I hear Blake's frustration which represents the feelings of many, I'm sure. I have a counter argument that Blake will probably not like. Perhaps the geographical polarization of college sailing to the coast and Northeast in particular is a good thing. We have at least as many good teams as we did before the Midwest talent was recruited East but they are closer together for shorter travel and more racing. While club teams in the Midwest have lost home state talent, many emerging teams in the East have gone from small club teams to powerhouses over the last twenty years. They include Georgetown, Hobart/WS, Roger Williams, Boston College. Then there are the more recent small Eastern teams which get unbelievable competition near home including UConn, Fordham, Columbia, Providence, Salve Regina, George Washington, etc, etc. Imagine if we were more spread out, say one powerhouse per state including Arizona, Montana, Indiana, Tennessee, Oregon, etc.
The Midwest and other conferences have had some great teams over the years and it is sad to see the nearby talent recruited away. But what is ISCA to do? Hire coaches for all club team conferences? Mandate very expensive travel for teams with limited travel budgets? That would eliminate far more sailing than it would create. The increased competition for our team here at Tufts means less trips to nationals, less conference championships, less trophies. At the same time we get fantastic competition even at the third string level at 18 NEISA venues with professional race management. In short college racing is at a higher level (more teams at minors and better teams in every regatta) than when it was more spread out. Ken Legler -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of [email protected] Sent: Friday, September 16, 2011 12:09 AM To: [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected] Subject: Re: [ICSA] SW's College Sailing Rankings, September 15, 2011 I've followed (on an inconsistent basis) the regular college rankings lists in the past 15 or so years. I was one of the three coaches (along with Gary Bodie & Ken Legler) who did the rankings for Sailing World for about 7 years back in the late 80s to early 90s. The reason I wanted to lend some applause today is the inclusion of an MCSA team (Wisconsin) at 6th. Winning the Harry Anderson at Yale and the Fall Fury regatta at home on the same weekend clearly had a lot to do with that, so huge kudos to the Badgers for the big dual regatta victories! One of the biggest problems (to my eyes) with college sailing in recent years is the continued slide of competitive depth almost completely towards New England and Mid Atlantic. With the exception of a few select SA and PC teams, the rest of the country has been ignored, and the incentive for high school sailors who are serious about being involved at the highest levels has been diverted almost exclusively to the EAST coast only. Sometimes the first step is as simple as a small group of individual sailors from one team stepping up... and stepping on some toes. It's been a lot of years, but welcome to the latest example: Wisco! In my humble opinion, it's way past time for the entire ICSA to work on behalf of the greater good to help spread the wealth. The entire ICSA will grow healthier if we all work to grow together. What can the ICSA do to help the Midwest? The Northwest? The Southeast? I'll step down now off the soap box. Respectfully, Blake Middleton -----Original Message----- From: Meredith Powlison <[email protected]> To: icsa <[email protected]>; collegerankings <[email protected]> Sent: Thu, Sep 15, 2011 10:44 am Subject: [ICSA] SW's College Sailing Rankings, September 15, 2011 The latest Sailing World College Rankings, presented by Sperry Top-Sider, are now online at http://bit.ly/re2T49 The top five teams are: Coed Total Points 1. Yale [8] 359 2. Boston College [3] 338 3. Harvard [1] 326 4. Georgetown [3] 309 5. Roger Williams 292 Women¹s Total Points 1. Yale [7] 257 2. Boston College [4] 256 3. Brown [7] 210 4. Rhode Island [1] 188 5. Connecticut College 171 ---- Get the rankings when they are released by signing up as a fan of Sailing World¹s facebook page, http://www.facebook.com/sailingworld, or via twitter, http://twitter.com/sailingworldmag ________________________________________________ icsa mailing list [email protected] http://www.collegesailing.org/mailman/?listname=icsa Unsubscribe: Send a blank email to [email protected] ________________________________________________ icsa mailing list [email protected] http://www.collegesailing.org/mailman/?listname=sa Unsubscribe: Send a blank email to [email protected] ________________________________________________ icsa mailing list [email protected] http://www.collegesailing.org/mailman/?listname=icsa Unsubscribe: Send a blank email to [email protected]
