Sam, As a small team leader I understand your concerns. As one of the team leaders at Cornell, I understand the constant struggle to have enough funds to support a club team. What you may not be aware of is often times bigger teams face the same struggles. In the case of the pinnie the cost/benefits were looked at very closely. The cost is very low, at the minimum you could go to Wallmart and buy some undershirts and write your team names on them, at most you are paying 20 dollars for a high quality custom pinnie. This is less than you will pay for any other piece of sailing gear from gloves to spray tops to a team hat. Now what is the sport gaining from this? There is lots to be gained. Including increased exposure. The biggest problem sailing teams run into with funding is that sports officials at universities do not understand the sport. Having a team "uniform" is one more way we make sailing more mainstream. If sailing were to become more mainstream than the likelihood of your club team receiving more funding or even changing status to varsity would likely increase. While the pinnie will not change things overnight, it is one step of many that ICSA is trying to take to improve the image and increase the similarities between college sailing and other college sports.
Now if you still completely disagree with the pinnie etc than I offer you this suggestion, become more involved in your district's (Conference's) leadership. Go to your local meetins, talk with your reps, let them know what you think should happen with the sport. The attendence at these meetings can be low, so by becoming an elected rep you have can be presented with an opportunity to greatly impact the sport. If you are looking for a company to do your pinnies, Cornell also used the company that Joe Sullivan from Fordham mentioned, reliable racing, and were very pleased with the results. -Scott Grandt -- Scott Ryan Grandt Inter-Collegiate Sailing Association (ICSA) Vice-President Cell:562-754-1555 ________________________________________________ icsa mailing list [email protected] http://www.collegesailing.org/mailman/?listname=icsa
