Post by Spencer Jardine - SVSU on Apr 12, 2011 20:56:16 GMT -6
Well I know we are still reveling in the awesomeness of last weekends Nationals at WKU, but we are after all 363 days away from the next Nationals date. So that means the planning begins on my end. My question is WHAT DO YOU ALL WANT!?!? Quite frankly I am going to use the age old saying "If it aint broke don't fix it", so I am going to look to repeat on the success of WKU using the awesome format they had. With a few improvements here and there.
Reffing - I know that the paid ref deal was kinda hit and miss, mostly in my opinion was the lack of caring refs. And it still continues to be a issue for our league. But I think Jim Curtis came up with the best solution, paid alumni refs. I cant think of anything better than people who have played the sport for several years being the ones reffing the game with the vested interest of earning a pay check. Especially guys who would normally just travel with their teams just there to support their teams. I can't think of anyone better to ref than guys who will probably be graduating but still wanna be a part of the sport. (I'm looking at you Raymer, Stokes, Curtis.) Not to mention they have the rule book memorized front and back and would have the balls to stick to their calls and not be influenced by a hostile crowd or players.
League party - Admittedly SVSU is going to be the smallest school ever to host nationals, but I see that as an opportunity. A 3 minute walk away from where we are going to be playing is the "Townhomes" of SVSU, basically the big party area of SVSU. Its off campus and we should be having several of SVSU's team living there next year. I would love to be able to give the teams a place to party, maybe even throw a keg so people don't have to worry about dealing with noise complaints from the front desk of their hotel. (f**k you b**** all I do is win win win no matter what) Plus I loved the way all the teams bonded over the weekend, I think a party would be a great way to bring everyone together even more instead of just staying in their hotel by themselves.
The girls of dodgeball - I was pretty saddened by the lack of a girls match up in gladiator last weekend, and seeing the number of very highly talented women over the weekend I think they deserve some recognition on a national stage. I would like to get an official all girls game going in if there is enough interest. I know the 7 girls on our team would love to duke it out with the rest of the women in the league.
Mix game/JV game - Personally I hate the 20 man roster rule, I f**king hate it. I know teams have over 20 people who show up to practice every day, pay their dues, go to tournament or games chipping in on gas money/hotel knowing they will never play but still wanna be there to support their team. I was so happy the players on our team where able to get a game in this weekend vs Moody, as well as players from WKUs JV team. I would love to be able to have the players who cant make the 20 man roster be able to get a game in when they would normally just be watching the whole weekend. If we got enough gym space/time maybe even have a mini JV tournament.
All star game - As of right now it seemed like the only teams that had completely positive views on the World vs Michigan format was those of us in Michigan. So I'm open to suggestions as to how to improve it. Personally I would love to keep the same format, I had a blast during the little friendly rivalry we had going but this is YOUR nationals. So anything you wanna suggest let me hear it.
Some things that you can all look forward to - Brand new facility's. SVSU is currently expanding the Ryder center adding more and more gyms, all of them will be brand spaking new and ready to go before nationals.
ID checks will continue to be enforced
Again, being a small campus will assist us in being able to keep cost down. And with the cult following that the dodgeball team has been getting on campus I'm confident we should be able to play in the Oneal arena where the big boys play. At the very least the Cardinal Gym teams know and love.
I will also be looking into getting teams meal passes to our own campus all you can eat cafeteria which is almost a carbon copy of what we had at WKU. The advantage of our cafeteria is it wont close mid day, so teams wont have to scramble to use their passes like some of us had to do.
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Let me know what you guys think, I'm open to any suggestions. Again, this is not just SVSU's nationals this is YOURS. So anything you wanna say I am more than willing to hear it.
Also, just a request. Can the teams who will be having new captains please send their new contact information to Raymer ASAP so he can get me the updated contact list so I can get the ball rolling on contacting the heads of teams.
Reffing - I know that the paid ref deal was kinda hit and miss, mostly in my opinion was the lack of caring refs. And it still continues to be a issue for our league. But I think Jim Curtis came up with the best solution, paid alumni refs. I cant think of anything better than people who have played the sport for several years being the ones reffing the game with the vested interest of earning a pay check. Especially guys who would normally just travel with their teams just there to support their teams. I can't think of anyone better to ref than guys who will probably be graduating but still wanna be a part of the sport. (I'm looking at you Raymer, Stokes, Curtis.) Not to mention they have the rule book memorized front and back and would have the balls to stick to their calls and not be influenced by a hostile crowd or players.
League party - Admittedly SVSU is going to be the smallest school ever to host nationals, but I see that as an opportunity. A 3 minute walk away from where we are going to be playing is the "Townhomes" of SVSU, basically the big party area of SVSU. Its off campus and we should be having several of SVSU's team living there next year. I would love to be able to give the teams a place to party, maybe even throw a keg so people don't have to worry about dealing with noise complaints from the front desk of their hotel. (f**k you b**** all I do is win win win no matter what) Plus I loved the way all the teams bonded over the weekend, I think a party would be a great way to bring everyone together even more instead of just staying in their hotel by themselves.
The girls of dodgeball - I was pretty saddened by the lack of a girls match up in gladiator last weekend, and seeing the number of very highly talented women over the weekend I think they deserve some recognition on a national stage. I would like to get an official all girls game going in if there is enough interest. I know the 7 girls on our team would love to duke it out with the rest of the women in the league.
Mix game/JV game - Personally I hate the 20 man roster rule, I f**king hate it. I know teams have over 20 people who show up to practice every day, pay their dues, go to tournament or games chipping in on gas money/hotel knowing they will never play but still wanna be there to support their team. I was so happy the players on our team where able to get a game in this weekend vs Moody, as well as players from WKUs JV team. I would love to be able to have the players who cant make the 20 man roster be able to get a game in when they would normally just be watching the whole weekend. If we got enough gym space/time maybe even have a mini JV tournament.
All star game - As of right now it seemed like the only teams that had completely positive views on the World vs Michigan format was those of us in Michigan. So I'm open to suggestions as to how to improve it. Personally I would love to keep the same format, I had a blast during the little friendly rivalry we had going but this is YOUR nationals. So anything you wanna suggest let me hear it.
Some things that you can all look forward to - Brand new facility's. SVSU is currently expanding the Ryder center adding more and more gyms, all of them will be brand spaking new and ready to go before nationals.
ID checks will continue to be enforced
Again, being a small campus will assist us in being able to keep cost down. And with the cult following that the dodgeball team has been getting on campus I'm confident we should be able to play in the Oneal arena where the big boys play. At the very least the Cardinal Gym teams know and love.
I will also be looking into getting teams meal passes to our own campus all you can eat cafeteria which is almost a carbon copy of what we had at WKU. The advantage of our cafeteria is it wont close mid day, so teams wont have to scramble to use their passes like some of us had to do.
------
Let me know what you guys think, I'm open to any suggestions. Again, this is not just SVSU's nationals this is YOURS. So anything you wanna say I am more than willing to hear it.
Also, just a request. Can the teams who will be having new captains please send their new contact information to Raymer ASAP so he can get me the updated contact list so I can get the ball rolling on contacting the heads of teams.