It is with mixed feelings that we announce Sam Lee’s departure from the Ottawa-Carleton Ultimate Association.

Sam began her role with OCUA in 2016 as the Program Officer, and then eventually expanded her position to Marketing and League Operations. In her time with OCUA, Sam was the first contact for the membership, a team lead for the League Coordinators and Youth & Junior Convenors, she helped expand the youth programming and assisted with launching new adult league opportunities. Sam also managed OCUA’s website, social media and marketing initiatives, having creative fun with the association’s online presence through amusing memes and thoughtful posts that put a spotlight on the membership and its hardworking volunteers.

Good luck with your new adventure at the Canadian Physiotherapy Association, we look forward to still seeing you on the fields as a player and volunteer!

It’s a new year and a new decade, and OCUA is excited to announce a new gender ratio to keep up with the times!

Starting summer 2020, OCUA will be implementing a big change across all 7v7 coed leagues. OCUA will be using a new gender ratio (we are calling it Ratio O) to give men and women equal representation on the field. Ratio O evolved out of the gender ratio pilots we ran last fall in 2019, and means that the minimum number of women required on the field will switch each point, between 3 women required on the field and 4 women required on the field. The rest of the seven spots will be filled by players using the open gender category.

Essentially, this means a team who likes to have two full lines of players would now build a roster with 7 women players and 7 open players (at OCUA, these are typically men, but don’t have to be – read more about gender designations and play time here), as opposed to 6 women players and 8 open players in previous summers.

Like any big change, we know the transition may be uncomfortable for some teams. We acknowledge some teams are going to have to decide what to do with their “extra” open player and may wish to recruit more women. However, we love that OCUA’s and broader Ultimate’s roots are in mixed Ultimate, and we think creating equal space for women on the field is an important step to facilitating gender equity and facilitating a better experience for all our members. We have thought about this a lot, ran pilots and 3:3 leagues, and feel strongly this is the right thing to do.

We know you may have a lot of questions about this, and that it may impact the teams choose to structure their teams, so we developed an FAQ document and some resources for those looking to adjust their teams this year.