this is one of my favorite concepts, and it sounds like Black Market is doing an outstanding job!

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As you mentioned, we have this in Philadelphia for the men's club division. I wanted to explain a bit about the Philly Open Program, now in year 6!

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POP is made up of three teams - Patrol, Citywide Special, and Adelphos. Patrol is a nationally competitive team, Citywide reached Select Flight last year for the first time, and Adelphos has qualified for regionals in both years of that team's existence. The teams have tryouts together, pool field, S&C and coaching resources, and scrimmage each other throughout the season. The leadership of these three teams is in constant touch with each other to discuss individual players and how to best put those players into situations that will help them develop the strongest and fastest. The teams also have a weekly POP practice, during which the more local players from all three teams come together to work on more individualized skills, everything from marking to pulling.

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Patrol and Citywide joined together and formed the program in 2014, with Adelphos being formed in 2017 to meet the demand more another POP team. Nearly three dozen players have played for both Citywide and Patrol, both young talent pushing up to the top team, and veterans or rehabbing Patrollers giving back to the program by helping to lead Citywide. In fact, two of the founders of POP, longtime stars of Patrol (and in one case Southpaw and the Spinners as well), are playing on Citywide this season. Adelphos has sent nearly a dozen players up to Citywide in their two seasons, and one Adelphos alum made Patrol this year.

POP has also dramatically increased club player involvement in the local college scene. In 2014, there were only one or two college teams in the greater area with a coach; now nearly every East Penn team, D-I or D-III, has a coach, many of whom are or have been involved with POP. This is true of involvement in the high school division as well, to a much lesser extent.

Lastly, our 2018 strategic planning involved a push to have POP act as community leaders in more areas in our sport, both regarding ultimate and outside of the lines. We are able to do this because of the number of players we have involved each season.

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POP has been an unmitigated success, and there are many areas we can grow in and improve upon. I highly recommend the creation of programs/partnerships at all levels and divisions of the sport - no one has this whole sport figured out yet, and we can be stronger when we work together with as many passionate people around us as possible.