NEW ORLEANS – The Tulane sailing team has officially set its 2019 fall schedule, head coach Charles Higgins announced Tuesday.
Green Wave fans will have three chances to catch the team in action at home this season, as Tulane will host the SEISA Match Race Championship, the Allstate Sugar Bowl Regatta and the Baldwin Wood Regatta in September and October.
“We’re one week into practice and its been pretty terrific,” head coach Charles Higgins said. “The incoming freshmen class has really performed to expectation and maybe even a little better than that. It’s certainly been impactful in the quality of our practices and that’s going to translate really well going forward with how competitive we’re going to be as a program.”
Tulane welcomes back 12 returners this year – three seniors, four juniors and five sophomores – along with eight talented newcomers.
Members of the team will kick their season off on Saturday, competing in the SEISA Singlehanded Championship at Texas A&M Galveston. The following day, Tulane is set to hold its home opener in the SEISA Match Race Championship out of Municipal Yacht Harbor on Lake Pontchartrain.
The Green Wave will remain in New Orleans the following weekend, hosting the Allstate Sugar Bowl Regatta on Saturday and Sunday, Sept. 21 and 22.
Tulane defeated Georgia Tech and North Carolina State in the 2018 Sugar Bowl Regatta, earning a fourth-place finish among six teams in the Green Wave’s first-ever home competition as a varsity program.
“The Sugar Bowl Regatta which will be a really great event this year and certainly more competitive than last year,” Higgins said “We’ll be hosting defending National Champion College of Charleston, along with Old Dominion, UC Santa Barbara, Jacksonville and an all-star team from a collection of British universities that is coming over for a bi-annual tour.”
Tulane then heads to New England the last weekend of the month, sailing in the Women’s Showcase Semifinals at Connecticut College on Saturday and Sunday, Sept. 28 and 29.
Traveling to St. Mary’s College of Maryland the first weekend of October, the Olive and Blue will compete in the Coed Showcase Semifinals on Saturday and Sunday, Oct. 5 and 6.
While members of the women’s team will participate in the Women’s Showcase Finals on Saturday and Sunday, Oct. 12 and 13, the majority of the team will stay at home to host the Baldwin Wood Regatta on Oct. 12.
Tulane earned first and second place finishes in last season’s Baldwin Wood Regatta, defeating Texas A&M Galveston, Texas A&M, Loyola and the University of Texas on the water.
One week later, the Green Wave will sail in the Coed Showcase Finals on Saturday and Sunday, Oct. 19 and 20.
On Oct. 26 and 27, Tulane will head to Texas A&M Galveston to compete in the SEISA Fall Coed Regatta on Saturday and the SEISA Fall Women’s Regatta on Sunday.
Tulane will travel back to the Northeast from Nov. 1-3 to sail in the ICSA Match Race National Championship in Marblehead, Massachusetts, before closing the fall portion of its schedule the following weekend on the West Coast, in the ICSA Singlehanded Championships at UC Santa Barbara from Nov. 9-10.
Looking ahead to the spring season, the Green Wave are set to host the 2020 ICSA National Championships in the team’s second season as a varsity program.
“Hosting Nationals this early in our program is really going to be instrumental,” Higgins said. “When you’re hosting a National Championship at a venue that teams may not go to often, they always want to come over and practice as much as possible so we’re seeing a lot of demand to be in our events this year, both in the fall and in the spring.”
Article courtesy of Tulane Sports Information Department.
