Scioly.org

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 have $0 from schools and fundraisers, so our parents drive us. For regionals and states however, since NJ competitions are weird (they're on weekdays) our parents pay fees for us to take a bus there.

sciolyperson1 wrote:We have $0 from schools and fundraisers, so our parents drive us. For regionals and states however, since NJ competitions are weird (they're on weekdays) our parents pay fees for us to take a bus there.

Seeing as we are registered for 5 Invitationals (plus Regionals, hopefully States and dreaming of Nationals) we were planning on doing a bunch of the Invys via carpools, but our admin is a little reluctant to have so many kids carpooling. Our kids are fine with this and it seems a logical and simple way to solve the entire problem, but admin does not agree. Is there anyone else who has this "reluctance to carpool" issue with their administration?

drcubbin wrote:

sciolyperson1 wrote:We have $0 from schools and fundraisers, so our parents drive us. For regionals and states however, since NJ competitions are weird (they're on weekdays) our parents pay fees for us to take a bus there.

Seeing as we are registered for 5 Invitationals (plus Regionals, hopefully States and dreaming of Nationals) we were planning on doing a bunch of the Invys via carpools, but our admin is a little reluctant to have so many kids carpooling. Our kids are fine with this and it seems a logical and simple way to solve the entire problem, but admin does not agree. Is there anyone else who has this "reluctance to carpool" issue with their administration?

I don't think theres anything wrong with carpooling, especially on Saturdays, however, 5 invitationals is a lot, even for an ok placing team like us. There isn't much benefit in going to too many competitions, 3, maybe 4 is more than enough.

drcubbin wrote:

sciolyperson1 wrote:We have $0 from schools and fundraisers, so our parents drive us. For regionals and states however, since NJ competitions are weird (they're on weekdays) our parents pay fees for us to take a bus there.

Seeing as we are registered for 5 Invitationals (plus Regionals, hopefully States and dreaming of Nationals) we were planning on doing a bunch of the Invys via carpools, but our admin is a little reluctant to have so many kids carpooling. Our kids are fine with this and it seems a logical and simple way to solve the entire problem, but admin does not agree. Is there anyone else who has this "reluctance to carpool" issue with their administration?

Carpooling is fine so long as the parents are okay with it, there's nothing the admin can do to stop it nor do they have anything to do with it so long as the form states that the students are responsible for their own transportation.

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.

But going back to your previous question, a lot of people carpool for Scioly, not only for my school, but others as well. Considering we have to travel across the island on days where there are other things to do, parents find it easier to carpool their children. Admin can't stop it unless they are responsible for transportation. Custody of the students occurs only after they arrive at said event, not before or going to unless otherwise stated on the form that they are providing it.

Galahad wrote: 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.

Galahad wrote:

drcubbin wrote:

sciolyperson1 wrote:We have $0 from schools and fundraisers, so our parents drive us. For regionals and states however, since NJ competitions are weird (they're on weekdays) our parents pay fees for us to take a bus there.

Seeing as we are registered for 5 Invitationals (plus Regionals, hopefully States and dreaming of Nationals) we were planning on doing a bunch of the Invys via carpools, but our admin is a little reluctant to have so many kids carpooling. Our kids are fine with this and it seems a logical and simple way to solve the entire problem, but admin does not agree. Is there anyone else who has this "reluctance to carpool" issue with their administration?

Carpooling is fine so long as the parents are okay with it, there's nothing the admin can do to stop it nor do they have anything to do with it so long as the form states that the students are responsible for their own transportation.

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.

But going back to your previous question, a lot of people carpool for Scioly, not only for my school, but others as well. Considering we have to travel across the island on days where there are other things to do, parents find it easier to carpool their children. Admin can't stop it unless they are responsible for transportation. Custody of the students occurs only after they arrive at said event, not before or going to unless otherwise stated on the form that they are providing it.

Agreed. Five is definitely a lot, and getting that many invitationals in might just be too much. We've historically been a very competitive team at nationals and even then we still only go to 4 invitationals. Sending them to this many not only can stress our team out, and as a builder of 2 years of past nationals experience, it can often be hard to finish builds in time and place consistently. Also, as Galahad said, school comes before scioly. I try to have a life, but often times it can be hard to balance both school work and scioly.

About the topic of transportation: our parents are very dedicated people when it comes with helping us prepare for competition. Although they do not help us with specific events, they are often the people bringing food and driving us to competitions. We get literally no money from the school, from fundraising, ANYTHING. Our coach is just very dedicated and her motivation is winning.

nicholasmaurer wrote:

Galahad wrote: 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.

While ten may be beneficial to a team like Solon, that has several national titles under their belt, I personally don't think that would be good for a team like Bay Academy, who have been competing for less than five years and probably aren't going to nationals any time soon, let alone winning. They don't need that many invitationals for their level. Teams like Goff or Murphy or Eagle Hill beat them at states last year while only attending one or two invitationals. It doesn't depend on the amount of competitions, it depends on the quality of the team and their dedication to improve.

kate! wrote:

nicholasmaurer wrote:

Galahad wrote: 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.

While ten may be beneficial to a team like Solon, that has several national titles under their belt, I personally don't think that would be good for a team like Bay Academy, who have been competing for less than five years and probably aren't going to nationals any time soon, let alone winning. They don't need that many invitationals for their level. Teams like Goff or Murphy or Eagle Hill beat them at states last year while only attending one or two invitationals. It doesn't depend on the amount of competitions, it depends on the quality of the team and their dedication to improve.

To give some context, this season is Community's third year attending invitationals.

drcubbin wrote: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.