2018 NAHBPC Bids Due April 15th!

Posted on March 20, 2018September 14, 2020 by Alias Tagami

NAHBPC

The NAH is now collecting bid information from clubs interested in hosting the 2018 NAHBPC. This year we are providing start-up funds (up to $2,275.00 USD!) to help ensure the best quality event possible and to encourage quality bid submissions. Read more about this year’s Regional Qualifiers and Continental Championship here.

Here is a quick breakdown of the money we will be offering up to a host club looking to take on this years event:

$500	Winning bid (two courts)
$300	Additional Courts (for each additional court) max 4
$75/court	Lights (until at least 10pm) to a maximum of $225
$50/court	Court Access (symmetrical squad ready doors) to a maximum of $150
$100/court	Reffing facilities (elevated, covered stands with functional scoreboards)
50% contribution	Free Food (match costs on food, snacks, beverages) max $100/day
$5/Game	Refereeing (for every game in the tournament we will front $5 for reffing)

These are the financial perks we will be offering up to the host of the 2018 NAHBPC. This along with the support from our team and the skills of past tournament organizing, we feel any club in the NAH has the ability to take this on and we encourage you to submit a bid. Interested hosts should consider how else they would fundraise for the NAHBPC in conjunction with NAH funds. It is okay if your club cannot provide all details now. Submit what you plan to provide and qualify what you can commit to provide and what you seek to provide. Additional review and work between the host and the NAH may result in additional funding if additional features are added. Bids should be submitted via email (mark@nahardcourt.com) with the documents provided here. It is okay if your club cannot provide all details now. Submit what you plan to provide and qualify what you can commit to provide and what you seek to provide. Additional review and work between the host and the NAH may result in additional funding if additional features are added.

The 2018 NAHBPC should be held no earlier than September 21st and no later than October 22, 2018. If you would like to host outside of this time window, please contact the NAH Tournament Organiser to discuss the feasibility.

If you have any questions about this year’s qualification series and the championship, email mark@nahardcourt.com

Other Items

REF PAYMENTS: Over the weekend, the NAH reviewed all available documents from the 2017 WHBPC to pay referees. Some documents were damaged and/or lost which delayed the process. We apologize for the delay on closing out this effort, and thank everyone who helped. We are currently collecting emails, and will be sending out contact info so that we can PayPal you for your work. Keep an eye out in your inbox! If you wish, you may reject your payment and donate it to one of three initiatives/causes:

Support to San Juan Puerto Rico Bici Polo Club players (cash to the club for them to use however they see fit)
NAH Incorporation Fund (money to be used to help clubs register/incorporate in their state/providence or towards non-profit status)
2018 WTF-FRST Scholarship Fund

WTF-FRST: We are already into 2018, and are looking to help WTF-FRST raise more money this year to support the community and promote diversity, growth, and competition! If you’d like to donate to this initiative, PayPal your donation to treasurer@nahardcourt.com with a note that says “WTF-FRST”!

If you have any questions about WTF-FRST, email genderinpolo@gmail.com

2018 NAHBPC Bids & Regional Qualifiers

Posted on February 26, 2018September 14, 2020 by Mark Aseltine

Welcome to the official call for bids for the 2018 NAHBPC. This year’s call is going to be different than past years. As you might know last year the NAH brought an added level of support and collaboration to the NAHBPC than in past years. We helped create schedules for the tournament, we aided in the collection of team names and registration. We used our website and social media platform to distribute information and communicate to team captains directly.

This year we will be doing all of this and more. This year we will be giving out seed money to the club successful in hosting the 2018 NAHBPC. That’s right, we’re giving out money! Up to $2,275.00!

Here is a quick breakdown of the money we will be offering up to a host club looking to take on this years event:

$500	Winning bid (two courts)
$300	Additional Courts (for each additional court) max 4
$75/court	Lights (until at least 10pm) to a maximum of $225
$50/court	Court Access (symmetrical squad ready doors) to a maximum of $150
$100/court	Reffing facilities (elevated, covered stands with functional scoreboards)
50% contribution	Free Food (match costs on food, snacks, beverages) max $100/day
$5/Game	Refereeing (for every game in the tournament we will front $5 for reffing)

The 2018 NAHBPC should be held no earlier than September 21st and no later than October 22, 2018. If you would like to host outside of this time window, please contact the NAH Tournament Organiser to discuss the feasibility.

Regional Qualifiers

Like last year, we are using the new prorated ranking system for regional allocation which factors a region’s performance over the previous four years. For a more information on 2018 regional qualifiers, read more here.

For any questions regarding the bid process or the application form, please contact Mark Aseltine directly at mark@nahardcourt.com.

For questions regarding hosting the NAHBPC, please contact Jennifer Spencer directly at jennifer@nahardcourt.com or Matt Krofcheck at thiscarcrash1@gmail.com.

Photo by Carlos Hauck

2018 North American Bike Polo

Posted on January 29, 2018September 14, 2020 by Alias Tagami

Happy belated new year to all! We hope you’re enjoying your winter, and maybe (weather permitting) finding some time to play polo!

The NAH wants to give you a rundown of some of our initiatives for the end of winter into spring, as well as introduce some new team members! We also know that everyone is eager to know what this season will look like, and we can report some early details to help you in your bike polo season planning and scheduling!

Initiatives

WTF-FRST – One of the things we were most proud of in 2017 was working with WTF-FRST to get six bike polo scholarships out to WTF athletes to assist in their development and competitive season! In 2018, we intend to continue the program, and with the generous contributions from the bike polo community, we hope to exceed our previous year!

Going Official – The NAH is a registered corporation in the District of Columbia that is tax exempt due to its 501(c)3 status. This was the primary feature that let us bid for the money we needed to put on the WHBPC stream last year! This taught us a lot, but it also got use thinking about what kinds of more formal and official structures that could be established at the local level so that clubs could take advantage of public funds and non-profit status to build infrastructure. What we’ve seen in the past is often a club will have a PayPal account that is in reality simply a member’s private account. This is a good vehicle for collecting funds, but if that person was audited by the IRS, they might have a very bad time proving they didn’t owe back taxes. For these reasons and more, the NAH has a new initiative to get clubs to formally incorporate so that they also have legal and financial protections. This initiative in 2018 will consist of a series of documents on how to do this, but may additionally include some limited financial support for the associated processing fees that the state will collect.

Grants – Building off the last initiative, we’ve brought on a new team member to search publicly listed grants that clubs might be able to use for tournaments or infrastructure development. Anyone who has been around for a while and worked on polo development knows that this is the biggest thing holding us back.

The NAH Team

Alias Tagami – President, Governor, Treasurer

Mark Aseltine – Tournament Director

Kayla Story – Outreach Director [NEW]

Joe Rstom – Rules Director, Head Ref

Megan Shoop – Grants & Public Programs Coordinator [NEW]

Adam Hite – Web Development

Alyssa Johnes – Graphic Design [NEW]

Jennifer Spencer – Social Media Director

Will Robbins – Reffing Consultant

2018 NAH Schedule

The details as of today are few, but we can tell you that we plan to have a later season than the previous year. This is in part due to only hosting one major, the NAHBPC. As with each year we try to constrain the NA championship to some later point in the year then work backwards in season planning. We want all region qualifiers to be finished with eight weeks to spare before NAs. This provides some time for teams to plan and save money. We will continue to use the Squad format.

Who will host RQs? The RQs have always been the responsibility of the regions to coordinate and plan. The NAH’s position remains as it has in previous years, once regional allocations of teams are published, we leave it to the regions to decide how they will send their teams. We know that each region has different challenges in coordinating and hosting, so we hope to see creative leadership from clubs and NAH Regional Reps.

Who will host NAs? We’ve had some rumors fly around, but we will introduce a place to submit bid info next month. This year the NAH will do something different. We will provide starter funds for the host club. These starter funds increase with the number of criteria the host bid fulfills (e.g., More money if the host is providing three courts versus two). Expect to see a post on this topic to come soon in the next weeks.

2017 was an incredible year for North American bike polo. But before we get too far into 2018, we’d like to thank a few people and groups in particular. First a foremost, the hosts of the WHBPC, Lexington Bike Polo. We could not have made it happen without the generous contribution from our sponsor Kentucky for Kentucky and the generous public grant from the Kentucky Department of Tourism! Special thanks to Broomwagan Coffee & Bikes, West Sixth Brewing, County Club, and numerous other local businesses who helped make players from around the world have the greatest time in Lexington. We had lots of other sponsors pour in prizes for the WHBPC as well like Pake and RYB Denim. Rustbelt Welding provided trophies for the NAHBPC and WHBPC. We want to also thank Lancaster United Bike Polo and DC Bike Polo for their work on the NAHBPC. We’d like to thank all of the hosts of the regional qualifiers. We couldn’t have done without you!

If you have any thoughts or ideas on how to help us on the year or if you’d like to get more involved, email Alias (alias@nahardcourt.com).

2017 NAHBPC Squad List

Posted on July 18, 2017September 14, 2020 by Alias Tagami

The NAH is proud to announce the squads for the 2017 North American Hardcourt Bike Polo Championship!

Cascadia
Bob Ross – (C) Sterling Quinn, Kouyo Maeda, Nick McLean, Chris Hammersly, Jessi Connors
Crunchy – (C) Aaron Hand, Pete Abram, Gavin Thurston, Diego Ayala, David Barthod

Southwest
The Control – (C) Andrew Weyland, Eric Stahl David, Forrest Timonere, Jacki Rust, Bruce Wahl
Wade Boggs’ Corndawgs – (C) Chandel Bodner, Stiven Jaramillo, Matthew Upmeyer, Jody Beavers, Alex Ciancimino

Heartland
Ghost Ship – (C) Tony White, Kayla Story, David Frankhouser, Kaleb Christian, Peter Brown
Edmund Fitzgerald – (C) Travis Davies, Adam Say, Sergio Andres Pineda, Ben Hunter, Rob Glatfelter, Tiffany Morrow

Eastside
Judgment – (C) Arnold Francisco, Shelley Smith, Bernadette Watts, Tyler Ferris, Addison Minott
Rat Queen – (C) Nate Mumford, Zack Blackburn, Erica Compton, Jennifer Kutzleb, Nico Millard

Great Lakes
Abracadabra – (C) Zack Reuter, Matt Bobel, The Betsy, Caleb Trujillo, Mark Frens
The Hardwoods – (C) Seth Carlson, Tyler Wildman, Dylan Carlson, Flynn Carlson, Matt Bolenbaugh
*Wildcard – (C) Thanh Nguyen, Sean Weber, Jan Dolo, Tommy Olsen, James Detlef

South Central
Bandits – (C) Andy Hill, Charles Fox, Kody Day, Zack Hollandsworth, David Torres

Great Plains
Mosquito – (C) Will Robbins, Daren McLean, Andrea Cessna, Nick Dellwo, Greg Rooke, Sean Marsh

Southeast
Ursa Minor – (C) Bob Delgado, Jimmy Gunderson, Kyle Buonocore, Danny Wood, Graham Notestine, Melanie Annis
*Pan Rabbit – (C) Emma Breen, Matt Krofcheck, Mike Blu, Jason Farthing, Sergei Max Hubscher Cook

Northside
Low Key Hugs – (C) Wes Bartlett, Jon McPherson, Justin Bella, Charles Reinagel, Meghan, Ryan

Mexico
Annunakis – (C) Raúl Mendoza, Flavia Leguizamon, Yair Romero, Pablo Enriquez, Omar Rosas, Kevin Gamboa
*Cámara No Me Awuito – (C) Kevin Eder, Angel Torres, Omayra Bolanos, Joe Rstom, James Frick-Tordella

(C) – Squad Captain
* – Squad entered by open registration

For more information on the NAHBPC go to the official event page: http://nahbpc17.com/

Rules Updates for NAH Qualifiers

Posted on April 28, 2017September 14, 2020 by Joe Rstom

We’ve already begun to implement feedback we’ve received from players and have made a few immediate updates to the ruleset that was released earlier in April. Thank you for all of your input! It truly helps guide future development.

Qualifier organizers are advised to used this latest edition, and are still allowed to petition for exemptions to any rules that create unreasonable hardship for players. This is just an example of how all of this is a work in progress and flexibility will facilitate progress.

Read it here.

Here are the changes – aside from typos – with explanations:

2.4 – Bicycles
2.4.2 – The handlebars are plugged or capped, and can extend no more than 12 13 inches (12″ 13″ or 305mm 330mm) from the center of the stem.

We increased the maximum handlebar limit to accommodate commonly available sizes and to ease the community into this new rule.

2.5 – Mallets
- 2.5.2.4 – The inner diameter of any hole on the mallet head may not exceed 2.25” 2.3”(57mm 58.5mm). The maximum outside diameter of the mallet head may not exceed 2.559″ (65mm).

After years of mallet progress and misinterpretation of the rule, we’ve simply adjusted this number to reflect what is available in the market. We’ll be exploring the maximum ID and maximum OD over the course of this year and we are discussing this with all of the major manufacturers. If you have a strong opinion about this, please email me (respectfully).

5.6 – Carrying
5.6.2 – Carrying with the body is defined as using a hand, or other part of the body, to shoot, pass, or otherwise deliberately redirect or add momentum to the ball. If a player uses their hand to “catch” the ball out of the air they must immediately drop the ball on the ground below the point at which the ball was caught.
- §5.6.2.1 – A defensive player within their own crease may deliberately redirect, but may not “catch”, an airborne ball that is below shoulder height to prevent it from entering the net.

It was observed that a goalie should rightfully be allowed to bat an airborne ball away from the crease, instead of being forced to catch it and drop it. Only defensive players are allowed to do this, within the crease and below shoulder height.

6.7 – Game Misconduct
6.7.2 – If necessary to avoid escalation, the Referee immediately stops game play to end the altercation. Otherwise, the penalty is called per §1.1.9.3. Possession goes to the fouled team and the game restarts according to §4.2.3 with the following modifications:
- §6.7.2.1 – The offending player is removed from the court for the remainder of the game and their team continues play with 2 players on the court for 2 minutes – the rest duration of the a game major with penalty 2– eligible before players. a third player can enter play.
- §6.7.2.2 – Following the issuance of a game misconduct penalty, the offending player is subject to tournament ejection based on review by the head Referee.

The old game misconduct for 3v3 logically forced 2v3 for the duration of a game. I didn’t realize how this would affect squad games, so I adjusted it to only impact the team the way a Major penalty would. The player who receives a game misconduct is not allowed to reenter the game, but a 3^rd player from the bench can enter play after 2 minutes.

You can see this update here: https://www.gitbook.com/book/nahbpa/nah-ruleset-2017/changes/48