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
YEAH!!! Jim, welcome back - I needed some support in the argument that S/M/L divisions are a BAD IDEA. While I understand the point of leveling the playing field (even more), it just casues SO MANY problems. Karen and Jim's debate is yet another example.
I completely agree with Jim that the team that scores the most points should win. My caveat is that I am in favor of Regional/Local simply because they are different beasts. I believe Jim is in favor of that too?? Yet, I guess I DISAGREE that WCM deserved a banner in Michigan because they DID score enough points to earn one, regardless of how many swimmers they had.
And exactly, if New England Masters doesn't bring very many swimmers to Nationals in Austin, then they shouldn't get a banner. And no, they SHOULD NOT then be categorized in the Medium division so they WIN! That's ludicrous!
Regional teams in 1 division. Local teams in another. Done. This whole debate over S/M/L divisions has so much wrong with it.
rTodd - fyi, banners are awarded to the top 10 teams at Nationals.
YEAH!!! Jim, welcome back - I needed some support in the argument that S/M/L divisions are a BAD IDEA. While I understand the point of leveling the playing field (even more), it just casues SO MANY problems. Karen and Jim's debate is yet another example.
I completely agree with Jim that the team that scores the most points should win. My caveat is that I am in favor of Regional/Local simply because they are different beasts. I believe Jim is in favor of that too?? Yet, I guess I DISAGREE that WCM deserved a banner in Michigan because they DID score enough points to earn one, regardless of how many swimmers they had.
And exactly, if New England Masters doesn't bring very many swimmers to Nationals in Austin, then they shouldn't get a banner. And no, they SHOULD NOT then be categorized in the Medium division so they WIN! That's ludicrous!
Regional teams in 1 division. Local teams in another. Done. This whole debate over S/M/L divisions has so much wrong with it.
rTodd - fyi, banners are awarded to the top 10 teams at Nationals.
