first of all, congrats to the meet directors and all the volunteers on a job well done. so organized and efficient!! very impressive. the only thing i wish someone could explain to me is why the usms champ. committee changed the team scoring from large, medium and small team to clumping everyone in the same category. seems extremely unfair to have what i call "real teams" competing against state mega teams. there is no possibility for "real teams" to ever come close to competing against them. if you are going to give team awards at the end of the meet, is there any way you can do it fairly? our team is extremely proud to have gotten as many team members as we did to go to natls. (most of them for the first time), but unfortunately they were very disillusioned (as was i) with the idea that we would be competing against state teams. as one of the coaches i didn't have an explanation. even though we were very proud of our 7th place finish in men's division, and our 12th place in combined, we were only one of a few "real teams" in the top ten. would appreciate responses. maybe even someone from the champ.committee could explain how they felt this scoring system would be more fair to the majority of swimmers. then i can pass it along to my teammates.. i don't want them to be so disillusioned that they lose interest in attending any future natls. thanks
The current scoring system is unfair and it needs to be updated. My own humble opinion is you have 2 Divisions; Club & Mega. This in itself we not making everyone happy because you have teams competing as "club" such as Indy & Dam who actually control most of the pools in their city....which I have no problem with in any way and think it supports the mission statement.....but at least their would be some separation.
As for breaking up the mega/state teams I think its a mistake. In my own situation I'm a team of 2 (we have no team in Evergreen). Prior to that we had a good group (about 20) in Vail.....but only 2 of us competed.....and we we're passed the 100 mile radius Jeff supports.
The simple solution and one that led to my staying involved with this sport was swimming for the combined team for Colorado. We've made hundreds of new friends and being a part of this has led to people such as John Smith and myself going out and harassing old teammates from college/club to get back in the water.....something that is going on in a major way right now behind the scene as we are relentlessly hounding dozens of old farts to step up for Austin next year.
I'd really hate to see an regressive or petty actions taken that may serve a few by changing a scoring system used in two meets a year when instead we can make a change that promotes participation and growth.
The current scoring system is unfair and it needs to be updated. My own humble opinion is you have 2 Divisions; Club & Mega. This in itself we not making everyone happy because you have teams competing as "club" such as Indy & Dam who actually control most of the pools in their city....which I have no problem with in any way and think it supports the mission statement.....but at least their would be some separation.
As for breaking up the mega/state teams I think its a mistake. In my own situation I'm a team of 2 (we have no team in Evergreen). Prior to that we had a good group (about 20) in Vail.....but only 2 of us competed.....and we we're passed the 100 mile radius Jeff supports.
The simple solution and one that led to my staying involved with this sport was swimming for the combined team for Colorado. We've made hundreds of new friends and being a part of this has led to people such as John Smith and myself going out and harassing old teammates from college/club to get back in the water.....something that is going on in a major way right now behind the scene as we are relentlessly hounding dozens of old farts to step up for Austin next year.
I'd really hate to see an regressive or petty actions taken that may serve a few by changing a scoring system used in two meets a year when instead we can make a change that promotes participation and growth.
