Captains, Presidents and Affiliates of the League,

Congratulations! The University of Kentucky would like to extend an invitation for your team to attend Nationals for the 2012-2013 school year. Nationals will take place at the University of Kentucky’s facilities in Lexington, Kentucky between the dates of April 13th-15th. Each school that attends is guaranteed four matches; three in pool play and one at the beginning of single elimination play on Sunday, the 15th. 

This letter will go into some depth concerning: the new schedule, Alumni Officials, requirements to attend Nationals, and other fun things to do in Lexington during the tournament.

This year at Nationals we will feature: 36 Pool Play Matches, 23 Matches in the Single Elimination Tournament, The Alumni Game (To my knowledge it is the first), The All-Star Match, an All-Girls Match, a Captains’ Meeting, T-shirts for participants, and programs! (The Nationals T-shirt will be similar to a NCAA Men’s Basketball Field of 68 shirt with all participating team’s logo on the back in color!)

This year is going to be unlike any previous year for Nationals! Instead of year’s past where all of the pool play took place on Saturday, this year some schools will have the option of playing their first match of pool play on Friday night. The invitations for those Friday night matches will be determined on the schedule of pool’s, distance traveled by individual schools and the time upon which individual school’s accept their bid and fulfill the requirements for attending.

This is subject to change* but we are currently looking at having six pools of four teams for Friday and Saturday play. With eight play in games to the sweet sixteen level of Sunday’s bracket. It is possible to have to play five games on Sunday.

Following upon SVSU’s successful hosting of National’s last year we will continue with paid Alumni Officials. In cases where there are not enough Alumni, I will pay Captains who are not playing in their place. Due to the increase of teams attending Nationals and the influx of additional games we are prepared to have 59 total matches in that weekend with paid officials at all of them. With the increase of games needed to be paid officials and super fancy shirts the entry fee for Nationals this year is set at $300 per team. If any team wishes to participate at Nationals and cannot afford the entry fee please feel free to contact me ASAP so we can discuss your options.

After January 21st I will accept entries on a “rolling” basis. Once I have the first two requirements I will consider your team as “Attending”. After you have completed the first two I will ask for the third and fourth item NO LATER than March 12th. That is a month before Nationals. My address is listed at the bottom of the page.

In order for your school to be considered a participant at Nationals your team needs to:
1. Submit a check to either “Zac Brown” or “Kentucky Dodgeball” for $300.
2. Submit a tentative roster (Up to 35 possible names) of who you expect to be on your final 20 man roster with the check. (Please include their Student ID number.)
3. Your preference to play an evening match on Friday.
4. Submit a team photo to either this email address “kentuckydodgeball@gmail.com” or my personal one at “ukleadership@gmail.com”
5. Submit your final 20-man roster.

I am asking for rosters, Student ID numbers and photos for programs and player verification. To ensure that alumni or students from other schools are not “accidentally” being played I will send request forms to the club sports offices with the “tentative” roster and Student ID’s to verify that the student is currently enrolled. This will also expedite team check-in. I will have a list available of all participating players and teams with student ID’s available for captains to check if they would like to question the validity. Each team is allowed to have twenty players on their roster who play in games. Playing above the twenty man limit is not allowed.

During this weekend of Nationals there is something taking place just outside of Lexington called Keeneland. For those people who are unfamiliar with it, it is horse racing. Keeneland typically shows a lot of great races, beautiful women, lots of alcohol and extremely fun races to gamble on. We will try to have Saturday afternoon free for all the teams (excluding captains for the captains meeting) so they can attend should they choose. My suggestion is to also start looking at booking a hotel extremely early because of this event.

If your school is interested in hosting Nationals for the 2013-2014 school year I will have a computer and projector available if you would like to prepare a presentation. Just let me know in advance.

On a final note, congratulations! I will send an additional email out on January 7th with more details. UK Dodgeball holds the right to make any modifications to the tournament to put on the best event possible, I hope to hear from your school shortly confirming your entry to Nationals this year! If you have any questions feel free to email, call or text me.

Merry Christmas!

Zac Brown
UK Dodgeball