Join Our Ultimate Home at PVI for an engaging discussion on how we can truly celebrate our differences as a community.

We’ll connect authentically and vulnerably through interactive activities. Our conversation will allow us to create a new context for inclusivity as a group.

Together, we can strive to create space for all voices in the ultimate community. When all voices feel heard and valued, our community will feel like home to anyone and everyone.

Find us at Tournament Central at 3:45 on Saturday!

The big thing: Know the tournament schedule and program! Know where your team needs to be at what time. Understand how the schedule works. Understand how the event works.

Some important items:

1. Be careful on Island Road. Drive slow. Only park at the fields. Minimize trips to and from the fields.
2. Please know the schedule.
3. Please know the program.
4. Start and cap your games on time.
   1. No softcaps
   2. 1 horn = game start
   3. 2 horn blasts = hard cap
   4. Text in your scores to Karin at 617-797-5627.
5. All games must be played except the Saturday crossover games. Crossover games can be skipped if BOTH teams agree AND they get permission from Josh.
6. Please set alarms on your phones for hard cap. We’ll do our best to cover the fields with horns, but it’s a big place…
7. No dangerous plays, spiking, poor language, or bad behavior. At all. Just don’t. I will eject your entire team.
8. Bring full water bottle each day. We’ll have water towers all over the place, but anything you can do to help would be appreciated.
9. Saturday night social @ NHS: Fun, bring your dinner tickets!
10. Even if you’re not going to have dinner at the social event at NHS, come on by! It’s going to be lots of fun.
11. Weather: 5 horn blasts = get to your cars, wait for call/5 horn blasts. Text/@PVInvite/Email will be sent out with updates.
12. Keep sidelines clear. Nothing, at all, within 3 feet of any sideline. All hard objects — tents, chairs, must be at least 7 yards from any sideline. That means most chairs and tents will need to be out the back of endzones.
13. This year, we are banning all disposable plastic water bottles, Gatorade bottles, and single-serve cups. This is a BYOB (Bring Your Own Bottle) event.
14. Opponent late? Assess a point for every 3 minutes they are late.
15. Showers open up tonight at 4:30pm at Northampton HS AND JFK Middle School. Do NOT show up before then. If you are done before 5 today, please go to JFK to showers.
16. A chaperone must be with your team at ALL times. You cannot leave your team unattended at any tournament location or event.
17. In order to get your $100 check back, you must report all of your game and spirit scores and return your team box.
18. Please drive carefully on Island road! 15mph at the most!
19. Thank you sponsors: VC, Walmart, Henshaw Farms, Spikeball, KanJam, Friction Gloves, The Black Sheep, Hucket Bucket, Northampton HS Athletics, and most importantly the Oxbow Marina.
20. Please make sure you promptly report your game and spirit scores after each round to Karin at 617-797-5627.
21. The next PVI will take place on May 16th and 17th, 2020.

Food provided at the tournament contains peanuts and other common allergens.

If anyone in your group has food allergies, please notify us in advance so that we can make requested accommodations for team boxes. Contact Christine at cmgandrews@gmail.com.

We will set aside food items that will be accessible to players who are avoiding cross-contamination with peanuts away from tourney central.

We’ll also have hand-washing facilities at this location.

Please remember that you cannot shower at your host’s home. There are two places you can shower on Saturday night from 4:30 to 7:30pm:

JFK Middle School, located at 100 Bridge Rd, Florence, MA 01062. Please shower here if your last game on Saturday ends before 5pm.

Specific instructions for JFK:

Park to the left of the building, next to the tennis courts. Enter through the back door(aquatic center). Tell the person at the window you are from PVI. Turn left in the hallway. The showers are right there.

Northampton High School, located at 380 Elm St, Northampton, MA 01060. Please shower here if your last game on Saturday ends after 5pm.

Please remember that all teams must have a chaperone with them at every tournament event and location.

PVI IS BECOMING ULTIMATELY MORE SUSTAINABLE.  EACH PLAYER AND TEAM HAS A ROLE TO PLAY!

REFUSE: single use drink bottles and plastic drink cups

REDUCE: amount of garbage hitting the landfill

RE-USE: food in the form of compost

RECYCLE: responsibly what can be recycled

• BRING A REUSABLE BOTTLE and ONE FOR YOUR FRIEND

• DO NOT BRING DISPOSABLE BOTTLES AND CUPS ONTO THE FIELDS

• SORT YOUR TRASH AND RECYCLING AT THE WASTE STATIONS

• FILL YOUR COMPOST BAGS WITH FOOD WASTE AND BRING TO THE WASTE STATIONS

Water and Gatorade will be provided in orange jugs on the fields. Waste disposal details will be in your team bins.                    

Thank you for your help to not “foul our world.”

The schedule has been finalized!

The program is now online!

Please make sure you read through both documents in detail.

The first draft of the tournament schedule is online here. Detailed notes about the schedule are below.

The schedule will be locked by around 6pm EST on May 14th. Word will be sent out as soon as the schedule is 100% finalized. Please look over the schedule in detail and email josh@pvinvite.org if you see any issues or have any questions.

As is the case with any 18-field, 212-game event, there could be a few glitches in the schedule. We hope not, but if you find any, please let us know immediately.

Please make absolutely sure your paperwork is perfect. As always, you can check the status of your paperwork right here.

As of 10:30pm on 5/13, the following teams have major issues the need to complete before they will be allowed to compete:

• Forest City Boys
• Forest City Girls
• Northampton JV Boys
• Somerville Boys
• Somerville Girls

All players must be rostered. Playing with an un-rostered player will result in a team’s immediate ejection.

All teams MUST have a representative at the appropriate captain’s meeting.

All teams must check in before their captain’s meeting. Here’s what will happen at check in:

• Teams will show us their medical authorization forms.
• We’ll ask you about any outstanding roster issues (Missing fees, uncleared players, missing dues, waivers, etc.) It would be GREAT if you had none of these issues at check in!
• We will collect a $100 check from you that we’ll hold as collateral until you hand in your second daily spirit score sheet. You’ll hand in one sheet at the end of games on Saturday and one at the end of games on Sunday. Checks should be made out to “Ultimate Good”. If you absolutely, 100% cannot bring a check, PayPal and Venmo options will be available at check in. Please bring a check if you can.

Saturday morning schedule

• 6:45am: Gates open up at the Oxbow. Please do not show up before 6:45am
• 6:45 to 7:25am: Check in for all teams that are playing during the 1st round
• 7:30 to 7:35am: Captain’s meeting for all teams that are playing during the 1st round
• 8:10 to 8:55am: Check in for all teams that have a 1st round bye
• 8:00am: Round 1 begins
• 9:00 to 9:05am: Captain’s meeting for all teams that have a 1st round bye
• 9:30am: Round 2 begins

Scheduling notes

• Creating perfect pre-event rankings is essentially impossible. That being said, we tried.
• With this schedule ALL teams have a chance to win Division 1.
• All teams play at least 6 games.
• Teams play very few, if any, back to back games all weekend.
• We did our best to minimize distance teams need to travel between games.
• We thought we’d be able to eliminate the need for crossover games on Saturday. It turns out it wasn’t possible.

All games will be played at the Oxbow Marina fields in Northampton, MA.

SUPER IMPORTANT NOTE: There is ONE road (Island Pond Rd) leading into the Oxbow. You MUST drive VERY slowly — 15mph max — on the road and be super mindful of the narrow road and everything near its edges. If you don’t drive SUPER chill on the road, you and your entire team will be immediately ejected from the PVI and not invited back next year.

Please join the tournament text group by texting @pvi2019 to 81010. It’s very important that at least one person from every team joins the group.

Please make sure you enter in as many games as you can into scorereport.net. Please take a few minutes to do this right now. It’s crucial for us to be able to accurately pre-rank PVI teams, and this site generates great rankings… as long as it has lots of data!

Here’s what’s set about the schedule so far:

On Saturday, 5/18:

• Round 1 starts at 8:00am. Round 7 ends at 6:30pm.
• Everyone will start their first game at 8am OR 9:30am.
• All teams will play 3 or 4 games.
• ~1/3 of teams will end play at 3:10, ~1/3 at 4:40pm, and ~1/3 at 6:30pm.
• The dinner/dance/social will run from ~5pm to ~9:30pm at Northampton HS.

On Sunday, 5/19:

• Round 8 starts at 8:00am. Round 13 ends at 4:40pm.
• Everyone will start their first game at 8am OR 9:30am depending how they do on Saturday.
• All teams will play 3 games.
• ~1/2 of teams will end play at 3:10pm and ~1/2 at 4:40pm.

Here’s the current draft of how the games will be run. THIS IS NOT SET YET.

Please email josh@pvinvite.org if you have questions or comments.

Girls Division (28 teams)

• Teams 1 – 4 will be in a power pool.
  • Each of these teams goes to the quarters after pool play.
  • Pool play will determine ranking for Division 1 bracket play.
• Teams 5 – 20 will be divided into 4 pools of 4.
  • The winners of each of these 4 pools will play in the quarters with the 4 teams that started in the power pool.
  • Teams that finish 2nd or 3rd in pool play will be in the Division II champs bracket.
  • Teams that finish 4th in their pool will play in the Division III champs bracket.
• Teams 21 – 28 will be divided into two pools of 4.
  • Teams that finished 1st or 2nd in pool play will be in the Division III champs bracket.
  • Teams that finished 3rd or 4th in pool play will play in a consolation pool.

Boys Division (37 teams)

• Teams 1 – 16 will be in 4 pools of four.
  • Teams that finish 1st or 2nd in their pool will play in the Div I champs bracket.
  • Teams that finished 3rd or 4th in their pool will play in the 9th through 16th place bracket.

• Teams 17 – 32 will be in four pools of four.
  • Teams that finish 1st or 2nd in their pool will play in the Division II champs bracket.
  • Teams that finished 3rd in the pool will play in the Division III champs bracket.
  • Teams that finish 4th in their pool will play in a consolation pool of 5.

• Teams 33 through 37 will be in a pool of 5.
  • Teams that finish 1st through 4th will play in the Division III champs bracket.
  • The team that finishes 5th will play in a consolation pool of 5 with the 4 teams that finished 4th in their pools from the 17-32 pools.

Schedule notes

• There are no last round cross over games on Saturday like there have been in past years.
• All teams except for 4 boys teams will play 6 games.
• Any girls team that starts ranked…
  • … in the top 20 could win the Division I bracket.
  • … 5 through 20 could win any division.
  • … 21 through 28 could win the Division III bracket.
• Any boys team that starts ranked…
  • … in the top 16 could win the Division I bracket.
  • … 17 through 32 could win the Division II or Division III bracket.
  • … 33 through 37 could win the Division III bracket.

Here is the initial ranking. Email josh@pvinvite.org by Monday, 5/13 @ 3pm if you have any suggested changes.

Click here to view the current state of the initial rankings.

1. Initial rankings were primarily based on how teams finished last year.
2. If you think a change should be made to the rankings, please let Josh know why — with as much detail as possible — and what you think the ranking change should be.

We’re less than 2 weeks away from the big event! Wow!

Here’s where we stand:

On the Saturday night event we’re showing an extended clip of The Sky is Red AND hosting a Premier Ultimate League watch party with killer PUL schwag! Also, Our Ultimate Home will be running an equity, diversity, and inclusion in ultimate discussion on Saturday!

We’re thrilled to announce that VC Ultimate will be this year’s tourney gear vendor! A full range of AMAZING tourney gear will be on sale all weekend. It’s bound to sell out VERY fast! It’s crazy cool 🙂

Please make sure your paperwork is perfect. Not sure of where you stand or what you owe? Head on over to the Team Status page.

Please make 100% sure you bring your medical authorization forms. Your team will not be allowed to play until you have shown them to us at team check in.

Dinner checks are due in Easthampton by this Friday, 5/10. If your check doesn’t arrive by then you will not get dinner tickets. Dinner costs $12.50 per person. Checks should be made out to “Ultimate Good” and sent to Josh Seamon, PVI2019, 3 Payson Ave #1, Easthampton, MA 01027.

At this point all housing assignments have been made. If you have questions regarding housing, please send them to the housing director, Helen at helenjkahn@gmail.com.

The game schedule is in the process of being built. Have thoughts on how to run a 28-team girls tournament and a 37-team boys tournament? Send them to Josh at josh@pvinvite.org.

Please report games from your season to https://scorereport.net/. Please. The more data that goes there the easier it is for us to pre-rank teams coming into the event… and that makes everything so much better.

Please join the tournament text group by texting @pvi2019 to 81010. We’ll be using this text group to send out important tourney information during the event.

We would like to invite you to help the Pioneer Valley Invitational become a beacon of sustainability!

Last year, we generated over 8 tons of trash and recycling. Although that might not seem like a lot in the face of the 5.6 million tons of waste Massachusetts produces each year, it is still significant for our local valley.

Many of you chose to recycle and compost last year and we want to continue those efforts. In this first year of our zero-waste goal, we would like everyone to focus on reducing our plastic consumption, ditch the disposables wherever possible, and recycle the materials that can be recycled, like metal, glass, paper and aluminum. Also compost and minimize our food waste.

Americans use 1,500 single-use plastic water bottles every second and they only use them once! Then there are the disposable cups. We are encouraging all participants to bring their own reusable mugs and tumblers for to-go drinks (Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts have discounts for bringing your own mug/cup).

This year, we are banning all disposable plastic water bottles, Gatorade bottles, and single-serve cups. This is a BYOB (Bring Your Own Bottle) event. https://byobottle.org/

Please refrain from bringing packs of Poland Springs or other disposable bottles to this tournament. Every team is required to have reusable water bottles for each player. Please bring a couple of spare ones for your team. If players forget their water bottles, we will have metal water bottles for sale at the gear tent. We provide fill stations of safe delicious water and Gatorade around all the fields. To learn more about the myth of recycling plastic and why it’s not a solution to plastic pollution you can learn more here.

We are also holding a Spirit of the Trash Contest. Every team will be responsible for their own trash and trash bag. At the end of the tournament, the team who has produced the least amount of trash will win a Spirit of the Trash award. Please limit your consumption of single-use plastics and follow our recycling and compost instructions for anything that is not trash.

Don’t Huck. Don’t Dump. Refuse.

May the best team win!

This will be the first year of this initiative and we are excited to invite you on board. We welcome any ideas that you have. We will send further information as we get closer to the tournament, as well as posting information on our website.

We are all in this together, so let’s not Foul the World!

Sincerely,

The PVI Sustainability Committee