Hello Team Virginia, 

We would like to send you all a quick update followed by a request for information. 

We had hoped to have set up a State Zoom Meeting by now in order to have our traditional October meeting.  There have been many reasonable delays to the Region 7 Board meeting of State Directors which has, in turn, led to a delay in scheduling our usual October State Meeting.  We would all like to thank all of you for your patience.  It is expected that the Region 7 Board meeting will happen by the end of this upcoming weekend. 

Once the Region 7 Board meeting concludes, our Virginia State Board of Directors will meet and plan for our Virginia State Bi-Annual meeting. 

We have been delaying our planning in order to make sure that we have as much information to deliver as possible.  In the meantime, please make sure to regularly check usagym.org for all the most recent updates in USAG and Men’s Program policies. 

Live sanctions are available for purchase should anyone expect that they can have a safe competitive experience that meets current local and state COVID guidelines.  There are recommendations on the USAG website for meet directors interested in hosting live events. 

USAG is working on virtual sanctions and there isn’t any current information available at the moment for what our virtual options are.  There are some phone and tablet application options that I’ve heard about, but nothing that I am aware is currently sanctioned by USAG. 

I know that the amount of information available right now is unsatisfactory.  I know that it is difficult to hold our patience when there are so many unanswered questions right now.  Please understand that we are in the same boat as the rest of Team Virginia and we are deeply grateful for the patience you’ve already shown us and the continued patience that we are asking for. 

For the time being, we would like to gather information from all of you and this information, such as rosters, will have to either be emailed this year or sent the old fashioned way, through “snail mail”.  But please, hold on sending anything until after  the VA State Meeting.  We will still have to discuss assessments, meets, State Championships, and all the usual business. 

Please begin to gather the following data:

• Team Name
• Number of Coaches that will be coaching for you and their names
• Number of Athletes on your roster and their current expected competitive level (I know this will be a really difficult one to assess for some, but please estimate your best)
• Does your team plan on traveling to meets this season or only do any virtual options that are available
• Do you plan on hosting a meet?  Which weekend? In-house or outside location?
• How far are you willing to travel to compete (if interested in travel)
• Do you have any suggestions for meets during COVID in addition to what USAG has provided on their website?

We have a limited amount of data we can share with you right now.  We will be expected to have a State Championships at some capacity.  I have made it clear to USAG that I do not feel comfortable having an in person State Meet should COVID metrics in VA remain the same in March as they are current.  Some of you may feel the same, some of you may feel differently.  We all need to start thinking about this. 

If we hold a State Championships, we may need more than one weekend and more than one venue.  We will not put our coaches, athletes, families, and volunteers at any extra risk that can be mitigated.  We will need interested parties for hosting a possible in person State Championships.   

All USAG sanctioned meets must meet local and state COVID safety guidelines or they are not permitted.  This could greatly vary from one county to the next.  It is up to the meet host to know the rules for their area.

Regional Championships, should one be possible to hold, will be at West Point Military Academy (tentatively according to Region 7)). 

J.O. Nationals (although it will be called something different as the USOC has threatened litigation for any junior sports program using the term “olympic or junior olympic”) should there be one, will be held in Daytona Beach, FL, May 13-16 and will include the Men’s and Women’s program in a combined event.   

The men’s program will be changed at the conclusion of this year, although some program names will change already.  I’ve been told that JD may be called CLUB, JO may be called NATIONAL, JE will be called ELITE or JUNIOR ELITE.  No documents have been made available, tentative or otherwise, at this time.

The 2020 Future Stars Championships will be conducted on a virtual platform.  The technical and registration information is now posted on our website.  Give this the widest distribution possible and include a link on the regional websites. 

https://usagym.org/pages/men/events/program_events.html 

Once again, we’d like to thank all of you for your support and your patience.  We are hoping to provide you more information, with much greater detail, very soon.  

As always, if you have any questions, please email Kevin Hallinan at kevnastics@gmail.com. 

We hope you are able to do some level of training and we hope that you are all making the best of these difficult times.  If you need any help, please reach out. 

Thank you for listening, 

Kevin Hallinan

Virginia State Chairman of Men’s Gymnastics 

Virginia State Board of Directors