Why Easterns and Westerns instead of Nationals?
There are multiple reasons the UPA has made the decision to move to two regional championships instead of one national championship. First, a national championship for high school teams is very difficult for many teams to attend. As Ultimate makes its way into schools with fewer resources, we want our highest level of high school competition to be accessible to all schools. Easterns and Westerns will reduce travel expenses for many teams. Second, due to site limitations we have room for only 16 open and 16 girls teams in a tournament. By replacing nationals with Easterns and Westerns we are adding an additional 16 open and 16 girls spots in UPA championship tournaments. By providing more opportunities we hope to encourage growth. Third, the selection process for nationals is a difficult one. Since we cannot have qualifiers (see #2) we must rely on an application process. While it is difficult to choose the 16 most qualified teams from applications, it is the best process that is availa
