Short Course Championships 2004 The following proposal will be discussed at the New England Swimming Technical Committee meeting on Wednesday, April 23, 2003. Please send any comments to Ray Grant (rcgrant@attbi.com), Dan Watner (nssc1@aol.com), Pam Warner (pmw2@hotmailcom) or Mike Spring (mvpirate@aol.com). Current system: New England has 6 separate end of season meets occupying 6 weekends and requiring the use of nine separate pools. The end of season meets begin in early February and end in the middle of March. Rationale for change: By combining several of these meets, we can shorten the end of season to 4 weeks, start toward the end of February (when more college pools are potentially available), cut down on travel, reduce the required number of pools thereby ensuring quality venues for all meets and improve on the team atmosphere by keeping swimmers together. This change will also make it easier for teams to staff the meets with coaches and to prepare all athletes within the same general time frame. Proposal: Merge the Bronze and District Meets with cut-on and cut-off times. We would hold 3-4 of these meets throughout New England depending on the anticipated numbers. The name for these meets would be changed to reflect that they are regional meets. These meets would be held on the first of four weekends for end of season meets. The next weekend we would hold the 8 & under championship meets as we have done recently (two sites). The third weekend would be our 9-12 championship meet with no change in format (one site). This weekend would coincide with the Speedo Championship meet date. The last weekend would be the New England Open with the format similar to the Long Course Open. Goal: Streamline the end of season meets. Eliminate fragmentation of meets attended and confusion over which meets swimmers are participating in. Expand the number of pools that might be available for use. Provide positive experiences with good competition for all levels while holding the team together thereby improving the team concept. |