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2006 Tournament Information for Coaches and Athletic Directors
This document contains entry information for the 53rd Annual New England Interscholastic Squash Championships, to be held February 24–26 at Groton School in Groton, Massachusetts and Middlesex School in Concord, Massachusetts. 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 in 2004--and confirmed by a clear majority in our recent survey--the Executive Committee will use its ranking system to determine the 16 strongest teams to compete in the Class "A" division. The remaining 20 or so teams will compete in the Class "B" division. The Class "A" teams will play on the eight courts on the Middlesex campus and the Class "B" tournament will be held on the twelve courts at Groton. We anticipate starting first-round play promptly at 6:00 p.m. on Friday. Matches will be scheduled to afford teams traveling 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 24th. We hope to wrap up competition on Friday by 10:30 p.m., then resume 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 26th. In accordance with NEPSAC rules, individual competitors must have been 19 years of age or younger on September 1, 2005. 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. (We reaffirmed our support for this at last winter's coaches meeting.) Please share these expectations with your players beforehand so that they can pack their gear appropriately. Individual trophies will be awarded to the champions, runners-up, and third-, fourth-, and fifth-place finishers 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 2006–2007, 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 24th. The Executive Committee will meet via teleconference on the afternoon of Thursday, February 23rd, 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 18. This should enable you to include the results of all matches played through that date for seeding information. Information received after Wednesday the 22nd may not receive the attention that it would have otherwise. If you think the results of a match played on the 22nd 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 2005–2006 fee for NEISA dues and tournament entry for each school is $225; 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, sanctioning fees, 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 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!
2006
Tournament Entry Materials Team
Entry Form and NEISA Questionnaire Player
Record Forms Dues/Entry Fee Invoice Team
Record Form NEISA
Safety Notice
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