posted Jun 9th, 2008 - Last Saturday marked the 2008 season opener for the Midwestern Skydiving League and, as often is the case this time of year, the weather was not yet ready to fully cooperate. Despite a forecast of a windy day, three teams came out to Chicagoland Skydiving to see if we could get the MWSL 2008 season opener in.

CSC Rhythm XP, a nationally ranked "weekend" team, represented the MWSL in the AAA Class. There were also two A Class teams: 2007 veterans SDC On The Fly who returned with their roster intact and new team Victory Hop. While the predicted winds did arrived Saturday morning, conditions were still jumpable and the meet commenced on schedule.

The story of CSC Rhythm XP has already been covered in detail in an earlier NSL article on 21 January 2008. For 2008 4-way veteran Brian Ball has taken the place of 2007 player/coach Robert Chromy. My former teammate, Kevin Naftzger, is now their cameraman. Team coach for 2008 is renowned former world champion and current Paraclete XP SkyVenture GM Kirk Verner. Also, team tail Laurent Beaudouin recently got his Green Card, so the team no longer needs to compete as a guest team at the USPA Nationals.

This meet marked Rhythm's debut with the new line-up. While miserable spring weather has limited their jumping, the team has logged significant tunnel training. That training served them well last weekend as Rhythm scored a strong 15.5 average after six rounds. This score placed them second internationally for the May 31 meet weekend, coming up just two points short of UK's national Women's team Bodyflight Storm. It also represented team and personal highscores for the team members, an impressive debut to say the least.

As mentioned above, the MWSL did have competition in the A Class, and for a time it was a very close race. Through three rounds only one point separated On the Fly and Victory Hop. However, a strong Round 4 by OTF and a problematic dive for Hop combined with a deterioration in the jumping conditions to end the meet with an easy win for the SDC team by a score of 26 to 15. High winds led to a weather hold at CSC and the calling of our meet after four rounds. The teams will have a chance for a rematch on the 28th at Skydive Chicago.

In addition to his position as CSC Rhythm XP's team coach, Kirk Verner was our meet coach on Saturday. All the teams were excited to have the opportunity of world class coaching. Kirk will also be the coach for MWSL Meet 3 at Chicagoland Skydiving Center on July 26th. Thanks to Kirk for his great work, as well as to Rhythm and CSC for securing his availability.

Thanks also to Doug Smith, Lisa Dexter and Melissa Kenney of CSC for a smooth running meet, especially in light of the weather conditions on Saturday. As mentioned, our next meet is on June 28th at Skydive Chicago. Hopefully the weather will settle down by then, and all teams will have the chance to actually do some training. Also, both long time MWSL veteran teams SDC Furies and Just4Fun had players out of town for the meet, and we hope to have them back next time.

See you then,

Alan Butt, MWSL Director