Discussion: USA junior news
in: Orienteering; General
Oct 5, 2012 12:58 PM
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barb:
- The biggest news is that Coach Erin Schirm’s role as Junior Team Coach will be expanded to a full-time coaching and development position working with juniors, clubs, coaches and JTESC. An anonymous donation has covered the salary for Erin for one year, but we still need to raise funds for travel and expenses. Therefore, after you make your donation to the annual fund, please consider an additional donation for the Junior Team. Erin has signed the contract, and the work starts immediately. I am really excited about this - thanks to everyone who has helped to make this happen!
- Erin has heard from a dozen coaches with interest in coordinating their work. He started an email list devoted to coaching. Please contact Erin if you’re interested in participating. There is a coaching-related meeting happening at NAOC; Erin will be there.
- Juniors at NAOC:
- Juniors will have their own lounge space throughout NAOC. Thanks to Sandy and the NAOC team for making this arrangement.
- Juniors, please volunteer to help out at the ice-cream social, a team fund-raiser.
- Juniors at all levels are invited to gather half an hour before awards, and bring their maps, for course review with each other and senior team members
- Junior meetings will be held at 5:30pm on Friday and Saturday evenings.
- Juniors will have their own lounge space throughout NAOC. Thanks to Sandy and the NAOC team for making this arrangement.
- At NAOC Erin is planning to introduce himself, and describe his role, and to roll out the junior development team. We’re thinking he’ll do that at the banquet and/or the ice cream social.
- The pre-NAOC junior training will happen, in spite of some uncertainty about whether we’ll have access to Harriman, or move it to nearby maps. Please let Barb know if you will be attending.
- Guy (JTESC chair) and Barb (Junior Team Administrator) met with the Executive Director, President and Treasurer of OUSA to figure out how the finances work. Each year we’ve been carrying a cushion of money forward; this year we started with over $6000. In addition, for the first time in several years, in 2012 OUSA provided additional money beyond specific donations and fundraising for the junior team. We’ll be able to carry over unspent budget money to 2013, which is important for contributors to know. We are hoping to fund more athlete and coach travel in 2013 than we have been able to in the past.
- Digital ONA 2012 came out recently, and it has really nice reports on JWOC (including an article by Emily about her third place finish in the long). Nice links to videos and blogs and more.
- Erin will be at the Boggs Mountain A meet this weekend, and will meet with juniors there.
- We are starting to think about next year’s schedule, and in particular the possibility of summer travel for juniors in Europe. If you have ideas or suggestions, please let us know. Some of the juniors traveled together last year for several weeks; by planning ahead we may be able to include more juniors and give families the lead time to figure out how to fund the trip.
- Janet and Erin have floated the idea of a week-long late-summer orienteering camp for younger kids; the older juniors could work as counselors.
- Isabel Bryant created a Facebook group for USA junior orienteering.
Oct 5, 2012 1:42 PM
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barb:
Peter Goodwin is amazing. He dealt with all the logistics, contract stuff, negotiations, etc to make the contract position for Erin work - and get it started as quickly as possible.
Oct 5, 2012 2:00 PM
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Awesome news for American orienteering. I can't think of a better person for the job.
Oct 5, 2012 2:03 PM
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AliC:
Sounds really awesome! Thanks for the update and just so excited that this is rolling!
Oct 5, 2012 5:35 PM
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Isabel Bryant created a Facebook group for USA junior orienteering.
Would it be better to have a Facebook page, as opposed to a group?
Since it's still small (17 people) as I write this, switching now wouldn't be a big deal. But, it depends on what your goal is. Groups are better for some things, pages are better for others.
I'll forward this along to the CascadeOC junior community soon.
Would it be better to have a Facebook page, as opposed to a group?
Since it's still small (17 people) as I write this, switching now wouldn't be a big deal. But, it depends on what your goal is. Groups are better for some things, pages are better for others.
I'll forward this along to the CascadeOC junior community soon.
Oct 5, 2012 10:00 PM
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barb:
@P. Socks: group was what we were after: place for juniors to share info, photos, videos, ideas - not so much the official public face of an organization; OUSA website will work for that for now.
Oct 6, 2012 12:28 AM
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GuyO:
Therefore, after you make your donation to the annual fund, please consider an additional donation for the Junior Team.
This should actually read...
When making your donation to OUSA during the Annual Fund Drive, please consider designating a little extra for the Junior Team.
This should actually read...
When making your donation to OUSA during the Annual Fund Drive, please consider designating a little extra for the Junior Team.
Oct 6, 2012 1:29 AM
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I haven't been this excited in a long time about orienteering in the USA. Thank to Erin and everyone who made this happen. This is what it takes.
Oct 7, 2012 4:35 AM
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Erin lead an excellent training session for juniors out at Boggs Mountain this weekend. About a dozen participated, mostly from WA and CA.
I must say, I was amazed at how engaged the kids were. They were actively sharing ideas, coming up with their own ideas, and really listing to each other. This was clearly the combination of a good teacher and some very sharp kids.
I must say, I was amazed at how engaged the kids were. They were actively sharing ideas, coming up with their own ideas, and really listing to each other. This was clearly the combination of a good teacher and some very sharp kids.
Oct 11, 2012 3:55 AM
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barb:
The report from Erin: in the afternoon of the first day of competition, about a dozen juniors met with Erin. There were kids at all levels. They reviewed courses in small groups. They looked for 3 possible routes to a given control, choosing different attack points. Then they did an exercise where 2-3 people in a group went out to a control, using a couple different routes. They talked about which route was faster and why. Then they regrouped; Erin asked what ideas the kids could come up with for what they could do where they live to train for orienteering. The juniors came up with a bunch of ideas. One idea was to print out a google map of the town or a park. Another idea was to run intervals on a track. One kid suggested taking pieces of foam and cutting a hole in them to practice punching. Another idea: Field sprints: draw up a course on a field to practice running in and out of controls. And: Get together with other people from the area to practice once a week. He said it was a nice group of kids. Half a dozen were from Berkeley; apparently there is some kind fo school league thing that they do after cross-country season.
Oct 16, 2012 12:58 AM
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barb:
Coach Erin Schirm ran a junior training weekend in New York this past weekend. 13 participated. We were lucky to have Reka, a freshman at Princeton, who represented Hungary at JWOC this year; she was super nice and had some great training ideas from the Hungarian team. I got footage of Erin and Andrew trying to explain baseball to her. Anna S-S came along and provided additional guidance. Most of the juniors were female; we have some strong up-and-coming girls, and a lot of them run cross-country.
Erin created exercises at Westmoreland Sanctuary and Ward Pound Ridge on Saturday, and Sunday was spent at Harriman. Gorgeous weather; great training.
Erin created exercises at Westmoreland Sanctuary and Ward Pound Ridge on Saturday, and Sunday was spent at Harriman. Gorgeous weather; great training.
This discussion thread is closed.