This week/end (March 28-30, Fri-Sun) the best collegiate womens’ teams in the Nation will gather in Washington State for the Northwest Challenge.  Since it’s remarkably hard to figure out what’s going on (between Twitter feeds, Facebook events, and the rarely-updated DiscNW page).   Since it’s so important that parents and coaches know how to use this opportunity to inspire young players, here is a super-simple distillation of your choices…

1) Go to the showcase game in Ballard!

• Friday night 7:45-9:45pm
• Loyal Heights Playfield, 2101 NW 77th St (map)
• UW Element (National champs 2012) vs Oregon Fugue National champs 2013)!
• Raffle at half-time

2) Go see a game in-person in Seattle or Puyallup

• Friday 9am-5pm at UW fields across Sand Point Way from U Village (just east of golf range)
• Sat 8:30am-6pm in Puyallup (map)
• Sun 8:30-2pm in Puyallup

3) Watch live or later via Ultiworld video streams

4) Read about the tournament

• 12 teams
• 6 Northwest teams
• 6 teams from other regions
• 6 top-half teams; 6 bottom-half teams; 3 NW teams in each group
• each team will play 4 teams from their strength group (3 outside) and 3 teams from their region group (and 4 outside)

5) Attend the discussion of college ultimate Sat pm

• Not sure about location!
• Consideration of ultimate become an NCAA sport