Why I Donated to Skyd

My top 3 reasons at the moment. If they resonate with you, maybe you should do the same thing?

My first reason was at 4 in the morning, laughing hysterically when Dom tried to spike her own spike on the winning catch of the World Championship game. My wife and I watched in alternating terror-and-rapture as each point of that game unfolded. We knew every detail about the players and coaches involved; we’d lived seasons with Riot (2 for me and 5 for Heidi-Marie) and loved every one of them…and the Tsang-Stern juggernaut married us, for goodness sakes. Even with those ties, it was the Skyd team that made that game come alive. They saw injuries off the camera before anyone in the crowd. They talked us through the terrifying Rise of Desmond and the appreciation for a vintage edition of Big Game Gwen. And when the world went crazy and the tourney directors announced that the game would continue until all fans were appeased…well, they were in shock right with us. That experience doesn’t happen without Skyd.

My second reason is that I can’t imagine leaving this sport’s media to the pro leagues or to USAU. If those are the two options, I scare myself with scenarios where one media outlet whitewashes everything behind banality and delay while the other promotes primarily for profit. Where in there does anyone care about how to defend a give-go cut? How to plant on breakside cuts? What is the best way for a shorter player to mark a taller one? Where are the weak parts of a zone? Skyd (and Ultiworld, goodness keep their volunteering souls) are the ones that bring you the actual game. Will the pros and USAU step in to fill that void? Do they have the ability? The mandate? The people? I’ve lived in a world where if you want coverage of ultimate, you have to literally write it yourself…it wasn’t as fun as it is now.

Keep in mind, I am totally biased on this: I volunteered years of time to run The Huddle along with World-Champion-Andy-World-Champion-Lovs-World-Champion-eth (he makes me call him that). Blood sweat and tears went into that thing, and now it is gone, because even passionate people cannot reasonably volunteer their lives away.

Last reason: I love to write about ultimate, and I’ll do it for free….if Skyd is still around. I have another fiveparter on the scale of Raise Your Game that is really important to me. I have big dreams about three other articles on specifics of the game that I want to write in 2015. In the past, I get the thoughts right and then I rely on Elliot and Neeley and Liam and a host of other great editors and publishers to make those words into something readable and hopefully useful. Without them, there is no chance that I write those articles. Maybe Ultiworld will do the same, but is it a good idea to simply trade in one volunteer group for another? If we support Skyd, then I can make those articles happen. If not, I can’t. That’s it.

Donate Now and Support Skyd in 2015