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
Good Morning,
Swim4: I missed that college analogy before, sorry to rehash...
I don't think that my definition is "the" definition for a club team, that's just how I perceive it. And I don't want anyone to think that I speak for Pacific. I am only giving my opinion. While I am the Pacific secretary, all I do is take notes :) Michael can speak for Pacific, and he usually does :wine:
As far as the one facility goes... There have been many times in the past 14years, since I started Masters, that WCM has had to go to different pools to workout (local college, local rec team, other city pool) because our pool was shut down for whatever reason; that being said we don't have workout groups at these different pools. We all went "together". I don't think because we had to find other facilities that we are suddenly a regional team, and in fact, all of the other pools were in Walnut Creek.
Meg: Thanks for your thoughtful response. I hope I am not coming across to anyone that my team is the way things should be done. Far from it. I will admit that we are extremely lucky to live where we do, in that swimming is a very popular sport around here (mostly during the summer though). Kerry is an A1 coach, and our assistants are great too. Because we do all work out at one facility it easily forges that day to day camraderie, etc.
I am not saying that there isn't camraderie, long time friendships, etc. with Regional Teams. In general, swimmers are social aquatic animals, we would make friends swimming in swamps! I consider Karlyn a friend although I see her only at meets, and when she's visiting Eric's home nearby. Another girl Carrie, who used to live in WC, now swims for Almaden (near San Jose) and I only see her at meets... anyway.
It seems to me at this point that the most forward direction would be to define a club team. If it's not a club team then it's a regional team. Whether there is SML I really don't care, but I do think that the club and regional need to be separated.
One more thought I had last night while trying to fall asleep: Why are the Regional teams "against" two separate divisions at Nationals? Why do they care? If anything, taking out WCM and TOC, and whatever other club team places in the TT at Nationals, would leave room for two more Regional teams to be in the Top Ten. And conversely, having a club team division would get at least 5 more club teams into a Top 10.
Just more ramblings.
And Paul thanks for the PM :smooch: (I know Laura doesn't check this site so I feel comfortable giving you a virtual smooch :)
Good Morning,
Swim4: I missed that college analogy before, sorry to rehash...
I don't think that my definition is "the" definition for a club team, that's just how I perceive it. And I don't want anyone to think that I speak for Pacific. I am only giving my opinion. While I am the Pacific secretary, all I do is take notes :) Michael can speak for Pacific, and he usually does :wine:
As far as the one facility goes... There have been many times in the past 14years, since I started Masters, that WCM has had to go to different pools to workout (local college, local rec team, other city pool) because our pool was shut down for whatever reason; that being said we don't have workout groups at these different pools. We all went "together". I don't think because we had to find other facilities that we are suddenly a regional team, and in fact, all of the other pools were in Walnut Creek.
Meg: Thanks for your thoughtful response. I hope I am not coming across to anyone that my team is the way things should be done. Far from it. I will admit that we are extremely lucky to live where we do, in that swimming is a very popular sport around here (mostly during the summer though). Kerry is an A1 coach, and our assistants are great too. Because we do all work out at one facility it easily forges that day to day camraderie, etc.
I am not saying that there isn't camraderie, long time friendships, etc. with Regional Teams. In general, swimmers are social aquatic animals, we would make friends swimming in swamps! I consider Karlyn a friend although I see her only at meets, and when she's visiting Eric's home nearby. Another girl Carrie, who used to live in WC, now swims for Almaden (near San Jose) and I only see her at meets... anyway.
It seems to me at this point that the most forward direction would be to define a club team. If it's not a club team then it's a regional team. Whether there is SML I really don't care, but I do think that the club and regional need to be separated.
One more thought I had last night while trying to fall asleep: Why are the Regional teams "against" two separate divisions at Nationals? Why do they care? If anything, taking out WCM and TOC, and whatever other club team places in the TT at Nationals, would leave room for two more Regional teams to be in the Top Ten. And conversely, having a club team division would get at least 5 more club teams into a Top 10.
Just more ramblings.
And Paul thanks for the PM :smooch: (I know Laura doesn't check this site so I feel comfortable giving you a virtual smooch :)