UCPC 2008

In the 10+ years I have spent entrenched in High School Ultimate many things have changed. There used to be around 15-20 teams in all of New England, now there are hundreds. Teams used to dream about 'going varsity', and now many teams have achieved that status. There used to be under 300 UPA youth members. Now there are just under 6,000. Teams used to have only 2-3 tournament options per season. Now they have far, far more than that. Tournaments used to be just about the only time lots of Ultimate players got together. Now we have things like the Ultimate Players and Coaches Conference.

On Saturday January 26th at Newton South High School in Newton MA, Tiina Booth and George Cooke will be hosting the second annual UCPC, an annual conference "dedicated to the promotion, teaching, and growth of Ultimate." The conference is composed of presentations on a wide variety of topics, along with an Ultimate Expo and panel discussions. The theme of this year's conference is "Preparation and Performance for the Sport of Ultimate." Here are some of the questions that the conference will address: "How do you prepare mentally and physically for a competition? How can you and your team perform well throughout an entire tournament? How can coaches and captains create a team environment which is healthy, focused, and competitive?"

The list of presenters is online right here, and it's one heck of a list! There really is something on that list for everyone. All throughout the day there will be an 'Ultimate Expo', which is sort of a fair for anything and everything Ultimate. There will be tables for various college and high school Ultimate programs, vendor booths, and various other Ultimate entities. In addition to the presentations and Expo, there will be four panel discussions that will cover High School Ultimate, The State of Women's Ultimate, Starting an Ultimate Business, and Professional Behavior in the Sport of Ultimate. Each of the panels will be made up of 4-5 experts from the field and they will answer a series of questions about their topic as well as talk amongst themselves and take questions from the audience.

So, who wants to be on the High School Ultimate panel? Here's are the requirements to be on the panel:
1) You have to be a current high school student.
2) You have to be able to get yourself to and from the conference. There will be no conference fee for panelists.
3) You have to like to talk in front of lots of people.
4) You have to email me at jseamon at gmail dot com with your contact information and some information on why you think you'd make a good panelist.

All panelist submissions need to be emailed in to me by midnight on Friday, December 14th. Chosen panelists will be notified by noon on Monday, December 17th.

The UCPC 2008 website is online right here. Registration information is not currently online but it will be soon. If you have questions about the event, send them to ucpc at buda dot org.

Last year 250 people attended the first ever UCPC. This year it would be safe to bet there will be lots, lots more people in attendance. For me that's the best part of the conference -- The sheer number of Ultimate people in one place, excited and energized to talk about Ultimate. I usually have to travel thousands and thousands of miles to connect with all of the people I interact with in one day at the UCPC. On top of that I get to attend classes on ULTIMATE!

It's amazing what happens in 10 years.



- Josh