D-III Nationals - Why We Didn't Go

The first year of D-III nationals, captain Alex and I talked about attending it briefly after the tournament announcement and decided the we (Claremont) wouldn't go. We decided that the combination of school being out of session and the team not being accustomed to flying to tournaments was enough to not go. In addition, we thought we had a legit shot of making it to UPA Nationals that year, and we didn't want settling for D-III nationals to be okay with anybody on the team. Some people brought up the idea of going, but the majority of the team was in favor of out decision to focus on the UPA series.

The next year I was a senior and a captain and the team had almost no shot of making nationals (we wound up tied for 3rd in a region with one bid, but we knew Colorado and SB were better than us that year). We decided to have a team meeting about D-III nationals (it's not that hard to have team meetings when everyone lives on campus). My stance, along with that of many of the other seniors, was that we wanted to be as proud of our senior season as possible. To us, that meant finishing as high as we could at regionals, and pouring our harts into doing so.

At the team meeting, the general consensus was that because D-III nationals isn't hosted by the UPA, and because we knew other top level D-III teams wouldn't be there, any victory wouldn't be satisfying. We also wanted to put the team in a position to succeed in years to come, and we thought having people focus on regionals was the best way to do so. The team voted something like 16 to 3 not to go to D-III nationals that year. If the UPA hosted some sort of devision two event for small schools, we would have gone (especially because our club sports department would have paid for our trip).

So that's where Claremont stood on D-III nationals while I was there, and it seems like not much has changed. Also, as the team improves, I wonder if they'd even go to (or be eligible for) a UPA hosted D-II style event (still, it'd be hard to pass up the free accommodations).

Word.