A Message from the Board

A message from the MZU Board of Directors:

Our recent Facebook post regarding the Fall BIY League Award Winners has gained a lot of attention over the past week.

The board would like to be clear that we did not intend to slight any teams in the Fall BIY League by not awarding a league or division winners. Wherever your team finished in the ladder, we’re sure there are accomplishments to celebrate and we hope you’re proud of how you played. As announced at the start of the season, there were no playoffs in order to accommodate a maximum number of teams that would all receive the same number of games, during a period when we lost a timeslot each week due to COVID-required breaks between games. Obviously, choosing a “winner” of a league can be determined a number of ways. However, in our past leagues, winners have been determined by a set of playoffs. This league – the first we’ve ever run without playoffs – we used a different system in order to schedule the games in 4-week blocks, instead of weekly, to ensure every team received the same number of late games. This meant that some teams’ standings might have been skewed, due to the ladder not readjusting every week. All of these factors contributed to the decision to not name a league or bracket winners. It has not been practice to highlight other team or player accomplishments, so such announcements were not considered for the post last week. We regret that we did not make that clear at the outset when this league was advertised, or at the end as part of the awards post. We apologize for any misunderstandings or disappointment. We’ve followed the recent feedback on Facebook and understand that some of our members don’t agree with our approach to naming award winners this fall. The board will bear this in mind for future league decisions.

Secondly, we want to address the manner in which this recent feedback was received. We always want to hear from our members. Your ideas and concerns help us to improve the league and address issues as they occur, so thank you to those who commented. However, we are disappointed by the tone of the conversation that unfolded among MZU members. In all aspects of MZU, we want to promote a respectful environment for our players and members on the field , at MZU-sponsored events, and  on our social media and digital platforms. We encourage your feedback, but ask that you please take the time to provide it respectfully and constructively.  Where necessary our Harassment Policy may be applied and further action taken (e.g.,  removal of problematic public posts). We invite you to review  our Harassment Policy here.

We think this is a good time to reiterate that there is a vacant position for a Member at Large on the MZU Board of Directors. If you want to be more involved in the running of MZU and have more say in Board decisions, we strongly encourage you to join the effort. You can reach out with an expression of interest via email to hi@milezeroultimate.com

Lastly, as a reminder, there are multiple ways to communicate with the Board. You can connect with us on Facebook (publicly or privately),  send us an email at hi@milezeroultimate.com, or submit your feedback anonymously through this form, which is always accessible on the homepage of our website www.milezeroultimate.com.

Thank you for your patience while the Board conferred on this matter and prepared this response.

2021 Winter Toque League

Details for our 2021 Winter Toque League have now been posted here.

2020 Fall Indoor Build-It-Yourself League

Details for our 2020 Fall Indoor BIY League have now been posted here.

COVID-19 Return to Play Guidelines

COVID-19 Return to Play Guidelines

The provincial government, Sport NL, and Ultimate NL all worked together to create guidelines for sports to return to play in Alert Level 2. Here are the guidelines that apply to Ultimate:
Provincial Government
Ultimate NL
Please review these documents, as all players will be required to sign a release of liability and declaration of compliance, stating that they’ve read and understand these documents.

Here is a note on some of the guidelines that apply specifically to our league.

Player’s Responsibilities
1. Sign applicable waivers and pay for your Ultimate NL membership.
2. Do not come to a game if feeling sick or unwell, and fill out the province’s online self assessment before each game.
3. Only carpool with players from your own bubble.
4. Arrive at the field no earlier than 10 minutes before your game. Move to the exit side of the field, and ideally leave, within 10 minutes of your game finishing.
5. Practice physical distancing (2m) on the sidelines at all time.
6. Bring your own hand sanitizer to sanitize your hands before games.
7. If you bring a disc, clean your disc before use.
8. Refrain from touching your face.
9. High fives, handshakes, team huddles, spitting/nasal clearing and spirit circles are not permitted.
10. Do not share food, water, athletic aids (foam rollers), etc.
11. No socializing/loitering at the field after your game.
12. Players who have travelled outside of Newfoundland and Labrador are expected to adhere to the applicable isolation period before returning to play in ultimate activities (please refer to public health guidelines).

Captain’s Responsibilities
1. Only pick up subs that have signed the applicable waivers, and that have paid for their Ultimate NL membership.
2. Ensure that only the co-captains handle equipment (cones, scoreboard etc). If there are painted lines at a field, do not set up cones.
3. Record your team’s attendance at the game to assist with contact tracing if needed (tracking sheet will be provided before first game).

League/Organizer Rights
Organizers will have the right to refuse any player from an activity/event if they believe that a player is jeopardizing the health and safety of other players in attendance. Some situations
include, but are not limited to:
• A player exhibiting symptoms that could be attributed to COVID-19.
• A player expresses that they might have been exposed to a case of community spread.
• A player expresses that they did not pass the online self assessment.

Game Modifications
Ultimate was listed as a “moderate potential and brief contact sport” under Alert Level 2. This means that we’re allowed to return to game play, with a couple differences. By signing up for a league, you are agreeing to a certain level of risk. Although physical distancing of 2m is recommended at all times, we realize that at points, a player might enter another player’s “bubble.” Here’s some things that we’re changing/recommending to address this:
– The “disc space” rule will be changed so that the player marking the person with the disc cannot be within 2m of that player. If you have the disc, call “disc space” if your defender comes within 2m.
– Players and spectators must maintain physical distancing on the sidelines at all times.
– On defense, try to mark the same player throughout the game. Ten contacts with one other player is better than 1 contact with 10 different players.
– Instead of the defensive player tapping the disc when ready, the offensive player can ask if they’re ready, then tap the ground with the disc to begin.
– Sanitize the disc as much as possible.
– This list might continue to be updated as suggestions come in from members.

Techniplex Measures and Guidelines: http://avalonsports.ca/2020/09/16/techniplex-covid-19-requirements/

Please bear with us as we navigate this return to play. Feel free to reach out to hi@milezeroultimate.com with any questions or concerns!

Quidi Vidi Brewery Partnership

We had some big plans with Quidi Vidi Brewing Co. in the works prior to COVID-19, and although those big plans aren’t able to happen at the moment, we’re excited for a continued partnership, and are happy to have them on board in some capacity for the summer!

2020 Fall Hat League

Details for our 2020 Fall Outdoor Hat League have now been posted. Check out the details here.

Summer League 2020

Details have now been posted for our 2020 Summer League. You can check out all of the details here. We’ve missed you all and are excited to see you on the fields!

Black Lives Matter

Mile Zero Ultimate stands with the Black Lives Matter movement. We support those who are working to build a more just society and condemn all acts of systemic and targeted anti-Black racism.

We are committed to the anti-racist movement and anti-oppressive practices; using our platform to elevate the voices and experiences of Black, Indigenous and racialized people in our sport and in our community; and ensuring that everything we do has a lens of equity, diversity and inclusion. As an organization, we recognize that we can and must do better to create safer environments for all Black people, Indigenous people, and people of colour involved in our sport.

We will engage with our membership over the coming weeks to develop a set of concrete actions that we will take to fight racism and build a more equitable and inclusive ultimate community. Mile Zero Ultimate is committed to doing, and being, better. Black Lives Matter.

COVID-19 Summer League Update

We hope that you’ve all been keeping safe out there. With the province slated to move into Alert Level 3 on Monday, we have another update. Back when the Alert Levels were announced by the province, we saw that “medium risk field sports” would be allowed to restart in Alert Level 3, and we got very excited when we heard that ultimate would be one of those sports. Over the past few weeks, there has been a lot of hard work by our Provincial Sport Organization to develop Return to Play guidelines for the sport of ultimate. Ultimate Newfoundland and Labrador has been leading the charge, in consultation with us and the other member leagues. The draft guidelines were prepared and sent to Public Health for review, but they have not yet been finalized. One thing that we are sure of though is that game play is prohibited in Alert Level 3, with only training activities allowed to resume. Due to this fact, Mile Zero Ultimate will not be able to operate in Alert Level 3.

Although it is unfortunate that we won’t be able to see you on the field as soon as we thought, we commend Sport NL and Ultimate NL for the work that they are doing. These really are unprecedented times, and we respect the decision to take a cautious approach to return to sport, in order to keep us all safe. Once we receive the final Return to Play guidelines for ultimate, we will post them on our website and social media to give you all an idea of what the sport may look like as it resumes.

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us at hi@milezeroultimate.com. Please keep in mind that we are following direction from Ultimate NL and Sport NL, and we don’t necessarily have all the details for how the return to ultimate will roll out over the next few months. Please be patient, and know that we are working with the best interest and safety of our members in mind. We will continue to update you all as best as we can as information becomes available to us. Be sure to follow us on Facebook or check out our website for updates.

Cancellation of Winter BIY League due to COVID-19

Every player in the Winter BIY League should have just received and email announcing the unfortunate cancellation of the league. Here is a summary of the email.

As you’re aware, the Board of Directors decided to postpone the league prior to the March 16th (week 3) games. This decision was made to protect the health and safety of our players amidst the escalating COVID-19 situation.
The league was supposed to run until May 18th, but it has become clear that things likely won’t be back to normal by that time. We know that these are challenging times for our members, and we have decided to cancel the remainder of the league in order to issue refunds to our players.
We will be refunding teams for everything except weeks 1 and 2. Some teams paid different fees based on the bye weeks, and the amount of each team’s refund is outlined in detail in the email. The team fees will be issued back to the captains that originally paid the fee. It will be up to captains to get the player fees back to their players. We apologize for any inconvenience that this may cause.