Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Best School for Ultimate?


Nation,

As tryouts for universities quickly approach I wonder the following question:

  • Which school provides the best ultimate choice for males and females entering university?
Of course, only the hardcore would choose their college based on the ultimate program. I'm glad I didn't know about the game at that time in my life.

Nonetheless, if a soon to be fresh asked you who the best school was for their gender, which school would you pick, and why?

I have put some options in the polls to the right. I can only put up so many schools, so for those of you who select "other" please post what school and why.

Can't wait to do the college preview.

Possible Factors??
-Graduation Rate of Players to Club Teams
-Experience on the Field (Satisfaction rates)
-Off Field Experience (Parties, Organizational Culture, Etc)
-Development Opportunities for New Players
-Planning and Structure
-Conditioning and Fitness
-Playing fields and access
-School view on the sport and the club

7 comments:

jhaig said...

If you really want to pick your university based on their frisbee team I would think the criteria you should look at would be:

1) Does the team play all 8 months of the school year (fall tournaments, practice through Jan-March as well as UPA spring series)

2) Does the school have a B team? Who knows you may not make the A squad and it would suck to have nowhere to play.

3) Is there a mens and womens team? If not the team parties might be kinda lame.

If those three are met, then there's a pretty good chance theres a successful and fun program there. If you look only at last years standings and success you run the risk of getting to a school just as all the good players graduate and being dissapointed. But if there's a good system in place, even with the ups and downs that come with the constant turn over in university sports you should have a dedicated and fun group of team mates.

Anonymous said...

I'm going to make the case for Toronto. I've never been out to Vancouver, so I can't really talk about their program or the ultimate environment out there, but I'm a little surprised that they're so far ahead of us in this poll.

It's difficult to compare programs. I think we've got one of the best run, most fun teams in Canada, with great parties, a great atmosphere, etc. That said, having not been a player anywhere else, it's difficult to evaluate that. There are some things though, that are relatively unique to Toronto, that I would argue make it by far the best place to play ultimate.

We have four open teams in Toronto. Every single Tula player is going to end up on a touring team if they want to. Since half the guys running these teams are Tula players or alums, the connections you made with Tula are definitely going to help at tryouts. The number of Tula players who have ended up on Goat is truly impressive. Pretty much our entire A team plays Goat/GT and our B team guys play Roy (or sometimes Too Bad or co-ed).

In addition to touring, the Toronto Ultimate Club is incredible, and I particularly think our fall/winter leagues are unparalleled. We do practice through the winter (on pro-quality fields), but if that's not enough for you, you can play indoor league almost every night of the week, and not on shitty fields either: FIFA-certified facilities. There's also intramurals.

It's not just that we have an incredible program at UofT, but also that the ultimate resources in Toronto outside of UofT are pretty much unmatched anywhere else. Our one weakness is probably a lack of support from the administration, but all UofT students get free access to the same sports doctors that treat the Leafs and Raptors, free physio, great training facilities, etc., so it doesn't really matter that much that the administration doesn't take us seriously.

T1000 said...

I've played in a number of locations in recent years; in particular, I've spent time playing with Ottawa, Toronto, and Vancouver teams (though not for their schools).

The vote is tough for me because I know that UofT has a great programme right now. But I also remember that not so long ago when UofT's programme was nowhere near as good as it is right now. Believe me, I am familiar with the rise and decline of dynasties. The question is, now that UofT's programme is in its prime, can it sustain its strength for long enough to make it the best school to go to for ultimate?

By comparison, UBC looks a lot like UofT. UBC also has strong connections to great teams (including multiple World medallists), great coaching and great facilities (but as far as I can tell, a condescending administration). They've also got a vibrant, all-year ultimate community surrounding them that takes ultimate more seriously than any I've seen anywhere else (that includes Ottawa and Toronto).

But most impressive to me is the sheer number of years in a row UBC has consistently raised great ultimate players. Their programme reliably promises to teach you ultimate well, no matter what the year on the calendar. That's something that Ontario schools have yet to master.

Spike84 said...

free physio?? toronto wins hands down. We get shit all paid for at UBC...
sweet program and getting talked about in the spring is cool.. but it actually cant touch free physio.
There's some OK club teams round town too.. TFP and Furious do alright for themselves..
VUL is pretty fun..
Ah ok Vancouver is cool.

higy said...

Physio is overrated.

just don't get hurt

Unknown said...

College teams must be judged by how successful they are in the UPA College series - a much more difficult and competitive series, with real eligibility requirements (all players must actually go to your school), than anything that CUPA can offer up.

That being the case, UBC and Queen's get top marks.

On another note, McGill has the most attractive women's program (and I am talking about looks). I think it's a Quebec thing.

jhaig said...

"On another note, McGill has the most attractive women's program (and I am talking about looks). I think it's a Quebec thing."

Or the white shorts. Everyone looks better in white shorts.