After hearing from some past players, Valley Ultimate has decided to postpone our plans to offer a Valley Ultimate Western Mass YCC program for this year. While we still intend to increase playing opportunities for Valley Ultimate players at all levels of our sport, we feel we can serve you better by working more deeply with current and future participants to come up with a more detailed and thorough plan for migrating towards two MA-based YCC programs.
We have heard that our current plan for creating a second YCC program in MA would create a burden for the youth of Western MA (girls in particular), in which they would have to choose playing with their local friends and teammates or travelling to Eastern MA. We’ve decided to continue offering a BUDA Youth League, here in Western MA, that would qualify players to try out for the BUDA YCC program as we have done the last two years. In addition, since we acknowledge that not all youth want to try out for YCC’s in Eastern MA, we will simultaneously run a non-YCC youth league, in keeping with our mission of increasing playing opportunities for all (youth) in Western MA.
We are sensitive to the needs of young players, and especially girls, who have had fewer opportunities at every level of play in our sport. We are committed to working to end institutional bias against women in Ultimate. From beginners to the most seasoned veterans, we want to encourage all levels of play in all players. Valley Ultimate seeks to provide opportunities for more people to play Ultimate in more places, more often.
We are sensitive to the history of Ultimate in MA and want to make sure our efforts are not detracting from the efforts of others to promote and encourage Ultimate. It is for all of these reasons that we are offering these current opportunities for MA youth.
- If you’ve played for the BUDA YCC program in the past and wish to continue doing so, without the hassle of travelling, we’ve got you covered.
- If you haven’t played on a BUDA YCC team but want to, we’ve got you covered.
- If you just want to play summer Ultimate in Western MA and don’t want to try out for a YCC team, we’ve got you covered.
- And if you’re new to the sport and want to see what all the buzz is about, we’ve got you covered.
Come play Ultimate this summer in one of our leagues. No matter what you need, we’ve got something for you! Stay tuned for details of registration and dates, for all of our playing opportunities coming soon to an inbox near you. As usual, if you have any questions or concerns, we encourage you to contact us. We’d love to hear from you!
See you on the fields.
Valley Ultimate Board
Due to a generous grant from USA Ultimate, Valley Ultimate was able to launch an outreach program. Terry Plotkin is leading the charge and ran the first session last week. He reports:
The next Valley Ultimate Board meeting will take place on Tuesday, 2/16 from 6-7pm at the 
