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2007 Tournament Information for Coaches and Athletic Directors
This document contains entry information for the 54th Annual New England Interscholastic Squash Championships, to be held February 23–25 at Brooks School in North Andover, Massachusetts and Phillips Exeter Academy in Exeter, New Hampshire. 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. In keeping with our established policy, the Executive Committee will use its ranking system to determine the 16 strongest teams to compete in the Class "A" division at Exeter. The remaining NEISA teams will compete in the Class "B" division at Brooks. I anticipate the division will be made during the week of February 12. (We will try to communicate likely placements as soon as we have a handle on them so you can plan travel and lodging accordingly.) 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 23rd. 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 25th. Athletic trainers will be available at both sites during competition. In accordance with NEPSAC rules, individual competitors must have been 19 years of age or younger on September 1, 2006. 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. 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 2007–2008, 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. This year you do NOT need to return individual entry forms for your players; match histories needed for seeding purposes will be taken from the database maintained on newenglandsquash.com (thanks to Nishad Das at Groton for his tremendous work in developing this resource). 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 records online are accurate; please check your players' records. As the results of a match played on Wednesday, the 21st, might affect player seeding, please be sure those results are posted by noontime Thursday. 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 23rd. The Executive Committee will meet via teleconference on the afternoon of Thursday, February 22nd, to seed players and create the draws in each of the seven flights in "A" and "B" tournaments. Please post the team entry form indicating which of your players is entered in which position no later than Friday, February 16. All draw information will be posted on the NEISA website (http://www.neisa.org) sometime on the Friday morning before the tournament. The 2006–2007 fee for NEISA dues and tournament entry for each school is again $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 e-mail me (calling me at Choate will not be productive as I will be traveling in India, Egypt, and Spain between now and the 21st; while I may not always have Internet access, I anticipate no more than a few days will elapse before getting to my e-mail). Good luck with the remainder of your season!
2007
Tournament Entry Materials Team
Entry Form and NEISA Questionnaire Dues/Entry Fee Invoice Team
Record Form NEISA
Safety Notice
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