With the continued growth in USMS membership, I would submit that it's time to eliminate the regional teams at Nationals. Case in point: NCMS sent a "team" of 123 swimmers to Atlanta, enough to enter A, B, C, and D relays in many events (e.g. the mens 35+ 200 free relay in which our club team placed 13th behind eight regional teams). It's been argued that the formation of regional teams allows more swimmers to participate in relays, yet local clubs from North Carolina sent as many as thirty or more athletes and could have entered relays on their own as our club (with eight swimmers) did. Swim with the guys you actually train with.
Parents
Former Member
So the people who compete at Nationals are discounting the opinion of the people who don't compete at Nationals on the topics of how Nationals should be scored and if regional teams should be allowed to compete at Nationals?
No the minority discounts the issues that may be important to the larger population by being the squeaky wheel. Its all to easy to focus on the issues raised by this particular group and completely overlook the fact that the rest of the USMS population may have issues or needs they want to address as well.
And to the issue at hand with regional teams, Zones are scored the same way and are subject to the same issue of larger teams dominating due to a huge number of relays. Why should only those who compete at nationals have an say in what could potential affect my local zone meet? Its easy to overlook these things and focus on the more visible and more vocal.
So the people who compete at Nationals are discounting the opinion of the people who don't compete at Nationals on the topics of how Nationals should be scored and if regional teams should be allowed to compete at Nationals?
No the minority discounts the issues that may be important to the larger population by being the squeaky wheel. Its all to easy to focus on the issues raised by this particular group and completely overlook the fact that the rest of the USMS population may have issues or needs they want to address as well.
And to the issue at hand with regional teams, Zones are scored the same way and are subject to the same issue of larger teams dominating due to a huge number of relays. Why should only those who compete at nationals have an say in what could potential affect my local zone meet? Its easy to overlook these things and focus on the more visible and more vocal.
