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News
Adult Mixed Scrim 101 - Starting Sun Nov 17 @ Monarch
Posted: October 24, 2019, 1:22 PM
Volunteers of the Month - May, June, July & August
Posted: October 16, 2019, 6:03 PM
Volunteer of the Month - May - Patrick Russell
Patrick Russell is the Chairperson of TUC's Women's Committee and sits on our Board of Directors. In his role as chair of the Women's Committee, he and the committee are responsible for the Pick-It-Up month initiative that runs throughout June.
His work includes reviewing the feedback received from the previous year's Pick-It-Up month and integrating the feedback to improve upon the initiative; attending all the Captain's meetings in May to speak about the changes and updates to the initiative; and lastly, liaising with our teams throughout June to ensure that Pick-It-Up month is a success.
Patrick is extremely passionate about Pick-it-Up month, and the Women's Committee's goal to provide a more inclusive playing environment for our female-identifying membership.
Thank you, Patrick!
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Volunteers of the Month - June - Celine Nguyen and Jim Hui
Our co-volunteers of the Month for June 2019 are Celine Nguyen and Jim Hui for their work with our juniors' program at Agincourt.
Celine Nguyen
Celine continues to be a huge contributor to the Toronto Ultimate Community (she was also a Volunteer of the Month in Jan 2018) and continues to grow as a dynamic youth coach. Along with fellow VOM Jim Hui, Celine was a much-loved leader of the Agincourt U10 program throughout both Summer seasons in 2019.
Celine has been an active coach with TUC since the Fall of 2017. She’s currently in her second year at the University of Waterloo majoring in Science and Business.
Between her coaching, studies, and dealing with some injuries, Celine has also found time to win a couple of bronze medals since her last VOM nomination. She earned a third-place finish e in 2018 at Junior CUC’s with Toro, and third at CUUC’s with the University of Waterloo Warriors.
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Jim Hui
A highly respected and involved community member with a warm personality, Jim also brings over 20 years of Ultimate experience with him. We were thrilled to have Jim step forward as a Head Coach for our Agincourt Summer programs all summer.
Jim is still an active player but says “I have shifted more focus on the next generation to give back to the ultimate community and I love to see youths thriving in this great sport”.
Still, it doesn’t hurt to bring the experience of such an extensive league and touring career, including playing with Team Canada WCBU Masters, Roy, Zen, Snipe, Fossil, Fuel, Bingo and Chill, and Tombstone.
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Volunteer of the Month - July - Michael Pezzack
Michael has been playing Ultimate with TUC for close to 30 years and has been and continues to be a regular fixture in both indoor and outdoor leagues with teams such as Drastic Plastic, Wankers, Spidermonkey and ATP. He has been the Summer Tuesday West League coordinator for many years and in 2007 was recognized for his volunteerism by being named Volunteer of the Year.
When Drastic’s regular summertime fixture of Tuesday evening ultimate and post drinks was threatened by this year’s cancellation of competitive play, at too late a junction to organize a change of evening due to player commitments and other team obligations, Michael went into action.
Volunteers of the Month - March & April
Posted: May 5, 2019, 12:00 PM
Volunteers of the the Month - March - Jeremy Roedde, Chris Loat, Agatha Hodsman
Jeremy, Chris, and Agatha coordinated both the Fall and Winter Indoor Wednesday Parity Co-ed HAT League, better known as TPL. In their roles, they are responsible for overseeing all aspects of the league including draft day, weekly stats and trade updates, and the end of season awards. With so many moving parts and constant changes being made the Parity League is extremely demanding. These three individuals have done an outstanding job and we certainly need to recognize the commitment to what has become the most popular TUC indoor league.
Jeremy started playing in TUC in 1993 and is still going strong entering his 26th summer season with the league. He has founded and played on many Toronto area touring teams during his nearly 20-year run of consecutive Nationals appearances. Fun fact: at his peak of insane ultimate scheduling, he once played in 28 tournaments in one calendar year. Jeremy also served as a TUC board member from 2003-2004. His most proud ultimate experience was helping run a small 8-team ultimate/disc golf tournament (Layout 4 Leukaemia) with Lori Bristow and others, that over a 6-year span raised over $400,000 for Leukemia research at Princess Margaret Hospital.
Agatha started playing ultimate in Los Angeles before moving back to her hometown, Toronto. Here, she joined TUC and quickly became one of the people known for playing and subbing whenever she could, even winning a one-time TUC award for being registered with the most teams in 2014. During the indoor season, she regularly plays in the Sunday Masters league, Wednesday TPL, and Thursday Comp/Elite, including volunteering with the Women's Instructional Program after Masters league. During the summer, she will be playing with Slam Dunks in the Monday East league and captaining Nox, a Toronto women's touring team.
Chris, as a former member of the TUC team, has dedicated countless hours to leagues, tournaments and events. We are recognizing his contributions in this particular month, but it should be known that he has been an integral part of the Parity league for many years. A participant since its inception, he has also been involved in the league’s coordination since 2016. The Parity League is one of the most popular TUC leagues and Chris has been a big part of that.
Chris is also famous for his role captaining the touring and league versions of Max Power. Most recently Max Power achieved a gold medal at the 2018 Canadian Ultimate Championships in the Open Master division. Chris spends most of his time training at the gym to stay in shape and to be the best ultimate player he can be. You can find him at home composing jokes for his team’s Facebook page or on the sideline at tournaments all over the world taking every opportunity to heckle his own team.
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Volunteer of the Month – April – Misiu Godfrey
Misiu is a compiler developer by day, and ultimate athlete by evening. Known as “Meesh” or “Shoe”, he has spent his Fall, Winter and Springs coaching juniors, and helping to run junior and mixed tryouts when they come around. Meesh has also found time to stat-keep, GM, and even help with some app development for the raucous Parity League. He’s also helped out at some tournaments (“Only when I am not able to play!”).
The Shoe learned the in’s and out’s of ultimate in Kingston, and it was there he first toured with Local 613 (then called Surge) before moving back to Toronto. After two years with NoBS, Misiu became a captain for Zen, where he met fellow Zen-player Amanda Sheppard – the teammates would go on to eventually tie-the-knot, but only after rescheduling the ceremony to accommodate the Canadian Ultimate Championships. Priorities?
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Volunteer of the Year 2018 - Chelsea Jackson
Posted: March 5, 2019, 3:12 PM
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Our Volunteer of the Year for 2018 is Chelsea Jackson!
Chelsea was extremely involved with the Club throughout the entire year. For starters, she was engaged with numerous Juniors programs as a coach from the start of the year. From there, Chelsea went above and beyond and took it a step further by joining the Board. Since then, TUC has seen her put in even more time and effort, being involved with several committees and being the chair of not one but two committees! Not only that, but she still finds the time to volunteer even more of her time to Juniors coaching, as well as clinics and other opportunities that arise.
On behalf of TUC, we are extremely grateful for the countless (quite literally) hours she has put in, and we really appreciate her dedication to TUC. If you see her, make sure to thank her for her hard work!
See below for a list of previous Volunteer of the Year winners:
2017: Thomas Meyer
2016: Cory Lamothe
2015: Kevin Philip Lee
2014: Micheal Kukucska
2013: Mark Tran
2012: Harry Burkman
2011: Craig Stephen
2010: Natalie Fitzgerald
2009: Greg Schmidt
2008: James McCully
2007: Michael Pezzack
2006: Doug Coote
2005: Andrew Hunter
Dangerous Play Rule Change - Further Statement
Posted: January 31, 2019, 2:33 PM
TUC Statement
Re: Dangerous Play Rule Change Pilot Project
January 31st, 2019
It is great to see the community engaging in an active and spirited discussion around the game they are passionate about. This pilot project was introduced as a result of a few factors. Two factors that stand out are safe play and the evolution of the game.
The first factor, safe play, is the recognition that TUC saw a spike in on field injuries with the common element being players colliding and some of these instances being a direct result of a dangerous play as reported by the players.
The second factor, evolution of the game, addresses the fact that the game of ultimate is changing as the sport becomes more popular with the introduction of semi-professional leagues. As new players with different sport backgrounds join the game, the strategies and plays evolve. This pilot project address these factors with the introduction of a proven rule used at the world’s level.
We are excited for our two selected leagues participating in the pilot project to begin play under the new rule today and look forward to understanding how our community implements the change and understands the rule.
We have prepared to record feedback multiple times throughout this project to document the change and decide what is best for the community as a whole. This process will help prepare the organization for the possibility of rolling out a rule change league wide that best suits our community.
We would like to highlight that the rule book is in place to help guide play and it is not a tool to gain an advantage as this would be an abuse of the rules and contravene spirit.
We thank everyone for their active feedback, both positive and constructive, that has already been received as this is an important element in the pilot project.
TUC is happy to answer all questions and field all feedback related to this project by emailing adults@tuc.org.
Yours,
Jon Brandt
Executive Director (Interim)
TUC
Dangerous Play Rule Change
Posted: January 30, 2019, 1:42 PM
TUC will be implementing a pilot project (in the Thursday Downsview HAT league and the Thursday Monarch Elite league) where the WFDF Dangerous Play rule will replace the USAU Dangerous Play rule. The goal of this change is to provide a safe environment for all TUC players in all games. At the core level, Ultimate is a non-contact sport and this rule embodies this principle of the game. Know up front this change will not be a perfect solution to something that may have happened in one of your past games and it will take time for all players to make an adjustment. How you play the game and communicate with your fellow players is the best way to implement change in your community. As always, play with spirit.
The new dangerous play rule
The rule being implemented is the WFDF Dangerous Play Rule 17.1.1:
Reckless disregard for the safety of fellow players is considered dangerous play and is to be treated as a foul, regardless of whether or when contact occurs. This rule is not superseded by any other rule. If uncontested this must be treated as the most relevant foul.
Interpretation
Dangerous Play fouls can be called before an event to avoid a potential collision e.g. a defender runs/layouts in a way that an accident would occur if the offence were to continue. When this occurs it is correct to not make a play on the disc & to call a 'dangerous play' foul.
Players calling a Dangerous Play foul before a potential incident need to have reasonable grounds for doing so. They should actually be able to see the oncoming player and have some reason to believe that player will not avoid contact - this could include a previous history of that player to not avoid contact. You cannot call Dangerous Play if you feel you could have made a play on the disc, but that would have resulted in you initiating contact. In that instance, you should just refrain from making the play.
Key Difference
| OLD | NEW |
| USAU Dangerous Play Rule | WFDF Dangerous Play Rule |
| Contact must be made for the Dangerous Play Foul to be called. | Contact need not be initiated for the Dangerous Play Foul to be called. |
| From the USAU rules (XVI C 3 annotations): "Contact that occurs after the outcome of the play is determined cannot affect the play. For example, if a defender catches the disc before bumping into the receiver and knocking him over, that contact did not affect the play and the turnover will stand." |
From the WFDF interpretations (17.5): "Non incidental contact that occurs directly after the attempt at the disc (i.e. a defender catches the disc and then collides with an offence player) is considered to have occurred during the attempt at the disc." |
What is the outcome of a Dangerous Play Foul?
| CONTESTED | UNCONTESTED |
| Disc returns to the last uncontested throw. Stall count +1 | Disc is awarded to the player making the call. |
How is TUC monitoring & following up?
Throughout the pilot:
- There will be multiple check in points to gauge this new rule change.
- Communication will be sent out to introduce the program and provide a contact for those requiring clarification of the rule.
- On a weekly basis, the captains will be asked if the new rule was used, the situation involved and the resulting outcome. This will help ensure the new rule is consistently enforced and gives the organization an opportunity to make any necessary changes to the rule going forward.
- At the halfway mark of the season, all players in the league will be contacted to gather their feedback of the rule change and how it has affected their play.
- Following the results, the Board will review the feedback and determine if the rule should be applied to all leagues as is, modified and applied to all leagues, or revert back to USAU Dangerous Play Rule for all leagues.
Contact & Feedback
For players participating in the pilot, please direct all questions and feedback to adults@tuc.org. Depending on the questions we receive, a community resource center may be created to assist with frequently asked questions.
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