Deep Look: League Decline?, PUL Season, HSNI Preview & Picks
Join Charlie Eisenhood and Uultimate World senior editor Keith Raynor on their weekly radio show as they dive into the latest topics in ultimate frisbee. In this episode, they tackle a pressing concern: the seemingly widespread decline of league play. Keith shares his observations from the New Haven and Connecticut scene, where he notes a decrease in team sizes and attendance numbers. Charlie shares his own experience playing summer league, highlighting the lack of younger players on his recent team and the difficulties he faced with opponents' reduced rosters. The duo also discusses the upcoming High School National Invitation (HSNI) tournament and share their picks for the event. With a mix of personal anecdotes, industry insights, and expert analysis, this episode offers a unique perspective on the state of ultimate frisbee and its future prospects.
Expert analysis of Pro Ultimate League season, High School National Invite & more. Top picks, must-see matchups featuring [player names].
Watch on YouTubeVideo Transcript
welcome to deep look multi worlds weekly radio show by the current state of ultimate i'm the host and the editor of ulti world charlie eisenhood joining me is ulti world senior editor keith raynor and uh we're we're going to start today's show keith with uh sort of an uncomfortable unpleasant topic but something that i've been thinking about a lot and has come into uh obvious relief lately and that is a seemingly widespread shrinking of league play so keith i want to ask you first up in new haven and connecticut how are things looking for summer league right now uh i assume you're playing again uh and how are the numbers looking this year uh so i just had my first night of league last night i'm i'm feeling it i'm old and every time i'm out there you know there's all these young people there's probably if there's certainly a few older people but like man i think about like i used to be the young person on the team like i remember the days but it was really you know obviously you know 15 years ago or whatever that was but anyway uh i i told you this just julia echterhoff was on my first summer league team now uh wow julie actor awfully show my first summer league team the wolf pack now uh arleigh certainly has decreased in size we have fewer teams than we did last year when my team won the title uh so i you know but i don't know what to expect from attendance we actually had a pretty good turnout like most of the players on my team were there but my opposing team our opponents had uh one of the seven women matching players on their team show up until like sometime after half time uh so they forfeited and we played anyway we played five two or something gave them a player and played five two but you know that that is anecdotal obviously that happens even in a robust normal summer league schedule uh i find it's a little less likely on week one typically and it's a little bit of a red flag in the context the greater context of there are fewer participants so uh with with decreased leak sizes which is what we're hearing from pretty much everybody i've talked to...
