NTOA News. North Texas Orienteering Association March Events & Announcements. Erwin Park Meet Jan 7th

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1 NTOA News North Texas Orienteering Association March 2006 Events & Announcements Report from Erwin Park Report from James Ray Scout Camp Report from the Dillo-Goat at LBJ Grasslands Rules and Policies Reminder Great Trinity Forest Adventure Hike Earth Day Activities at Arbor Hills NTOA Cup Points & Standings UPCOMING EVENTS: (see website for details) o NTOA: March 11 th Great Trinity Forest Adventure Hike, Dallas o NTOA: March 17 th -18 th Longhorn Council Spring O-Meet, Bridgeport o NTOA: April 8 th Tyler State Park, Tyler Erwin Park Meet Jan 7th It was a great day for Orienteering. The weather was perfect and the courses were fast. Everyone had a good time racing around the park. Mary Lynn Genovesi and Tatyana Svistun did a excellent job setting the courses. A big thanks go out to Mesquite High School ROTC and Major Coatney for their help in manning start and finish and registration. Fastest on the Green course was Robbie Paddock (NTOA) for the guys Stacey Bernal (Channelview HS) and for the girls. -Cliff Jones James Ray Scout Camp Jan 28th James Ray Scout Reservation was the setting for the late January O-meet. The weather was rainy and cold, but the event went well with almost 300 orienteers competing. The James Ray terrain, including an intricate gully system, provided a challenging course for

2 all who attended. The white, yellow, and orange courses were too hard and we had a number of DQ s. If you didn t finish your course, don t feel bad, as you are one of many. Thanks to those who helped make the meet a success. Plano East high school provided the bulk of the meet workers and did a great job. The smooth running was mostly due to their coming early Friday and making sure everything was ready. Master Sergeant Darrell Crews, his parents and students, were great to work with and I appreciate their efforts. If you were lucky, you got to sample Sergeant Crew s chili or jerky. NTOA volunteers rounded out the staff and included Betsy Jackson, Debra Dryburgh, and Lisa Carr at registration, Carl Bridges at e-punch, Tom Carr at start, and MaryLynn Genovesi handling control bags. Dotty Rowan gave the Boy Scout merit badge briefing and Stan Darnell taught the beginner s clinic. Special thanks to Circle Ten Council BSA and Camp Ranger Roy Cassel who went above the call of duty by opening the dining hall when the weather was bad and towing my truck from the mud (a short, but sad story with a happy ending). --Ralph Courtney Dillo Goat, LBJ Grasslands Feb 11th Sunny skies but a cold wind welcomed us to our first event on the LBJ Grasslands North map. The Dillo-Goat is a mass-start race where competitors can skip any control of their choosing on their particular course. The bro-orange, green and red courses were interlaced to ensure that there was always someone around to run against. The head-tohead competition forces runners to navigating quickly and competently or else loose contact with their competitors. This new area of LBJ has many complicated networks of gullies that are often very deep. These "negative" features make navigation challenging because the gully might only when very close. While LBJ wouldn't be LBJ without a few thorns, it is a much nicer area to run in than the area of our old map. There were many open fields and the small buttes provided some pretty views of the area. Tatyana Svistun finished first on the brorange course followed by a hungry pack of "old goats" -- check the results for names. Robbie Paddock finish far ahead of the pack "old goats" on red but there was another tight race for the runner-up spots. The "kids" dominated the top results on the green course with Colin Penn and Mel Leung from Plano East sprinting hard to finish just two seconds apart. The coveted Dillo-Goat Boxers went to: Darrell Crews of Plano East for expert "jockstuffing" tactics in a hard-fought race against the goatiest goat of them all, Ralph Courtney. Jesenia Zavala who very craftily led a group of followers over buttes, in and out of gullies, and through the nastiest thorns until they were so fatigued she could just walk away from them after the go control. Dane Patterson who was observed from three buttes away climbing up, running down, climbing up, running down..., until a final furious no-pants sprint to the finish line. And finally, to the unidentified runners of Plano East who scared the wits out of a young-lady goat, who we shall not identify, as she tried to use the "facilities" out in mid-course. -Tom Carr

3 Rules and Policies Reminder Remember, no participant should enter the competition area before the start of their race. Please confine pre-event activities and warm-up to the obvious public areas near registration or parking. All participants should report to the finish 3 hours after their start or 2pm (at regular NTOA C meets), whichever comes first. There are a lot of tired and hungry volunteers who have been at the event site from almost sun up. Please don't make them wait around while you look for just one more control. Great Trinity River Adventure Hike Coming up March 11 th! NTOA, in cooperation with the Trinity River Corridor Project is hosting the first, and hopefully annual, "adventure hike" in the Great Trinity Forest. Participants will use a topographic map to navigate a trail network, visiting the "Wolpack" of old growth trees, and checking off orienteering controls. We will have a mass start at 9am and participants have 2 hours to visit as many Wolfpack trees and controls as they can. We hope you can join us for a romp through this very unique area so close to downtown Dallas. As an orienteering event, this will be very low key and the navigation generally easy. However, we hope this event will lead to many new orienteers attending our regular races. If you are available to volunteer at the event, please contact Tom Carr. Earth Day Activities at Arbor Hills The Plano Parks Department has contacted NTOA about holding an introductory orienteering event at Arbor Hills Park as part of the annual Earth Day activities. This would require planning a course of approximately 10 controls at white-course difficulty. It would not be a race with official starts or finishes. We would simply provide the map, punch card, and basic instructions so that Earth-Day attendees could hike around the park and be introduced to orienteering. This would be another great advertising event for NTOA and would not be very difficult to organized. If you are interested in taking on this project, please contact Tom Carr.

4 Longhorn Council Spring Orienteering Meet at Sid Richardson Scout Ranch March 17 th -18 th, Bridgeport, TX Don t miss what is always one of the best meets of the NTOA season! Have a great weekend outdoors at Sid Richardson Scout Ranch (SR2). This is a two-day Class B orienteering event sanctioned by the US Orienteering Federation (USOF) with white, yellow, orange, brown, green, and red competitive courses; map hikes are also available, as well as geocaching and night-o. SR2 is a beautiful 2500 acre scout ranch near Bridgeport with wonderful terrain for all orienteers, from beginners to experienced. We re expecting great weather and a fun time for everybody. The registration deadline is MARCH 11 th! If you have not registered, please go to and download your registration packet. There s still time to fax it in and join the fun! Tyler State Park, Tyler Coming up April 8th Jim Fleck (meet director) and John Bloodgood (course setter) have a full slate of courses planned for Tyler State Park on April 8 th. This park has lots of wooded, hilly terrain and always provides a challenging course. NTOA Cup Points & Standings The following are the NTOA Cup points and standing through the Harry Moss Park meet. Coaches: If I have made a mistake on your points, please call me or me at North Mesquite: LTC Martin, , fmartin@mesquiteisd.org. SCHOOL ARB SAM TEX HMP ERW JRY SID TYL TOTAL Plano East North Mesquite Channelview LaPorte Horn Mesquite Grand Prairie Bryan Adams West Mesquite

5 Summit Temple Byrd Burleson Woodrow Wilson Haltom Arlington Joshua AJ Moore Keller 5 5 Sunset 2 2 Poteet 2 2 North Texas Orienteering Association P.O. Box , Richardson, TX Tom Carr President tomwcarr@yahoo.com Stan Darnell V. President standarnell@comcast.net Scott Morris Treasurer scomor@comcast.net Pam Worsham Secretary dewpmg@swbell.net Lisa Carr Membership lisawernercarr@yahoo.com Debra Dryburgh Newsletter debdryburgh@gmail.com Bob Paddock Publicity robert.paddock@comcast.net Tatyana Svistun Mapping ssvistun@yahoo.com Ralph Courtney Equipment courtneyrj@texoma.net Carl Bridges EPunch & Web carl.bridges@writeme.com 2005 North Texas Orienteering Association Orienteers don t get lost; they just lose map contact.