Regional Dates, Competition Guidelines, Future Divisions, More Discussed
Colorado Springs, Colo. (February 3, 2020) – USA Ultimate’s Competition Working Group met in Denver last December for its annual meeting to discuss various aspects of the sport’s competition structure across all age divisions – youth, college, club, masters and beach. The meeting included 10 USA Ultimate staff members, two members of the board of directors and 29 key volunteers and was held over two days. Following the meeting, we are releasing summaries of each smaller group’s discussion. The club division recap was released late last month, and the youth, college and beach updates are still to come.
The masters working group consists of USA Ultimate Manager of Events and Masters Division Manager Byron Hicks, National Men’s Masters Director Kyle Christoph, National Women’s Masters Director Kristi Schmeling and player representative Chris Cianfrani. North Central Regional Coordinator Jolien Munsterhuis also attended the meeting.
The masters working group spent much of their time discussing the masters division guidelines, brainstorming how to encourage regional playing opportunities and the future of the division, which continues to grow!
This year’s guidelines also include a reduction of past roster limits, reducing that number to 28 players in order to allow for gender balance in the mixed division and consistency across divisions. In addition to lowering roster limits, the overall out of region limits for Great Grand Masters Men’s division was reduced from 10 players to seven as that division continues to grow. That number will be reduced to five in 2021, consistent with the Masters Men’s and Grand Masters Men’s divisions.
Regional migration was a big topic of discussion, as players are often asking for more competitive regional events with more teams. This year, regions will need to have a minimum of four teams to host a regional event, otherwise those teams will be migrated into other regions. This should allow for better quality regional events. It was also decided to schedule all regionals for a single weekend, June 13-14, to facilitate planning and potential team migration options as needed.
Possible expansion of the Masters Championships to a four-day, staggered event was discussed, which could include adding a Grand Masters Mixed division and a Great Grand Masters Women’s division.
A detailed survey will be sent out later this summer for player feedback regarding a variety of topics.
More details are available in the 2020 Masters Division Guidelines.
Stay tuned to usaultimate.org for more updates from the 2019 Competition Working Group meeting.
