After attending the US Sailing’s leadership conference last week in San Diego with 650+ attendees, I came away with a lot of ideas so we can improve junior sailing from the high school sailing point of view. I believe we fit in a box that is simple and structured. We are not trying to change any aspect of youth sailing other than creating a team sport that becomes important for high school students. The message from the conference was to learn as much as you can but come away with 5 key items that can use in your organization

Gill NA has a great scholastic program to get ISSA sailors in the right gear for the season

Zander Kirkland was a top high school sailor at Tabor Academy from 1998-2002. Following high school, he sailed at Tufts University (Medford, MA). Following Tufts, Zander was hired as the head coach of Newport Harbor High School’s 2009 National Championship Team.

Zander left NHHS in 2010 to pursue his Olympic sailing dream with his brother Jesse (another Tabor sailing team graduate), and together they would represent Bermuda in the 49er Class in the 2012 London Olympics.

High School Sailing continues to expand!  Just when we thought we had hit our highest number of registered schools, we have exceeded that number.  High School sailing continues to be the fastest growing niche in sailing in the United States.