Swimming Officials

This last Wednesday we went to a Coastal Section Committee Meeting, and we went through the meeting. It is really encouraging to hear about the changes that the committee is going to be working on to improve the section, and I look forward to being a part of the process to make the sport better for the swimmers in our area.

One thing that was mentioned was that our team, CSSC, was one of the few teams that had the number of officials to be able to put on meets on our own. We are the team other teams have to rely on to get their meets ran. It is really cool to be recognized as one of those teams that provide for the section.

Officials are a critical aspect to our sport. The are required for times to be official for USA Swimming. Could you imagine you go to meet that doesn't meet the requirement of officials, and your swimmer makes their very first Junior Olympic Time, only to find out that all the times at that meet aren't official because there wasn't the appropriate number of officials?

Today, Friday, our swim team is going to be hosting an intrasquad meet with only a 1650. We are doing this because the meet we had planned to attend, and the meets this season didn't provide an opportunity to swim this event. We are able to run this meet without the assistance of outside officials (which we would have to pay for their services). We can do this because of great volunteers who have done the training so that we could provide this for our swimmers. Other teams without this support of the parent volunteers would need to beg and plead (and possibly have to pay) for outside officials to come for the times at the meet to be official.

I write this blog to shout out to all of those individuals who officiate. You are so important to our sport. I also write this to try to explain to people that anyone can become an official (well, unless you have a criminal record). Teams can always use more officials. The more officials your team has the less the load becomes, and we wouldn't need everyone all the time. I strongly encourage parents to consider joining the ranks of officials. Our team just lost two this last year because their swimmer graduated, and our current officials won't be around forever. Help us create a great pool of officials so that we can continue to be self-reliant to provide opportunities for our swimmers, your children, and all the children who participate in this sport.