I haven't really been following this issue closely but I thought that it
might be helpful for me to chime in with some experience from other
leagues. The typical progression of youth leagues (thus far) is:

Open
Co-ed (5:2)
Co-ed (5:2) + girls division (where the girls div is a smaller league
and girls can still play in the co-ed league)
Open and Girls

Typically, unless the league encourages girls play in the form of co-ed
Ultimate, girls play never gets off the ground. Requiring co-ed play
does not mean that the girls have to play savage, but that players have
to recruit and make the Ultimate team a welcoming environment for all
players.

It also doesn't mean that teams can not agree to play 6:1 or open at the
fields, simply that the default and expectation is 5:2 or 4:3 (or 6:1 if
you want to start there).

Here in Colorado the progression has gone like this:

2002 - Open
2003 - Open
2004 - Suggested 5:2
2005 - Required 5:2
2006 - Required 5:2 and we're working on getting a small girls league

Whatever decision you make, it is important to be clear about it ahead
of time. It's difficult to make a decision one or two weeks before the
season starts with the expectation that a team without any girls can
recruit enough girls to play. But if you decide now that the league is
encouraging co-ed play and that next year it will be required, teams can
start thinking and planning for that transition.

It's important to keep in mind that the league is a tool for you all to
a. organize your current play and b. create a structure that helps
Ultimate grow in the area (if that's something you are interested in).
If b is something that you (as a community) are interested in, creating
league rules that meet your goals (like requiring co-ed play to
encourage more girls to get involved or perhaps work towards a girls
league or eligibility rules to maintain the integrity of high school
play) is not some sort of authoritarian structure but rather a community
based model for organization.

-Kyle

Director of Youth Development
Ultimate Players Association
4730 Table Mesa Dr.
Suite J-200
Boulder, CO 80305
www.upa.org
phone: 303.447.3472 ex 115
fax: 303.447.3483

-----Original Message-----
From: wafcjr@yahoogroups.com [mailto:wafcjr@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf
Of Eric Brown06
Sent: Wednesday, February 22, 2006 4:44 PM
To: wafcjr@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [wafcjr] wafcjr gender ratios

My concern with gender ratios is that teams with few girls (such
as ours)
will be forced to play their one or two girls for the entire game. By
the
end of the game, such a team would be forced to play their dead-tired
girl
while boys who may have played for only a few minutes would be sitting
on
the sidelines.
Basically, I think that who is playing at any particular moment
should be
left up to the teams, not mandated by the league. I would be in favor
of
an open league, as we have had in the past.

Eric Brown
GDS Ultimate




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