Swim Team Drama

[Anonymous]

Agree with PP, the last B meet was past the entry deadline as set by the divisionals meet automation. It prob should have been conveyed to parents but some parents suck anyways. By the 5th week, the coach already knows who swimming in Divisionals. The chances of getting a great B time to swim Divisionals are slim.

[Anonymous]

Our Divisionals starter was the slowest, most inconsistent starter I have seen all summer.
There were more ‘stand’ pauses than I have ever heard in my many years at any pool.
I felt for the kids, many of whom jumped in hearing ‘stand,’ probably expecting to hear the start.
Fortunately, those kids were able to swim and get a time; but that was likely not their best after having been startled on the start.
I asked if he was new and was told he was a seasoned league starter, who also trains others :-/

[Anonymous]

We had parents angry we were seeding A meets to win (because their kid was not swum in multiple strokes)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our Divisionals starter was the slowest, most inconsistent starter I have seen all summer.
There were more ‘stand’ pauses than I have ever heard in my many years at any pool.
I felt for the kids, many of whom jumped in hearing ‘stand,’ probably expecting to hear the start.
Fortunately, those kids were able to swim and get a time; but that was likely not their best after having been startled on the start.
I asked if he was new and was told he was a seasoned league starter, who also trains others :-/

Division 1, right?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Agree with PP, the last B meet was past the entry deadline as set by the divisionals meet automation. It prob should have been conveyed to parents but some parents suck anyways. By the 5th week, the coach already knows who swimming in Divisionals. The chances of getting a great B time to swim Divisionals are slim.

That depends on the pool. Ours has kids constantly moving in and out of A meets. Divisionals require at least 5 swimmers (10 swims with each kid have a maximum of 2) so an age group with 7 or 8 kids who are relatively close isn't going to be set until the last minute.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our Divisionals starter was the slowest, most inconsistent starter I have seen all summer.
There were more ‘stand’ pauses than I have ever heard in my many years at any pool.
I felt for the kids, many of whom jumped in hearing ‘stand,’ probably expecting to hear the start.
Fortunately, those kids were able to swim and get a time; but that was likely not their best after having been startled on the start.
I asked if he was new and was told he was a seasoned league starter, who also trains others :-/

Same in our mcsl division (D) Took forever

[Anonymous]

In MCSL the only purpose B meets serve is to allow kids to get a chance to be top X to swim at an A meet since they can’t get times at an A meet if they’re not the top X. The times are not reported anywhere. In our case we got a preliminary divisionals roster Saturday night 7/15 as our last A meet was a home meet so we had the results right away. I would assume the hosting teams deadline was probably Monday or so so that people could have a chance to make sure they’d be there. This is different for us than most A meets where the weeks B meet does allow someone to swim into the A meet as the deadline is probably Friday morning or Thursday evening.

[Anonymous]

Our head coach was fired after 1 week. Was told she didn’t do her job and we had to scramble to find someone else. A rising Jr because assistant coach and was doing both swim and developmental teams. It was rather chaotic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our head coach was fired after 1 week. Was told she didn’t do her job and we had to scramble to find someone else. A rising Jr because assistant coach and was doing both swim and developmental teams. It was rather chaotic.

To fire a head coach at the beginning of the season would have to be something!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our Divisionals starter was the slowest, most inconsistent starter I have seen all summer.
There were more ‘stand’ pauses than I have ever heard in my many years at any pool.
I felt for the kids, many of whom jumped in hearing ‘stand,’ probably expecting to hear the start.
Fortunately, those kids were able to swim and get a time; but that was likely not their best after having been startled on the start.
I asked if he was new and was told he was a seasoned league starter, who also trains others :-/

It sucks for timers, too. You can only stare so long at the strobe. There is no consistency.

He doesn't know he sucks probably because no one told him or because he thinks he knows it all as a seasoned starter.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Now that the season is over with all stars remaining, what kind of drama did you have this summer with your swim team?

We had parents very upset that times from the last B meet were not used for the Divisional lineups. The divisional lineup was already set before the last B Meet.

If that was the case then parents and swimmers should have been informed of this ahead of time. It seem odd that B meet times all count, but that one doesn't. Sure it cuts it close but there is still time.

If it’s mcsl it’s in the rule book. B meets are not official mcsl meets - often they are held against teams in other divisions that are close geographically. The teams choose these and how many.

Divisionals is for the swimmers who swam best during the official division meets.

“Meet entries – seeding times. Swimmers and relays must be entered in an event with the best time achieved during the current MCSL season. Times must be achieved in a current season MCSL dual (“A”) meet or the division relay (relay carnival) meet. Times achieved as a “swim-up” in an MCSL dual (“A”) meet can be used as long as the stroke and distance of the swim-up event is the same as the swimmer’s divisional event. If an eligible swimmer has not swum a particular event in an MCSL meet, that swimmer must be entered with a “no time”, Exhibition times, previous season times, and “B” meet times cannot be used as seeding times for divisionals.”

I actually think not using a last B meet result is a deadline issue. The pool that is handling automation typically sets the deadlines for entries as there is a lot that goes into producing the entry file for a 6-team meet and these are volunteers performing the tasks. In my pool's case, divisional entries exchange was the Sunday before divisionals. So it may have been out of your pool's hands to include entries from Wednesday as they would have been too late. So it is not "odd" but rather past the deadline for entries. The coach or reps could have easily relayed that info though.

And to clarify above, as PP points out, coaches can enter anyone they want (including choosing to use B meet times that are swum before the entry deadline) but they would be seeded as NT and therefore in the slowest heat/slowest lane (or seeded with an achieved A meet time that is slower). A coach may choose not to do that, as it is often hard to race (and therefore score points) out of the slow heat.

But the answer is that B meet was past the entry deadline as set by the divisionals meet automation.

Team Rep hear- we did not need to finalize and submit out divisional meet entries until Wednesday so still plenty of time to use the Monday B meet. Some Div make them due Tuesday evening.

Our team has a fun b-meet relay event the last monday so this makes things easy as we have all the divisional times we need after the last saturday A meet.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our Jr. Coaches get paid and don't want to work for their money. Sometimes they don't show up and when they do, they do nothing. I felt bad for the hour coach too.

As far as I can tell jr. coach and assistant coach positions at our pool are a work program for the kids of swim team reps and pool board members.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our Divisionals starter was the slowest, most inconsistent starter I have seen all summer.
There were more ‘stand’ pauses than I have ever heard in my many years at any pool.
I felt for the kids, many of whom jumped in hearing ‘stand,’ probably expecting to hear the start.
Fortunately, those kids were able to swim and get a time; but that was likely not their best after having been startled on the start.
I asked if he was new and was told he was a seasoned league starter, who also trains others :-/

It sucks for timers, too. You can only stare so long at the strobe. There is no consistency.

He doesn't know he sucks probably because no one told him or because he thinks he knows it all as a seasoned starter.

This. I have timed at summer/club/HS swim for years. Our starters this year were horrible...and thus times were all over the place. I have another parent that I time with most weeks for summer/HS and we often get doubles. I think we got one all summer because of the inconsistency of the starters.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Agree with PP, the last B meet was past the entry deadline as set by the divisionals meet automation. It prob should have been conveyed to parents but some parents suck anyways. By the 5th week, the coach already knows who swimming in Divisionals. The chances of getting a great B time to swim Divisionals are slim.

That depends on the pool. Ours has kids constantly moving in and out of A meets. Divisionals require at least 5 swimmers (10 swims with each kid have a maximum of 2) so an age group with 7 or 8 kids who are relatively close isn't going to be set until the last minute.

+1. Our pool as well. There are plenty of mediocre year round swimmers who start strong but aren't going to have any improvement over the summer. There are plenty of strong athletes who don't swim year round who are just getting warmed up mid to late season and surpassing these year round kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our Jr. Coaches get paid and don't want to work for their money. Sometimes they don't show up and when they do, they do nothing. I felt bad for the hour coach too.

As far as I can tell jr. coach and assistant coach positions at our pool are a work program for the kids of swim team reps and pool board members.

If they're committed, experienced, and do a great job, is there a problem with that? Are there others who would like to apply who are not considered? At our pool the assistant coaches are almost all college swimmers, and generally got their start coaching pre-team for years before that.