High School State Championships

[Mike Richard]

Hello all,

***Please forward this to ALL coaches that will be working with your team(s) this weekend!***

Some reminders before the tournament info...

1) Finish rostering players on USAU by EOD tomorrow, Wednesday the 6th.

2) Pre-States Coaches Meeting - Thursday 7:30pm on Zoom - Please have at LEAST one coach present for the meeting, though the more the merrier! 

Meeting Link - Meeting ID: 508 599 3981 - Passcode: 874517

High School State Championships

Details

When - May 9th-10th

Where - Long Lake Regional Park Arvada

Spreadsheet Schedule

USAU Schedule - Will be updated soon

Tournament Director

Mike Richard - 720-917-4139

Tournament GroupMe

Please join the tournament GroupMe at this link. We'll use it to communicate any changes needed or other info during the tournament.

Captains Meeting

Short Captains Meeting at 8:30 at tournament central. Coaches welcome to come listen in, but Captains are required to come! For teams with first roud byes, please have Captains come check in with Mike at TC upon arrival.

Game Score Reporting

Please report your game scores via the USAU app! If the app gives you trouble, go to TC to report them or post them in the GroupMe (Team X 13, Team Y 11).

Spirit Score Reporting

Report Spirit Scores via this Google Form Link. 0-4 with 2 being average. You should be talking with your players about the Spirit Score (or delegating to a Spirit Captain). Remember, 0s and 4s are extreme cases and should include an explanation in the comments section.

MVP/All-State Voting

We are trying something a little different this year in place of the All-State Voting. Each team will nominate a MVP from their team! Each team will also have the chance to nominate another team's coaching group for best opponent coaches. This will be done via the Spirit Score Reporting Form after the last round on Saturday.

Trainers

We will have a trainer at Tournament Central to help deal with any injuries that come up. MOST injured players should report to tournament central to see the trainer. Minor injuries like rolled ankles etc. should come to TC. That way the trainer can be found more easily if there are other injuries. IF there is a serious injury on your field, you can come over to get the trainer and/or message the tournament GroupMe.

Food

There will not be tournament specific food. There will be some stuff (bars, other snacks) at TC in case anyone has players that need a quick something, but this should not be relied upon for a full meal by players.

Restrooms

Primary restrooms are located near the field parking entrance at the marked spot on the field map. These are "running water" permanent building restrooms. There may be some portas around as well.

Water

There will be water stations near each field or set of fields per usual.

That is all for now, thanks!

--

Mike Richard

Operations Manager

(720) 917-4139

[Mike Richard]

Hello all,

Just a quick couple of additional notes... Don't forget to pass along all this tournament information to all your coaching staff!

 - Slight change to the game order of Pool C in D1 on Saturday. It has been updated in both the spreadsheet schedule and on the USAU schedule. The last 3 rounds changed order, be sure to check to know when your bye is if you're in Pool C.

 - Merchandise for sale - We will have some great tournament merchandise for sale at Tournament Central. We worked with VC for this event.

 - Photography - UltiPhotos will be providing Official Tournament Photography all weekend! Nightly highlights will be posted on UltiPhotos here: ultiphotos.com/usau/hs/states/co/2026  with full coverage to follow shortly afterwards. Like and follow UltiPhotos on Instagram and Facebook for coverage updates. Also, you can follow the photographer(s) on Instagram (@mbvpixels) for teasers and updates.

[Mike Richard]

Hello all,

Thanks to all those that made the pre-tournament meeting last night!

This will (hopefully) be the last update I send out before the weekend. A few of these items came up at the meeting. Thank you to those who brought these questions forward!

Tournament Packet - this is a link to a google doc with all the info shared on the tournament thus far, including the pertinent updates below. Please be sure all coaches involved with your teams are provided with this information!

Horns

Saturday - 1 blast for Open D1 & D2, 2 blasts for Girls D1 

Sunday - 1 blast for for all divisions, except D1 consolation 2 blasts for those games

Horns will be sounded for Soft caps and Hards caps only, please keep track of time to start games and for the halftime cap.

Facility

I have been made aware that tree limb drop off is scheduled this weekend at Long Lake. It starts at 8am. Shouldn't affect us at all other than a little more traffic in the park. They asked that I stress to park in designated spots only, no parking along the road!

Spirit timeouts

We talked about Spirit timeouts at the meeting last night. These are totally available to use if coaches feel a game is becoming unspirited. Here are the Game Time Cap Rules associated with Spirit timeouts - "For spirit timeouts lasting five minutes or less, the time taken for a spirit timeout will automatically be added to the length of the game time to determine time caps for the game. After the initial five minutes, although spirit captains may always agree to extend a spirit timeout, event organizers may limit the time that can be added to the length of games." So essentially, you can add up to 5 mins to both the soft and hard caps of the game if you have a spirit timeout. For this you would have to monitor time yourselves. If you are seeking to add more than 5 mins, check with me first.

Field Safety

Things can get crowded along the sidelines which can pose a significant safety concern. Please be sure that your players, families, spectators, etc are set up well off of the sideline. Any stationary objects (tents, coolers, tables, chairs, etc) should be 3 yards away from sidelines. I know this can be tough to do sometimes. Depending on the final facility layout/lines, there may be sidelines that are not appropriate to have gear or tents on. Please help keep the sidelines safe with your groups as I am only one person! We will be putting up pennant flags along the ground around the finals fields. No one should be past these flagged lines during gameplay.

Trophies

The Trophies have been delivered and are undergoing final inspection. See you all out there this weekend!

[Mike Richard]

I of course jinxed myself in the last email when I said that it was hopefully the last update...

Game Round/Times changes to note

In order to better align with USAU youth guidelines for game times, we are shortening the rounds a bit for various games in order to have 30 mins between hard cap and the next round, which is the USAU standard for youth play. This will apply to the longer games on Sunday and all the longer girls games, but will not affect Open pool play games.

This has changed the caps for Open D1 & D2 bracket play, as well as all the Girls D1 games. The changes to the game rules have been updated on the schedule. We are however leaving the Finals Games as they originally were. Note that they have their specific game rules now listed by the Finals games on the schedule.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Coaches Appreciation

Also forgot to mention Coaches Appreciation! With the weather forecast looking quite warm now, we will have cold drinks for coaches at tournament central. Come on by in between games, or whenever, to grab a cold gatorade, ice tea, bubbly water, etc. As always, thanks for coaching!

[Mike Richard]

Day one in the books!

Some reminders/notes as we head into Sunday...

1) Score Reporting - please keep reporting scores via the USAU app, and/or send them to me in the GroupMe after games. We can definitely do better with this!

2) Spirit Score Reporting - 85 out of 110 Spirit Scores Reported. Not bad! Let's do even better tomorrow. Getting them in on time tomorrow is especially important so we can figure out spirit winners right at the end to award trophies.

3) Sidelines - Lets see if we can push people back a little more! In general, it looked like gear and such was well back, but the sidelines still looked a bit crowded. The three finals field will have some "player lines," either flag pennants or porta field lines, marking off some sideline space. No one should be past these lines during gameplay!

4) Cones - When I was leaving there were some very strong winds. Cones all over the place. I will try to set back as many as I can, but if you/players get there before me, great! But send me a message in the GroupMe if your field has any cones missing.

I think that is about it, see you all tomorrow!

[Mike Richard]

Hello all,

Thanks for a great weekend of Ultimate! I am working on some wrap up stuff for the tournament and could use a little help...

1) Games Scores - there are a few missing game scores still (mostly the last round and consolation). Can someone either email me the score or put in for the following games.

• Girls East vs Compass (pool play)
• ALL 3 final girls games for placement
• D2 Open Fort Collins B vs Monarch B
• D2 finals Arapahoe vs East B
• D1 Open 3rd place Northfield vs Fairview
• D1 consolation CA vs Foco, CA vs Pueblo, Boulder vs Foco, Ca vs New vista

2) Spirit Scores - if anyone has Spirit scores written down that did not get entered in yet, you have until this evening when I will be doing the final sorting of the scores to share out.

Thanks all! 

[Mike Richard]

Hello all,

Sorry this took a bit of time, but here are the Spirit Scores from the State Championships.

2026 Spring HS State Championships Spirit Scores

Congrats to the following teams for winning the Spirit Trophy in their Division!

Girls - Artemis 

Open D2 - Northfield B

Open D1 - Lafayette A

We are also still compiling/collecting MVP submissions and best coaching group nominations. If any of the following teams have a submission from their team for a MVP, or a best opposing coaching group, please email me ASAP so we can get recognition out to those people!

Arapahoe, Fairview B, Northfield B, Air Academy, Northfield A, Pueblo, Boulder (Open), New Vista, East (Girls)