Red Circus

2010 Season Overview

The Halifax open ultimate program consists of two teams. Red Circus is the elite level touring team, and Blue Carnival is the developmental touring team. The commitments required vary between the teams.

Red Circus practices twice per week (Sunday and Wednesday night) from May to October and will have the occasional Thursday fitness session. Red Circus will travel to five tournaments this season, with a potential for a sixth depending on interest.

Blue Carnival will practice once a week from May to October and will travel to three tournaments.

A more detailed description of the commitment required for the two teams is outlined below.

Aside from practice and tournament requirements, our expectations for all players in the program include a willingness to work hard at practice and individually to bring their play to a higher level, and a positive and supportive attitude towards their teammates.

There is the potential for movement between teams. Players who start the season on Blue Carnival may play with Red Circus at some point in the summer, and players who start the season on Red Circus may be asked to play with Blue Carnival at points during the season.

Last year, Red Circus proved that they can compete with some of the best teams in Canada while Blue Carnival established themselves as a legitimate developmental team, traveling to three tournaments and sending a number of players up to Red Circus.

The goal this season is for Red Circus to continue their path to becoming a top five team in Canada by finishing in the top 4 at Ottawa and the top 8 at Nationals.

The goal for Blue Carnival is to continue to establish themselves as a competitive touring team, with a more consistent core of players and stronger tournament attendance.

Tryout Dates

The tryout dates are as follows:

April 25, 8-10:00pm at the SMU Turf

April 27, 8-10:30pm at the Burnside Commons

May 2, 8-10:00pm at the SMU Turf

May 4, 8-10:30pm at the Burnside Commons

May 8/9 RC Tryout Tournament at the Wolfville Dyke fields (time TBD)

If you are unable to attend any of the four tryouts, please let the captains know. If you are unable to make the RC Tryout Tournament, attendance at the first four tryouts is mandatory.

A tryout fee of $20 will be collected at the first tryout date which will guarantee two tryout sessions. A further fee of $5 per night will be collected for the remaining tryouts (not including the Wolfville tournament) to cover field costs.

Practice Attendance Policy

This is the practice attendance policy that was implemented last year for the open competitive program, and is what will be expected for this season.

a) You are expected to attend 5 out of every 6 practices. That is if you miss a practice you have to be at the next 5 practices before you can miss another one. This works out to an attendance of 5 practices over a 3 week period for RC and 5 practices over a 6 week period for BC.

b) You have 4 floaters that are practices that you can miss whenever you want. You can use these for emergencies or to take two weeks off (trips, etc.) for instance.

c) Failure to meet the attendance policy will result in a chat with the captains, followed by a potential move to Blue Carnival. A player from Blue Carnival would be asked to replace the relegated player. There is the possibility of a return to Red Circus if attendance improves.

d) Extraneous circumstances will be dealt on a case by case basis. Continued valid excuses (travel for work is causing me to miss 40% of practices) does not necessarily mean that action won't be taken. Practice attendance allows the team to improve and when people miss practice, not only do they fail to improve but reduced numbers also restricts what the remaining players in attendance are able to do.

f) As a team it will be our goal this season to maintain an attendance of 85%.

g)If you are injured you are still expected to meet this attendance.

The thinking behind this policy is that attendance is one of the things that we have control over and an increase in attendance is one of the easiest things we can do to improve as a team. So we are going to be upfront about what we expect so you can know right from the start the kind of commitment we want. We also see this as a commitment to building a successful program over the long term. We want to build the proper foundation now so that attendance is not an issue in the future.

Tournament Schedule and Tournament Attendance Policy

Tournament schedule for RC

These are going to be the main RC tournaments. We would like everyone on RC to commit to at least 4 of these.

1. Boston Invite – June 26/27

2. Ottawa No Borders – July 17/18

3. Canadian Nationals – August 12-15

4. Sectionals (Mid to end September)

5. Regionals (October 9/10)

We are trying to gauge interest.

1. RC Tournament in New Brunswick – May 29

Tournament schedule for BC

These are the BC tournaments. We would like everyone on BC to commit to at least 1 of these.

1. RC Tournament in Acadia – May 8/9

2. Jazz Fest in Montreal (Early July)

3. Sectionals (Mid to end September)