A boost for high school sailing in the U.S

by Rich Roberts on 20 Nov 2008 The Interscholastic Sailing Association (ISSA) plans to broaden the base of high school sailing in the United States, starting with a $25,000 grant from the California International Sailing Association (CISA) supporting a bid for private donations.

Tim Hogan for 15 years led CISA's programs of advanced racing clinics and funding travel to major regattas for young sailors in California and Hawaii. In 2005 he moved on to become president of ISSA, the national governing body for seven high school sailing districts in the U.S. He now heads the Hogan Fund to benefit high school sailing.

Unlike traditional team sports, sailing is not funded by school athletic programs, although in competition participants may represent the schools they attend. As a result, the sport has lagged in development except in the Northeast, where ISSA started in prep schools in 1930, and in the Pacific Coast district of California and Hawaii where competition is strong. The other districts are the Mid-Atlantic, South Atlantic, Southeast, Midwest and Northwest.

All donations to ISSA's Hogan Fund are tax deductible under 501(c)3. Hogan may be contacted at thogan@tphenterprises.net. For more information on ISSA go to www.highschoolsailingusa.org.

CISA, since its founding in 1971, has funded local sailing programs and racing clinics and supported young and promising amateur sailors by providing travel grants for regional, national and international competition. Several U.S. Olympic sailors, including Andrew Campbell, Graham Biehl, Alison Jolly and John Shadden, benefitted from the advanced training at CISA clinics.

'CISA is moving very well now,' Hogan said, 'and I need to spend my time with high school sailing. My biggest challenge is to get high school sailing endowed.'

To start, the $25,000 will be spent to train coaches and purchase equipment in the weaker ISSA districts.

'Sailors are not all coming from yacht clubs but from community sailing programs that need help,' Hogan said. 'In California we have high school sailing and junior sailing at the yacht clubs that kind of blend together. We want to do that in the other districts.'

ISSA oversees four major events each year: a national singlehanded championship for the Cressy Trophy, the Mallory for doublehanded sailing, the Baker for team racing and the Great Oaks Invitational.

'But how many of our 350 [ISSA] teams get to go to those regattas?' Hogan asked. 'About 10 percent. The goal is to grow ISSA and make it a truly national scene.'