomorrow about teams.

Womens Ultimate Opportunity this Sunday

Just passing this along from the UVM Womens Coach: 

Ruckus (Women's Club Ultimate @ UVM) is hosting a casual meet up for girls' + women's ultimate this Sunday from 10A-2P at the UVM Gutterson tennis courts. Any H.S. girls are welcome to join us for drills and scrimmages. We will also have Burlington 'townie' women playing to help guide the HS players in the drills and scrimmage.

Basic Schedule:
10-11: Intro, Warm Up, and drills (all ages combined)
11-12:00: H.S. girls + Burlington women vs UVM B in 7v7 game
12:00- 2:00PM: Burlington women (+ any H.S. girls welcome) scrimmage UVM A.

The easiest place to enter is the entrance for the basketball counts then turn right and follow the signs to tennis courts.
The surface is a padded turf. Cleats are not permitted. 

The event is free to H.S. girls. I am unfamiliar with H.S. event regulations in terms of chaperones, etc. Please inform me in order to make this successful and contact me with any questions.

Hope to see you on Sunday!

Daron Byerly

Practices this coming week (3/17-20)

This week in Ultimate...

Boys tryouts continue: Monday 6pm, Tuesday 7pm, Thursday 6pm.

Girls have captains practice: Monday at 7:30pm, Tuesday 4:15pm, Thursday 7:30pm. <- That's what I think it is now. It might change depending on the Captain's availability.

Nolan (the Womens Coach) will fly back to the States on April 4th! Woohoo! So look for girls tryouts sometime after that.

As we did last year, I'll be having conversations individually with those who tried out for the Varsity team as some may prefer to play "B".

Oh, by the way, I was told that calling it "JV" was less appealing than calling it "B". Another possibility is that instead of calling it "B", what if we called it "Futures"? Varsity Boys, Varsity Girls, and Futures. :)

Pioneer Valley vs. St. Johnsbury

You may be wondering why the St. Johnsbury Invitational has been replaced with a tournament called the Pioneer Valley Invite. Here's the short version. The St. J Invite was hosted by coach Josh Seamon, who has since moved to Massachusetts. He started a tournament that same weekend, and frankly it's questionable whether or not the St. J Invite is evening happening.  This new tournament is 2.5 hrs away from Montpelier (close by Club Ultimate standards), and it seems like it will have some good competition, not to mention it already seems well organized. So there you go. I've submitted a bid to the Pioneer Valley Invitational, so hopefully we'll get in. We'll see. (I think our chances are good).

Schedule Update

I definitely jumped the gun on the last iteration of the schedule. This version is "final" according to the Vermont Youth Ultimate League board. For the most part the structure is the same (games on Tuesdays and Thursdays), but the entire things has been re-arranged. So here's the updated schedules for Varsity Boys, Varsity Girls, and Mixed JV. I'll fill in times when I know them. 


Varsity Girls

4/26 home women's tournament (this is in the works!)

4/29 at St. Johnsbury 

5/1 home vs BFA Fairfax

5/6 at Lyndon Institute

5/7 Home Round Robin vs. Spaulding and Brattleboro

5/8 home vs. St J

5/13 at BFA Fairfax

5/15 home vs. LI

5/17-18 Pioneer Valley Invite (If we get in, otherwise, St. J Invite that weekend)

5/22 at Lyndon Institute

5/24 or 25 States (not sure which)

Varsity Boys 

4/17 vs. TSA (either home or away)

4/29 at St. Johnsbury 

5/1 home vs BFA

5/3-4 Champlainships in Essex

5/6 at Lyndon Institute

5/8 home vs. St J

5/13 at BFA Fairfax

5/15 home vs. LI

5/17-18 Pioneer Valley Invite (If we get in, otherwise, St. J Invite that weekend)

5/22 at Lyndon Institute

5/24-25 States 

Mixed JV 

4/17 vs. TSA (possible game; not sure if it's home or away yet)

4/29 at St. Johnsbury 

5/1 home vs BFA

5/6 at Lyndon Institute

5/8 home vs. St J

5/13 at BFA Fairfax

5/15 home vs. LI

5/17-18 Pioneer Valley Invite (If we get in, otherwise, St. J Invite that weekend)

5/22 at Lyndon Institute

5/24 or 25 Round Robin (not sure which day)

Looking for Sponsors

Know anyone who might be interested in sponsoring the newly formed Vermont Youth Ultimate League? Let me know!

Dear prospective sponsor, 

            The Vermont Youth Ultimate League (VYUL) is a fast-growing grassroots organization supporting the growth of Youth Ultimate here in Vermont. As a young and developing organization of over 20 high school teams representing more than 300 current student athletes and their families, now is a great time to tap into this fresh energy by sponsoring us.

Sponsoring the VYUL will provide you:

•                Endorsed status to 20+ Youth teams and their product needs

•                Continual promotion, with your logo/link on our website (launching in March) and on our official equipment (including the VYUL disc)

•                “Preferred vendor” at our events should you want a personal presence at any events

•                And we’ll work enthusiastically with you to highlight your profile

By partnering with you, we hope to gain:

•                Free and discounted gear

•                Help funding our programming – promoting exercise, sportsmanship and community

•                Assistance in finding creative ways to promote Ultimate

Although we're a relatively small sport in a small state, we outplay our size.  Considering that we recently received unanimous approval from the VT Principals’ Association putting us on track to become VT’s next state-sanctioned varsity sport, we see nothing but sustained growth for Youth Ultimate in VT. Ultimate is also the fastest-growing sport in the US, is now regularly featured on ESPN and CBS, and was recently recognized by the International Olympic Committee!

Obviously, marketing to an audience of youth and parents is generally a very attractive opportunity, and we think that's even truer with the especially passionate and engaged Vermont students and families that we represent.  If this all sounds intriguing to you, please be in touch soon – we’ll be finalizing all of our sponsorship arrangements in March so that we hit the ground running in April with the season kickoff.

    Thank you and I look forward to discussing this further with you!

Ultimately yours,

Paperwork for 2014 Season

I just finished a letter to go home to parents, so if you haven't gotten it yet, here it is! Complete with links to the forms I'll need from every player. The season starts SO SOON! :D

Attached:
The Community Connections Form
The USAU Medical Form
(I need both of those filled out and returned to me in hard-copy)

February 20th, 2014


Dear Ultimate Frisbee Parents/Guardians,


The students are so eager for the Ultimate Frisbee season to start, and honestly, so am I, which is why I'm already writing this letter to you in February.


First a little news. While we've lost our beloved Dave Bennett, many people have stepped forward to volunteer their help. And good thing, too(!), because we're restructuring the program this season. Instead of a Mixed A Team and a Mixed B Team, we'll be separating out into what we're calling Varsity Boys, Varsity Girls, and Mixed JV. This season we'll also be playing mostly teams within our “Region”, which includes St. Johnsbury Academy, Lyndon Institute, BFA Fairfax, Spaulding, and ourselves. Each of these other schools also plans to have a Varsity Boys, Varsity Girls, and a Mixed JV Team, so that every time we travel or they come here all three teams will have someone to play!


Nolan Benoit, who worked with the girl's team last year will be our Varsity Girl's head coach, and Olivia DeJohn will be the head coach for the Mixed JV Team. I know that Nolan and Olivia are both really excited for the season and I'm so thankful for their help. Also helping out again as volunteers, will be Leah Fury, Bill Magill, Sean Prentiss, and Aly Johnson-Kurts.


The other big piece of news is that just a couple weeks ago a gathering of high school Ultimate coaches and players presented to the Vermont Principal's Association to ask them to sanction Ultimate as a state-wide varsity sport. They approved our request, which means we now go into a two year “exhibition period” and if we have nine schools that fund Ultimate in their school budgets at that point, and all the other details of compatibility have gone well, then we'll be the first state in the country to make Ultimate Frisbee an officially recognized varsity sport! This is a huge step for us, and I'm so thankful for the participation of Julian Kelly, Alex Stetter, Ian Browning, and Kia Hanron in that presentation!


Transportation: This year we have a more complete budget through Community Connections (and next year through MHS), in which we accounted for bussing to our games on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Two events may be tricky to cover: the St. Johnsbury Invitational and States. While parents are certainly encouraged to drive to each of these events, I believe between the coaches and coaching assistants, we should have all the drivers we need. If you plan on coming anyway to either of these events it would be good to know, for the purposes of our planning.


Paperwork:
Since this year we are still funded through Community Connections, we'll need every student to fill out a Community Connections health form (attached to this sheet), even if they did one last year.


The VPA hasn't taken over yet, and until they do we'll still need students to be members of USAUltimate at http://www.usaultimate.org/.
-If your student is new to Ultimate: Your student will need to set up a USAUltimate account. It may take 24hrs for their database to assign your student's account a number, so when you can't proceed right away that's probably why. I'll need to get that USAU number from your student – an email is probably the easiest way to let me know. Having a “current” account costs $35 (I think), they'll need to sign a waiver online, and they need to fill out the youth medical form (attached to this sheet) and give it back to me.
-If your student played Ultimate at MHS last year: Chances are I have your student's USAU number, but if I don't I'll let them know on a case-by-case basis. Regardless, your student will need to to re-up their account (this costs something like $35 and you'll need to sign a waiver online), and they'll need to fill out a youth medical form (attached to this sheet). Lots of the information may be the same as the Community Connections form, but I still need both. If the $35 is a hardship, please let us know because we do have scholarship money available.


Shirts: While your student could simply borrow a jersey for the season, with a $20 deposit, students may also buy their jerseys. This year jerseys will cost $35. Checks may be payable to Community Connections, put Ultimate Jersey in the memo line.


We plan on camping again this year for the St. Johnsbury Invitational and so we may ask families to help out with the camping fees, and students should also bring money for snacks for that event, but we'll send along another letter as that time gets closer.


Important Dates


Spring Sports Parent Meeting: March 19^th at 6pm at MHS. This will be an opportunity for parents to get their student's paperwork and memberships up to date.


Tryout Dates
For Boys: 6pm-7:30pm March 10-11, 13-14, 17-18, and 20. Please make at least three of those dates.
For Girls: TBD

Winter League in Shelburne: Registration is Open!

This isn't specific to Montpelier, but I know some students were interested in playing more before the season.

There's a winter league in Shelburne and a number of folks from Montpelier will be participating, so rides shouldn't be a problem. Here's the info:

Registration has begun for session 2 of Winter League.

WL takes place 8 Tuesday nights indoor at the Shelburne Field House between February 18 and April 15 between 8-11 pm.

More info is at http://www.burlingtonultimate.com/winterleague/about.php.

Or, go straight to http://www.burlingtonultimate.com/winterleague/registration.php to the registration form.

Team Arrangements and Coaches

The 2014 Spring Ultimate Season is about to start and I think it's going to be a good one! This season is going to bring lots of changes to the Solons Ultimate program. This year we have already said our goodbyes to Dave Bennett who helped out with this program since its inception in 2009, when he moved to Colorado in December. He will be missed! Thankfully though, we're welcoming Nolan Benoit back as a coach and introducing Olivia DeJohn as a main coach. This year the teams will be split up into Varsity Boys, Varsity Girls, and Mixed JV. I will be coaching the Varsity Boys, Nolan will be coaching the Varsity Girls, and Olivia, the Mixed JV.

This will be the first season that the Ultimate league has been scheduled into regions. We'll mostly be playing the schools within our region, while we have round robins with teams outside of our region. Our region looks to be one of the strongest in the state. It will include St. Johnsbury Academy, Lyndon Institute, and BFA Fairfax. These three teams regularly rank in the top four spots at States.  

Each of these other schools within our region will hav
e a similar set-up in terms of team divisions: Varsity Boys, Varsity Girls, and a Mixed JV. That way when we travel or they travel to us each of the three teams should have a game against a roughly equally-gendered opponent.

Look for more soon! I'm starting to get pretty stoked for this season!

Nolan at a Frisbee Tournament in Montreal