Red Circus

2011 Season Overview

The Red Circus Ultimate Club consists of two teams: Red Circus (RC), an elite-level touring team, and Blue Carnival (BC), a developmental touring team. The commitments required vary between the teams.

RC practices twice per week (Sunday and Wednesday night) from May to October and will have the occasional Thursday fitness session. They will travel to 6-7 tournaments this season.

BC is set to join with RC on Wednesday nights for combined club practices. They are also encouraged to participate in RC fitness sessions. BC is currently scheduled to attend 3-4 tournaments this season including CUC 2011 in Ottawa.

Aside from practice and tournament requirements, our expectations for all players in the club 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 BC may play with RC at some point in the summer, and players who start the season on RC may be asked to play with BC at points during the season.

The primary goal this season is for RC to continue their path to becoming a top 5 team in Canada by finishing in the top 4 at No Borders and the top 8 at Nationals.

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

Tryout Dates & Registration

The tryout dates are as follows:

• Sunday, May 1, 8pm-10pm (SMU Turf)
• Wednesday, May 4, 8pm-10pm (Burnside Commons)
• Sunday, May 8, 8pm-10pm (SMU Turf) - CLOSED/INVITE-ONLY
• Wednesday, May 11, 8pm-10pm (Burnside Commons)
• RC Invitational (Wolfville, NS), Weekend of May 14-15

The 3rd tryout will be closed/invite-only so the captains can get a better look at those players who are on the cusp of making RC to start the year. The 4th tryout will bring everyone out again one last time before the RC tournament that weekend. It is possible for a player who wasn't invited to the 3rd tryout to elevate their game in the 4th tryout and at the tournament and make RC.

If you are unable to attend any of the four tryouts, please let the captains know (rcultimate@gmail.com). If you are unable to make the RC Invitational tryout tournament, attendance at the first four tryouts is mandatory.

A tryout fee of $30 will be collected at the first tryout date which will guarantee three tryout sessions. A further fee of $10 will be incurred for those players attending the closed/invite-only session. These fees cover the turf rental costs. RC Invitational tournament fees are yet to be determined.

Fill out the tryout form to register for tryouts

Practice Attendance Policy

This is the practice attendance policy that was in effect last year and is what will be expected for this season as well.

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 BC. A player from BC would be asked to replace the relegated player. There is the possibility of a return to RC 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 Attendance Policy

RC players are expected to commit to a minimum of 4 tournaments with CUC attendance being mandatory, while BC players are expected to commit to at least 2 tournaments.

RC Tournament Schedule

1. RC Invitational (Wolfville, NS) – May 14/15
2. Boston Invite (Boston, MA) – June 25/26
3. No Borders (Ottawa, ON) – July 16/17
4. *CUC Qualifier Regionals (Atlantic Canada) – July
5. CUC 2011 (Ottawa, ON) – August 11-14
6. UPA Sectionals (probably Brunswick, MA) - mid to late September
7. UPA Regionals - October 9/10

BC Tournament Schedule

1. RC Invitational (Wolfville, NS) – May 14/15
2. Jazz Fest (Montreal, QC) - July 2/3
3. *CUC Qualifier Regionals (Atlantic Canada) – July
4. CUC 2011 (Ottawa, ON) – August 11-14
5. UPA Sectionals (probably Brunswick, Maine) - mid to late September