USCSA MISSION STATEMENT
‘To
be the National governing body of team ski & snowboard competition at the
collegiate level.
To
promote and increase awareness of and participation in alpine skiing,
freestyle skiing, cross-country skiing, ski jumping and snowboarding in the United States.
To
provide competition and development opportunities for student/athletes in a
team atmosphere leading toward National titles in each discipline.’
ORGANIZATIONAL
PROFILE
The
United States Collegiate Ski & Snowboard Association (USCSA) is the sports
federation for collegiate team ski racing, ski jumping, snowboarding and freestyle in America. In
excess of 200 colleges from coast to coast, field some 5000 men and women,
alpine, cross-country, ski jumping, snowboarding and freestyle athletes in over 200 race events
annually.
Competition
takes place across three progressive tiers. Conference qualifiers determine
the participants at the six USCSA regional championships. The Regional
Championships are the last step on the road to the annual United States
Collegiate Skiing and Snowboard Championships, the showcase event in college
racing
Organized
as part of a non-profit 501 (C) 3 Educational Foundation, the USCSA believes
that student/athletes, of all levels and abilities should have access to a
quality and exciting venue of ski & snowboard competition. The USCSA
fosters parity, both of representation and ultimately competition, to create
and maintain a level playing field and does all it can to raise the level of
competition throughout all their programs from the bottom up. The USCSA also recognizes, that for athletes to be truly successful
individuals, academics should take priority over ski & snowboard
competition. To help foster this,
the USCSA stresses education first and offers a variety of academic based
awards.
THE
FORMULA FOR SUCCESS
The
USCSA has grown and thrived due to its unique approach. It is the only collegiate level national governing sports body to
foster competition among institutions with varying national sports
affiliations. This means that
schools who are NCAA, NAIA, NJCAA, or other independent sport bodies can all
participate in the USCSA.
Another
special feature of the USCSA is that teams can have different institutional
status. Teams organized as club sports
and varsity sports compete on the same level against one another, making the
USCSA the place for everyone!
Team
performance is emphasized within the USCSA, a departure from the typical
individual or world cup scoring format in skiing. Teams field five racers with the top three performances being used for
the team score. Most former USCSA
athletes agree that the USCSA's team orientation has been the seed for
developing and nurturing a team approach in other aspects of their lives and
careers.
Overall
team performance is considered separately for each discipline, so a school can
field any single or combination of a men's alpine, women's alpine, men's
cross-country, women's cross-country, men's
ski jumping, women's ski jumping, men’s snowboard, women’s snowboard, men's
freestyle, women's freestyle competition team.
The
USCSA follows stringent rules of individual eligibility. This assures
equitable standards for all student/athletes.
BASICS OF USCSA TEAM
SCORING (Alpine and Cross-country)
ALPINE:
A
school enters five competitors. Each competitor is seeded randomly in one of
the five seeds. The competitors combined time from two runs is their score.
You then combine the team’s best three individual scores for a team time.
One point is awarded to the winning team, two points for second, etc. The
championship is determined by adding team finish points in slalom to that of
giant slalom, with the low total being the winner.
The
Individual Combined Award:
The
total USSA race points are utilized for the slalom and giant slalom events,
with the low total being the winner.
CROSS
COUNTRY:
A
school enters five competitors. Each competitor is seeded randomly in one of
the five seeds. Team finish places are determined by the sum of placement
points of the three best individual team members. Team scoring isaccomplished by adding together the team scores of the individual
classic, the individual freestyle and the team relay. Scoring is a point by
place system. Relay team scoring is as follows: 6 points for first place, 15
points for second, etc. The points are increased by 9 for each team on through
the remaining relay results.
The
Individual Combined Award:
The
total place points will be utilized for the individual classic and individual
freestyle events.
For Snowboarding, Freestyle and Jumping/Nordic Combined; see USCSA's website.
|
