Did you know that between January 12th and March 9th there have been nine weekends? Did you know that in those nine weekends Suncoast Orienteering has staged 10 days of orienteering competitions bringing 11 distinct competitions to Florida? Ten days, eleven competitions: how did we do that? I’ll explain that later.
That’s quite a string, indeed.
In the course of 11 competitions, we had 1,623 entries.
For each entry, we pay a levy of $2 to Orienteering USA to help pay our insurance costs. That’s $3,246 for O-USA.
Those 11 competitions were spread across seven Florida counties.
In the JROTC portion of these events 38 different schools have participated including four from out-of- state.
The Florida schools have ranged from West Nassau in the north to Key West in the south.
They have represented JROTC units affiliated with the Navy, Air Force, Army, Marines, and Coast Guard.
Over the course of the eleven events, Venice, Suwannee, and Dunedin have each sent teams to five events.
That’s it for the string. Due to many teams being on Spring Break and four top Florida teams being at the Navy Nationals we will not have a competition next weekend but get ready for March 23rd at Oscar Scherer State Park and the 10thAnnual Suncoast Orienteering Championships.
The Suncoast Championships have two features worth the attention of all of those 38 teams.
- Each team earns a discount on their entry fees equal to $1 per orienteer per Suncoast event entered up to three events stretching back to November 2023.
- As a regional championship, JROTC orienteers earn a 25% bonus on the ranking points they would otherwise earn in a standard event.
We are looking forward to a great turnout and a great event at Oscar Scherer on the 23rd. See you there.
Oh, the 11 competitions in 10 days: the extra event happened in February. We were hosting one of a series of Florida orienteering events at Jay B Starkey Wilderness Park in Pasco County. The chance came up to host the AFJROTC orienteering nationals, and we jumped at the chance. We used the same courses for our Florida event and Day 1 of the AFJROTC champs. Over 250 participants and 20 schools in one day.
Gord Hunter
Suncoast Orienteering