Archive for the ‘U23’ Category
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Feb
Canada U23 Survey for Interested Players
Canada has expressed interest in participating in the U23 tournament but a true gauge of interested is required.
Ultimate Canada has released a survey to be completed by those players that are eligible to play in the tournament. You may find the survey here: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/2Q7FPDC
If you know of players that qualify then please pass the link onto them as the survey closes on February 24th.
3
Feb
U23 Interested Countries
The first deadline has passed for the WFDF U23 tournament and a list of interested countries is now available.
It appears that there will be representation from every continent aside from Africa (we’ll need to work on this).
29
Jan
U23 Interest?
Anne Mercier and Alex Benedict are collecting information on those that are interested in attending the WFDF U23 Championships on a Canadian team. They’ve done quite a bit of the groundwork and will be sending the collected information to Ultimate Canada.
If you’re born in 1987 or later and would like to express interest then you can fill out this form: https://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?formkey=dFlRby1ycHBNSjNvYnFSWVJpQnhfT3c6MA
Please note that this is not sanctioned by Ultimate Canada in anyway and is simply a way for players to show what sort of support exists for Canadian teams at the tournament.
22
Jan
U23 Another Update and Questions
An update to yesterdays post, a list of countries that are confirmed and/or very likely to attend are as follows:
Australia
Austria
Colombia
Finland
Great Britain
Germany
Ireland
Italy
Japan
Latvia
New Zealand
Poland
Russia
Sweden
The US (UPA) may be convinced to attend, more details as that develops.
Jeff Rathburn (Masters player on Fossil) commented on the post yesterday questioning why a U23 tournament is being held. I have thoughts of my own but please feel free to chime in with yours.
Traditionally (with other sports) a U23 tournament or event is used as a transition period for players moving from Juniors (U19) to the upper more Elite levels of play. In Ultimate most of the top players on any team are older players (older than 23) that were very good players in their youth but have become superstars as they gained experience. It’s quite true that most players that play on a U23 team are also players on club teams but they’re likely not the elite players on those club teams.
A U23 tournament gives players that are the superstars of tomorrow (and a few that are superstars today) a chance to develop further and it allows various countries to compare their programs and see how they will trend going forward. I see this as a significant tournament with regards to each Ultimate community learning where players need to develop further. In fact, I would call for a U23 tournament within each country but that already exists in the form of the University (CUUC in Canada) and College (UPA in the US) championships. How many players have we seen come out of the Colleges and Universities that are now Internationally recognized players? How many on Sockeye and Furious alone? However, I don’t believe that those College teams would stand a chance in the UPA club series and that’s evidenced by College teams not doing well when playing in the Club series.
Experience matters and U23 provides a place for players to mature as well as countries to gauge where to invest time and energy next.
21
Jan
U23 Possible Countries?
There’s a lot of speculation surrounding who will and who won’t attend the U23 tournament this summer. Within Canada there’s quite a bit of discussion amongst potential players that’s heavily in favour of sending teams and as of yet Ultimate Canada has not made a decision. That said, let’s speculate as to who will and won’t attend.
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28
Jan
Canada U23 thoughts
Disclaimer: The following is in no part the opinion of UC or any UC board members; it is wholly my opinion.
Lately I’ve been asked by quite a few folks about U23 and whether Canada will send players to represent us at the tournament. It’s a question that I’ve been asking myself even before the tournament was formally announced. The number of people who’ve asked me is astounding (I must really get around a lot) and I’ve been surprised to find out how many players are eligible. There are many players that I consider veterans that are eligible to play in the tournament.
So, what do I know? Not much as it turns out or at least not anything that I can tell you. I can however shed some light on the process by which UC will decide on whether or not to send a team or multiple teams.
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