As you all know, there is a meet this Saturday. Don't worry, we're going to beat their socks off with all the great swimming we can do! But there is a few things that you need to know for tomorrow, especially if this is your first year. So here we've put together a rundown of all the important details for tomorrow, along with some tips for success from those who have been there, done that, and have the t-shirts to prove it...waaaaay too many t-shirts.
IMPORTANT MEET TIMES:
6:45AM - Swimmers begin checking in with the coaches
7:30AM - Scratches are due, all swimmers must be checked in by this time
8:00AM - Meet begins, usually runs until 1pm or so
-First things first: While the meet may not start till 8am, we need everyone to be there nice and early so that the meet will actually start at 8am. What does that mean? All the swimmers need to begin arriving at 6:45am! And they absolutely must be checked in with a coach by 7:30am, or they might not be able to swim in the meet. The volunteers who run the meet need to know which swimmers are not present in order to begin getting things ready to start, and at some point shortly after 7:30 they will drop (i.e. "scratch") those swimmers who have not checked in yet. Enjoy the nearness of your destination for home meets! Away meets are a little harder to be on time to, so plan ahead in the weeks to come.
-Good things to bring to a meet: GOGGLES!, SUNSCREEN!, snacks, water/gatorade, towels, umbrellas or shades, cards, books, etc.
- Bad things to bring to a meet: ANYTHING EXPENSIVE/IRREPLACEABLE; basically, if you feel uncomfortable risking the possible demolition of a possibly expensive belonging, don't bring it. It's not as if we have people who go around and smash things on a whim, but meets are pretty harsh environments for delicate things.
Once the meet starts, the swimmers should keep close to the team area and listen for their next event's number to be called. Volunteers ("tent mom/dads") will be in the team area to collect the swimmers for a particular event and send them off to the ready area, where more volunteers will hand the swimmers a time card and organize them into the assigned heats. When the swimmers of a particular heat are about to swim, they hand the time card to one of the timers in their lane, who will write down that swimmer's time and send the card to be entered into the clerk's computer. It is very important to listen for your race to be called, because the tent mom/dads WILL come looking for you if you aren't around, and OH WHEN THEY FIND YOU, they will be very unhappy that you are stressing them out even more! So make your volunteers' lives a little easier and LISTEN FOR YOUR NUMBER!
The most important thing to remember, though, is to have fun! You've all been working very hard to get ready for this meet, so enjoy it! We want our swimmers to have a blast and swim some awesome times! Everyone come tomorrow ready to swim hard and do their best, because FINS RULE!
