This email was sent out on Tuesday, 5/5:

Hello everyone,

Tournament website: www.sjainvite.org

IMPORTANT STUFF

1) Please make sure you report your scores in the UPA's online score reporting database. I will be ranking all of the teams next Monday night based on what has been reported in that system.
2) Your roster MUST be online in UPA's online rostering system and listed in the St. Johnsbury Academy Invitational event. The event will close next Tuesday night, so make sure you get your roster 100% set by then. Only players on your online roster will be allowed to play. If your team is found to be playing with unrostered players your entire team will be immediately disqualified.
3) All team paperwork must be accounted for before games start on Saturday. Complete registration paperwork instructions are online right here.
4) Housing assignments were finalized last night. The housing director (RaeAnn) will be sending out emails connecting teams to their hosts over the next couple days. Direct all housing question to RaeAnn at .
5) I will be finalizing dinner numbers on Friday night. If you'd like join in on the dinner, please let me know by Friday afternoon. Note: You do not have to have dinner at the Saturday night event to join in the other activities going on that night.
6) This spreadsheet contains info on housing and dinner numbers. Please look it over and let me know if you need something changed.

TOURNAMENT GEAR

Breakmark will be providing a huge variety of tournament gear: short sleeve shirts, long sleeve shirts, jerseys, sweatshirts, hats, and rippers. Tournament discs will also be for sale.



SCHEDULING

The event schedule is online right here.

The competition schedule is as follows:

Girls Division:
There will be two pools of 5. After 5 rounds of pool play each pool will be re-ranked. The bottom two teams will play for 9/10. The top four teams from each pool will be placed in a single elimination championship bracket where each team will play 3 games. The teams that finish 9th and 10th will have 5 games and all others will have 7.

Open A Division:
There will be two pools of 4. After 3 rounds of pool play each pool will be re-ranked. The two teams that finish last in their pool will play the highest ranked teams from the B pool. The winners of these cross over games will go to the A division and the losers will go to the B division. After the cross over games the 8 teams in the A division will play in a single elimination championship bracket where each team will play 3 games. Six teams in the A division will play 6 games and two teams will play 7 games. Any team that starts in the A division can win the A or B division.

Open B Division:
There will be two pools of 4. After 3 rounds of pool play each pool will be re-ranked. The two teams that finish last in their pool will play the two highest ranked teams from the C pool. The winners of these cross over games will go to the B division and the losers will go to the C division. The two teams that finish at the top of their pools will play the bottom two teams from the A pools. The winners of these cross over games will play in the A division and the losers the B division. After the cross over games the 8 teams in the B division will play in a single elimination championship bracket where each team will play 3 games. Six teams in the B division will play 6 games and two teams will play 7 games. Any team that starts in the B division can win the A, B, or C division.

Open C Division:
There will be one pool of 4. After 3 rounds of pool play the teams will be re-ranked. The two teams that finished highest will play the bottom two teams from the B pools. The winners of these cross over games will go to the B division and the losers will go to the C division. After the cross over games the 5 teams will play a modified single elimination championship bracket where every team will play at least 2 games. Teams in the C division will play between 5 and 7 games.

I've attached the schedule details as they stand now. I'm giving you all of the raw data in an attempt to iron out any details that I have missed. If you see something that doesn't make sense, let me know.

Note: Any bold letter in brackets (Ex: [A]) is a game label. W means "winner" and L means "loser". So, WG v WY means "Winner of game G against winner of game Y."

8 Team Champs Bracket.png: This is how the girls, open A, and open B division champs will run on Sunday. IGNORE THE LETTERING.
Boys.png: This is the schedule for all open division games.
Boys Color Coding.png: The color key for the info in the Boys.png file.
C Champs: This how the open C division champs will run.
Girls.png: This is the schedule for all of the girls division games.



FOOD

Every team will receive a huge team box on Saturday morning containing bananas, oranges, bagels, pretzels, nutella, and many other items. There will be a PB+J sandwich bar on Saturday and Sunday. Everyone who signs up will get dinner on Saturday night. Teams are responsible for figuring out all of their other meals.



WHAT'S NEXT

5/8: Dealine for adding people the dinner.
5/11: I will email out the final schedule. Please make sure you report all of your scores!
5/13: The online roster closes.

Big email, read through it carefully.  This is the main email for the tournament.

Alright, we have nine teams playing this year.  We just keep growing!  Excellent.  Here's what I need you to do in the next few weeks.

1.  All players must be current UPA members for 2009.  Membership status may be checked through the online rostering system.  Membership dues ($20)should be sent to the UPA: not me. Along with this Liability Waivers must be on file at the UPA headquarters.  Memberships can be completed online, however the liability waiver must still be mailed in (www.upa.org/membership).
2.  Create an online roster for the tournament.   To do this, sign in to your UPA account and go to online rostering - same as last year.
3.  Have your kids (and parents) fill out a 'Medical Authorization Form' for the tournament.  Attached.  A copy of this must be sent to me AND another copy brought to the tournaments. We will be checking them during the morning captains meeting.
4. Each team needs two chaperones/coaches for the tournament.  The chaperone form needs to be sent to the UPA and be specific to the State Championship tournament..  Attached.
5. The tournament fee is $100 (send me a check made out to Spaulding High School Ultimate Frisbee).  This covers - fields, food, tournament fees, insurance.  Like last year, we shall have pizzas during the award ceremonies.  Extra money will be saved to supplement next years tournament,which will likely evolve into a two day event.  Especially as we add more teams.

All of this needs to be completed by May 8th at the very latest.  You may still add a few players in the two weeks before the tournament, but the everything should be completed before this date.  Players that show up that have incomplete paperwork will not be able to play.  A team with no chaperones will not be able to participate. And so on...

The format of the tournament is broken into two pools: A and B.  Pool A will be a six team pool-play set, playing for the championships.  Pool B will have a chance to play up after their pool play.  Seedings and an exact bracket will be determined at a later date.

Teams

Pool A - Vermont Commons Varsity, St Johnsbury Boys Varsity, Compass, Champlain Valley Union, Spaulding and South Burlington.
Pool B - St. Johnsbury Girls Varsity, Vermont Commons JV, St. Johnsbury JV.

An approximate game schedule is attached.  Finalized schedule will arrive as seedings are set.

Summary:
1) UPA membership current/Liability Waivers (sent to the UPA)
2) Online Roster created
3) Medical Authorizations (sent to Spaulding and brought to the tournament)
4) Chaperone forms (sent to the UPA)
5) Tournament Fee (sen to Spaulding)

Day of the Tournament

Registration at the tournament will take place Saturday morning at 8AM at South Burlington High School.  Tournament Staff will be on hand to check teams in and take care of any outstanding paperwork.  All teams need to check in at registration.  All paperwork must be completed by this time or the team/player in question will not be allowed to play.

Mail Med. Auths. and tournament fee to :

John McKinnon
Spaulding High School
155 Ayers Street
Barre, VT 05641

Mail UPA forms to:

Ultimate Players Association
4730 Table Mesa Dr.
Suite I-200C
Boulder, CO 80305

Questions?

John


John McKinnon
Spaulding High School - Science
Room 117

802-476-4811

This email was sent out on Tuesday, 4/7:

Hello everyone,

Please make sure you read through this entire email and confirm that you have received and read the email by filling out this form.

700+ HS Ultimate players in one place. Here's what you need to know:

Information contained in this email:

+MISSING PAYMENTS
+TEAM REGISTRATION
+TOURNAMENT GEAR
+HOUSING AND DINNER SPOTS
+DINNER/DANCE/TRADE NIGHT
+GIRLS PICKUP TEAM


+MISSING PAYMENTS
I am missing checks from the following teams:
Miss Porters    Girls A
Sherbrooke    Girls A
Amherst JVB    Girls C
Beaver Country Day School    NEPSUL I
Hotchkiss    NEPSUL I
Phillips Academy    NEPSUL I
The Master's School    NEPSUL I
Sherbrooke    Open A
Newton South    Open B
North Country    Open C

The NEPSUL tourney fee is $175. (Single day event.) The fee for everyone else is $325.

Please send a check made out to St. Johnsbury Academy to:

Josh Seamon
1000 Main St.
St. Johnsbury, VT 05819

Please let me know when the check is in the mail.


+TEAM REGISTRATION
Complete information on how to register your team is online right here. I can't stress this enough: Players and teams that are not properly registered WILL NOT be allowed to participate. The process is not difficult, it can just take a little while. I have tried my best to outline the process as fully as I am able on the website, so please look it over. If you have any questions send them over.


+TOURNAMENT GEAR
I am very happy to announce that this year Breakmark will be providing a whole range of tournament gear. In additions to discs we will have short sleeve and long sleeve jerseys, sweatshirts, trucker hats, sweatshirts, and t-shirts. The tournament logo is attached.


+HOUSING AND DINNER SPOTS
Please take a look at this spreadsheet and let me know if you see any errors. Housing assignments will start being made in the next 10 days, so it's very important that your housing information is correct.


+DINNER/DANCE/TRADE NIGHT
We are setting up a massive event for Saturday night. Even if you're going to eat somewhere else, there are lots and lots of reasons to attend. We'd also like all teams to show up so we can get an all tournament picture. 700+ HS Ultimate players in one place. I want a picture :)

Here's a rundown of what's being setup:
- Dinner will be catered by The Black Sheep of Amherst, MA and will take place in the hallways of our gorgeous art building.
- We will be taking over our entire art building and central green.
- The dance will take place in the Black Box of our art building. Custom lights, massive sound, and other fun entertaining accoutrement will be setup.
- Many console game systems will be setup all over the art building.
- There will be a very large movie screen setup on our main green displaying footage from the day and other Ultimate movies.
- A bouncy castle and bouncy house will be setup on the central green.
- An area will be setup on the central green for people who want to trade gear.
- Breakmark will have a tent setup for purchasing tourney gear.
- There will be a team dance competition

The event will run from 6:30 to 10:30 on Saturday. The big picture will take place at around 8pm.


+GIRLS PICKUP TEAM
If you know of any girls that would like to play in the girls division, send them over to this page.



That's all for now. I will be sending out the next big update in 3 weeks.

Questions? Send them over.




- Josh

The following email was sent out at 6:30pm on Tuesday, 2/17:

*************************************************

Hello everyone,

You are receiving this email because your team submitted a bid to the 2009 St. Johnsbury Invitational.

See below for the list of teams that have been accepted, or accepted pending payment.

All tournament fees must be in St. Johnsbury by Friday, March 20th by the absolute latest. I do not have space for all of the teams that would like to attend. The remaining spots will be filled on a rolling basis. Send your check in now to guarantee you spot. If your payment is not in St. Johnsbury by March 20th, your team will not play.

Please read the following instructions carefully:
1) If you do not belong on this list, please send me an email right away so I can remove you.
2) If you ARE the primary contact for a team coming to the invitational, please email a reply RIGHT AWAY with the following info:
 a) Your name
 b) The name of the team or teams that you are the primary contact for
 c) The BEST phone number to use if we need to contact you (multiple numbers are OK)
 d) The BEST email address to use, if different than the one I've got
3) If someone else is the primary contact for your team, please forward this email to them and ask them to reply to me immediately.

I will be sending out many more emails over the the coming months. It is important that you check your email frequently and always reply promptly. If you cannot do this, please find someone else to be the primary contact for your team.

The first team to reply to this email address will receive three free discs.

If I do not receive a reply from you by Wednesday, 2/25, I will assume you no longer wish to attend the tournament and I will remove you from the list.

I will be out of the country for two weeks starting this Thursday. While I am traveling I will not be able to reply to email very quickly, if at all.


- Josh





Girls Division:

Selected Girls Teams:
Beacon    NY
Columbia    NJ
Greenfield    MA
Longmeadow    MA
New England Pickup    Many
Northfield Mount Hermon    MA
PVPA    MA
St. Johnsbury Academy V    VT
Watchung    NJ

Confirmed when payment is submitted:
Miss Porters    CT
Sherbrooke    QC


Open Division:

Selected Open Teams:
Bridgewater-Raynham    MA
Champlain Valley Union    VT
Columbia B    NJ
Compass    VT
Concord-Carlisle    MA
Lexington    MA
Lincoln Sudbury    MA
Longmeadow A    MA
Longmeadow B    MA
Northampton    MA
PVPA    MA
St. Johnsbury Academy JV    VT
St. Johnsbury Academy V    VT
Vermont Commons    VT
Watchung    NJ

Confirmed when payment is submitted:
Amherst JVA    MA
Belmont    MA
Greely    ME
Newton South    MA
Rockport    MA
Sherbrooke    QC
Spaulding    VT


NEPSUL Division:

Selected NEPSUL Teams:
Milton    MA

Confirmed once payment is submitted:
Chase Collegiate    CT
Hotchkiss    CT
Northfield Mount Hermon    MA

************************************************* 

I am happy to announce that the date for the 2009 St. Johnsbury Academy Invitational has been set and bids are now being accepted! 

The tournament will take place on May 16th and 17th at St. Johnsbury Academy and Lyndon Institute. There will be 16 girls teams and 24 open teams. The tournament will be UPA sanctioned, cost $325, and all teams will be guaranteed at least 6 games. There will be a dinner/dance/trade night on Saturday evening, lots of gear for sale, and lined fields.

For complete tournament information, see the menu to the left.