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2005 Tournament Information for Coaches and Athletic Directors
This document contains entry information for the 52nd Annual New England Interscholastic Squash Championships, to be held February 25–27 at Choate Rosemary Hall in Wallingford, Connecticut and Westminster School in Simsbury, Connecticut. All tournament materials 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 in time for the Executive Committee's seeding meeting. As we agreed last year, the Executive Committee will use its ranking system to determine the 16 strongest teams to compete in the Class "A" division. The remaining (as many as 20) teams will compete in the Class "B" division. The 16 Class "A" teams will play on the eight courts on the Westminster campus and the Class "B" tournament will be held on the ten courts at Choate. A control desk at each site 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 p.m. on Friday. Matches will be scheduled to afford teams travelling the greatest distance later start times, but we expect all competitors to be on site and ready to play by 7:00 p.m. All first match starting times will be posted on the NEISA website by the morning of Friday, the 25th. We hope to wrap up play on Friday by 10:30 p.m., then play from 8:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, and begin again at 8:00 a.m. on Sunday. We aim to conclude the tournament no later than 4:00 p.m. on the 27th. In accordance with NEPSAC rules, individual competitors must have been 19 years of age or younger on September 1, 2004. 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 and the runners-up, and to the winners of the consolation divisions in each of the seven flights. Plaques will be given to the top three teams in each class. 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 each school may vote for as many teams as it deems 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 New England prep school team posting the best regular season record. Below please find a link to the 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 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 2005–2006, 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 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 is 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 at the start of the tournament, 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. Such changes can be accommodated by calling me before noon on Friday the 25th. The Executive Committee will meet via teleconference on the afternoon of Thursday, February 24th, to seed players and create the draws in each of the seven flights in "A" and "B" tournaments. Please post the entry forms no later than Saturday, February 19. This should enable you to include the results of all matches played through that date for seeding information. Information received after Wednesday the 23rd may not receive the attention that it would have otherwise. If you think the results of a match played on the 23rd might affect player seeding, please e-mail the relevant results to Ned Gallagher by noontime Thursday. All draw information will be posted on the NEISA website (http://www.neisa.org) sometime on the Friday morning before the tournament. The 2004–2005 fee for NEISA dues and tournament entry for each school is again $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, the tournament dinner, and assorted odds and ends). Among the forms below there is a formal invoice which should satisfy your school's business office. All entry materials should be returned to: Ned
Gallagher, NEISA The NEISA Executive Committee has developed a rotation of sites through 2006: we anticipate having the Class "A" tournament at Middlesex School and the Class "B" event at Groton School next winter. Beyond that, we expect to identify pairs of southern/western school sites in odd-numbered years and northern/eastern venues in even-numbered years. Connecticut and Western Massachusetts schools with an interest in hosting the 2007 tournament should communicate their interest to any member of the Committee. In the meantime, should you have any questions, please feel free to call at 203-697-2417. Good luck with the remainder of your season!
2005
Tournament Entry Materials Team
Entry Form and NEISA Questionnaire Player
Record Forms Dues/Entry Fee Invoice Team
Record Form NEISA
Safety Notice
The NEISA is indebted to Dunlop Sports for supplying the official ball, the Dunlop Pro soft ball, for its championships. Dunlop has supported prep school squash by supplying balls for the tournament since 1992.
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