The Future Is Bright For UPlayDG - Here's Part 2 Of Their Story

As if playing across the nation in some of the sport’s most prestigious events wasn’t enough, both Zoe Andyke and Dustin Keegan have spent enormous amounts of time building their nonprofit UPlayDG. With a mission to teach disc golf to students all over the United States, and eventually the world, they’ve spent every ounce of their non-touring time creating a system that will be instrumental in growing our sport.

Some unusual things happened in 2018 that may have at the time felt like monumental challenges for the UPlayDG team, but toward the end of the season, the stars aligned for Zoe and Dustin in a big way. Let’s check out what’s in store for 2019 and see just how impactful of an organization UPlayDG is going to become.

Juggling The Tour

The 2018 season started like most others for Zoe and Dustin with big plans to hit the road and kill it at events all across the United States. However, running a nonprofit from the road is a pretty tall task, and what may have seemed frustrating at the time turned out to be a major win. Zoe explains how things unfolded:

“The story of this year was Zoe pulling herself off tour and telling Dustin good luck on tour because she’s trying to build a nonprofit. I had the best year of my life on tour while we were touring, yet also worked harder than we ever have before. I would’ve accidentally stopped my personal and professional life to run toward this nonprofit life and was organically forced to go back on tour and essentially halt UPlayDG operations.”

Once things settled down a bit back in their home base of Eugene, Oregon, Zoe was able to rejoin Dustin on tour for the last few months of the season. “Magic happened while we were on tour from August to October. We were networking and found ourselves in unbelievably special and opportune spots and in front of opportune people to help us strategically grow our nonprofit,” she said.

What’s In Store?

Plans for next year are already in full swing, and while we can’t reveal the specific details just yet, there are some exciting items in the works. The team will kick things off in January in California with a workshop that’s designed to really take their teaching curriculum to the next level. The goal is to standardize their system in full so that schools will have a formal application process to complete before Zoe and Dustin head out.

Other highlights of the coming year include a major collaboration with notable disc golfers in Canada as well as plans to join forces with some well-known Estonian players and instructors. With all of this in store, plus going on tour, Zoe and Dustin also hope to reach at least 10 different schools over the course of the year.

Keep in mind, it takes an immense amount of time and dedication to spread the sport of disc golf to students worldwide, and if you feel called to help, visit the UPlayDG Donate section of the website. We’re excited to see Zoe and Dustin excel this year both on and off the course!