Info on swim meets!
Hello Woodfield families -- at last, we have info on meets! Read on … this will be an interesting year, but it’ll have its benefits, too.
-Meets will be virtual -- we’ll get assigned an opponent, and we’ll have a full week, up to Sunday afternoon, to get our races done. We’ll combine our scores with theirs, and we’ll arrive at an overall winner.
-I still want to have in-person meets, but we’ll have to do them somewhat differently this year due to capacity limitations. What likely will work best is grouping swimmers by age, rather than stroke -- rather than swimming, say, all ages of freestyle, then all ages of backstroke, we’ll bring all the swimmers in an age group into the pool area, let them swim their events, then usher them out. We’ll pace them so they won’t get exhausted, but this is the best solution so that we don’t constantly have people going in and out.
-Meanwhile, outside the gates, I’m hoping we’ll be able to block off a part of the parking lot for parents to set up shop and swimmers to wait in a proper socially distanced fashion. We won’t have concessions or a food truck this year, but we will have music, and I encourage everyone to bring coolers, food and blankets and make this as much of a celebration as we can.
-One element that the kids will love: ribbons will be awarded based on your finish in only our half of the meet, regardless of how the other team fares. So the first-place Woodfield swimmer gets a blue ribbon, second-place Woodfield finisher gets red, and so on. We’re not going to wait on the other team’s scores to hand out the awards.
-We will need timers and some place judges; there are some jobs that aren’t necessary this year, but if you want to volunteer to time -- and everyone’s going to pitch in this year, so you might as well do something you want -- email me and we’ll get you hooked up.
-Swimmers can swim anytime during the week, so if swimmers can’t make the specific meet time, we can time them at another time and record their score. Coordinate that with the coaches.
TENTATIVE-BUT-HOPEFUL MEET SCHEDULE:
All meets will start at 5:30, with age-divided warmups ahead of time. Most will be on Thursdays, with the exception of the first (because of Independence Day weekend). We’re still orchestrating the specific details of how to get the swimmers onto the deck, but for your calendars, here’s what we’re thinking.
Meet #1: Tuesday, June 30
Meet #2: Thursday, July 9
Meet #3: Thursday, July 16
Meet #4: Thursday, July 23
Meet #5: Thursday, July 30
Sadly, there will be no county or state meets this year. Five-and-out.
I’m sure you have questions, and I’ll try to answer them at tonight’s Zoom meeting and at practices, or via email. Get ready, it’s almost swim time …
-Jay
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