Introduction to Ultimate
Hello. This section of the UPA website is dedicated to friends and family of Ultimate players. Many friends and family have never played the sport. In fact, they may never have heard of the sport until their child, relative or friend told them they played it. So if you fit into this category, please read on. As the Friends and Family parent liaison, I want to welcome you to the UPA website.
The UPA (Ultimate Players Association) was created in 1979 to serve Ultimate Frisbee players and help schedule and coordinate tournaments around the country. To this end, they collected dues, published a quarterly newsletter, and ran the annual Championship tournament for "club" players (that is, anyone of any age). In the early 1980s, the UPA created the College Divisions. During the 1980s, because of a legal issue of using the word "Frisbee," the name of the sport was shortened to just Ultimate. And later that decade the UPA decided to switch from using the Wham-O Frisbee to a disc made by another company, so the official name of the plastic they throw is just "disc." But as you'll see, many player still call the disc a Frisbee. In 1999, the UPA created the Youth Divisions for high schoolers.
This section of the UPA website is for you. We want to share some information and helpful hints about the sport. Our goal is to help you enjoy the sport more... and to enjoy participating as a spectator watching your child or friend play on their team. Many of us have deepened our relationship with our child or friend by attending tournaments or just talking about Ultimate with them.
The UPA Friends and Family group is a special membership category just for non-players. It has a lower dues level, but still gets you the quarterly newsletter, the ability to vote for UPA Board members, and more... if your child's or friend's team qualifies for the National Championship, you are invited to attended a special Social held at the Nationals tournament just for Friends and Family members. You will hear a UPA executive talk about a topic of interest to you and enjoy meeting other Friends and Family.
So we hope you join. It's easy, just click here:
http://www4.upa.org/membershipPerhaps the most important point we can make is that Ultimate comes in at least two flavors. There are the local pick-up games and leagues that are played mainly for fun, camaraderie and exercise. And there are the UPA youth, college and club teams where Ultimate is played competitively. UPA players put a great deal of time into training and attending tournaments. It is every bit as competitive as soccer, football, basketball, etc. Only better... you get to be on the sidelines with them.
The UPA web site has a lot of information, including links to most of the youth, college and club teams, dates and locations of upcoming tournaments, rules of the game, and much much more. Check out the Friends and Family menu item links above. Additional suggestions for the Friends and Family web pages are always welcome. Just email me with your ideas. Thanks for visiting the UPA Friends and Family pages, and we hope to see you at the fields!
