Some small changes for the 2019 season.
February 27, 2019 by Charlie Eisenhood in News with 0 comments
Over the winter, USA Ultimate’s Beach Competition Working Group met to discuss the state of the division. Here is a rundown of some of the key updates from the meeting:
- While past USA National Teams competing at the World Ultimate Beach Championships were hand-selected by team managers, future teams will be selected via a tryout process (beginning with the 2021 WUBC), aligning the Beach teams with the other National teams. “Coaches for the men’s, mixed, and women’s teams will be selected by the USA Ultimate Coaching Committee, also the same process undertaken for other National Teams.”
- Roster limits are being increased by two people to a total of 18 for the Beach National Championships, USAU’s only beach event in 2019.
- The 2019 Beach Season will be played under current 11th Edition USA Ultimate rules with these changes:
- Five players per team
- Smaller field dimensions
- “Contact” marking violation
- Each team has one timeout per game and can use one (and only one) timeout in overtime, even if they have used their earlier timeout
- Five minute halftime is five minutes long
- No soft time-cap
- No shoes/cleats allowed
- Mixed competition will now include the “gendzone” rule for selecting 3M/2W or 3W/2M.
- “The beach division guidelines will include bid priority to local organizations that offer beach/sand playing opportunities. The new priority structure will both reward organizations already offering those opportunities and incentivize the introduction of opportunities in other areas.” Bids will be considered with decreasing preference with the following categories:
- USA Ultimate affiliate with beach/sand activity
- USA Ultimate affiliate without beach/sand activity
- Unaffiliated organizations with USA Ultimate-sanctioned beach/sand activity
- Applicant teams with history of USA Ultimate-sanctioned beach/sand participation
- Applicant teams with history of beach/sand participation
- Unaffiliated organizations with unsanctioned beach/sand activity
- Unaffiliated organizations without beach/sand activity
- Applicant teams without history of beach/sand participation.
- Here are the 2019 Beach Guidelines.
