The USA Ultimate Youth Club Championships is an event that first premiered in August, 2005. As the USA Ultimate State HS Championships and USA Ultimate Regional Championships have moved toward more rigid guidelines requiring teams to be made up of players from a single high school, the YCC hopes to encourage a summer season of youth leagues and events for players from different schools.
The YCC takes place in early August. Leagues are invited to send teams based on applications. USA Ultimate-sanctioned Youth Club leagues receive automatic bids, while At-large teams may also receive bids based on submission of a youth club development proposal. The goal is to encourage cities and areas to host youth leagues and specifically leagues in a season outside of the current Spring HS season.
Youth club leagues can provide an opportunity for players that do not have a high school team to get involved with organized Ultimate and possibly inspire them to start a high school team. In addition, participating in leagues in which your teammates had been your opponents will foster spirit of the game and respect between teams. The YCC also gives top players that excel in both skill and spirit an opportunity to represent their city and league at a national event.
The YCC will expand as youth club leagues develop around the country. The current format is a two day tournament for three divisions (open, girls, mixed). Since it is placed in the summer, the event has the potential to expand to a four to five day festival with dozens of youth club teams in each division. USA Ultimate also hopes to expand the number of divisions to include younger age divisions. As youth Ultimate grows the USA Ultimate YCC will become the premier youth Ultimate event in the country.
The YCC will hopefully impact local youth organizations as well by creating an incentive for youth club leagues. If you are interested in participating in the YCC or would like help setting up a local league in your area please contact youth@usaultimate.org.
Archived results are available here: Youth Club Archives