Clarification regarding the VIQC Qualifying Criteria document, specifically the Event Criteria section, point #7.
I coach teams at an international school where the elementary, middle, and high school divisions are on one campus. Each division functions autonomously, as a school would in a district. Would the school as a whole be considered a district and each division be considered a separate “school”? If so, should the middle school IQ teams have a different number compared to the elementary school IQ teams?
These teams WILL NOT meet together and will be coached by different people. I will over see both teams and coach the middle school team. An elementary school teacher will coach the elementary.
@Shawjb the intent of the rules is not to make your life difficult or force you to cheat the system in a creative way, but simply to prevent hoarding of the spots by whoever gets to register first.
RECF works to provide kids with multiple opportunities to play and wants to ensure that even teams that have late start of the season could still register at later events.
For example, our club has many teams on all levels. For each level (Elementary, MS, HS) we host one open event early in the season, where organisation specific restrictions apply. Then we host second set of events late in the season and to reward us for hosting multiple events RECF grants those events “invitational” status where some of the restrictions are waved.
This was very useful last VRC season, when new V5 kits were shipping with delays and we could reserve spots at invitational events only for the teams who had V5. Many of them had it shipped late and couldn’t attend any of the early events.
I am making my best effort to ensure that all students at both the middle and elementary schools have an opportunity to participate in the one or two events that will be available for us to compete in this season. Our region is very small with only a handful of teams. Our season will consist, if we are lucky, of one scrimmage and a national championship.
I don’t want my decision to have negative consequences for the students at my school. Hopefully IQ will continue to grow so there are more tournaments and teams. But during this growth there may be tournaments consisting of fewer than 6 organizations that attend which would then allow no more than 33% of the total number of registered teams to be from one school.
Will all these rules and criteria change? Maybe, maybe not. All I’m trying to do is make the best decision based on the information I have. I just want clarification on my specific situation so I can plan for what will be best for my students while following the rules as they are written.
It’s not making my life difficult nor am I attempting to cheat the system in a creative way. Rather, I want to make sure I don’t cheat my students out of an opportunity to compete by making a poor decision.
As for your example, I am well aware that the RECF allows this waiver for schools that host a second tournament. But our situation does not allow this. We live on an island and must fly to attend any event. On average, it will cost about $500 per student to attend one tournament so its really important that I understand and interpret this criteria correctly so I’m able to do the right thing for my students. I would love to host a tournament. In my previous life as a coach in the states, I was an EP for 4 years and loved it. But schools aren’t going to ask their kids to pay to fly down to our school for an event when they can simply drive across town to an event. We tried it last year with VRC and it just didn’t work.
Thank you for your input and the link to the official Q&A. I will reach out to my RSM for clarification on this matter.
I will say this, talk with your RSM they might have to do something special for your region given geographic.
However registering more organizations (different teams numbers all at $150 a piece because you will not get a discount) , is not the way to go. You are going to artificially inflate the organization to team ratio of the region, you will spend more money and probably get the same results as asking a RSM. Keep all the programs together do not split them up it really is not worth it.