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
Hey Karen, we keep misunderstanding each other. :) You guys TOTALLY deserved a banner in that case. I was refering to rTodd's example of not being able to put together even a relay becasue there were not enough people. If your are on a smaller team, say 40 members, and can only get 2-3 people to go to Nationals, then I don't think that TEAM would be deserving of a banner - and I sometimes it seems that's what many people are trying to create: a scoring system where every team with 1-2 good swimmers can earn a banner. IMO, that's not a team in the true sense of the word. (Uh oh, I'll wait for comments on that. I'm just speaking freely here people and I hope someone can relate to this perspective.)
And actually, your example is PERFECT! You guys were able to win a banner with 8 people. It really doesn't take a miracle or a huge team to win a banner. You can do a lot of damage with 8 swimmers. That's deserving of recognition! Good job.
Hey Karen, we keep misunderstanding each other. :) You guys TOTALLY deserved a banner in that case. I was refering to rTodd's example of not being able to put together even a relay becasue there were not enough people. If your are on a smaller team, say 40 members, and can only get 2-3 people to go to Nationals, then I don't think that TEAM would be deserving of a banner - and I sometimes it seems that's what many people are trying to create: a scoring system where every team with 1-2 good swimmers can earn a banner. IMO, that's not a team in the true sense of the word. (Uh oh, I'll wait for comments on that. I'm just speaking freely here people and I hope someone can relate to this perspective.)
And actually, your example is PERFECT! You guys were able to win a banner with 8 people. It really doesn't take a miracle or a huge team to win a banner. You can do a lot of damage with 8 swimmers. That's deserving of recognition! Good job.
