In December of 2016, one of our Account Managers, Jake Price, left the LeagueApps offices for a little over four weeks to travel to Ahmedabad, India. His aim was to break down barriers and build communities through the sport of Ultimate Frisbee. In addition to working for LeagueApps, Jake plays Ultimate professionally, most recently for the NY Empire. At the time of the trip, he was playing for the now defunct NY Rumble.

For the uninitiated, Ultimate Frisbee is a 7-v-7 sport played on a field similar to that of an American football field. Players are not allowed to move with the disc in their hands, and points are scored by catching the disc in the endzone. What makes Ultimate unique is that it can be played with both males and females on the field at the same time at both national and international levels. In India, the only format available is mixed gender. Understanding that, and having learned about some of the social gender dynamics that exist in rural India, Jake saw an opportunity to make a big impact on the Ahmedabad community through the sport.

While overseas, Jake and his crew of six (four Rumble players, one club teammate, and his brother) coached five teams, visited over 10 schools, and ran two weekend clinics. LeagueApps sponsored the first clinic by providing food and water for both days as well as t-shirts for the winner of the 3-v-3 tournament at the end of the weekend. We caught up with Jake to ask him about how this affected the way he works with our partners and he had this to say:

“This trip was an incredible opportunity for me to put my money where my mouth is. So often, we find ourselves dealing with the challenges behind the technology without being exposed to the other challenges associated with being a sports organizer. I had the unique opportunity to be a coach, administrator of 5 other coaches, a camp organizer, and a lobbyist for funding/program creation, all over the course of a month.

This is great for all of our partners as it allows me to easily visualize how certain features affect their everyday lives. It makes my ability to offer configuration recommendations, make feature update requests, and prioritize bug fixes with our team much more grounded in reality. On a basic level, it grounds me and the partner success team in the realities our organizers face each and every day, which allows us to provide better service!”

At the heart of everything LeagueApps does is the stated mission of “Making Sports Happen.” Every one of our employees has had a sports experience that meaningfully affected their growth as people and we’re excited about all of the work that they do both in and out of the office. If you would like to learn more about Jake’s trip, he has released a documentary about it on Youtube: