The name for this blog was inspired by a comment on Hector Valdivia's blog, on his post entitled Splinter Cell. The post talked about the diverging standards of play in ultimate today, and the need for the UPA to adapt to these changing standards. The part that interested me was the difference between college "programs" (schools that consistently make it to Nationals) and colleges that can field a team for sectionals, maybe regionals, but consistently serve as "bagel fodder" for larger, more established programs. (Being "bageled" means not being able to score a point against the opposing team, utter defeat, the hole in the middle of a bagel, the zero score). The comment came from someone named David talking about the need for weaker teams to fill out sections in less-populated regions, and I've reproduced it below:
"One thing about these smaller school teams - in some regions there really isn't a lot of small college teams (or big teams for that matter) - so you might find a college div 2 with only handful of teams in say the southwest region - and even then the 'div 1' needs these teams to fill out sectionals... even if they are bagel fodder."
His point is interesting, and Hector's post is also interesting, but the term "bagel fodder" got me thinking about my own experiences with ultimate, because, the truth is, I play for just such a college bagel fodder team. A women's bagel fodder team at that, and though we qualify for regionals sometimes and win roughly half the games we play, I still play for a team that has been bageled (or almost bageled) by nationally recognized programs. I also read a fair number of ultimate blogs, and none of them have ever focused on the experiences of a small college team, let alone a small women's college team. So, here it is, the bagel fodder blog, tales from the chumpionship bracket.
A little about myself: I'm a junior at a small (solidly D3) Midwestern school and this is the beginning of my third year playing ultimate at the college level and my first year serving as a college captain. I played pickup ultimate in high school and my first experience with real ultimate was at summer league the summer before my first year of college. I also play for a decent (not-quite bagel fodder, middle-of-the-pack at regionals) mixed club team. Ultimate is something I enjoy immensely, it's the first sport I've ever had any talent in, and I do what I can with the time and resources I have here (more on that later, I'm sure). I hope to address issues that many small college teams face playing ultimate today, particularly the women's side of the story.
I have set up an email address for questions: bfultimate@gmail.com
Stay tuned for more substantive posts later.
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
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