Karen,
I understand your objection to the superteam concept. I don't agree with it, but I understand it. We had separate clubs in Kentucky for many years, and only in the last few years have we changed to the superteam concept. Why, you ask? Because those of us from Kentucky who went to Nationals regularly realized that we knew the people from the other Kentucky clubs who also went to Nationals better than we knew people on our own clubs who swam at a different time than we did. We were all sitting together at Nationals, going to dinner together, sharing rooms together, and cheering each other on, yet we were supposedly not teammates. This just seemed ridiculous. In Hawaii, I think there were 12 of us from Kentucky there, and we represented five different clubs. None of us had enough people to put together a relay. By the next year in Tempe, we had formed Swim Kentucky, and we still had about 12 people attend, but this time we were all one club and we did form relays, and we had a great time hanging out together and cheering each other on. We scored a lot more points together than we would have as separate clubs, but that really wasn't the biggest motivation. As a matter of fact, I don't think any of our relays scored any points. What mattered to us was a team identity, and we had that in Tempe, when we had not had it in Hawaii. The Kentucky superteam didn't get its first real test, as far as improved point scoring, until Indianapolis. Our men and women each managed to place third in their divisions. But more important than being a superteam was the fact that Indianapolis was close enough to Kentucky that we could get a large contingent to turn out. We're probably only going to be able to be competitive for team championships in cases where Nationals is within driving distance for us.
Remember too that in many parts of the country the population of an entire state is less than in a few square miles in California! We had around 500 registered Masters swimmers in all of Kentucky last year, which is in the same ballpark as your "true" club. I don't know what percentage of WCM's members actually compete, but for us, it's relatively low. Just because we have 500 members of SKY doesn't mean we're going to send that many people to Nationals. We only had about 50 swimmers come to Indianapolis.
If you ask me, Walnut Creek is a superteam too (and I mean that as a compliment). You have a large, well-organized team made up of very good swimmers. You seem to do well at every Nationals you attend. In fact, Walnut Creek, the so-called non-superteam, kicked our superteam butts in Tempe! You outscored Swim Kentucky 1744 to 141!
Karen,
I understand your objection to the superteam concept. I don't agree with it, but I understand it. We had separate clubs in Kentucky for many years, and only in the last few years have we changed to the superteam concept. Why, you ask? Because those of us from Kentucky who went to Nationals regularly realized that we knew the people from the other Kentucky clubs who also went to Nationals better than we knew people on our own clubs who swam at a different time than we did. We were all sitting together at Nationals, going to dinner together, sharing rooms together, and cheering each other on, yet we were supposedly not teammates. This just seemed ridiculous. In Hawaii, I think there were 12 of us from Kentucky there, and we represented five different clubs. None of us had enough people to put together a relay. By the next year in Tempe, we had formed Swim Kentucky, and we still had about 12 people attend, but this time we were all one club and we did form relays, and we had a great time hanging out together and cheering each other on. We scored a lot more points together than we would have as separate clubs, but that really wasn't the biggest motivation. As a matter of fact, I don't think any of our relays scored any points. What mattered to us was a team identity, and we had that in Tempe, when we had not had it in Hawaii. The Kentucky superteam didn't get its first real test, as far as improved point scoring, until Indianapolis. Our men and women each managed to place third in their divisions. But more important than being a superteam was the fact that Indianapolis was close enough to Kentucky that we could get a large contingent to turn out. We're probably only going to be able to be competitive for team championships in cases where Nationals is within driving distance for us.
Remember too that in many parts of the country the population of an entire state is less than in a few square miles in California! We had around 500 registered Masters swimmers in all of Kentucky last year, which is in the same ballpark as your "true" club. I don't know what percentage of WCM's members actually compete, but for us, it's relatively low. Just because we have 500 members of SKY doesn't mean we're going to send that many people to Nationals. We only had about 50 swimmers come to Indianapolis.
If you ask me, Walnut Creek is a superteam too (and I mean that as a compliment). You have a large, well-organized team made up of very good swimmers. You seem to do well at every Nationals you attend. In fact, Walnut Creek, the so-called non-superteam, kicked our superteam butts in Tempe! You outscored Swim Kentucky 1744 to 141!
