Discussion: Junior open call

Erin started off summarizing what's going on with the Junior Standing Team

Erin: there is an email group; sends stuff out a couple times a week. Armchair trainings once a week with different exercises for kids to do. There is an AP group where people log their training, 5 hours a week is the goal, including track running and other sports, orienteering, armchair, stregnth & conditioning.
Most people are on top of that. Some training hard; some just getting into it.

Upcoming meets: course reviews, captains. Course review Nate O.
Bowling Friday night.
Saturday evening captains meeting with Nate at the hotel.
Course review and possibly some training at West Point A meet and Senior team trials.

Erin will be in NY around Harriman May through mid-June for any athletes who can come leading up to Europe.
A couple might be going to Jukola, then to Czech Republic for 2 weeks of training leading up to JWOC, probably a hard week on terrain the first week, and a more relaxed week the second.

The juniors will train with a coach from the CR after JWOC, and some will continue on to other eastern European meets.

Erin will go to WOC to check out the scene; it is possible that a junior could make the junior team.

Tahoe summerfest: 5 different races, will do training and would like to rent a house in Tahoe for a couple weeks and do training afterward.

Maryjane: Course review with Nate at the Pig. Then a captain’s meeting on Saturday night. Captain is leading the meeting; full JST & Europe. “Nate-O inspired” meeting. Probably around 6 or 7 after dinner. There is an official schedule ***** get that nailed down.
The hospitality room and the meeting will coincide.

Maryjane: do you have more info on the time with the Czech coach?
Erin: Allen Hubsch is making the arrangements. The coach does tours for groups of kids and teams fairly regularly. One of his services is to take groups. He takes you to nice terrain where you can train for a few days. He makes sure that food and accommodations are taken care of.

Flying Pig: course review will be at the race site. Bowling - details have been sent out about that.

Question about money for Europe - more info will come this weekend.

for Erin: armchair training we’re supposed to be doing - wasn’t sure about that. What is it; what should we be doing?

Erin: look over an old course; look at different maps and how the terrain is, and the contour lines. Try drawing the best route you think possible through the course. Measuring different amounts of climb for different legs and thinking about what would be the best route for you and why.
Another exercise: look at one leg, and draw it in a simple form on a blank sheet of paper. Helps with practicing simplification, especially in complicated terrain.
Give yourself a time limit - 5 seconds to draw your route. Or 5 seconds to look at the map.
Another exercise: Find good handrail features and good corridors.
I’ve been trying to send at least one map each week to everyone.

Barb asks about West Point: time between the races - an opportunity for juniors to do something?
Erin: Anyone on the JWOC team will be doing extra training.
West Point *will* count for selection for JWOC in 2014. Encouraging juniors to train hard through that race, and around the races. It would be fun to set up activities for all the other juniors. Maybe could do some combination thing. Day 1 everything is at one place, and we need to move on Day 2.

West Point is good hill training.

Will West Point count for 2014 JWOC selection? Do we know what the 12-month time frame is?
Erin: it’s in process of being finalized. It will be approximately mid-April, the beginning of the 12 month period.

Flying Pig is the end of the 2013 time period. Do we know whether the ranking/decision will be within a week of the Pig?
Erin: it depends on how fast the petitions come in. There is a 5-day limit after the Flying Pig for accepting petitions.
Can turn in the petition at Flying Pig. Email is best. Hand-written at the Pig is fine, to Amy Williams.

What is the role of captains?
Erin: chose 4 captains: Nate, Ethan, Meg, Danielle.
They are working with Erin and Barb to strengthen communication amongst team, JTESC. Lead kids at different events. They are contact people on the standing team.

Barb talks about Indiegogo and eBay fundraisers.

Indiegogo: share on Facebook. Can donate right from FB. Just go to FB page, and share it on your FB page so all your friends can see it, and they can donate that way.

Erin put on training for an afternoon and a morning in KS. We made about $400 off of that as a fundraiser. If kids or clubs are inspired to have a race or two or a training that you put out as a fundraiser, even to your friends at school where they come out and do something, those are some ideas to generate some money. If you did two of them and raised $500-$600, that’s half of a flight to Europe.

Many clubs provide travel grants to juniors for both interstate and international travel. Do ask your clubs about grants.

AL, GA and FL O clubs have sent money in to support Junior Team USA.

We talked about approaching companies. Glen Schorr should be kept in the loop to coordinate approaching possible sponsors.

Erin will be available in New York from mid-May to June 13th. Any JST member or junior heading to Europe is welcome to come and stay for free with Erin during that time and Erin will train with you in Harriman. The terrain is quite physical, and really great for training.

There is also a training camp in Texas the first week of June. Maryjane says it's a tremendous camp; her son has been there 2 or 3 times and has learned a lot.

Barb, thanks for the summary. It's great to hear about all the training opportunities and course reviews getting organized for the juniors. It is also exciting to hear that a group will train in the Czech Republic before JWOC. Has any thought been given to head to Bulgaria after JWOC and see the terrain that awaits at JWOC 2014?

Yeah, initially the idea was to go to Bulgaria. However, we decided against it because there are other orienteering opportunities that are closer. Following JWOC, most or all of the juniors will attend a two-day training camp with a Czech coach; Allen Hubsch has arranged that. Then some will fly home. Some will go on to the Karst Cup in Slovakia, while two will stay in the Czech Republic for a smaller meet on some good maps. After that, a rest in Vienna, and then on to events in Slovenia and/or Croatia. And a few are finishing up in Italy.

Can you come along for any of that?

Run Black Diamond will be on the same weekend in 2014 (third weekend of March). Just FYI. Sprint, Middle, Long. BAOC 2014 A events: May, September (or maybe October, I don't know about the maybe status, it may already have a date).

The 2014 Flying Pig, April 4-6, will also be the US Interscholastic Champs (not Intercollegiate). It will certainly be within the 2014 JWOC Selection Period, but will probably not be the last event.