Scobel Wiggins Photography

Stanford University Superfly. University of Wisconsin Bella Donna. University of Oregon Fugue. UC-Santa Barbara Burning Skirts.

Anyone who follows College Women's Ultimate knows these teams and can probably rattle off the names of their top players without much difficulty.

But how about these teams? Grinnell College Sticky Tongue Frogs. University of North Texas Envy. Western Michigan University Invisible Pink Unicorns. Tulane University Les Femmes Fatales. Have you ever heard of them? Can you name a single player on any of these teams?

For every elite College Women's team that exists, there are a dozen other Women's teams who can barely field enough players at practice to play hot box, but whose hard work, grit, and love of the game match that of even the most dedicated players in the country. Having played seven seasons of Ultimate (three college and four club) in the opportunity-rich Northwest Region, I feel extremely fortunate to have been exposed to the best competititon, resources, and role models in the country. Moving to the South Region was a huge shock for me and while I have been fortunate enough to play for teams that still compete at the national level, I have become increasingly aware of the uneven playing field that plagues the development of these smaller teams and prevents them from becoming stable Ultimate programs.

Following a heartbreaking loss in the game-to-go to College Nationals in 2007 which featured unspirited play from both teams and lots of booing from teams in our region, the Texas leadership made a concerted effort to reach out to teams in the South and Midwest and to create more positive relationships in hopes of building the quantity and quality of Ultimate being played in our Region. It was our firm belief that by making our region stronger, we would be making our team and our program stronger.

That year Texas piloted three new tournaments — an early fall tournament in Austin for teams in our Section, and fall and spring tournaments in Missouri that have quadrupled in size over the past two years: Midwest Warmup and Midwest Throwdown. Through these tournaments, some key birthday dares and Christmas cards, and with the help of Facebook, Texas has forged positive relationships with teams like Truman State, Washington University, and Kansas, who have served as partners committed to improving College Women's Ultimate. The willingness of the Texas leadership to think outside of the box (i.e. running tournaments in locations 14 hours away from home) and the dedication of the other captains and team leaders in the Region have been crucial in the development of the South Region.

Last summer, I was talking to one of my old college friends, Anna Nazarov (Zeitgeist), about the obstacles facing the development of College Women's Ultimate. I expressed frustration about the seeming lack of inspiration and investment I felt from teams in the South and Midwest, and shared with her that I felt like teams needed to dream bigger and that if they could only see "real" Ultimate, they'd realize that there was more to aspire to.

Anna's response was to challenge me to bring "real" Ultimate to them — what if we could import some of the best Women's Ultimate players in the country to the Midwest and let them loose to inspire these college kids? We quickly set the wheels in motion for the Roundup Division and made plans to fly in eight of the top Women's players in the nation to guest coach and mentor young and/or developing teams in the South and Midwest. Our fundraising plan to make all of this happen was two-fold: run a large fundraiser tournament to create awareness about our project and apply for a UPA grant. With the money we raised from our fundraiser tournament, Midwest Warmup, as well as the money we received from our UPA grant, we were able to cover the majority of the coaches' expenses for the Roundup Division, help start a new tournament called Philly Classic in the Metro East, and print copies of the College Women's Ultimate Resources Manual for the approximately 100 teams attending Midwest Throwdown, Philly Classic, and Women's College Centex.

At Midwest Warmup in the fall, I had a meeting with 20+ college leaders from elite teams such as Wisconsin, Texas, and Michigan, as well as younger programs such as Grinnell. I wanted to find out what we could be doing to be help these teams more effectively — the overwhelming response was that we needed to increase off-field interaction between teams and that we needed to facilitate the exchange of information, knowledge, and other resources between teams as well as find ways to bring this in from outside sources.

I took what I heard at that meeting and built some new components into the spring tournaments I was working on: skills clinics and the College Women's Ultimate Resources Manual. With the help of Keely Dinse (University of Michigan coach), we held a skills clinic for 200+ players at Midwest Throwdown after play on Saturday (and had another planned for Philly Classic, but were hampered by uncooperative weather). Players rotated through 3-25 minute stations taught by the Roundup Division coaches, as well as a handful of other top-tier club players. With the support of the Texas leadership, I also created a coaches' and captains' clinic at Women's College Centex. Alex Korb, Lou Burruss, and Cara Crouch led sessions on team and program building for approximately 50 coaches, captains, and team leaders.

In parallel with these clinics, I set out to develop the College Women's Ultimate Resources Manual, a collection of articles about how to create and build a successful College Ultimate team from some of the best players, captains, and coaches in Ultimate. The feedback we have received from players and coaches about these various projects has further expanded my belief that by creating more opportunities for joint development and interaction, we can increase networking, encourage sharing of resources, and build more social capital for the development of Ultimate everywhere.

This feature incorporates the perspectives of a cross-section of the people involved with these various projects — organizers, players, captains, and coaches. These people have been part of the change slowly making its way through College Women's Ultimate. I hope that these mini-articles inspire you to do more in your Ultimate community and that you recgonize all of the resources around you, use them, and create even more opportunities for yourself, your team, and the greater Ultimate community. The change doesn't stop here — keep an eye out for the work that Boston Brute Squad and Texas Showdown will be doing this fall, and stay tuned as more College Women's teams step up to bring change to their backyards.

Michelle Ng. Former UC Berkeley captain, former University of Texas captain, former Bay Area Slackjaw captain, current Texas Showdown captain