View proposed 2002-2003 Short Course Calendar

Many of you attended the Coaches' Meeting at either 9-12 Age Groups or 13-19 Age Groups. The overwhelming feeling was that coaches wanted more of a logical progression to the 2002-2003 meet schedule. Ray Grant, our Age Group Chairman, worked hard to find that logical progression that many of you requested.

The District meet was one of the meets that coaches wanted to see before Age Groups. A number of board members, coaches included, recalled the actual development of the District meet from the original Silver meet. The intention of that meet was to provide a fast meet for those swimmers who were faster than Bronze, but not quite fast enough to swim several events at Age Groups. The District meet was never intended to be a qualifier for other meets. It was designed to be an end of season meet for swimmers who had "A to B" times in particular events.

The athlete representatives were also involved in this rather long discussion at the board meeting. They both expressed their opinions and like the District meet where it is on the 2002-2003 calendar. The other consideration is that many of the university facilities are not available in February, including Dartmouth College.

Looking at the calendar and the requests from coaches at the recent championship meets, the board focused first on reinstating a New England Senior Championship Meet. In order for that meet to be successful, most coaches and swimmers would like it to be held at an excellent facility. Many of those facilities are associated with universities. We have a much better opportunity to obtain a top notch facility for that meet in March, rather than in February. Once again, both athlete representatives, as well as all the coaches on the board, fully supported the placement of the 13-19 Age Group Championships and the Senior Meet.

The Board worked very hard to come up with this progression and we hope that all of the meets are a success and that there are many bids for those meets! Lastly, if any of you have any connections with new or large facilities, please contact Pam Warner (Administrative Vice Chairwoman - pmw2@hotmail.com).