Interactive charts for key results from the USAU Youth Club Championships structure survey.
January 30, 2025 by Charlie Eisenhood in News
At the recent USA Ultimate Competition Working Group meetings, the Youth working group — comprised of USAU Director of Youth Programs Dan Raabe, USAU manager for youth competition Josh Murphy, and regional youth directors Jack Kennedy (northeast), Joe Strong (west), Antonia Van Twisk (central), and Jamie Wolf (south) — met to discuss the future of the Youth Club Championships and other aspects of nationally competitive youth ultimate.
Raabe and USAU recently surveyed youth stakeholders — from players and parents to coaches and organizers — about their thoughts on how youth competition should evolve. Those who filled out the survey could opt in to allowing their answers to be shared anonymously: USAU took the anonymized data and published it here.
Ultiworld wanted to make it easier to digest some of the most interesting results and comments, so we’ve pulled some of the data into interactive graphs and charts below.
Promotion & Relegation
One of the key questions asked to all survey respondents was their feelings on USAU having multiple tiers in larger divisions at YCC and having a promotion and relegation system for teams to move up and down from year-to-year. Here are the results, with charts showing individual answers as well as “binned” agreement and disagreement.
- More than 60% of players, coaches, and parents liked the idea of a promotion/relegation system.
- Organizers surveyed were generally cooler on the idea.
- USAU has decided that, starting in 2026, YCC divisions with more than 24 teams will be split into two separate Divisions (DI and DII) to allow more teams to participate.
Notable Comments
“Giving more teams access is a great thing. Opportunities for promotion/relegation would be important, although may be difficult given how much teams can change year to year.”
“It seems teams should be placed where games would be the most competitive/fun for them (not too easy or too hard).”
“This is a silly idea. They’re just kids. If you cant do regional qualifiers, then you shouldn’t do relegation.”
“I agree as long as the events will all be the same weekend. Part of the fun is everyone getting together.”
Players’ General Thoughts
Players surveyed were asked for their opinions on a variety of questions related to YCCs and other youth club opportunities. Answers and binned answers below.
- Among those surveyed, players, by far, felt the most strongly about keeping YCCs connected with the US Open (though not necessarily concurrent). Many other questions in the survey for non-players focused on possibly decoupling the events or adding additional days to YCCs in order to facilitate adding more teams.
- Clearly, players want to play competitive games. Finding a fair system for deciding who plays in Division I or Division II will be the trickier piece for USAU.
- Players are asking for more youth club opportunities in the fall
Notable Comments
“As a player it was really fun to watch my favorite club players perform at such a high level from standing practically on the sideline.”
“I felt they were separate events both times I played. The dinner and showcase game was fun, but otherwise I only went over to watch a person I knew play when I got to the field too early. I spent most of my byes watching other youth teams.”
“Adult club get priority on streaming schedule and are stealing the spotlight from youth nationals for what is simply a warm up tournament for Adult club; many teams running equal play time and using it to test out their systems and lines.”
“If I was not good enough to be in Division 1 then I would battle to win Division II. If I was excluded from Division 1 because of a non-competition related reason, my heart-fire would be enflamed and I would wage war against all other teams to prove the decision wrong.”
Parents’ Thoughts on Costs
Parents surveyed were asked for their opinions about the expense of their child participating in ultimate and at YCCs. Answers and binned answers below.
- Broadly, parents think ultimate is inexpensive and worth the money. A large majority is willing to pay more for more opportunities.
- Given the indicated demand from players and parents, are ultimate organizers underserving the youth ultimate scene?
Notable Comments
“Big investment in a great sport for my child. We’ve made wonderful connections w/ other families.”
“Yes [I would pay more for local/regional playing opportunities], but our area is still GROWING. So there are not enough players in the state and region that have teams yet.”
“Relative to other youth, travel, club sports, the cost is low. But that’s not always a comparison that others are able to make.”
Coaches’ Thoughts on Scheduling
Coaches surveyed were asked for their opinions on possible alterations to the YCC schedule to accommodate additional teams. Answers and binned answers below.
- Generally, coaches liked the idea of breaking YCCs apart from the US Open onto a separate weekend (or at least separate field site) the most. No other concept had agreement from a majority.
Notable Comments
“Every team that wishes to compete should be able to. If that means DI and DII at different weekends or different locations so be it. It is for the betterment of youth ultimate to make space for every team.”
“I thought it was awesome when you combined the events so the youth kids can be around the adult players. I wish the games and such were a little more spread out so that kids could see it during their own tournament if they cant get out the day before. They miss the semis and championships because they are playing their own games”
“the idea of ICC overlap is nice, but in reality the teams are so busy competing and preparing that there isn’t much of a chance to take advantage. also, many ICC participants are also YCC coaches”
Coaches’ Thoughts on Divisions & Seeding
Coaches surveyed were asked for their opinions on how divisions, promotion/relegation, and seeding should work. Answers and binned answers below.
- Once again, there was a favorite idea: use results from Regional youth events to help seed and determine which teams play in D1 and D2. This is an obvious precursor to actual regional qualifying events.
- Like players, coaches clearly like the idea of split divisions.
Notable Comments
“Some YCC teams are obviously DI material compared to others. Rather than let the process of promotion/relegation run its course to divide teams up into DI or DII, I think it would be fine to make educated guesses (based on previous results, etc.) in order to set the divisions at the onset.”
“Only current results matter for the current year. Holding spots for a team’s performance in the previous year is ridiculous at the youth level where there is so much change year to year.”
“Regional events would be useful for seeding for a given year, but I disgree that this should be used to qualify for DI or DII in the same year, as the sample size is probably too small to gain real useful information.”
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You can see answers to many more questions as well as qualitative responses to various ideas in the full survey results published by USA Ultimate.
