The 2022 Disc Golf Season begins with our first stop at the Las Vegas Challenge and our first Community Connect of the year! Our team headed to Green Valley High School, located only 2 miles from the Wild Horse Golf Club where the Pro Tour event took place, only a 6 minute drive away.
This school was selected for a few reasons:
- It was the 10th largest High School in the entire State of Nevada
- How close it truly was to the Pro Tour Event
- The school has been nationally recognized for academics and athletics, so we felt this was a proper choice to kick off the season, hoping to plant the seed of disc golf at a school that would continue echoing the teachings of Uplay Disc Golf and introduces the sport to students.
To date, this was the largest school that Uplay has ever taught at. The total student count in the school is 3,075!!
We taught a total of 4 block classes with an estimated number of 800 students. However, we actually counted a total of 546 Students taught. The age range comprised Freshman and High School through Senior and High School. We maintained a 100% level of engagement for the students who participated. In this particular school, the second-period class was given the option, by the P.E. Teachers, to sit out and watch the demonstration while working on other school assignments work. They were also very interested.
Due to high wind volume, with estimated gusts between 20-40mph, Uplay set up the teaching session inside the Green Valley High School gym.
We had returning Coaches Thomas Gilbert and Jordan Castro, brand-new Coaches Cynthia Ricciotti, Sarah Gilpin, Andrew Gilpin, and returning Uplay Staff & Coaches Ella Hansen, Dustin Keegan, and Lead Coach Zoe AnDyke.
In the first period, Thomas Gilbert was the first of the lucky coaches to experience an Ace, whilst standing between the line of young gentlemen that he was coaching. In the third period, Sarah Gilpin had the pleasure of witnessing an Ace, immediately after the student had asked if she thought he was able to throw in an Ace and she encouraged him that he could. Finally, in the last period Coach Ella Hansen threw in, during the demonstration of driving, back to back Aces - first one backhand second one sidearm.
It’s fair to say that the coaches found satisfaction, happiness, and fulfillment in working with that many students and sharing disc golf with them, so much so that each of them reported on the event by expressing why they are a professional in the sport of disc golf and how much more they felt from teaching others versus other tournament experiences. Even if their own performance factor did not meet their own goals or expectations, touching the lives of so many youths sealed the deal for them on a successful Las Vegas Challenge experience.
It was a highly successful day for the students and for Zoe and Dustin, simply due to the fact that this was Uplays largest challenge with population. And with that, the team was able also to teach 5 P.E. Teachers plus 1 Athletic Director how to present and introduce the basics of Disc Golf. Check out this video recap of the day created by the Disc Golf Pro Tour!
Uplay wishes to extend a huge thank you and a big high five to our amazing Partners - The DGPT, DGN, UDisc, Discmania, Upper Park Disc Golf, Disc Dots, and Trash Panda for making all of this education and the product giveaways to the school and children possible.
Find more inspirational photos on our Flickr Page!
