Transportation to Invitationals?

[Galahad]

We have been very lucky over the past few years. Our team has received a certain amount of grant money each year making travel much less painless. This year, we lost one of our big grants and so I am wondering how other teams get to/from their events. We could still charter buses and have the students pick up part of the cost, or we could easily carpool with one van carrying all of our materials. How does everyone else do this?

We just ride a huge sled pulled by our school mascot.

We just surf to our invitationals.

But going back to your carpool question, it's not the administration's jurisdiction to decide whether or not you can carpool.

[builderguy135]

We have been very lucky over the past few years. Our team has received a certain amount of grant money each year making travel much less painless. This year, we lost one of our big grants and so I am wondering how other teams get to/from their events. We could still charter buses and have the students pick up part of the cost, or we could easily carpool with one van carrying all of our materials. How does everyone else do this?

We just ride a huge sled pulled by our school mascot.

We just surf to our invitationals.

But going back to your carpool question, it's not the administration's jurisdiction to decide whether or not you can carpool.

I just ride my wright stuff to rustin.

[sciolyperson1]

We just ride a huge sled pulled by our school mascot.

We just surf to our invitationals.

But going back to your carpool question, it's not the administration's jurisdiction to decide whether or not you can carpool.

I just ride my wright stuff to rustin.

I ride my buggy to Rustin

[EastStroudsburg13]

But why five? Five is A LOT considering that the students would have to prepare for each one and barely have time to improve between each one. If you're looking for a competitive team, don't spam invites at them because while they help practice, they cause people to rush and not perform as well as they would given a month between each one. In Hawaii, we have three invites on the main island. Two in November, one in January. This allows for people to work and improve on their events between them so that they can see how much they improved and if they still need to improve. Having one after another doesn't give an accurate measure of how good one's team is.

Yeah, we attend four, but they're rather spaced out. School comes before Scioly, and if you rush them to do one after another it not only interferes with their social/mental state, but their academics as well.
Stress is good, but not in copious amounts.

While I am glad this arrangement works for your team, I disagree that five is by default too many invitationals. Solon HS competes in ten every season, including nine in a row starting the first weekend of January. We find it to be an excellent way to keep our students focused and to assess their growth throughout the season as we look to identify our state team members.

I do not want to get too much into the weeds of this debate as the number of invitationals primarily varies per school, and there is nothing wrong with wanting to attend more invitationals if there is the support behind it. But, out of curiosity, how many invitationals does Solon MS attend yearly? That may be a more parallel comparison to Bay Academy, which is also a B division school.

[kate!]

But why five? Five is A LOT considering that the students would have to prepare for each one and barely have time to improve between each one. If you're looking for a competitive team, don't spam invites at them because while they help practice, they cause people to rush and not perform as well as they would given a month between each one. In Hawaii, we have three invites on the main island. Two in November, one in January. This allows for people to work and improve on their events between them so that they can see how much they improved and if they still need to improve. Having one after another doesn't give an accurate measure of how good one's team is.

Yeah, we attend four, but they're rather spaced out. School comes before Scioly, and if you rush them to do one after another it not only interferes with their social/mental state, but their academics as well.
Stress is good, but not in copious amounts.

While I am glad this arrangement works for your team, I disagree that five is by default too many invitationals. Solon HS competes in ten every season, including nine in a row starting the first weekend of January. We find it to be an excellent way to keep our students focused and to assess their growth throughout the season as we look to identify our state team members.

I do not want to get too much into the weeds of this debate as the number of invitationals primarily varies per school, and there is nothing wrong with wanting to attend more invitationals if there is the support behind it. But, out of curiosity, how many invitationals does Solon MS attend yearly? That may be a more parallel comparison to Bay Academy, which is also a B division school.

You can't exactly compare a school from Ohio that won nationals last year to one from New York that got 5th at states.

[EastStroudsburg13]

While I am glad this arrangement works for your team, I disagree that five is by default too many invitationals. Solon HS competes in ten every season, including nine in a row starting the first weekend of January. We find it to be an excellent way to keep our students focused and to assess their growth throughout the season as we look to identify our state team members.

I do not want to get too much into the weeds of this debate as the number of invitationals primarily varies per school, and there is nothing wrong with wanting to attend more invitationals if there is the support behind it. But, out of curiosity, how many invitationals does Solon MS attend yearly? That may be a more parallel comparison to Bay Academy, which is also a B division school.

You can't exactly compare a school from Ohio that won nationals last year to one from New York that got 5th at states.

Sure you can. It requires context, but there's value in the comparison.

[lumosityfan]

I don't think there's anything inherently wrong with going to too many invitationals (in fact honestly I think that if you have the time, money, dedication, and resources to go to that many invitationals, you should so that students can get more practice with their device, tests, and just preparing for competition in general) Plus they're a lot of fun.

[John Richardsim]

We have been very lucky over the past few years. Our team has received a certain amount of grant money each year making travel much less painless. This year, we lost one of our big grants and so I am wondering how other teams get to/from their events. We could still charter buses and have the students pick up part of the cost, or we could easily carpool with one van carrying all of our materials. How does everyone else do this?

We just ride a huge sled pulled by our school mascot.

We just surf to our invitationals.

But going back to your carpool question, it's not the administration's jurisdiction to decide whether or not you can carpool.

Actually, it's well within the school administration's jurisdiction to say that carpooling is not allowed or requires additional approval. Having parents drive students to tournaments (or any school event for that matter) raises liability concerns.

[drcubbin]

Thanks luminosityfan and nicholasmaurer on our decision to continue stepping up with Invys! Our kids do find them both fun and challenging! And yes, it does help us to thin the herd when looking for our best possible state competitors. Judging by comments from some schools posting here - who are at the top - yes, they may be finding it difficult to find a balance between school and SciOly, but since we're a young team, our students still really enjoy it and we are building a great culture and community. It is still lots of fun for us. So we don't have that level of pressure... yet. (And Kate, we have always admired R.C. Murphy's achievements, so I'm not really sure where the attitude regarding little ol' Bay Academy is coming from. Since we're no threat, why the concern? And Kate, you should be looking at total points, not placements. So thank you, EastStroudsburg13, for providing Kate with that much needed context).

Two points: First, this is really our 4th full year in SciOly. Our first year we just jumped into the NY Regional with two months of prep. Since then, we've spoken with coaches at every event we have attended and the most successful ones have given us - across the board - two major strategies, and one was to attend as many invitationals as possible. Second, I created this post as I was curious about transportation. I was really wondering if anyone had any input on liability when carpooling, which seems to be worrying our admin the most. Any advice on quelling their concerns (maybe John Richardsim)?

[wzhang5460]

Please respect each other, I don't think what Kate said was very nice. Great job Bay Academy for doing really well last year, wishing you guys luck this year at States. I've heard that you've been talking with our coach, but in case you didn't know Gelinas has rarely or never carpooled, usually we rent a bus. Carpooling may result in difficulties if a parent suddenly can't make it, a single car stuck in a traffic jam, etc. I'm not a coach but a captain for our team and I would suggest just charging a bit more for the members so you guys could get to the Invys as a team together. It helps with team spirit when the entire team is on the bus and makes logistics easier.