posted Mar 22nd, 2005 - Round one of the FSL Shamrock Showdown 2005 is already posted on NSL-TV. The scores of the other two competitions of the Southwest Skydiving League and in Georgia have also been added to last weekend's overview. It was a very exciting meet weekend with a total of 31 teams competing at these three events.

The world class competition in DeLand surely received a lot of local, regional and world wide attention. Skydive DeLand was crowded with spectators throughout the whole weekend after Friday's article in a local newspaper and a visit of the TV News Channel 13 on Saturday. The NSL website was busy with traffic on both days of the weekend since scores and pictures were uploaded round by round.

The results of the competition are no news at this point. However, there is more behind the actual scores and positions than only the numbers. The first place of DeLand Fire in the AAA Class competition was a surprise. The NSL-TV audience already knew that the new team with Natasha Montgomery (Point), Gary Smith (Center Outside), Shannon Pilcher (Center Inside), Ian Bobo (Tail) and Thomas Hughes (Video) was able to keep up with the best teams in the country. The two DeLand Fire jumps, which were posted with the NSL News story on March 14, showed clearly what the team could already do in training.

One of these two jumps was round one of the SSL Valentine's Meet 2005 in February. The Golden Knights and Airspeed Odyssey had both posted scores of 19 points for this sequence (19-13-1). DeLand Fire copied this round during the last training camp and completed the 20th point right around the 35th second of working time. The team allowed the NSL News to upload the video, along with one of the team's favorite sequences and a score of 48 or 49 points in working time (C-A-B-F-J).

However, these were only training jumps, and nobody knew what DeLand Fire would be able to show in a serious competition. The real performance level of DeLand Fire is no secret any longer after the ten rounds of the FSL Shamrock Showdown 2005. The final score of a 20.7 average after the 10-round meet speaks for itself. DeLand Fire did not only deliver a world class scoring average in a relatively slow competition draw. Fire also managed to leave world class top contenders behind in a direct confrontation. The new team with a very young competitor, Natasha Montgomery, seems to be able to handle competition pressure very well.

The Golden Knights competed with last year's line-up: Brian Krause (Point), Matt Davidson (Tail), Brooks Weiner (Center Inside), John Hoover (Center Outside) and Larry Miller (Video). The Army team was well prepared after the traditional spring training camp in Arizona and the first competition in Eloy. The Golden Knights also showed significant progression between the February meet in Eloy and the March meet in DeLand, considering the specifics of the competition draw.

The Valentine's Meet was a 6-round meet with a competition draw that was very similar to the first six rounds of the Shamrock Showdown. The Golden Knights finished with a 20.2 average after six rounds in Eloy. The first six rounds last weekend in DeLand showed the Army team with a 22.2 average. The final meet average of 20.4 was result of the slow rounds eight and nine in DeLand. The Golden Knights also lost two points due to infringements in round eight, and additional three points were just timed out.

However, even the great performance at the Shamrock Showdown and the progression between February and March gave the Golden Knights only the second place after ten rounds. The reason is quite simple: there was a better team on site that day. Most viewers might have expected the new DeLand Majik line-up coming up with a performance that would challenge the Golden Knights. Sinapsi PD, the Italian national world class team, could have been another contender for the Army team, as well. It was a surprise that DeLand Fire ended up on the very top of the leaderboard and ahead of the Golden Knights.

DeLand Majik was not ready for a top performance. The new line-up with Solly Williams (Center Outside), Doug Park (Center Inside), David van Greuningen (Point), Robert Healy (Tail) and Jose Rubens (Video) had not trained much after putting the new team together. The Majik members were also coaching other teams throughout the competition and had little time to focus on their own performance. Majik was never far behind the top scores, posted the highest score of round six and warmed up in the later rounds. However, DeLand Fire and the Golden Knights were too consistent and did not offer Majik a chance to catch up.

The situation was similar for Sinapsi PD. The Italian team had not trained very much with the new 2005 line-up (Arianna de Benedetti - Center Outside, Livio Piccolo - Point, Luca Marchioro - Center Inside, Pete Allum - Tail). The potential for an increased scoring level was obvious and came through with the highest score for round five. However, the Italian team was not ready at the Shamrock Showdown to keep up with the two top teams.

Team Fastrax with player coach Niklas Hemlin (Center Outside), Eric Gin (Center Inside), Billy Andrews (Point), John Hart (Tail) and John Judy (Video) had the chance in DeLand to experience how difficult it will be to challenge the top teams this year. Fastrax was already significantly ahead of the team's performance at the USPA Championship 2004 (17.1 meet average) with the 18.3 average at the Shamrock Showdown and the slow competition draw.

Fastrax can keep up with the performance level of the other top teams occasionally and showed this potential thoughout several pages of different competition jumps at the Shamrock Showdown. It will be the team's goal to reach the level of consistency shown by DeLand Fire and the Golden Knights. Fastrax founder John Hart is fully aware of this situation: "First we had to catch up with the pace. Now we have to clean up and then work on the consistency. There is plenty of time, and we have enough training scheduled to get to where we want to be at the end of the season. We have also scheduled several more meets where we can test and show the progression."

The Army team and DeLand Fire both finished significantly ahead of the rest of the field due to the consistency of the performance over ten rounds. It was no surprise that the Golden Knights would already have this consistency, which is necessary to end up on the top of the leaderboard. It was unexpected that DeLand Fire would already have this important value.

The DZ-TV viewing and the scores of the first round already caught a lot of attention. The Golden Knights opened the competition as strongly as expected and left the other top teams in the dust (Golden Knights: 21, Sinapsi PD: 19, DeLand Majik: 18, Fastrax: 18). However, there was DeLand Fire with the same 21 points. This could have been just a good jump, and round two would show whether it was or not. By the way, and once again: round one is now on NSL-TV.

The Golden Knights and the rest of the skydiving world were probably even more surprised after round two. This time, DeLand Fire had not only tied the Army team's score, which was the highest score of the round until then. Fire even took the lead by one point and repeated this success also in round three, for a 2-point lead after three rounds.

It was still hard to imagine that the new team would be able to keep this up for the whole distance. Even though DeLand Fire's line-up includes the reigning 4-way world champion and player coach Gary Smith, plus Majik's former alternate Shannon Pilcher, the team did not begin the training on the very top level. In fact, Pilcher and Bobo have spent the past years more focused on their performances as members of the PD Factory Team's swooping line-up. They only jumped 4-way as player coaches once in a while.

Natasha Montgomery trained and competed with the NSL Champion 2004, Arizona Blade. However, she has been in the sport for only little over two years. She began skydiving in November 2002 and had 150 jumps when she competed for the first time at the USPA Championship 2003 in Lake Wales. Montgomery used the 2004 season to train hard with Arizona Blade and competed as much as possible. She had a total of 1,100 jumps when the NSL News interviewed her and Thomas Hughes in December 2004.

Montgomery and Hughes moved to DeLand, and DeLand Fire began with the team training in January 2005. The talent of the team and the expertise provided by player coach Gary Smith would almost guarantee success down the road. However, it was an unexpected surprise when Fire was one point ahead of the Golden Knights and the rest of the field after two rounds at the Shamrock Showdown. The main question seemed to be how long it would take until DeLand Fire would show weaknesses, and at least the Golden Knights would catch up.

Round four could have been evidence for the theory that Fire might not have enough consistency at this point of the team career. DeLand Majik tied Fire's score of 23 points in round four, and the Golden Knights won back the two points with a score of 25 points.

This could have been a situation where the pressure and a lost round stops the momentum of a team and hurts the motivation, especially the one of a younger competitor. It did not happen, neither to DeLand Fire nor to Montgomery. Fire did not even give up one single point to the Army team in the remaining six rounds and ended up three points ahead of the Golden Knights. It was a very impressive statement: DeLand Fire will be the team to beat this year.

Even though DeLand Fire seems to handle competition pressure already very well, the team has several additional competitions on the agenda, including other FSL meets, the Malevsky World Cup 2005 and the German championships. Lack of competition practise and experience as a team will probably not be an issue at the major events of the 2005 season. However, the Shamrock Showdown 2005 was only one early step for all participating teams in DeLand on the 2005 road to the major events. Stay tuned for the next rounds of NSL-TV and more meet stories.

The results of the FSL Shamrock Showdown 2005 can now be discussed at the NSL Forum.