Greetings-
I hope this email is read without predetermined feelings attached. I am not
interested in offending anyone as a coach or person. These
are only my opinions.
As a member of this committee, I will tell you that some of the decisions we
made were not easy. As a coach of a smaller program, I was
responsible for giving insight to the comittee on what the smaller teams were
looking for.
I will tell you that I voted to eliminate the Frosh 4+. It may be well
attended, and that's debatable when you look at the numbers. We
have 40+ organizations in the State. If we break that down to boys/girls, we are
pushing 75+ organizations that could potentially
enter a said event. We have too many events.
What we have to look at is not what works best for "me", but rather what we want
the future of Florida rowing to look like.

FSRA was established to organize a State Championship for the Scholastic teams.
That is
their only jurisdiction. However, the organization voted to allow clubs into
that Championship race a few years ago, and since then
clubs have the same amount of power in the Scholastic organization. The annual
fall meeting has become an intimidation festival, with
newer, smaller teams taking a back seat verbally and organizationally to the
more established larger teams (both club and scholastic)
This year was an amazing site to behold with motions and seconds being made
without discussions as if we could fix the problems later.
We have 1 time/ year that we meet to discuss our State Championship, and we
weren't afforded that time. Not to mention that our
bylaws state that all changes to the constitiution require advanced notice to
vote on, which we rarely get to do. We cannot hold
a vote via internet, so really the point is moot. Unless we want to all meet at
a regatta this spring and hold a vote.
Thankfully Dan Newman was able to get this comittee established to look at some
of the challenges we have to face.

The State Championship event should not be a place where you can go and find a
race to become a State Champion. If it were up
to me, we would have 5 events/side @ the State Championship: Varsity 8+,
Varsity 4+, Varsity 4X, Varsity 2x, and Varsity 1X. If you have
9 rowers, you can enter every race. If it's important for you to win the all
points trophy-teach your kids how to scull. If you only want to win
the V8+ race the 8+. If you want to see if your program has improved over the
past 10 years, continue to enter the 8+ and see where you finish
we have no indicator as to who really has improved their programs, because we
find events to race that sometimes have 10 entries and sometimes
have 5.
Clearly that isn't what many coaches want- it would require teams to teach
sculling, and it would limit the number of kids that would
get to race @ States. I think it would level the playing field somewhat, and at
the same time give us a true State Champion. The V8+ results would
not have changed over the past 10 years, the V4+ definitely would have.
What we have now is a fair race that follows a format of racing from around the
country. I will tell you that not everyone is going to be happy with
any decision that is made, but we need to remember this when it comes to our
fall meeting next year. I vote now that we eliminate guest speakers,
and allow time for business to be discussed.

Thanks,
Dan



Dan Kempinger


________________________________
> To: FSRA@yahoogroups.com
> From: riedeburgt@...
> Date: Sun, 3 Dec 2006 21:39:46 -0500
> Subject: [FSRA]
>
> Members of the FSRA,
> I did some research regarding participation in the Freshman 4+ vs. the 3rd 8
over the last 8 years and it is very interesting.
> First of all, I was extremely disappointed when the decision was made to
eliminate the F4 from the state championship, and event that Bolles has had some
success in – 3 state championships over that time. And coming from a 2A school,
I feel that is a great accomplishment. What I like about the Frosh events is
that it makes for an exciting race and evens the playing field. They are boats
comprised of kids of the same age and ability – anyone’s game if you will. By
eliminating the 4 event, you take away that excitement from the smaller programs
and only allow the larger programs that can put together a competitive boat –
which don’t necessarily need the success at a young age - to spread the
excitement of rowing in their school. And, since the elimination of the novice
events in the 2003 race, the F4’s have remained consistent while the 3rd 8’s
have only increased by one or two entries (in 2005 and 2004, Winter Park
represented two boys entries and in 2005 Winter Park had two girls boats in that
race).
> So, I have compiled a small spread sheet (see attached) showing the entries
over the last 8 years, and you will see consistent entries (and more for that
matter) in the Freshman 4+ event and ups and downs in the 3rd 8, even after the
novice entries were eliminated. After looking at this, maybe you too not
understand why the decision was made to eliminate an event that has been
consistently well represented by schools of all sizes over one that only a few
larger programs can enter.
> Also, in regards to the “new regatta decisions” I was under the impression
that they would present an idea to the FSRA group and we would be able to vote
on it – I didn’t think this was going to be a final draft presented to us from
the regatta committee. Did I miss something at the meeting? I was pretty sure
I heard a discussion about voting via email or reconvening before the spring
season.
> Regards,
> Ted Riedeburg
> Head Coach – Bolles Rowing
> The Bolles School
> 7400 San Jose Blvd.
> Jacksonville, FL 32217
> (904) 424-2869 (cell)
> (904) 256-5082 (boathouse)
>

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