The Value of College Sailing in Small Districts

The Value of College Sailing in Small Districts

This article originally appeared on Sailgroove.org on March 19, 2010

     I had a parent ask me a tough question last week. They mentioned that some Yacht Clubs in our area and their membership don't see the value in supporting a college program and that many parents don't feel there is a point to sending their child to a SEISA school if they want to be a good sailor because the competition and coaching is better elsewhere.

They asked me: "What is the value of college sailing to our area if the sailors will never really be competitive on a national level?"

     I actually think I have a really good answer for that, but it requires a more long term view than almost all college freshmen have, and even most parents when considering their kids college careers, or even yacht clubs and their current membership.

     The real value of college sailing in small districts and for small teams is what it forces the sailors to do to succeed and the long term repercussions of that on their professional lives and sailing programs in the future.

     An excellent example of this came last weekend at the J/22 Midwinters. It was won by Greg Fisher, a perennial one design champion, but the third place boat was three guys from Dallas. All three are ex college sailors: 2 from Texas A&M in College Station, and one from the Merchant Marine Academy. Likewise the 6th place boat was all ex SEISA sailors, this time with a skipper from Tulane and crew from A&M Galveston. This Tulane guy is also a J/80 World and National Champion. All the ex-SEISA sailors are in private business now and just sail as a hobby.

     None of the A&M guys nor the Tulane skipper were coached in college. Tulane was a national powerhouse in the 80's, but A&M has never been and Galveston came to prominence after these alumni graduated. The VALUE of sailing in SEISA for these sailors was the competition (which seemed to be sufficient for them to do well on the national level now), the skills they learned because they came from a program where they had to do everything themselves, and what they contribute to the sport and their home clubs now where they still race, pay dues, serve as officers, and coach and support the juniors and college sailors.

     The best thing about a club program is that it is an environment that honors independent thoughts and deeds, cherishes individual achievement, and rewards individual responsibility and leadership. It also punishes the opposite. I actually believe that there can be a relationship between future sailing and career success and the kind of junior and college program you came out of, usually the more successful people came out of uncoached programs.

     This feature of club programs is actually a problem with my job as Graduate Director. The good teams; the independent, achievement-oriented, well-disciplined programs basically guide themselves. I do what I can to nurture these traits and encourage them to pass them on to the next generation, but for the most part they make their own decisions and do well. But if I help the less resourceful teams make decisions, or make decisions for them I get the opposite result. The strong get stronger and the weak can get weaker.

     Most of the time this weakening of the weak problem is related to teams that have personality or integrity-related weaknesses. I really worry about this because these issues need to be addressed in college and fixed if possible because students that spend time in environments like this take these traits into the workforce when they finish school. This is usually exhibited as a lack of initiative and that can lead to career and economic underachievement, or they may not have the initiative to stick with the sport and contribute to regional and national level sailing as an adult.

     Like my goal of finding a better way for the club teams to run themselves and compete nationally, I am constantly thinking about how not to contribute to this weakening of the weak. How to help programs while doing as little actual work for them as possible, in the hope they will find the iniative to improve on their own and have a better future for it.

Blake Billman

SEISA Graduate Director