June 12, 2006
- Results from the 2006 Spring NESSA Regattas can be found on the NESSA website. http://nessa-sailing.org/index.htm
Congratulations to all the victors:
- NESSA Fleet Racing (O’Day Trophy): Tabor Academy
- NESSA Team Racing (Mark Trophy): St George’s School
- NESSA Women’s Invite (Herreshoff Trophy): not held due to weather
- RI States: North Kingstown HS
- CT States: Xavier HS
- MA States: Wellesley HS
- Maine States: George Stevens Academy
- Downeast Fleets: Marblehead HS
- Stephen Leslie Sportsmanship award. There is still time to register your vote for the “team that you respect the most.” All ballots received by June 15th will be tabulated and the winner will be announced at the NESSA Annual Meeting in November. To get a nomination form, click here: http://www.nessa-sailing.org/
- NESSA Dues: An early reminder. NESSA dues must be paid before a school can compete in any NESSA Championship. For schools that use purchase order systems, that can sometimes take over a month to process. Here is the procedure that will be in place come July 1.
- To pay your 2006-2007 NESSA Membership dues, please do the following:
- Log onto the NESSA Directory. Update any information that needs changing. (http://highschoolsailingusa.org/directory/district.asp?ID=NESSA)
- Download a 2006-2007 Invoice from the NESSA website (http://nessa-sailing.org/membership.htm)
- Have invoice signed by school Principal, Headmaster, Athletic Director or Student Activities Head.
- Mail to the address on the form with a check for $100 made payable to: NESSA
- To become a NESSA member for the first time, log onto the ISSA website and follow the directions for registration. (http://highschoolsailingusa.org/directory/addnew.asp)
- Fall Regatta Schedule:
- Notices of Race (NOR) for Fall NESSA events (and other high school sailing events in the region) will be e-mailed to the NESSA list and posted on the NESSA website as soon as they are made available. For planning purposes, the tentative fall sailing schedule is posted on the NESSA website (http://www.nessa-sailing.org/race.htm). Keep checking it regularly during the summer to ensure you are up-to-date.
- Information on Fall ISSA Events (Great Oaks and Cressy) can be found at: http://www.highschoolsailingusa.org/future.htm
- NESSA Single-handed Championships (Healy Trophy). The NOR for the Healy will be posted over the summer with registration set to close after Labor Day. As has been the case in the past, each school will only be allowed to enter one radial and one laser in the event. Resumes candidates may or may not be accepted based upon the popularity of the event, the logistics of the host site and the quality of the resumes. Coaches should spend some time over the summer considering their options.
- ISSA Business: At the ISSA conference call on June 8th, allotments and 2007 ISSA regatta sites were finalized.
- ISSA Regatta Sites:
- Cressy (NESSA) – Indian Harbor YC (Greenwich, CT)
- Great Oaks (SEISA) – Southern YC (New Orleans, LA) or Lake Travis (Austin, TX)
- Mallory (PCISA) – US Sailing Center (Long Beach, CA)
- Baker (SEISA) - Southern YC (New Orleans, LA) or Lake Travis (Austin, TX)
- NESSA Berths at ISSA Regattas
- Cressy – 4 radials and 4 lasers
- Great Oaks (SEISA) – TBD
- Mallory – 5 school teams
- Baker – 2 school teams (We lost the berth we gained back this year to MASSA due to membership shift nationally. This time, it would have taken an increase of 9 school teams for us to have held on to that berth. I would surmises that NESSA will fluctuate between 2 & 3 berths at the Baker for the next several years.
- NESSA Annual Meeting. Agenda items and proposals for the 2006 Annual Meeting should e-mail to NESSA President Rob Hurd (RSHurd@hotmail.com) before 15 October 2006. Here are some things to discuss.
- Wild Card weekend. A discussion will be held to consider whether “wild card weekend” worked as it was attended. Those with opinions should make plans to attend.
- State Championships: Often, I get asked if I have any information about a state championship. It is a valid question, but often one I have no answer to. When I do get information, it is often puzzling to me. For example, the Mass States are on a Thursday and Friday afternoon, when the kids are forced to get out of class early in order to attend. Who made this decision? At the CT states this year, only 12 slots were reserved for CT schools; the rest were open to schools from other parts of the district and from other districts. Who decided which 12 CT schools were invited to the “State Championship” and what criteria did they use for picking those 12 schools? The RI states seem to include everyone, but it is the most elusive, popping up in different places and different times each year. Who makes those decisions?
I do not think that NESSA should dictate parameters for “state championships,” but in order to use the title, I do think that all the school teams in the state should have a say in how, where, and when the event is run. To that end, I am appointing a task force comprised of Matt Largess (Rhode Island), Nick Burke (Massachusetts), Jim Modisette (Maine), and James Perkins (Connecticut). Each of these individuals is charged with:
- Contacting all the member schools in their state.
- Organizing input concerning the state championship so that everyone who wants to offer an opinion gets the chance.
- Setting up an election/appointment of a point person in each state - someone to whom questions concerning high school sailing in that state can be addressed.
I hope to have progress reports from each state at the Annual Meeting in November.
Have a safe summer.