HOW TO START AND RUN A SUCCESSFUL SUMMER ULTIMATE LEAGUE (c) Copyright 1992, Eric Simon and Sue Wallace Introduction The DC Summer Ultimate League is one of the best things to happen to DC Ultimate. It is so much fun, that you have to be there to believe it. On a summer day, one can go down to the fields and witness ultimate as it once was: youthful enthusiasm (the kind only newcomers to the game have), silly cheers, mutual support, co-ed and non-competitive play, teaching, learning, sweating, music boxes, beer, etc. etc. In short, it is a place where anyone can have fun playing ultimate, without the time commitment or the pressure of a serious team. For a successful league to exist, the "creators" of the league must always keep in mind the goals of the league. "What is it that this league is trying to accomplish?" must be asked. Hopefully, the answer will always be "to provide a place where fun, co-ed ultimate can be played, and to bring new people into the sport." How to keep it non-competitive It's easy. Of course, there will always be some competitive people in the game, and by "non-competitive" we don't mean that players don't try hard; they do, it's just that the games are viewed as fun instead of a competition. You can keep those competitive people in the game by having "playoffs" to determine a champion at the end of the season, and then mandating that every team makes the playoffs. So the entire season is only for seeding in the final tournament - and for teaching the team how to play good ultimate. In that way, both altruistic and selfish goals can be met the same way--the best plan for winning the playoffs is to play all of your players during the season and teaching them the fundamentals of the sport, especially since you don't have to win any games to make the playoffs. The best way to keep these new players interested is to make sure that they have fun during the season. If people can sign up their friends and officemates, the number of teams you will have will increase. Then, hopefully, there will not be enough good players to spread around, and all the teams will have to rely heavily on the newcomers and "rookies." (This might not happen the first year, but, for us, it started to become a factor by our second or third year). But all this talk is simply to reassure the cynics. Most people, as soon as they grasp the idea of the league, have no problem playing hard in a cooperative, non-competitive league. How do I start? The first, most important step is to make sure fields are available to play on. Not much advice can be offered here, since each town is different. There is one important piece of advice, though, and that is: if you can get a written permit for the fields, do so. And spend some money making tens of copies so that a few players on each of the teams have copies. In DC, during the summer, we have a running battle with softball leagues (it seems as though every congressman has a team), and they invade our fields. But we rarely have problems because we have the permits, and if the stubborn mule-headed softballers don't leave, we call the police. As long as you have a permit, you ought never to lose a battle. Additionally, another 'first step' is to contact the UPA with information about your league (even if you're not sure you'll get enough players for it). Call the UPA at 1-800-UPA-GetH with your league information (name and phone number). It will be printed in the UPA Newsletter, which has a nationwide circulation. Also, ask the UPA about the "Club Affiliate" program. The most difficult requirement to becoming a Club Affiliate is running a summer league. If you are already planning to run a league, then over half the work has been done. The next step is to flood the town with "sign-up" sheets. Give plenty of copies to whoever will take them and pass them out. Outgoing players can meet a lot of new people that way. Give one to every person you see playing frisbee in the park. If there is a campus nearby, walk through and give them out. Take them to all the parties you go to; take them to work. I think a key attraction is that it only costs a few dollars to play, and that the sheet stresses the non-competitive aspect of play. Additionally, you should lean on the experienced players to sign up housemates and friends. Many newspapers give free ad space to sports clubs. Put an ad in. All it has to say is "Co-ed Frisbee Summer League: for more info call . . ." Always keep stamps and a stack of those sheets by the phone. Then, when someone calls, get their name and address, and fold up the sheet, address it right then, stick a stamp on it, and mail it the next time you go out. Your caller will be impressed that she or he got the information so soon, and your paperwork is at a minimum. Once you mail the thing, you can forget about that person. Many FM radio stations will air public announcements, and you will be surprised at the response. Any free advertising will help. Be creative. Have a one-track mind. Always be looking for an angle to "spread the word." And, of course, find some enthusiastic people to help you. Now what? How do I set up the league? To assure balanced and equitable teams, we have a "draft." First you decide how many teams you have (divide the number of players you have by 12 to 15 - you'll want more than 12-15 on a team, but more players will want to join after the league starts.). Pick a captain for each team. Preferably, the players you pick as captains should be a good representation of the population in your area, and they should also know most of the experienced players in the area. For instance, for our league, we picked captains that lived in D.C., Maryland, and Virginia. Captains then used location as part of a basis by which to choose players, making it easier to carpool, etc. We then had a meeting, with the league director and the captains. In our first two years, we divided up all the entry forms into different piles depending upon the experience they noted. We wrote all the names up on a big blackboard, and wrote down all the captains names so we all could see the pool of players left, and each team's selections. During our selection process we were all friendly, asked others if they had heard of players, and tried to accommodate players' preferences that they noted. When other players were picked to make that impossible, captains tried to trade players to accomplish this. In subsequent years, when the number of players passed 150 (and when we had some computer-heads in the club), we entered all the forms, as they came in, into a data base. There was a question on the form that helped determine experience level, so we then printed out a master 'draft' list, which included everyone sorted by experience level, sex, and alphabetized. The teams picked in order determined by lot, but we did not keep the same order throughout, as they do in professional leagues, because this would give the teams with the first picks an unfair advantage. After deciding the order of picks for the first round we each made a "draft pick," picked a player. For the second round, we reversed the order of the picking. So, in a ten team league, the team that picks 10th, or last, in the first round, also picked 11th, the first pick of the second round. The third, fifth, etc. rounds were like the first round. The fourth, sixth, etc. rounds were like the second round (reverse order of the first round). Team names, shirts, etc. The easy way out is to give each team a color as it's name. When we randomly drew for the picking order of the draft, we let the last team pick the first color, etc. This makes it extremely easy to get the first games going. The "Yellow" team then already has a name, so the schedule can be made up in advance, and just about everyone already has a team shirt (just wear a yellow t-shirt!) For the ambitious, you can provide summer league t-shirts. We avoided this at first because we didn't want to scare anyone off with an entry fee of more than a few dollars - remember, we were directing this whole thing at new players, we knew the "regulars" would play. One year, we "contracted the job out." An artist and an entrepreneur got together. The artist made a design for the whole league, they ordered shirts for every color, and they sold them on their own for $5 each. I like this method. For one, no one has to buy a shirt, although most people do. Secondly, the profit goes to the people who deserve it (the people who put up the money, the ones who sell then, and the artist - they can all make their own arrangements and you don't have to be bothered). Thirdly, and best of all, the league can run fine without it, so if people mess up, nothing is lost. This kind of setup is a no lose situation for the league director. Later, if you have a club, the club ought to try it. Another year, we simply set up a deal (and a design) at a local t-shirt place. Any team that wanted 'league shirts' could order them at a reduced price, with the design and screen already at the shop. Teach people ultimate! Each team will have players that vary a great deal in skill and experience. Get the more experienced players to teach the team how to play good ultimate. On my team, we always had "the lesson of the week," which incorporated some simple strategy or useful tip on how to play. The first week we stressed running hard on defense. Simple as that. We told them to sub out when they were tired and not to cover somebody who was absolutely too fast for them. (This, by the way alleviated almost all of our subbing pro- blems.) Another week we talked about pivoting and using a forehand fake, even if the thrower can't throw a forehand. By the end of the season are lessons were about offensive flow, blocking the lanes on defense, etc. Just build up the lessons from the start, make them simple, and only do one a week (or two if they are very simple). Most other teams did something like this, and by the end of the season, most of the "rookies" were running around, knowing what they were doing, and 100% better than they were at the beginning of the summer. Teaching new players, a little bit at a time, in a supportive and fun atmosphere, is very fulfilling, and you get positive results and positive feedback right away. Again, even the overly competitive types will realize that the key to a good season is to teach the new people how to play, and to make sure they are having a good enough time to come back the next week. Summer League. The league just about ran itself. Once you make up schedules, and give each captain tons of copies, (and keep extra tons of copies with you because just about everybody will lose at least one during the summer), the league runs like a tournament does: it's hard to get started, but once it starts you can almost walk away from it. I made sure that every captain had copies of field permits. Almost every problem that came up was answered the same way: "see if you can work it out between you and the other team." This was the answer to ties, rain-outs, games ending because of darkness, "ringers" passing through town, etc. One problem which required more thought is that invariably, on the first day of the league, a bunch of players will say "I didn't know we had to sign up so soon, can I still join? What team can I play on?" (Most likely, half of those players will be the more experienced types--probably your friends). My solution was to let them play temporarily during that first week (with permission of captains), and then we had a "supplemental draft," at the end of the first week. At this point, all the captains got together, we heard all the sob stories of why the Blue team needed players more than the Red team, and then mutually decided how to pick these remaining players. The ease of this "supplemental draft," as with most aspects of the league depends upon the mutual cooperation of the captains involved. Whenever things start to get out of hand, remember what the goals of the league are. It worked very smoothly with us. During our first and second years, we had so many players that either hadn't signed up or moved into town after play started, that we made a whole other team. If you have someone that's a whiz with schedule making, it's no problem - so long as you make sure everyone gets a copy of the new schedule! Speaking of Scheduling. . . In D.C. a lot of summer people seem to move into town after Memorial Day weekend, so that we couldn't really start the league until around June 10th or 12th. Permanent residents are clamoring for the league to start, but we just can't start any earlier. Of course, each town is different. Additionally, people are starting to leave by the second week of August. This leaves us with about eight or nine weeks of play. Our tournament championship was played on the weekend at the end of the eight week. Until recently (when we got too big) all games were on weekdays, scheduled for 6:30 p.m. We played games to 15, win by two, cap at 17. Very few games all summer ran into darkness problems. Additionally, we were able to work the schedule so that no games were on Wednesdays or Fridays. We used to leave Wednesdays open so that the "serious" teams in town could have team practices without player and/or field conflicts. We still do have designated 'pick-up' slots scheduled, so that anyone can come down and play pick-up. Newcomers to the sport do not want to tie up their weekends, especially during the summer, so I strongly discourage weekend play, except for the league tournament at the end of the season. We did try to promote weekend play, however. On the schedule we announced that Sundays were days for "pick-up" ultimate and other frisbee activities. End of the year tournament: During the whole season, when players started to get overly competitive, the call was "don't worry about it, everybody makes the playoffs." By the time the end of the year rolls around, most players fit well into that mode of thinking, and, surprisingly enough, kept that attitude even during the playoffs. Don't forget that during the season, someone must keep track of the games, we used won-loss records for seeding the tournament. The playoffs, or the end of the year tournament, is where all the players get together for one last time. It is a social event, and the organizers can't forget it. We try to play the whole tournament in one day and provide kegs of beer on the sideline (paid for by all the entry fees). In recent years, with more and more teams, we have the round-robin part of the tourney in one day where we eliminate down to four teams. Then semis and finals are on weekdays during the following week. The spirits for tournament day is usually pretty high. Encourage players to make a picnic out of it. Actually, they must bring food if they intend to play, for there was no scheduled lunch break. Bring blankets, food, little grills and bar-b-ques if they are allowed. Above all, remember that it's a social event, and the last day of the summer league, not a UPA sanctioned tournament. Summer League is over, now what? You now have a bunch of brand new ultimate players, what are you going to do with them? You can take some, and add them on to your team. Or, there might be so many new players that want to keep playing in the fall that they should start their own team. Encourage them, offer help, kind words, advice; offer to run a practice for them, get them involved in the UPA, get them into tournaments, find other new teams for them to play, etc. etc. But don't leave them dangling after the summer. They've found a new sport, and they are excited about it - so channel that excitement into something that they will cherish, a lifetime of fun by joining our frisbee family. In the few weeks before the playoffs, I asked around for who might be interested in starting a new D.C. team. During the tournament, I made a point of talking with each team some time during the day. During that talk, I told them of the UPA, gave away some free UPA Newsletters (you can do this with a little advance planning with the UPA), told them that some teams play in the fall, that so-and-so was interested in starting a team, etc. I offered myself as a resource. If they were moving at the end of the summer, I'd try to find the name of a team in the area. If they were interested in starting a team, I gave some advice, and answered questions. At the least, I told them all, they would all get an entry form for next years' summer league. The results have been fantastic. Where there were two Open Division club teams in D.C., now there are seven. Our women's team improved tremendously as a result of co-ed play, and also gained many new members, and now there are three of them. Some college teams that were stagnating were rejuvenated by players from our summer league going back to school after the summer. But the best part was that hundreds of people were able to play a bunch of ultimate over the summer, had a lot of fun, and made a lot of new friends. (And one more thing - Don't measure your success compared to the gigantic Washington Area Frisbee Club, though, because we started many years ago. In 1992 our "Tenth Annual Summer League" had five divisions and 69 teams. But our "First Annual" started with only four teams.) This is the "1992 edition" of "How to Start and Run a Successful Summer Ultimate League." If you want to make suggestions or comments for the next edition, please write to Eric Simon, 3116 S. 12th St., Arlington, VA 22204, or call him at 703- 892-1279, or contact him at 70540.1522@compuserve.com.