2018 North American Bike Polo

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).

NAHBPC 2017 Open Registration & Lottery

The NAHBPC will have a small open registration to fill one or three spots in the championship. We are asking for interested squads to submit 5-player or 6-player rosters. If your squad competed at a regional qualifier please state which one and your finishing position. We will consider your regional finishing spot as means for selection. Squads formed without having competed in a regional qualifier will also be considered through a random lottery. This will not be a click race.

If three or more full squads register, there will be three squads invited to attend. If fewer than three teams register, only one squad will be invited to attend. This policy is due to planning out the schedule of events with an even number of teams. This will be a very short application period as the event is approaching quickly. Please submit by noon EST July 16th. Selection will be made July 17th. Once selected, you will be contacted with instructions on how and who to pay. All registration payments are final and no refunds will be issued. Squads should only register if they are prepared to commit to travelling to the event.

The NAHBPC is in Frederick, MD on July 28th-30th hosted by Lancaster United with support from DC Bike Polo and the NAH. Find more information about travel and accommodations at the official website: nahbpc17.com

All submissions and inquiries should be made to Mark Aseltine (mark@nahardcort.com).

2017 NAH Qualifier Results

The 2017 NAH Regional Qualifying series has finally come to an end! Here are the results so far:

GREAT PLAINS

Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
June 17-18

  1. Mosquito* (Will, Daren, Andrea, Greg, Dellwo, Duane SKN)
  2. Magpie (Josh, John, Bill EDM, Duane SKN)
  3. Triple Threat (Zach, Lee, Matt, Brad SKN, Gibson SLC)

GREAT LAKES

Wausau, Wisconsin
June 10-11

  1. Abracadbra* (Zack MKE, Matt CLE, Cailyn CBUS, Jonathan ANC, Calebtru LNS)
  2. The Hardwoods* (Trevor ???, Flynn MKE, Dylan MAD, Seth, Tyler WAU)
  3. Be Still My Heart (Megan PHL, Chris, Tomohiko, Mark CHI, Emma GR)
    TBD (Bird, Sean, Genghis, Jan MKE, Thomas LAF)

MEXICO

San Luis Potosí, Mexico
May 27-28

  1. Annunakis* (Yair, Raúl, Paco, Christina, Flavia)
  2. Pandilla Tortura (Kevin, Axel, D. Ruano, Yanet, Omayra)
  3. Vándalos (Daniel, Fernando Neza, Diego, Belen, Diana)
  4. Chilaquil (Samuel, Fernando S.L.P, Marian, Paul, Daniel)

NORTHSIDE

Ottawa, Ontario
May 27-28

  1. Low Key Hugz* (Allan, Angelo, Wes OTT, patricia, Bustin TO, Jonathan ANC)
  2. Trash Panda (Tex, Oskar, Nick Iwanyshyn, Ngaihon TO, Charlie BUF)
  3. Mont-Paul (Germain, Olivier, Matthieu, Vincent MTL, Dolly MTL)
    Literally Aluminium Garage (chandel, John, Aaron, Nick, Shane TO)

SOUTH CENTRAL

Denver, Colorado
May 27-28

  1. Chicken Wingz* (Dasha VAN, Miguel, Max ATX, Jenny DAV, Diego HOU)
  2. Los Banditos (Zach ATX, chu, Cara MEM, Giblets SLC, Tucker COS)
  3. Dad Strength (Kyle LNC, Davièr STL, Erin, Brandon, Duncan DEN)
  4. Piper United (Nathan, todd, Tim, DEN, Hite, kimberly ATX)

SOUTH WEST

Folsom, California
May 20-21

  1. Control* (Shitty, Jacki, Bruce, Forrest, Ace SF)
  2. Ouch* (Taco Tony MAD, Ben, Jenny DAV, Diego HOU, niCo SF)
  3. Cornodogs* (Mrk Dvs SF, Aaron PDX, Stiven SF, chandel TO)
  4. Les Beehive Baes (Dove, Tate, Mr.CSB, Gabe, Tina, SLC)

EASTSIDE

Boston, Massachusetts
May 13-14

  1. Judgement* (Addison BOS, Bird MAD, Arnold, Shelley NYC, Tyler OAK)
  2. Rat Queen* (Erica, Nate, Zach NYC, Jessi TAC)
  3. Whistle Pig (Alex, Carter, Matt K, Matt H. K. LAN, Meg PHL)
  4. Toni’s Wives (Taylor, Jav, Mike, Tobi, Robby BOS)

CASCADIA

Seattle, Washington
May 6-7

  1. Bob Ross* (Redbeard, kouyo, Sterling SEA, Hams LEX, Emma GR)
  2. Crunchy* (Arlyn, Pete, Aaron, Thatblackarm PDX, Elijah SEA, Diego HOU)
  3. Albatross* (Fletcher PDX, jake, JT, Smarsh, Danielle SEA)
  4. Planeteers* (DrewT PDX, Dustin, Jess SEA, Nick MPLS, paperplane SKN)

SOUTH EAST

Tallahassee, Florida
April 29-30

  1. Sea Cowabunga* (Jimmy, Christopher, Delgado, Kyle, Alison TLH)
  2. Shleemies (Bobby FTM, Peter PHL, Danny TLH, Emily, Mike TPA)
  3. Puttin on the Gritz (Stuart, Joel, Salem AVL, KCJ JAX, Melly RDU)
    All You Can Eat Jimmy Buffet (Jessica, TravisAtom GNV, JJ, Cherri JAX, Wil TPA)

HEARTLAND

Columbus, Ohio
April 29-30

  1. Ghost Ships* (Taco Tony, Kaylasagne MAD, David, Peter, SLIME BOY CBUS)
  2. Edmund Fitzgerald* fka Lexington.ca (Adam, Sergio LEX, Bird MKE, Ben MAD, Travis CBUS, Rob CHI)
  3. Pagans (Andy, Graham, chu, Juice, Cara MEM)
  4. Paul Alka Fan Club (Stas CIN, Fun MEM, Thomas LAF, Betsy IND, Jonathan ANC)

*Qualified for NAHBPC

Frederick, MD to host NAHBPC 2017

NAHBPC 2017
Friday July 28th to Sunday July 30th

The NAH is pleased to announce that Frederick, MD will be hosting the NAHBPC 2017! The planning and coordination will be managed by the Lancaster United Bike Polo Club, with supplemental support from the NAH. The Hillstreet Park courts have long been a go-to in the Eastside Region for years. The two symmetrical courts have professional lighting, fast playing concrete, and full boards with fencing. Each court has two bench areas, one for each team, and each bench area has two doors onto the court for ease of access.

Frederick is a town in NW Maryland on I-70. Frederick is accessible from DC by MARC train. For those flying in, Frederick is in the proximity of three major airports:

  • 42 miles from IAD
  • 55 miles from BWI
  • 60 miles from DCA

SCHEDULE

The main event will have 18 teams compete over the course of three days.

Fri July 28th OPENING STAGE 9am-9pm (Round Robin, 2 groups of 9 teams)
Sat July 29th OPENING STAGE (con’t) 9am-9pm (Round Robin, 2 groups of 9 teams)
Sun July 30th SECOND STAGE 9am-2pm (Round Robin, 2 groups of 4 teams)
Sun July 30th ELIMINATION STAGE 3pm-8pm (Single Elimination, top 8 teams)

REGIONAL ALLOCATION

The NAH would like to introduce and announce its new regional allocation system, the Pro-Rated Ranking System. This post highlights the main reasons for changing the system and explains the new system in comparison to the old system to help everyone understand how NAH will allocate spots for teams from all ten North American regions this year and in the future.

The most important reason for the change is that the new system more accurately captures the strength of a region through collecting points for every team that attends NAHBPC and considers four years of performance, not just one, when allocating spots.

A more in-depth explanation of the Pro-Rated Ranking system can be read in its entirety here.

NAHBPC 2017 Regional allocation is as follows:

Cascadia 4
South West 3
Heartland 2
Eastsides 2
Great Lakes 2
South Central 1
Great Plains 1
South East 1
North Sides 1
Mexico 1

Regions are in the process of announcing their Qualifiers. Details can be found here.

Reminder that for all qualifiers you must adhere to the following “rules” unless your regions agrees to any variations:

  1. Follow the current NAH ruleset (2017 coming soon).
  2. Qualified teams should take ⅗ of that team to NAHBPC or else their spot shall be forfeited to the following team.
  3. Regional reps are responsible for delivering names of successful teams to the NAH Tournament Director (date TBD pending NAHBPC).
  4. Regional reps are required to make very clear to the region how teams will qualify for the NAHBPC.
  5. Qualifiers must be open to outside regional players, but regions have the option of making restrictions on this by making the first two weeks “in-region only registration” followed by registration being open to all regions. See description of In-Region below.
  6. Regions are responsible for collecting their own registration fees.

In-Region Status

A squad can have up to 6 players, but can only dress 5 of those players for each game. You must declare “in-region” wherever the majority of your players who are attending the tournament are located. You are only allowed to register during the “in-region” registration period for the region in which you have declared or otherwise fit into! If you want to register in additional qualifiers, you have to do so after the “in-region” window has closed.

So, for example, if you have 3 members from “region A” and 2 members from “region B”, you are considered “in-region” in A. If you have 2 from A, 2 from B and 1 from C, you get to declare A or B. Here is a chart to help clarify:

Players, marked by region “In-Region” status
AAABB* Region A
AABBC Declare A or B
AABCD Region A
ABCDE Declare A, B, C, D or E

*If you do have a roster of 6 people, use the same logic, but with the players who are traveling and planning on playing. So if you’re team looks like AAABBB, but you are only playing 5 people use the majority. If you are traveling and playing all 6, you can declare A or B but those 3 players must attend that tournament.

Multiple Qualifiers

If your team decides to travel to multiple qualifiers and qualifies in both, you must choose the region for you to have “in-region” status.

If you only qualify out-of-region, you will represent that region and the points system will allocate points to that region.

For questions regarding the schedule, format or allocation, please contact Mark Aseltine directly at mark@nahardcourt.com.

For questions regarding rules or team composition, please contact Joe Rstom directly at joe@nahardcourt.com.

Introduction to Squad

Welcome to the 2017 NAH Tournament series. As you all know by now the NAHBPC and WHBPC will be carried out in squad format. Most of you have either played in this format, watched it, or know the general premise of it. For those who do not, we would like to take a few minutes to give a general outline of the game play in relation to 3v3.

If you’ve played bike polo before, most of this is going to look real familiar. There are a couple of things to get used to (like substitution rules and longer games with straight time clocks), but fear not, you got this. For the nitty gritty of game play, it is a good idea to read over the NAH 4.5 Ruleset Appendix C: Squad Rules and keep your eyes peeled for the NAH 2017 ruleset drop (coming soon!), but here is the general outline.

How a squad game works

The name “squad” is a bit vague, but all you need to know is that in 2017 it will be played with a 5 player team. 3 players are on the court at once, and they can substitute players on and off as needed throughout the duration of the game. Players can substitute on and off during live play (provided they don’t influence play while there are 4 players on the court), or after a stoppage (after a goal, or when the ball leaves play). The general rule of thumb here is, if you are coming onto the court from the bench, you can’t be involved in the play until your teammate is off the court (both players involved in the change must be within 10’ of the gate during the change).

Length of a squad game

5v5 games are longer than the standard 3v3 tournament game—running anywhere from 30-60 minutes as opposed to 12 or 15 minute games. This adds a new facet of energy management as well as dynamic line options to an already tactical game. Usually squad games run as ‘straight time’, i.e. the clock does not stop after goals or other stoppages in play (excluding timeouts or injuries) until the last 2 minutes of a game. Team timeouts, and injuries that stop play, should still stop the clock. For the purposes of gameplay, this means that after a stoppage (a goal or any other whistle), the team with possession of the ball cannot cross half until the defensive team has crossed back into their half and signaled they are ready to play, or until 15 seconds have elapsed (whichever happens first). Functionally this means that teams have time after a goal to substitute and get set, but not endless time, as after 15 seconds the offensive team can cross even if the defensive team is not set. This rule also applies to the defensive team as well, as they can begin attacking the ball carrier after 15 seconds. Referees should count down the last 5 seconds after a stoppage in play to warn both teams. Alternately, the referee may ask both teams if they are ready and then signal the game ‘live’ again. When there are 2 minutes left in the game, the game clock will stop on the whistle. The same 15 seconds of safety rule still applies, and the game clock should resume after the 15 seconds are up or when play is ‘live’ (whichever occurs first).

Official rules surrounding substitutions and game clocks can be found in the 2015 Ruleset – Appendix A – Tournament and Game and Format, but will be rolled into the new NAH 2017 ruleset for this season—to be voted upon prior to the qualifying season in April.

How and why should a region run a squad qualifier

In terms of scheduling a tournament, one of the advantages of squad is that it allows for much more streamlined (and accurate) game time scheduling. Because the games run as straight time, tournament organizers can schedule their games with a high degree of confidence. For players, this means an end to the need to be ready to play on 10 minutes notice for hours at a time. Longer games give on-deck teams much more advance notice to be prepared to play at their allotted time, and the 5 player team means no game needs to wait until everyone arrives to the court before beginning. Because squad tournaments involve fewer teams (even if the same number of players participate as in past years), organizers may choose to schedule all their games for the seeding portion of the tournament in advance as a round robin or group play. Traditional swiss rounds ranking also works with squad format.

Court infrastructure specifics

If your courts have more than one door onto the playing surface, each team can be assigned a specific door to change through. If the doors are not equally situated (i.e. one door has a significant tactical advantage over the other), organizers can stipulate that teams change ‘benches’ at the halfway point in the game. If the court has only one usable entrance, several options are available. At the organizer’s discretion, they may determine that both teams can reasonably share the access point in such a way that no team gains an advantage over the other (i.e. blocks opposition substitutions). Alternately, they may determine that this is not possible and only allow substitutions on stoppages of play. Organizers should consider all possible changes in advance of the tournament (both tactical and due to mechanical/injury) when making this determination.

How to practice/scrimmage and assemble teams long-term

Our vision for 5v5 moving forward is that you will find teams of 6 or even 7 people that can travel, and then you would stick with these players over the long term. Instead of having a team identity that is centered around 3 players, you will have a team identity related to a city, state, other identifying factors. If you travel with 6 people, you can dress 5 players each game, and the 6th player can act as a captain to call out line changes and keep track of stats and act as an objective play-caller. 6 people on a team also gives you the option to practice against your own teammates, in a non-competitive way to promote teamwork and skill building. You can try different lines and different strategies outside of the casual “pick-up” environment. You can also travel to other cities within your region for scrimmages with this team and continue to keep your roster fluid. This ensures there is a mechanism to include newer players amongst your club’s “top players”. Further, as 3v3 tournaments continue to thrive across North America, you can send any grouping of three to each event, even two teams at one event with a group of 6.

NAH recommended path of action

As in the past the NAH is giving the regions full control over their Qualifier. With that said we would like to give regions and their Representative a guide to follow. This guide will act as a baseline to work from and any changes from this guide should be agreed upon by the region’s members and clearly stated and shared with everyone in the region. Further, dates, locations, registration information and any deviations from this guide must be sent to mark@nahardcourt.com a minimum of 8 weeks before the Qualifier so that we can publish this information to the NAH website. The guidelines are as follows:

Hosting a squad format qualifier

  1. Follow the current NAH ruleset (2017 coming soon)
  2. Qualified teams should take ⅗ of that team to NAHBPC or else their spot shall be forfeited to the following team.
  3. Regional reps are responsible for delivering names of successful teams to the NAH Tournament Director (date TBD pending NAHBPC).
  4. Regional reps are required to make very clear to the region how teams will qualify for the NAHBPC.
  5. Qualifiers must be open to outside regional players, but Regions have the option of making restrictions on this by making the first two weeks “in region only registration” followed by registration being open to all regions.
  6. An “in region team” is a team that has at least ⅗ players from within the region, and “out of region” team is one that has a minimum of ⅗ players from out of region.
  7. Regions are responsible for collecting their own registration fees.