Having read the ideas put forth by Brice and Peter regarding our state
championship regatta, I'd like to offer a couple thoughts.

Last year's FSRA State Championship was, in my opinion, the best we've ever
had. The regatta was well-attended, ultracompetitive, and well run. I
remember four years ago having only four varsity eight entries. This year,
there were 11 Women's and 13 Men's Varsity 8+'s. Additionally, there were 15
Women's and 20 Men's V4+s. The day's crowded schedule reflects the
tremendous growth our sport has had over the last 20 years in Florida.

Not only was this year's championship a great event, it's been getting
better each year. Over the years, we've tried a lot of different approaches
to organizing our state championship and we've found one that's inclusive
and encourages competitiveness. This year's race format acknowledges that
different communities have found different ways to foster youth rowing and
brings all those programs together for one event. Beyond the benefit to our
state's programs, our championship fits in nicely with important
developments in the Southeast and national rowing scene.

To the extent there were problems or inefficiencies with this year's event,
we should entertain solutions to those problems. It's unncessary to overhal
our race format every year just for the sake of change. Having found a
format that works, we can now look for enhancements that encourage
competitiveness and efficiency.

See you all on the 12th.

>From: "Crossley, Brice A" <Brice.Crossley-1@....gov>
>To: <FSRA@yahoogroups.com>
>Subject: [FSRA] Spring schedule and champ options
>Date: Wed, 26 Jul 2006 13:35:32 -0400
>
>This is all I have so far for 2007 Spring Calendar:
>
>Saturday, March 24, 2007 - Orlando Area Rowing Society Invitational at
>Turkey Lake Park
>Saturday, March 31, 2007 - Gainesville Crew Classic in Gainesville
>
>Regarding 2007 Florida State Champs (4 items to consider plus some
>options):
>1) keep the same events as 2006 with the same qualifying requirements
>
>2) keep distance at 1500m
>
>3) move to a 2-day (Sat & Sun) format - The one day format required a
>very tight schedule with no extra time. It also provides no weather
>contingency. With a 2 day format, we can consider options:
>
>3a) modify progression system: 1) add reps for all youth champs events -
>gives crews experience for national events; and/or 2) add semis for all
>events over X number of entries. We can stop relying on refs to provide
>time to calculate the progression.
>
>3b) add petites to all events over 9 entries - this would keep most
>boats involved for both days (keep kids busy and reduce complaints about
>hanging around for a 2nd day). Or remove petites altogether to shorten
>the race days?
>
>3c) race day time restrictions: example no race before 8am or after 6pm
>(Sunday 3pm) No one likes to get ready in the dark and most would like
>to know what time they can expect to get home.
>
>3d) remove doubling restrictions - with the above options, most boats
>would have 3 to 4 races over the weekend. If a coach wants to double
>that number of races for some rowers and thereby reducing their overall
>performance, that should be the coach's decision.
>
>Summary: The new format would be Saturday: heats and maybe reps and/or
>semis; Sunday: maybe semis and petites/finals. There are several options
>depending if members approve petites, reps and / or semis. And this also
>allows weather options such as dropping petites if we need to reduce the
>number of events.
>
>4) change point schedule for Youth All Points - Both the Scholastic and
>Youth team trophies have almost identical point structures and therefore
>who wins one most likely will win both. For several years there has been
>discussions about having a trophy more based on efficiency. The proposal
>is to base youth points on the number of event entries you beat.
>Example: an event with 16 boats: 1st place gets 15 points down to zero
>points for last. Recognizing this is a Youth Champs trophy and concerns
>for more points for 'varsity' boats, the proposal also calls for
>doubling points in Youth Champ events - Varsity 4 & 8, Light 4 & 8, all
>sculling events.
>
>Here is the full blown summary of the above:
>
>2 day regatta
>
>* 1st day: heats and reps
>* 2nd day: semi and finals
>
>2 classes
>
>* 14 Champ events: V 4, V8, Lt 4, Lt 8, 4x, 2x, 1x
>* 12 Non-Champ: JV 4, JV 8, 3rd 4, 3rd 8, Fr 4, Fr 8
>
>2 progressions
>
>* Champ events: heats, reps, semi (if 13+ entries), finals
>* Non-Champ: heats, semi (if 16+ entries), finals
>
>End using time to calculate progression
>
>
>
>Continue Petites for events with 9+ entries?
>
>
>
>Allow doubling?
>
>
>
>Change Youth points table
>
>* Champ events: 2 points per boat beat
>* Non-Champ: 1 point per boat beat
>
>
>
>Using 2006 data w/o doubling:
>
>
>
>Saturday
>
>48 heats (start 7:30am) (21 boats don't race Saturday - Sunday finals
>only)
>
>13 reps (finish 6pm)
>
>
>
>Sunday
>
>8 semis (start 7:30am)
>
>42 finals (finish 3pm) 33 of 262 boats no race 2nd day
>
>or no petites (finish 1pm) 97 of 262 boats no race 2nd day
>