Values
We’ve talked a lot about how to diffuse the dynamics that can make men’s division experiences feel toxic as well as what we actively want in a team and agreed on a set of core values:
- Growth
We seek and accept feedback and criticism, we’re open to changing everything from throwing form to decision-making, and we want to grow as individual players.
- Support
Everyone is part of a community and valued as a complete human being beyond just what they can do on the field.
- Openness
We set goals, expectations, and agenda as a team and make them explicit. We work to distill clarity about what individual and team success means, and we try to communicate directly and early.
- Play
We learn by doing, prioritize touches and time spent moving, commit to making the most of practice, and attend a lot of tournaments. Our goal celebrations border on the absurd.
History
Switchback was founded in 2022 by Connor Hannify, Camen Piho, Adam Fischette, Brendan Wallace and Max Bommarito.
The name Switchback is a reference to the natural beauty of the pacific northwest and the trails that help make it accessible. And it’s a metaphor: switchbacks are a way to make it up a mountain by taking a longer path with lots of turns and incremental progress; they help accomplish something hard by breaking it into pieces; they work only if you’re open to going sideways to get forward.
Similarly, building a cohesive team and community that navigates the conflicts of a competitive environment is hard, it takes moving sideways to get forward and breaking challenges down to manageable pieces. We wanted to acknowledge that difficulty, and how we want to take a different approach to what we’ve seen and experienced. A different path. A path that starts at the base of a steep mountain, that curves and winds and bends but ultimately heads high, high, high.
Come climb that mountain with us.
Endorsements
- “Bordering on absurdity” - Matt Rehder (Seattle sectionals, 2022)
- “They’re so wholesome … that team might be one of the best examples I’ve ever seen of really healthy masculine friendship” - Celeste
- “They are solid and have decent talent” - Reddit user Jaysaawn
- “Was [Leo Sovell-Fernandez] on Dragon Thrust again this year?” “I don’t think he was. Maybe he didn’t play club this year.” - Ultiworld