UPA HS Eastern and Western Championships

In 1998 the UPA began hosting the UPA Juniors National Invitational Championship. Beginning in 2001 the UPA began restricting the composition of the teams attending this event to encourage teams to focus on building within the structure of high schools – an existing and supportive structure for youth sports.

In 2004 the event was renamed the UPA High School Championships to acknowledge the shift to single-school teams. In 2005 the event was split into two, the UPA HS Eastern Championships and the UPA HS Western Championships. As the high school division has grown, the purpose behind the event has changed. When it was initiated its primary purpose was to provide an event for the handful of organized youth teams from around the country. As more teams have developed from around the country the event has become an opportunity for the top high school teams from each state to compete against each other. Because the event occurs in May when school is in session and because it is a small event (16 open teams and up to 16 girls teams) the event was split to HS Easterns and Westerns so teams did not have to travel as far and more teams could participate. Since these events are tied to participation in UPA HS State Championships they also create an incentive to make sure that the state championships occur.

While the UPA HS Eastern and Western Championships, like the UPA HS National Championships before them, have been a great tool for growing and promoting high school level Ultimate, national and even regional level high school level competition in the long-term is not ideal. As Ultimate spreads to lower and lower-middle class schools and participants the economic feasibility of flying to tournaments will become further out of reach for many teams. In addition, since a qualifying process for these events is not desirable, the shear number of teams will make it difficult to choose the top 16 teams for these events. Finally, as the level of play within states rises so will the prestige of the HS State Championships reducing the need for these regional championship events.

As the number of UPA HS State Championships grow in order to accommodate teams from all of the states that host HS State Championships at these regional championship events the may need to add a UPA HS Central Championships. Once there is adequate competition in every state so that HS State Championships are sustainable without the regional championships all three events will be ended.

Learn more about the UPA High School Championships:

UPA High School Eastern Ultimate Championships

UPA High School Western Ultimate Championships

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

2007 Easterns and Westerns Requirements

2007 Team Composition Guidelines