Meet Day - What to Pack
- 2+ towels
-swim suit
- water
- cap and googles (recommended to also have a spare with you)
- healthy snacks (however, not all pools allow outside food)
- sweatshirt/sweatpants (you might be cold once you are wet)
- sharpie (only if writing your events on your arm)
Meet Day - Arriving
Please arrive no later than 60 minutes before a meet is scheduled.
(5:00 for week night meets)
(8:00 for Saturday morning meets)
Conference arrival time will be shared closer to the meet.
Meet Day - Checking in
When you arrive, the line ups will be taped up (home meets - outside on windows by the kickboards; away meets - nearby fence or wall). Highlight your name at the top of your age group so we know you are here. Look to see what events you are swimming and write it down/take a picture. Get ready for warm ups!
Meet Day - Warm Ups
Warm ups begin 30 minutes before each meet. 10 and under warms up first followed by 11 and up. Your swimmer will be assigned a warm up lane when coaches call for warm ups. We do our best to group swimmers by age and ability for warm-ups, but we only have a few lanes. Each pool is slightly different and not all pools are indoors, so this is a great time to get adjusted to the new location at away meets and adjust back to our pool at home meets.
Meet Day - Race Schedule
The meet starts and finishes with relays. All individual events are in between.
For each event, 8U swims first, followed by 9-10, 11-12, 13-14, and 15-18. On individual events, girls swim before boys.
Meet Day - Parent Volunteers
Parent volunteers are needed for concessions, timing, bull pen, running the computer, and ribbons at home meets. Volunteers are still able to watch their kids swim!
Roles - Responsibilities
Concessions - 1 person to organize throughout the season; three people to man the concession stand during the meet. You can step out to watch your child's race since the concession stand is not in the pool!
Timing - we need 12 timers for each home meet to record times for the races. Heads up, you may be in the splash zone!
Card Runner - Collect cards from timers after each race and take them to the computer.
Bull Pen - corral swimmers and give cards to swimmers before they head to the blocks for a race, older/experienced swimmers will help kids get to where they need to be after you give them the card.
Computer - update events with last minute changes, print heat sheets, data entry during meets, print labels for ribbons.
Ribbons - put labels on ribbons after races and sort them by team. Dolphins ribbons are filed into a box for swimmers to collect at practice. Visiting team ribbons are sent with the coach at the end of the meet.
Other Useful Information
To keep the meet moving, it is possible your swimmer will change lanes or heats will be combined, but swimmers will be kept informed on these changes so no need to worry!
If a lot of swimmers are gone from a particular age group at one meet, we may have a younger swimmer 'swim up' so that more people are able to swim. Swimming up is not a bad thing, embrace it! Your only competition is yourself!
Any weather delays will be communicated as soon as possible. If you haven't heard anything, assume the meet is still happening.
