From the Desk of the CEO: Three Months Later

It’s been a minute since my last blog post. Things have been busy around here with the launch of new departments, onboarding volunteers, sponsor discussions, registering players and teams, and planning national qualifiers and USQ Cup.

We recently shared a “Save the Date” for Giving Tuesday (December 2!), and it feels like the perfect time to talk about the holidays and what they mean for quadball.

When quadball started, it was all word of mouth. Alex Benepe, our first commissioner, and players from Middlebury College spent countless hours traveling to different colleges, talking about the sport, and convincing friends, family, and strangers to join and support us. Those efforts were duplicated across the country in the decade that followed. Players hosted pickup games when they were home for summer breaks and the holidays, finding locals with or building equipment and posting dates, times, and locations on social media. It was through NYC pickups hosted by Benepe that I really fell in love with quadball, and he was a big reason I started volunteering.

Nowadays, very few people are still hosting regular pickup events, and the effort to tell others about the sport has dwindled. You’ll hear longtime players say, “It’s just not what it used to be”, and, unfortunately, they’re not entirely wrong. But that doesn’t mean it has to stay that way or that you can’t prove them (us) wrong.

I don’t believe younger generations care less about the sport. I believe there’s been a lack of guidance for too long. As we became a more established, organized league, it became less necessary for the community to step up and build things themselves. That was fine, until a pandemic, misaligned priorities, and missteps pushed the organization backward. Now, we need to return to our roots.

All of that is really just a long way of saying this: show your passion for quadball this holiday season.

We’re entering a window filled with opportunities to tell others about the sport. You’ll see old friends and meet new people at family gatherings, dinners, and celebrations. Organize a local pickup and invite everyone, even the folks you think might be “too old”. Post flyers at Starbucks. Share in local Facebook, Reddit, and Threads groups. DM nearby teams to see who might be around. Tell USQ if you’re running a holiday pickup and we’ll help publicize it, too. If only six people are scheduled to show up? Email me. I’ll send you a one-pager on how to run Q3s. And, most importantly, when someone asks what you’ve been up to, say quadball. Don’t brush it off or say, “soccer is going great”.

All of this–hosting pickups, inviting new people in, and reconnecting with our roots–feeds into the larger puzzle of how we grow. Another critical piece of that puzzle is making sure USQ has the resources to support that growth.

Over the next few months, you’ll notice a push from USQ for donations and support online. As I mentioned in my first post, USQ is a nonprofit, and like any nonprofit, we need consistent funding to meet our mission and goals. It’s normal for nonprofits to ask for donations, and it’s important that our community understands that. This doesn’t mean players are required to give, but it does mean we’re asking you to help by promoting our campaigns to those outside the community. On Tuesday, we’ll be pushing our Giving Tuesday pages. Please interact with them and share them widely.

Continuing on the topic of giving, earlier this month we announced USQ Day of Service. In addition to raising funds, it’s common for nonprofits to host initiatives like this–whether to collect goods for their own organization or to support another. This season’s Day of Service is focused on gathering non-perishable foods, volunteering at food banks, and advocating for hunger relief. We chose this cause in response to disruptions to SNAP during the recent government shutdown, something had a direct impact on some members of our community. In future years, the USQ Day of Service may support other causes in the U.S., but once a year, moving forward, we will ask teams across the country to mobilize and do what they can to help others.

One last thing to add to your dinner table conversations this season: early bird tickets for USQ Cup are on sale. If your family is planning to attend, now is the time to grab discounted VIP tickets (the perks included this time around are bigger and better than ever, I promise!). You can also pre-order an event T-shirt and trading cards at a discounted rate. Help USQ and help yourself to a cheering section in California.

✅ Weekly Action Item

While you’re with family and friends this weekend, tell them about quadball. Ask them to open Instagram and follow your team and USQ. Share our donation page with them and explain how much even a $5 contribution would help this Giving Tuesday. Together, we can continue to push USQ toward a more positive future.