It's a bird, it's a plane . . . nope, it's Ron McGraw!

Superman? Maybe not but Ron McGraw has saved the day concerning the state meet entry procedure.  That is Ron's story any way.  The crazy "new" procedure that the cracker jack swim advisory committee came up with last April (see previous post) will NOT become IHSA Terms and Conditions LAW.  Ron saved the day.  He killed it at the Administrative Board level.  Not sure why he didn't think of mentioning how bad an idea it was to the committee last April. IHSS thinks he saw the light when the alarm clock went off in Naperville.  Just a guess.

Well, have you . . .

Rethinking the Girls State Meet

Rosary

Maybe, maybe not but NT looks pretty good. Seriously, good. Of course, poor Rosary with only 36 students, and only 1/3 of them "encouraged to attend" swimmers. Ok, maybe swimmers and divers. You know Rosary will be there at the end and you know that NT's B relays won't be allowed to swim. So I expect it right now, to be closer than I predicted last spring. That's all I am saying.



New Trier

National Federation Spends most time on diving . .don't we all?

Follow this link to the National Federation's website and the info posted on the recent swimming & DIVING rules meeting. Becky Oaks, Swimming and DIVING director says it all.

But there are more than three of them . . . .

So did the IHSA Swimming Advisory Committee address any of the issues put forth in this blog last week? No. Not one. The minutes are pretty vague on all but 3 items that were discussed. In fact the minutes look like a lot of cutting and pasting was used from last year's minutes. Of the three big items one was expected, one was really needed and one was WWTT. Recalculating the qualification times was, of course, expected. They all got faster except the 50 and 100 free on the girls side. The needed one, the committee decided that diving coaches for schools with divers competing could not judge at the state meet. What you say, you thought that was the case. Well it was, with the exception of schools with different boys and girls coaches. The girls coach could do the boys meet and visa versa. This happened at this year's girls' state meet. In fact, the state champion diver was judged by the boys coach from her school. I am not saying that he impacted the results in any underhanded way. However, it doesn't look good. It puts everyone involved in a questionable situation. And finally, the one that didn't need to be messed with but was: changing the order of entry onto the pool deck. I think the overwhelming consensus of opinion on the "new" (boys 2009) process to get teams onto the deck is highly favorable. This is from teams with the most qualifiers to teams with the least number of qualifiers. At least you know, there is no sitting around and it is basically fair. The new method which, seems to have been pushed by a coach on the committee, with a personal stake in the change, puts the sectional winning teams entering on deck in positions 3-17 or 18. If this method would have been used for the 2010 boys state meet it really would have changed things. The eventual state champion team would go on deck number 18, rather than 3rd, the 4th place team would go on deck. 19th instead of 4th . The 70th position team (a sectional winner) moves up to 17th and is one of three of the sectional winning teams don't score any points. So why is this unfair? Simple, it takes the criteria (state qualifiers) that is the same at all sectionals and makes at least part of the criteria based on factors specific to each sectional. Loyola moves up two slots because they were at a sectional they could win, instead of thier traditional sectional with NT. Glenbrook South moves down 10 because inexplicitly Loyola was moved into the Glenbrook North sectional. Of course they could have won the sectional and kept a higher slot. Don’t even start with the Surf War in Naperville. Naperville North and Central just flat out get wacked majorly with the new procedure. In all about 15 (that would be all sectional winners with the exception of NT) schools move up, 55 moved down and 35 stayed in the same position. Common sense says, if you are trying to get jar as full as possible,you fill the jar with the big rocks first. All this took so long that they didn't have time to do anything to improve high school swimming in the state for the athletes. Or at least not telling us if they talked about, increasing alternates, scoring 16, in season qualifications, raising entriers to 3 or 4 per team, or going to two divisions. As, the great philosopher,  Moe Howard would say “Wake up and go to sleep.”

It is just a meeting, what could go wrong?

The IHSA Swimming Advisory Committee will be meeting in the near future. Will they address any of the problems laid out in my previous post? Look at the makeup of the committee. If the information on the IHSA website isn't clear enough check out this Venn diagram(click on image to enlarge) . Venns are so cool.

Still in the Stone Age

Has anybody else done any research on how other states administer HS swimming (meaning swimming and diving)? Maybe a better way to say it is how they TREAT high school swimming. Illinois is one of the few states that still only scores 12 places. It really doesn't take much research. Kansas with about 60 schools participating scores 16. On top of that they have 2 divisions. That's 60 schools divided by 2 with what looks like about 30 in each division. They also have state cuts with qualifications anytime throughout the season and, yes there is more; they can enter 4 swimmers in each event. All of these things are more the norm than the exception when you look at how HS swimming is administered across the nation. So here is what I think we need, from an administration stand point, to improve Illinois high school swimming. Oh before I hit the list-a new natatorium/school to host is not on it. It doesn't look like that is going to happen so quit dreaming. Here is the list:

1. Score 16 (18 at Evanston, swim or don't swim the third heat I don't care, just score 'em)

2. Enter up to 4 (if you want to do a formula, like they do in Michigan, where you get x number of total swims, that is fine with me just more than 2 per event.

3. Two divisions. Make the private schools play with the big boys (or girls)

4. Qualify anytime during the season. Dump the sectional meet-Naperville has a city championship in the summer, no need for one during HS season.

5. And finally, two alternates on frees relays, really, two that is it? I couldn’t find any other state in the union, big or small, that limits alternates. There has to be a way to allow coaches a little more “coaching” room.

Got anything to add to the list? Feel free to pile on, cause Toto we are definitely NOT in Kansas.

State Champs

OK so here are my picks.  Rosary looks like a solid favorite to repeat and win their fouth title in a row. With Pak, Hare, Sykstus, Burke, Devine and Launer returning and possible new freshman, number 4 looks like almost a sure thing.  New Trier looks to be a little closer second than the last couple of years. They have  a bunch of returnees, the Marchuk girls, Scott, Conklin, divers (they always seem to have divers), Good, Costley, James, Wu and Hayward and maybe a freshman or two.  That is a big bunch of returning qualifiers but not as many returning scorers as Rosary.  The next 4 or 5 teams are jammed in pretty tight, Loyola, Evanston, Hinsdale, Peoria ND, Lyons, St Charles North all could figure in the trophy hunt at least the last trophy. What about freshman?   For the boys it looks to be New Trier.  With Gagne, Grodecki, Kileen, Sacks, Smith, Snyder, Staab and von Moltke, NT returns the most. But if this year proved anything it's that a solid team with the desire to win can beat anybody. Neuqua looks to be the solid team (Cicchini, Cordes, Jager, Mordach, Vechioloa and Wagner) that could win it all in 2011, with Naperville North (Bessler, Butz, Eiken and Henderson), Loyola (Jovanovic, Manhard, Nash, Pasquesi and Rahill)  and Naperville Central (Depew, Howenstine, van Deventer, Weeks and Wood) in a tight race for third.  NT's other advantage is the ability to fill holes.  NT has a couple guys returning that didn't make their state team that had times fast enough to score at state.  Not sure any other team can say that at this point.  Anybody know about incoming freshman?  Looking at the Age Group state meet it is difficult if not impossible to tell who is coming into to which Naperville school.  NT had some very good swims but they came from guys who are freshman this year. Malone, NT soph next year, looks to be a guy who will be tough to keep out of the state lineup in multple events next year.

Predictions for 2010-2011

So what teams will win the girls and boys state titles next year. Check out the polls to the right and vote. Back up your choices with a comment. Keep it clean, be nice to each other  and back up your opinions with facts. Should be fun.