Not a Soccer Mom - I'm an Ultimate Mom

This Fall, my second season in league, will be quite interesting w/ the weather changes possibly interfering. Looking forward to it though. I have my new set of Ulti-cards to use and awesome teammates to learn from. I've been constantly thinking about how to promote this brilliant sport, I drew/traced this photo (from Everything Ultimate). Graphic below. Brodie, if you want one for yourself, send me an awesome pic via e-mail (julia.holly@gmail.com). For anyone else interested, I'm not doing it for free ;)

Photo taken by Unknown. Will someone tell me who this player is?

Yes, I'm an Ultimate fan. I recently started to play real Ultimate this year. I say real Ultimate because the rules (USAU standards) apply in Tallahassee Ultimate League. I frequently played pick-up during and post college years in Cali.

Eight years passed, one hubby and 3 kids later I'm thinking, why didn't I get into it more when I was younger? Why didn't I hear or learn anything about this sport during high school or junior high? My mother did what she knew to do, put me into softball little leagues...gymnastics. My father taught me golf. And P.E. had intramural basketball, volleyball, track & field, baseball. But my favorite sport? Ultimate.

This past summer, I joined league for the first time and I learned so much. There are great people in this community, willing to teach and practice with anyone remotely interested. Random pick-up games throughout the city practically every single night. You're going to need that base since there are so many confusing terminologies to process.

How is it that my hometown, S.F. Bay Area has some of the best club teams (Revolver & Fury)  in the nation and I didn't know this game existed until I moved to SoCal. What's up with that P.E. teachers? I guess the game has gained popularity in recent years, now that it has a professional league (AUDL).

However, to my surprise it is yet to be a household sport here in Tallahassee. My plan along w/ Tallahassee Ultimate League's board (TUL) is to promote this game until everyone knows what you're talking about when you say, "Ultimate." Okay, that's a little ambitious, maybe not everyone but at least in this Athletic community or sports enthusiasts alike, who are traditionally supportive of football, baseball, soccer, and some others like kickball(?), disc golf(?), and other things I wonder why.

Why, as an Athletic community, wouldn't you participate in the fastest growing modern-day sport in the world? The rest of the country, Northwest, Midwest, and Northeast, have a reputation of strong junior leagues. There are talks about making this sport, a real team sport, an official Olympic game in 2016.

I have high hopes that my children will grow up playing this. I am not going to be just a soccer mom. I'm going to be an Ultimate Mom. But, will there be a jr. league ready for my kids' generation? While I wait for my little ones to get old enough to start running around, I will promote the sport. My daughter, at 5, can already throw. Watch out folks.

If you'd like to help me and TUL develop a youth league or to support us, email me. As for the ultimate players checking this out, if you'd like, I can draw your photo similar to the image above and donate a percentage of the proceeds to TUL.