posted Mar 29th, 2005 - The Golden Knights competed at the SSL Valentine's Meet 2005 in February and then at the FSL Shamrock Showdown 2005 in March. The NSL News story of March 22 included a first evaluation of the Army team's performance in DeLand and briefly compared the results of both meets.

The Golden Knights began a spring training camp of two weeks with the competition in DeLand. All team members visited at the NSL office a few days after the event when the weather did not allow any training activities at the drop zone around the corner. The NSL News used the opportunity to ask questions "on record".

NSL News: How is the general feeling in the team after the Shamrock Showdown?

John Hoover: We are disappointed that we did not win, and we are dispappointed about our meet performance. However, we had no practice before the meet. So we tried just to do the best we could, and it turned out that we did not have a very good meet.

NSL News: How do you compare the 20.2 average at the Valentine's Meet with the 20.4 average at the Shamrock Showdown?

John Hoover: We don't take the scores too serious. Other factors matter, as well. The situations surrounding the draw are always so different. In training we have a much more controlled environment. Some of the blocks were better here in DeLand compared to Eloy, but it still was no good meet for us.

Brooks Weiner: We came in cold for the jumping with bad weather the days prior to the meet. We also had a very different jump plane at the training camp in Arizona after the Valentine's Meet.

Matt Davidson: There was progression between the two meets, but we were more cautions in DeLand.

NSL News: What were the reasons for a more cautions performance?

Brooks Weiner: We had bad exits, and the hill work was the worst.

Matt Davidson: Bad exits and bad hill work make you become more cautions. We also had a long break of more than two weeks and probably had a little lack of confidence when exits and hill work did not go that well.

NSL News: Other teams are off longer than two weeks, as well.

John Hoover: We are not the kind of a team that can jump into cold water, we need proper preparation. The German team Remscheid did a new team record without any training. All teams are different, and you have to know your own team and be prepared as good as you can.

NSL News: What do you think about the performance of the other top teams?

John Hoover: DeLand Fire did a great job and came up with scores that we were very impressed with. We had some good jumps where we thought we had good scores, and Fire beat us. I did not like our rounds six and nine where Fire tied our scores.

Brooks Weiner: We also busted our Block 2 in round eight where Fire tied us.

Brian Krause: The Belgium team Spa Hayabusa was very impressive. There seems to be great talent.

John Hoover: DeLand Majik did well for only 99 training jumps and new slots for the players. We have not seen much of Fastrax at this meet and cannot say much.

NSL News: How do you see this year's 4-way competition in the U.S.A.?

Brooks Weiner: This will surely be the best 4-way competition ever. We have the six top teams, which are all expected to score over 20 average. We liked the close competition with DeLand Fire, it was very helpful to get this experience early in the season. I have never competed so close with a team. We did not capitalize when Fire offered opportunities to win back some points in rounds eight and nine.

John Hoover: We surely learned a lot. We were shortly out with our last points in many cases. We found things that we have to work on, especially exits and first pages. Then we have to fix the mistakes. The difference between 20 and 22 average are the mistakes you make.

NSL News: What's coming up for the Golden Knights?

John Hoover: We have a meet of the Carolina Skydiving League on the agenda. We will not travel to Russia, and we have actually no other serious test.

NSL News: You mentioned earlier that the Shamrock Showdown gave you great insights and experiences. Wouldn't it be beneficial to have another serious test closer to the major events at the end of the season?

John Hoover: I also mentioned earlier that all teams are different. We have set one major goal for this season, and this works the best for us.

Brooks Weiner: We would have to spend too much energy at another top competition in Russia.

Matt Davidson: Don't compete if you can just compete half way.

Brooks Weiner: I remember the World Cup in Portugal 1998. We had this big battle with the Russian 8-way team and won. But then we lost the USPA Championship in Eloy a few weeks later. It can be so close between "Hero or Zero". This year's competition will probably require all the energy we have.

NSL News: Good luck with everything, and thank you for the visit.