Hello All,
Some thoughts on the most recent round of comments that have circulated across the list. As a note I will use the term pre-qualify interchangably with Dan's prefered wording of "qualify at the War" because when we had a system similar to this in the past the term prequalifier was used and it is hard to drop old habbits. Currently college sailing is set up as having two season. We use these seasons to indicate eligibility for competing and there is no carry over from one season to the next at the national level. As a result, there are a number of times when the team sailing in the Fall looks much different from the team sailing in the spring, as Joe mentioned. This fact alone makes a strong case for not using the War memorial as a qualifier for the America's trophy. The America's trophy should include the best 18 teams possible. Allowing sailors who may have only been eligible in a previous season use their abilities to qualify their team for the next season makes it less likely the best 18 teams will be at the America's trophy. There is an entirely different problem with using the war as a qualifier that hasn't been addressed and that is the impact on geographical distribution of teams attending the America's trophy. For Spring 08 of the top 9 three were from each of the North, Central, and Southern Regions. Same for the Fall I believe. If this was the case all the time I would have less aversion to using the War as a qualifier, but it isn't. In the past when we had pre-qualifiers this was a major issue. At the time we were only using 6 prequalifier and while the example I will elaborate on took place from a spring to fall season it still illustrates the a large problem with prequalification. Fall of 05 when only one team from the north had pre qualified there was a very heated battle for the remaining 4 berths aloted to the North Region. The same exact thing could have happened in the spring under the old system, or the new system. In Fall of 05 there were only 5 north teams at the War as opposed to 7 from the south. The number 6 team from the North was Columbia and was considerably better than the number 7 team from the south when you look at the results from throughout the season. In fact, Spring of 05 they had finished 7th at the America's trophy. While they graduated off one senior, the rest of their team was deap enough to still merit mention in the Sailing World Pre-Season Prognostic, which is no small feat. The fact that is when we compare one region to another, the more teams we look at from that region the more even the ability levels of the regions are. If we were to only take the top 3 teams from each region and compare them, the relative strengths of the region would vary much more than when we compare the top 10 teams from each region. One large benifit of not having prequalifiers is it allows us to pick the top 6 teams from each region every single time garunteed. Granted this still doesn't ensure the best 18 teams are at the America's trophy, but absent a centralized qualification system it provides the best outcome. The other comment that keeps poping up is the desire to have an event where you only sail against teams that are not qualified. While this may sound like a more "fair" solution than what is currently in place I would argue that transition to only having teams not qualified sail in events would signifigantly degrade the quality of the qualifiers. I have already talked about this before, but to reitterate, how a team sails in a 9 boat fleet is not going to be as strong a preditor of how they sail at the America's trophy in an 18 boat fleet as sailing in an 18 boat fleet is. Additionally, excluding teams seems counter intuative to me if the goal is to make teams across the board more even. How can a small team ever hope to improve if they never have a chance to sail agianst the bigger better teams except at the America's trophy? I understand that small teams want to win events. We live in a culture that rewards winning over improvement. And while Dan's system will certainly allow three smaller teams a chance to win an additional regatta each semester, I disagree completely with the idea that it will help those teams improve more rapidly than our current system. Cheers, Scott On Tue, Sep 16, 2008 at 8:35 AM, John D. Griffin <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > Just a quick response to Joe's thoughtful email as I feel some are starting > to understand Dan's proposal and the good it will do MAISA as a whole. > > > > There is no rule that says you must sail the America (or the War) with the > same sailors who participated in the qualifying event. Obviously, you want > to sail your best in both, but if someone cannot make an event (often the > case with student athletes, especially at the Club level) there is no issue > for substitutions. Dan has thought long and hard about this proposal and > has > run it by many of us (including some of the high end varsity coaches). > > > > I urge all to truly read Dan Winter's proposal. It will only increase the > experience for small varsity and club teams and it take very little away > from the high end varsity teams. (There is no reason they cannot insert a > "qualified" only or "open" event that same weekend.) > > > > One major thought. This is not an attempt to divide MAISA, just a chance > for > those on the bubble to sail in a qualifying event where we do not have to > sail around others who are already qualified, to get to those we need to > best to qualify. It is a chance to say "Hey, all the teams on the water are > out for the same thing. Top finishers are in.." > > > > As I am seeing events that are not filling this fall and other issues > surfacing (like high gas prices limiting travel for small teams with tight > budgets), I think we all need to look forward. Just as Ann Campbell > recently > wrote, there is a need for more women only teams to ensure slots for > nationals. > > > > Where will those new women only teams come from? The varsity teams already > have them. > > > > I urge you all once again to really think about the need to support the > small varsity and club teams with small but important changes like the ones > Dan has proposed. I also urge you the let everyone hear how you feel, > especially your MAISA representatives. > > > > My voice is getting "scratchy" from writing too much!!! > > > > > > John (Doc) Griffin > > > > Coach, William and Mary Sailing > > Director, Program in Neuroscience > > Associate Professor of Biology > > College of William and Mary > > Williamsburg, VA 23187 > > 757-221-2257 > > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > > > > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Monday, September 15, 2008 8:36 PM > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [email protected] > Subject: Re: [MAISA] RE: Joe Sunfish's Comments > > > > > > > > Looking at the fall and spring seasons as one long season may make > > sense...ditto, fall fleet racing and spring team racing, which I've heard > other people > > mention as well. > > > > Without putting a lot of thought into it, however, I can think of one issue > > that would have to be addressed, i.e., suppose a team qualifies for the > America > > Trophy from the WAR but some or all of the key players are not available > to > > participate in the spring, e.g., due to the January graduation of a senior > or > > "Study abroad" for a couple of juniors. In such a case, the spring team > would > > not be the same team that qualified in the fall, and in fact the spring > > personnel might not have qualified in the fall. All issues can be > addressed. > This > > is just one of them. > > > > Joe Sullivan > > Coach > > Fordham University Sailing Team > > > > > > > > > > ************** > > Psssst...Have you heard the news? There's a new fashion blog, > > plus the latest fall trends and hair styles at StyleList.com. > > > > (http://www.stylelist.com/trends?ncid=aolsty00050000000014) > > _________________________________________________ > > maisa mailing list > > [email protected] > > http://www.collegesailing.org/mailman/?listname=maisa > > _________________________________________________ > maisa mailing list > [email protected] > http://www.collegesailing.org/mailman/?listname=maisa > -- Scott Ryan Grandt [EMAIL PROTECTED] Mobile: 562-754-1555 _________________________________________________ maisa mailing list [email protected] http://www.collegesailing.org/mailman/?listname=maisa
