Its getting time to plan out our cyclocross season. Mountain bike
nationals are on Oct 25-27 and CX nationals are on Jan. 8-12, 2014 in
Boulder. With that in mind, I'd like to have our season start on Nov 2
and 3 and end by Dec 7 and 8. This will give riders time to recover from
mountain bike nationals and be able to prepare for finals in December.
Events
do not need to be stand alone collegiate races, in fact I would
encourage against such planning. I encourage promoters to offer a full
run of USAC categories in addition to collegiate- which for this season
can be condensed down to Women and Men categories, we will score the
categories separately. Feel free to work with area promoters in adding
collegiate races to theirs. As CX grows in our conference we will
explore hosting collegiate only events. If your team is interested in
hosting a CX race, please let me know and give me a brief run down of
your event plan.
Monday, June 24, 2013
Saturday, June 22, 2013
Conference Goals
The last few days, I've been mulling over a couple of ideas and the one I came back to a few times was establishing conference goals (both for myself and for the conference). I think conference wide goals will help us stay motivated and grow the conference a bit.
1.) Increase communication between myself and our schools. I don't want people thinking I'm unapproachable or too busy to chat. My door (if you live in Tucson) is always open...so is my e-mail and phone too. I'm always happy to discuss cycling!
2.) Increase communication between schools. We have a lot *A LOT* of quality leadership in the conference and new schools and officers can learn from the experienced leaders. That was one of the goals of the FB group and I think its worked out well so far.
3.) Grow the conference. We're missing a large contingent of riders from New Mexico such as in Silver City (Western NM) and in El Paso (UTEP). I would love to see these programs start up and help diversify the conference. The only way to do this is to spread the word about collegiate cycling. If you know someone attending these schools and they have the tiniest love of biking- talk to them about starting a club!
4.) Re-establish ourselves on the national scene. Our conference has great potential and has the perfect mix to turn out championship riders with the terrain and weather. I would like to see mountain and road national titles return to our conference in the next 3 years. Obviously, the sooner the better, however, it takes time to develop national caliber riders. I would include track and CX in this but those are definitely segments that need a lot of growth and one needs a dedicated structure in our boundaries...
5.) Increase the number of stand alone collegiate events over the next couple of years. This one is tied to number 3 since our conference is too small to effectively have races focusing only on collegiate. One of the best things about collegiate cycling is the atmosphere which I feel is sort of missing in our conference. Anyone who attended nationals in May picked up on the collegiate vibe and that is exactly how collegiate focused weekends feel.The current status works, however, with more schools we can start to shy away from tagging our events on to other USAC events and instead tagging on a few USAC categories to collegiate races. Imagine having 6 collegiate races (Men's A through D, Women's A and B) each with their own race and then having a P/1/2/3, 4/5 men's and women's races at the end of the day. The atmosphere would be completely different!
1.) Increase communication between myself and our schools. I don't want people thinking I'm unapproachable or too busy to chat. My door (if you live in Tucson) is always open...so is my e-mail and phone too. I'm always happy to discuss cycling!
2.) Increase communication between schools. We have a lot *A LOT* of quality leadership in the conference and new schools and officers can learn from the experienced leaders. That was one of the goals of the FB group and I think its worked out well so far.
3.) Grow the conference. We're missing a large contingent of riders from New Mexico such as in Silver City (Western NM) and in El Paso (UTEP). I would love to see these programs start up and help diversify the conference. The only way to do this is to spread the word about collegiate cycling. If you know someone attending these schools and they have the tiniest love of biking- talk to them about starting a club!
4.) Re-establish ourselves on the national scene. Our conference has great potential and has the perfect mix to turn out championship riders with the terrain and weather. I would like to see mountain and road national titles return to our conference in the next 3 years. Obviously, the sooner the better, however, it takes time to develop national caliber riders. I would include track and CX in this but those are definitely segments that need a lot of growth and one needs a dedicated structure in our boundaries...
5.) Increase the number of stand alone collegiate events over the next couple of years. This one is tied to number 3 since our conference is too small to effectively have races focusing only on collegiate. One of the best things about collegiate cycling is the atmosphere which I feel is sort of missing in our conference. Anyone who attended nationals in May picked up on the collegiate vibe and that is exactly how collegiate focused weekends feel.The current status works, however, with more schools we can start to shy away from tagging our events on to other USAC events and instead tagging on a few USAC categories to collegiate races. Imagine having 6 collegiate races (Men's A through D, Women's A and B) each with their own race and then having a P/1/2/3, 4/5 men's and women's races at the end of the day. The atmosphere would be completely different!
Tuesday, June 11, 2013
Fall 2013 Schedule
For those who are curious about the upcoming mountain bike season, look no further:
The calendar page has been updated as well.
Saturday, June 8, 2013
A big announcement...
After 6 years as Conference Director and a few years as unofficial director, I decided a few weeks ago that it was time to step down and let someone else have the fun of being CD. The National Collegiate Cycling Manager, Jeffrey Hansen, has appointed the Assistant CD, Joey Iuliano, to become the full-time Conference Director. Many of you are familiar with Joey as he has implemented the conference meeting and the facebook page, among other Initiatives. He will also be the SW's first CD who will be racing collegiately at the same time (which occurs in other conferences frequently).
I will be working with Joey through the end of the mtb season, transitioning the responsibilities. He will be attending the mtb events also in the fall. So please feel free to start contacting him about conference activities and concerns.
With the current teams' growth and good leadership, as well as the new teams that are coming into the SW this fall, I am very confident that the SW is in great hands. Thank you all so much for making my job pretty fun.
Nancy
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