Skyd Magazine is pleased to announce, in conjunction with founder Charles Kerr, the 2013 Callahan Award. The Callahan Award has been established to recognize the most valuable players in men’s and women’s college ultimate. Each year the Callahan trophy is presented to the man and woman who combine superior athleticism with outstanding sportsmanship, leadership and dedication to the sport of ultimate. In the eyes of his or her peers, the Callahan winner is the personification of the ideal ultimate player.
Skyd Magazine, together with USA Ultimate, Discraft and Five Ultimate are honored to present the award process for 2013. In addition to the process outlined below, Skyd Magazine is proud to bring two new features to the award.
The Skyd Five
After nominations have wrapped on March 15th, 2013, the Skyd Award Committee will designate five top Callahan candidates in each division. These candidates will be followed closely throughout the Skyd College Tour presented by Spin Ultimate in articles and interviews. The first four will be announced by March 15th, 2013, and the remaining “wildcard candidates” in each division will be announced on April 21st, 2013.
Please note that the Skyd Five represent the opinions of the award committee only, and will be facilitated to provide voters with more information about top candidates. Callahan voters are free to cast their vote for any eligible candidate, including those not featured in the Skyd Five.
Discraft/Five Ultimate Sponsorship
Our sponsors, Discraft and Five Ultimate, will be providing commemorative Callahan 2013 discs to the following:
- The first 40 players nominated
- 40 random voters in our voting round
- The Skyd 5 in each division
Important Dates
- February 24, 2013: Nominations open (Nomination form on Skyd)
- March 19, 2013: Team Nominations close DEADLINE EXTENDED
- March 20, 2013: Four out of Skyd Five are announced
- March 31, 2013: USAU RC nominations due
- April 21, 2013: Skyd Wildcard candidates announced
- May 7, 2013: Callahan voting begins (Voting on Skyd)
- May 23, 2013: Callahan voting closes
- May 25, 2013: Callahan winners and final three announced at College Championships in Madison, WI
Past Winners
[spreadsheet 0AoHsej_RKFvMdHFwNkJqcFk5MGZHeXRrc2tUWlJFN3c 500 650]
Award Process
1. Nominating A Candidate
Any college or university with an interscholastic ultimate team can submit one candidate for the Callahan Award. Teams can nominate Callahan candidates in whatever manner they chose: they can be selected by a captain or coach, voted for by senior players, voted for by all players, etc.
Regardless of the method used to nominate the player, each team must also submit one name of a team representative for the Skyd Award Committee to contact regarding the Callahan. This team representative can be the player nominated for the award.
In addition to each team being able to nominate one player, USA Ultimate Regional Coordinators can nominate one player from their region as well. Note that this can result in two players being nominated from the same team.
2. Eligibility Deadlines
BY TEAMS: Teams eligible to nominate a player for the Callahan must notify the award committee no later than midnight (PST) Friday, March 15th, 2013 of their candidate’s name. Once a player’s name is submitted to the award committee they cannot be replaced by another player.
BY USA ULTIMATE COORDINATORS: In addition to players nominated by their team, each of the 8 regional USA Ultimate coordinators will be able to nominate one player from the region they coordinate. Nominations by USA Ultimate Coordinators must be received by midnight, Sunday, March 31st, 2013.
The Award Committee will begin accepting nominations on Sunday, February 24nd, 2013.
3. Award Balloting
All voters select a first, second and third place candidate for the award. When determining the winner, the Skyd Award Committee will count each first place vote for a candidate as five (5) points, a second place vote as four (4) points, and a third place vote as two (2) points. The candidate with the most total points will win the Award.
Players can place a third place vote for a member of their own school — first and second place votes for a member of a player’s own school will be discarded. For example, players on a school’s B team can only vote for a player on their A team as a third place vote. And vice-versa.
When submitting a Callahan ballot, the voter must completely fill out the ballot, including the voter’s name, school, email address and mailing address. Incomplete ballots will not be counted.
4. Voting Procedure
Voters can only cast ballots for candidates in the division they play in: open players vote for open candidates, players in the women’s division vote for candidates in the women’s division.
5. Award Ballots
All voters select a first place candidate for the award. The candidate with the most total votes will win the Award.
6. Ballot Submission
All votes for the 2013 Callahan Award must be submitted after May 6th and before May 23rd, 2013 at 11:59pm (PST). All votes must be cast on skydmagazine.com.
Votes received via mail, email, overnight post, or telephone will not be accepted.
7. Award Criteria
When casting their ballots, voters are to take the following criteria into account when evaluating the candidates’ play during the season:
A. Overall offensive and defensive abilities
B. Dedication to ultimate and leadership ability
C. Sportsmanship
All candidates should be judged by their performance only during the 2013 spring college season. In particular, when judging sportsmanship, the slate should begin clean with the current spring season, i.e. when determining suitability for the award, head-butting an opponent during the fall season shouldn’t be held against a player.
8. Candidate’s Sportsmanship
When evaluating a candidate’s merit for the award, voters should treat any example of grossly poor sportsmanship (cheating, fighting, kicking, flagrant rule violation, etc.) as an infraction so severe that the player should be eliminated from consideration for the Callahan.
9. Candidate Removal
The Award Committee reserves the right to eliminate a candidate from consideration for whatever reason. Specifically, those candidates that receive support from net (rec.sport.disc) posters or bloggers that habitually make slanderous claims against rivals or attempt to electronically “stuff” the ballot box, may be eliminated from the competition.
Efforts to “game” the Callahan voting (for, by example, making side deals with other teams and swapping votes, having teams vote for 3rd place candidates only, etc. etc.) are severely discouraged. Although ballot stuffing has occurred very rarely in the history of the Callahan, candidates have lost the Award because of these types of activities.
Note that over-the-top, ludicrous claims made on rec.sport.disc, the world wide web, or various ultimate-zines, regarding a Callahan candidate’s prowess on or off the field will not disqualify that candidate and are fully expected. Even encouraged.
All decisions from the Award Committee are final.
10. Awarding of the Callahan Trophies
The winner of the 2013 Callahan Award will be determined by the Skyd Award Committee and announced at the USA Ultimate College Championships to be held in Madison, WI.
Callahan trophies will be awarded at the Championships to those candidates in attendance. For Callahan winners not attending the Championships, trophies will be shipped via United Parcel Service to the candidate’s home address.
11. Property Rights
All material sent to the award committee (photographs, etc.) becomes property of the Award Committee and Skyd Magazine.
12. Communicating with the Committee
Communications regarding the Callahan Award can be made via email. All questions, comments and suggestions can be sent to: callahan2013@skydmagazine.com.
13. Callahan Sponsors
The 2013 Callahan Award is sponsored by Skyd Magazine, Discraft, Five Ultimate and USA Ultimate.
Feature photo by Kevin Leclaire – UltiPhotos.com
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