Profile
Our Mission, Vision & Values
Mission
Bay Area Disc’s mission is to serve, strengthen, and grow the Ultimate community by creating opportunities for athletes of all ages and backgrounds to interact, develop, and compete. In all aspects of our work and play, we embrace and promote Spirit of the Game.
Vision
We envision a Bay Area full of healthy, thriving, compassionate, and skilled individuals who live in strong, inclusive, equitable, and interconnected communities. We use the unique sport of Ultimate to improve individuals and communities, creating the future we want to see.
Values
BADA is centered on four core values: Fun ~ Respect ~ Community ~ Belonging
History
From its creation, Bay Area Disc Association was about more than just playing Ultimate Frisbee. It was about building a community that provides a safe and welcoming environment for players of all ages and skill levels to learn and fall in love with the sport. There are deep and long-lasting positive connections made between players that extend beyond the field. This is the root of why our organization started: to build a community that creates a sense of belonging to all of its members.
The organization was founded in 2009 by the leaders of the San Francisco Ultimate League, San Francisco Ultimate Club, Bay Area Youth Ultimate, East Bay Ultimate League, and Marin Ultimate Summer League. As a result of this decision to unify, organizers were able to consolidate governance, resources, finances, leadership and planning to help bring the existing Ultimate community closer together. Within just a few years of significant growth in playing opportunities for adult players, the organization found itself with additional capacity to grow a more comprehensive youth scene. By 2011, they established a new Youth Division to host low-cost programming, train new coaches, foster diverse events and create new teams for kids in elementary, middle and high school.
Within its first ten years, BADA operated under the fiscal sponsorship of Community Initiatives. By 2018, the board and executive leadership determined the organization was growing at a pace where it was ready to operate fully independently. By September 2018, BADA became an independent 501(c)(3) nonprofit, running more than 100 distinct Ultimate programs in 75 different cities across all nine Bay Area counties, serving 5,000 adult and youth players annually.
From March 2020 until May 2021, BADA was unable to host ultimate frisbee programming due to the COVID-19 pandemic. During this time, staff ran alternative programming, remote events and shared educational resources for adult and youth players as a way to continue our core commitments of safety, quality and fiscal responsibility during the pandemic. By June, 2021 BADA was able to start its return to the fields, hosting a limited number of adult and youth recreational leagues, as well as youth summer camps.
As of September, 2021 BADA officially resumed all Ultimate programming, hosting clinics, leagues, tournaments and other community events for thousands of youth and adult players across all nine counties of the Bay Area.
