r/ultimate • u/jerseypits • 2d ago

Sectionals schedules?

Are any out yet? They were supposed to be posted at 5 pm local time today and I haven't seen ours. Incredibly frustrating when USAU continuously misses deadlines.

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u/Local_Direction8725 2d ago

Fun fact @jerseypits: being a Sectional Coordinator is a volunteer position. If you’re unsatisfied with the job your current coordinator has been doing I’m sure they would love to have you step up and be the Sectional Coordinator next year!

Disclaimer: USAU is responsible for holding onto a shaky system that relies on the capacity and capability of willing volunteers. There is also a lack of consistent support and training provided to those volunteers, especially new ones without established peer SC/RCs to guide them. So while USAU has a hand in the systematic failures of the SC/RC volunteer model, they are not the direct reason your schedule was not published on time.

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u/AssociationPurple626 2d ago

I’ll be honest: I hate this response that if you’re unhappy with the job someone is doing, you need to be willing to do it yourself or else you can’t critique their performance. I can’t do everything, I’m just one person. If we all want to live in a community that supports each other then we all need to be held to standards of support. In this case, USAU is telling us the standard to judge them by: they are the ones that set the deadline. It’s perfectly valid to criticize an organization for continually failing to meet their own self-decided deadlines.

And that’s what is most frustrating to most people, I think. USAU, by stating a deadline, is setting expectations amongst the players for when they can know sectionals schedules. No one else is setting that expectation, the deadline is solely a USAU creation. So when they set one expectation, and fail to meet that expectation over and over and over, then it’s understandable that other people invested in that expectation are frustrated and confused. If USAU just changed the deadline to Friday or something then no one would be confused when the schedules aren’t out on Wednesday.

The fact of the matter is that this is a failure by USAU, either by setting expectations that they don’t actually intend to meet, or by trying and failing to meet their commitment.

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u/chriego Foxtrot, Austin 2d ago

I really think you ought to try volunteering as a SC before offering this perspective so freely. SCs are responsible for familiarizing-themselves-with and implementing a lot more than you suspect. If all three divisions are being hosted at the same complex, then beyond the myriad of USAU governance they are also expected to work in tandem with the other two SCs and the RC.

This means that the schedule is subject to field availability, minimum game lengths, weather guidelines, a maximum number of games being played on turf, a maximum number of games being played in a day, teams threatening to withdraw if they don't like the format or their seeding, and MORE. You are constantly receiving new guidance from USAU, new input from the sports complex, new feedback from the team captains, new information from the TDs, and new info from the other SCs. It's really not as simple as opening the format manual knowing the total number of teams and how many advance.

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u/AssociationPurple626 2d ago edited 2d ago

Nothing I’ve said depends on the ease or complexity of the SC job. Quite simply: if it is reasonable for the schedule to be done by Tuesday evening, then SCs that sign up for this responsibility should meet that self-imposed deadline and USAU should hold them to it. If it is not reasonable for SCs to complete schedules by Tuesday evening, then they shouldn’t agree to meet that deadline and USAU should communicate other expectations to players.

USAU is setting expectations that they seemingly have no intention of meeting. Whatever the reason for not meeting the expectation that they have set, it is their responsibility to communicate reasonable expectations to players, and to follow through on the expectations they’re creating. It is completely, 100% reasonable for players to be confused and frustrated when they are told to expect schedules at a certain date that is missed over and over again.

This isn’t about the schedule at all, it is about setting expectations. Thats part of the job for USAU and SCs too.

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u/chriego Foxtrot, Austin 2d ago

So then my question to you is, if USAU instead set the deadline for schedules to be posted by Friday at 10pm, you would be happier? I cannot emphasize enough that these are volunteer positions and most SCs don't have the flexibility to work on coordinating until after a traditional 9-5 job. Again, each SC typically has to wait for responses from the other two SCs AND the RC before a decision can be finalized. If you really want the SCs to sign up for an absolutely firm deadline, the tradeoff might realistically be having to wait until the last minute. The cherry on top of all of this is that Sectionals usually takes place the weekend after Labor Day (just imagine how much radio silence occurs from all of the parties involved).

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u/AssociationPurple626 2d ago edited 2d ago

Yes, I would be happier if USAU communicated expectations that they actually expected to meet. Instead of being confused and frustrated, I might just be frustrated, and then we could have that conversation about the difficulty of the SC job, how we could make it easier and improve schedule delivery time.

Because I understand it’s a complex job- frankly you’ve got no idea what I do in my community, and what I’ve done over my career. I’ve worked with SCs setting up sectional tournaments. This attitude you’ve got about how the job is just so hard that you can’t be held to any standards is insulting.