HUGE UPDATE – Summer League Registration Now Open

WODS is pleased to announce that a huge milestone has been accomplished - thanks to the efforts of your Board of Directors, with particular effort from Steve Chris, Duane Chris and Yaacov Iland, WODS has secured dedicated ultimate fields at Kiwanis Park in Kitchener! This exciting initiative provides WODS with a number of key new advantages:

• Five dedicated, full-size, lined ultimate fields - view fields
• A single, relatively central location - no more checking the map before games and traveling to all corners of the K-W area to find fields!
• Multiple fields at one single location, with up to ten teams playing together simultaneously!
• Washroom, changeroom and swimming pool facilities on site!

Therefore, the summer league will be run in a different manner this year. Instead of all teams playing on one night, we are going to run three nights a week with each night seeing play in one of three divisions.

• Games are expected to start the week of May 19 (subject, as always, to spring field conditions) and will run for 15 weeks concluding the week of August 25.
• Games will run from 6:30 - 8:30 (or until dark).
• The Tier 1 Division will play on Tuesday nights. Teams in this division should be made up of players who are rated approximately 6-10 by the LeagueRunner rating system (this is a general guideline, not a rule). These teams will be competitive with the focus of the game being on high caliber ultimate while maintaining the Spirit of the Game (SOTG).
• The Tier 2 Division will play on Wednesday nights. These teams should be made primarily of players who are ranked between 3 and 7 using the LeagueRunner rating system. These teams will play skilled ultimate in a less competitive environment with significant focus on the SOTG.
• Thursday night will serve the Tier 3 Division. These teams should be made up of players who rank 1-5 on the LeagueRunner rating system and whose focus is on spirit and learning the rules and basic strategies. It is hoped that if a spirit team requests a coach, players with more experience will be able to spend some time with the team at the beginning of the season (or for the entire season) and help to mentor the team.

Players should feel free to play on multiple teams on different nights if they so wish. We also anticipate that this will make it easier for teams to find substitute players from time to time, with the ability to draw from two other divisions that are not playing on a particular night.

COSTS:

Team fees will be $675 this year. Assuming a team has 14-15 players, this works out to about $45 per player for the season, or about $3 per game. We recognize that this is an increase over previous years. But this increase reflects the new field facility and also includes a number of other new benefits. Each team will be provided with a WODS disc for each registered player (up to 15). Also, in a special arrangement with the City of Kitchener, the team fee also includes a ‘twilight pass' to Kiwanis Park for every player. The twilight pass can be used any weeknight between 5-9pm to use the facilities at the park. This includes the washrooms, change rooms, showers, swimming pool, volleyball courts, horseshoe pits, etc. Please note that the pass can be used to gain access to the park on weeknight evenings that you aren't playing ultimate.

Members who attended our Annual General Meeting in December indicated a nearly unanimous willingness to accommodate higher playing fees in exchange for improved facilities and an investment into WODS' future development. The Board of Directors believes strongly that this new initiative is in line with those goals. We also note that WODS fees remain lower than those of many of our neighbouring organizations (Ottawa, Toronto, etc.)

REGISTRATION:

Team Captains can register their team using the form below. We have the capacity to have ten teams playing each night. Teams can guarantee their spot by completing the registration form and sending a cheque for their team's fee ($675) to:

Waterloo Organization of Disc Sports
468 Albert Street
PO Box 28008
Waterloo, Ontario, N2L 6J8

NOTE: Make cheques payable to "Waterloo Organization of Disc Sports"

Teams who do not pay their fees by April 25th will lose their spot in the league and teams from the waiting list will be invited to join.

FIELD QUALITY:

The fields will be regulation size and they will be lined by the City on a regular basis. It will be nice not having to worry about running into soccer posts or having to squeeze two fields into one area. No small end zones this summer!

The location of the fields is currently an open area. It is estimated that these fields are in similar condition to most of the City fields that we have rented in the past. But members should recognize that these fields have not been used as sports fields previously, though some WODS groups have played/practiced there in the past. The fields will require some remediation, including top dressing, seeding and watering to begin the season. The City of Kitchener staff is committed to maintaining these facilities and has indicated that it is their intention to work to improve the quality of the fields throughout the summer as well as in the coming years. It is anticipated that the quality of the fields will be ‘B1' by the end of this summer season. We hope that WODS members will be patient with the situation in the understanding that field conditions will improve steadily over time.

We also note that the City of Kitchener will be adding a new grass parking area adjacent to the fields that should be more than sufficient to accommodate the field needs. As usual, however, WODS strongly encourages car-pooling and use of alternative transportation.

Further, playing ultimate on these fields represents a new activity to the area that might appear foreign to some of the residents near the park. Members are encouraged, as usual, to respect this situation and do all we can to promote a positive relationship with the park and the neighbourhood.

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On behalf of WODS I'd like to say thank you to the guys for all their hard work!