New England Interscholastic Squash Association

2004 Tournament Information for Coaches and Athletic Directors

 

This document contains entry information for the 51st Annual New England Interscholastic Squash Championships, to be held February 27–29, 2004 at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut and Loomis Chaffee School in Windsor, Connecticut. All tournament materials are being distributed electronically in order to eliminate postage costs. Entry documents have been posted as PDF files below, so that they are optimized for printing. Please review the following information carefully so that you can return all entry materials before the Executive Committee's seeding meeting.

All tournament play will take place on the Brady Squash Center's fifteen international courts in Payne Whitney Gymnasium on the Yale campus. The control desk will be staffed from 5:30 p.m. Friday evening for team registration. Tournament information packets will be distributed to coaches then. We anticipate starting first-round play promptly at 6:00 for matches involving two players from western New England schools. We expect all competitors to be on site and ready to play by 7:00. (First match starting times will be posted on the NEISA website by the morning of Friday, the 21st.) We aim to conclude the tournament no later than 4:00 p.m. on Sunday.

There are a number of possibilities for overnight accommodation in the area. The Holiday Inn at Yale (203-777-6221) is a short walk from the tournament site. For those who would prefer to stay outside New Haven, there are three good places right off Interstate 91: the Holiday Inn in North Haven (exit 12; 203-239-4225) is about ten minutes away from Payne Whitney and the Marriott Courtyard (800-321-2211) and Fairfield Inn (203-284-0001) at exit 15 in Wallingford are about twenty minutes off site.

Parking in Yale lots is free after 4:00 p.m. Friday and all weekend. It is available on a first come, first served basis. There is also limited street parking as well as a public parking lot nearby on Broadway that charges an hourly fee.

In the event that more than thirty-two schools wish to participate in the Championships, the Executive Committee reserves the right to limit the field to the strongest available teams; such a decision would be based on the quality of teams' dual match records against New England prep school opponents. We anticipate, however, that we will be able to accommodate all interested schools, as we did last year.

In accordance with NEPSAC rules, competitors must have been 19 years of age or younger on September 1, 2002.

USSRA rules will be observed. Note that USSRA rules require protective eyewear designed for athletic competition with polycarbonate lenses; no competitor will be allowed on court with prescription eyeglasses that do not meet this safety standard. The notice regarding suitable eye protection posted below can be posted in your squash facility.

Once again, the Committee asks that competitors wear team uniforms whenever possible during match play; on-court apparel must be light colored. Please share these expectations with your players beforehand so that they can pack their gear appropriately.

Individual trophies will be awarded to the champions, the runners-up, and the winners of the consolation divisions in each of the seven flights. Team awards will be given to the tournament champions, the small school with the best tournament performance, and the most improved team. We define a "small school" as one whose enrollment of boys in grades 9–12 falls below the mean of NEISA schools. (Note: any school wishing to correct the current enrollment figure on the worksheet posted below should forward to me by the entry deadline a letter from the school's academic dean, registrar, or dean of students verifying enrollment of boys in grades 9–12 as of the opening of school in September 2002. Otherwise, the numbers on the chart will be considered final on February 19.) "Most improved" is determined by comparing a school's place in the 2003 team scoring with the 2002 results.

Team sportsmanship trophies will be awarded to one school from the northern/eastern division and one from the southern/western division. These awards are meant to recognize those squads upholding the highest standards of fair play and sportsmanship in the course of both the regular season and the New England tournament. Ballots will be distributed at registration. The ballot is based on the principle of approval voting, so you may vote for as many teams as you see fit. The Committee urges coaches to discuss the award with their players and decide as a team how to vote.

The Brandes Trophy will be awarded to the team possessing the best regular season record. Below please find posted a team record form, to be submitted at registration. Note that for the purposes of these awards, we are interested only in results involving regulation match play between NEISA varsity teams; in other words, we do not want you to include information from scrimmages and play days or from matches with college squads, prep school JVs, or school teams from outside New England.

The enclosed team entry form includes a questionnaire; the information about your school and squash program that you provide will enable me to update the NEISA database with the most current information on prep school squash. This information is valuable in promoting the prep school game to the rest of the squash community, so please complete the questionnaire thoroughly. Of particular interest this year is the information on your facility; in light of so much recent court construction and conversion in member schools, I will send the most recent information you provide to the USSRA in order to update the master National Court Survey. If you anticipate any changes in coaching personnel in 2003–2004, please indicate so on the form.

Note also that you are asked to indicate membership numbers of any players on your team who are current USSRA members. As part of its outreach effort to prep school programs, the national association is will use match results from our championships for ranking purposes, so it is to the benefit of your players to provide this information if they are members. Among the goals of the USSRA Junior Committee are increasing the membership base among prep school players and facilitating more sanctioned tournament play for student-athletes on our teams.

You also need to return individual entry forms for seven players; match histories are needed for seeding purposes. Include only matches against opponents from New England varsity prep school teams. Please mail these sheets; substitutes in the form of photocopies and faxes are awkward to deal with when we're sorting through information in the seeding meeting. Remember that in order to be seeded in a particular flight in the championships, we expect a player must have played at least one-half of his regular season matches at that position or higher on his team roster. Because the Committee studies them carefully for seeding purposes, it is important that the individual player entry forms are filled out accurately. Type or print legibly and list results in chronological order.

In the event that one of your top seven players is unable to play come tournament time, you have the option of either replacing the missing player in the event by allowing an alternate to play in the #7 flight and moving the other players up or leaving your team's entry vacant in a particular flight, thus keeping players in their respective flights for the tournament (assuming that they had played at least 50% of their matches in those positions during the regular season). If you know of any change in your line-up in the days immediately preceding the tournament, please call me so that adjustments in the draw sheets can be made; dealing with shifts at registration is much more problematic. Such changes can be accommodated by calling me before noon on Friday the 21st.

The Executive Committee will meet via teleconference on the afternoon of Thursday, February 20th to seed players and create the draws in each of the seven flights. Please post the entry forms no later than Thursday, February 13. This should enable you to include the results of all matches played through that date for seeding information. Information received after Wednesday the 19th may not receive the attention that it would have otherwise. If you think the results of a match played on the 15th or 19th might affect player seeding, please e-mail the relevant results to me at ngallagher@choate.edu. All draw information will be posted on the NEISA website (http://www.choate.edu/sports/neisa) sometime on the Friday morning before the tournament.

The 2002–2003 fee for NEISA dues and tournament entry for each school is $150; checks should be made payable to "Choate Rosemary Hall." ($25 of the total fee is allocated toward annual NEISA dues; the remainder covers tournament costs, including balls, trophies, athletic trainer coverage, custodial and other facility costs, supplies, and assorted odds and ends).

All entry materials should be returned to:

Ned Gallagher, NEISA

Choate Rosemary Hall

333 Christian Street

Wallingford, CT  06492-3800

In the meantime, should you have any questions, please feel free to call me at 203-697-2417. Good luck with the remainder of your season!

 

Ned Gallagher,

Executive Director

 

2003 Tournament Entry Materials
(requires Adobe Acrobat Reader, which can be downloaded for free)

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Last revised: 12 February 2004

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