Summer swim brings out the crazy

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have never heard of a summer team where anyone but the coaches did the meet lineup. Just wild!!

This happens regularly at my pool. Sometimes it’s subtle, like the rep’s kid somehow being in lane 4 even though the other 2 teammates had faster times. (They entered them as NT to make it work) Sometimes it’s a rep asking a coach to get a swimmer a coach time in practice to move a kid into a relay spot. We actually lost a phenomenal coach after a year over the meddling. Now we have a college age coach who isn’t particularly good and just lets the reps do it.

It's unbelievable; there are definitely politics at our D1 pool, but nothing like this. I wouldn't allow my child to participate with this kind of meddling.

We left a mid-level NVSL pool for a D1 pool and could not be happier. Everything is clear and transparent, and our kids (at least 12Us) don’t give a hoot if the friend is A, B, combo, or not even swim team meet-type.

Clear and transparent is super important to keep families and swimmers engaged. When reps and other people meddle with lineups or try to sway coaches on meet decisions it makes people want to leave.

We are also at a D1 pool and the other families are amazing. The kids encourage and cheer for their peers. They also all understand that we win and lose as a team, they are not hostile towards each other but are instead encouraging. We absolutely love it!

Do they stay for the entire meet?

MCSL parent and rep here. That’s our expectation of the kids for both A and B meets.

My own kid knows that the only meet where we leave early is the one when the out of town grandparents attend (grandmother is extremely heat sensitive).

There is no expectation on our MCSL team that kids stay for an entire B meet. Many of those kids are 6, 7, 8 years old swimming only freestyle. It makes no sense for them to stay until 9:30pm when the last fly race ends. A meets, kids are expected to stay for the whole thing to cheer on the team.

+1 from an MCSL parent and official. There's tons of cheering at the B meets, but no one expects anyone to stay until the bitter end. My kids were almost exclusively B meet swimmers their first two years and we never thought anything of people leaving when they were done.

A meets, absolutely people stay. We've had to make that expectation clear to new families, usually with 8&U kids who don't know about the graduated free relay.

See, that’s what I would like to see happen during our A meets instead of so many people leaving when they are done swimming. I understand not staying at a B meet.

I think it's tough bc it's a weeknight. Kids got morning practices to get to the next day and both my wife and I have work. Yes to team spirit but if you can cram it in 2 hours or less....but plenty of our B meets drag till nearly 9. We're lucky if we're done with FR by 7pm assuming a 6pm start time. Basically, we got to shit to do. On Sat, there's not so much the urgency.

Right. I get not staying for a B meet, but it seems half our team and their families head out by the time the A meets are done.

My bad. I completely misread your earlier post. That sucks about your A meets. Are the majority of folks leaving 12U? I think it’s a bit of herding sheep to get the 10U engaged and that burden really falls on the older teens.

Doesn't sound much like a team environment. Do you have issues with other team activities as well?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have never heard of a summer team where anyone but the coaches did the meet lineup. Just wild!!

This happens regularly at my pool. Sometimes it’s subtle, like the rep’s kid somehow being in lane 4 even though the other 2 teammates had faster times. (They entered them as NT to make it work) Sometimes it’s a rep asking a coach to get a swimmer a coach time in practice to move a kid into a relay spot. We actually lost a phenomenal coach after a year over the meddling. Now we have a college age coach who isn’t particularly good and just lets the reps do it.

It's unbelievable; there are definitely politics at our D1 pool, but nothing like this. I wouldn't allow my child to participate with this kind of meddling.

We left a mid-level NVSL pool for a D1 pool and could not be happier. Everything is clear and transparent, and our kids (at least 12Us) don’t give a hoot if the friend is A, B, combo, or not even swim team meet-type.

Clear and transparent is super important to keep families and swimmers engaged. When reps and other people meddle with lineups or try to sway coaches on meet decisions it makes people want to leave.

We are also at a D1 pool and the other families are amazing. The kids encourage and cheer for their peers. They also all understand that we win and lose as a team, they are not hostile towards each other but are instead encouraging. We absolutely love it!

Do they stay for the entire meet?

MCSL parent and rep here. That’s our expectation of the kids for both A and B meets.

My own kid knows that the only meet where we leave early is the one when the out of town grandparents attend (grandmother is extremely heat sensitive).

There is no expectation on our MCSL team that kids stay for an entire B meet. Many of those kids are 6, 7, 8 years old swimming only freestyle. It makes no sense for them to stay until 9:30pm when the last fly race ends. A meets, kids are expected to stay for the whole thing to cheer on the team.

+1 from an MCSL parent and official. There's tons of cheering at the B meets, but no one expects anyone to stay until the bitter end. My kids were almost exclusively B meet swimmers their first two years and we never thought anything of people leaving when they were done.

A meets, absolutely people stay. We've had to make that expectation clear to new families, usually with 8&U kids who don't know about the graduated free relay.

See, that’s what I would like to see happen during our A meets instead of so many people leaving when they are done swimming. I understand not staying at a B meet.

I think it's tough bc it's a weeknight. Kids got morning practices to get to the next day and both my wife and I have work. Yes to team spirit but if you can cram it in 2 hours or less....but plenty of our B meets drag till nearly 9. We're lucky if we're done with FR by 7pm assuming a 6pm start time. Basically, we got to shit to do. On Sat, there's not so much the urgency.

Right. I get not staying for a B meet, but it seems half our team and their families head out by the time the A meets are done.

My bad. I completely misread your earlier post. That sucks about your A meets. Are the majority of folks leaving 12U? I think it’s a bit of herding sheep to get the 10U engaged and that burden really falls on the older teens.

It’s not the older teens jobs to keep 10u engaged. Sure, if they enjoy that sort of thing, but not all do. Teens are team members just like the 10u. If a teen is not interested, coaches and parents shouldn’t harp on those teens.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have never heard of a summer team where anyone but the coaches did the meet lineup. Just wild!!

This happens regularly at my pool. Sometimes it’s subtle, like the rep’s kid somehow being in lane 4 even though the other 2 teammates had faster times. (They entered them as NT to make it work) Sometimes it’s a rep asking a coach to get a swimmer a coach time in practice to move a kid into a relay spot. We actually lost a phenomenal coach after a year over the meddling. Now we have a college age coach who isn’t particularly good and just lets the reps do it.

It's unbelievable; there are definitely politics at our D1 pool, but nothing like this. I wouldn't allow my child to participate with this kind of meddling.

We left a mid-level NVSL pool for a D1 pool and could not be happier. Everything is clear and transparent, and our kids (at least 12Us) don’t give a hoot if the friend is A, B, combo, or not even swim team meet-type.

Clear and transparent is super important to keep families and swimmers engaged. When reps and other people meddle with lineups or try to sway coaches on meet decisions it makes people want to leave.

We are also at a D1 pool and the other families are amazing. The kids encourage and cheer for their peers. They also all understand that we win and lose as a team, they are not hostile towards each other but are instead encouraging. We absolutely love it!

Do they stay for the entire meet?

MCSL parent and rep here. That’s our expectation of the kids for both A and B meets.

My own kid knows that the only meet where we leave early is the one when the out of town grandparents attend (grandmother is extremely heat sensitive).

There is no expectation on our MCSL team that kids stay for an entire B meet. Many of those kids are 6, 7, 8 years old swimming only freestyle. It makes no sense for them to stay until 9:30pm when the last fly race ends. A meets, kids are expected to stay for the whole thing to cheer on the team.

+1 from an MCSL parent and official. There's tons of cheering at the B meets, but no one expects anyone to stay until the bitter end. My kids were almost exclusively B meet swimmers their first two years and we never thought anything of people leaving when they were done.

A meets, absolutely people stay. We've had to make that expectation clear to new families, usually with 8&U kids who don't know about the graduated free relay.

See, that’s what I would like to see happen during our A meets instead of so many people leaving when they are done swimming. I understand not staying at a B meet.

I think it's tough bc it's a weeknight. Kids got morning practices to get to the next day and both my wife and I have work. Yes to team spirit but if you can cram it in 2 hours or less....but plenty of our B meets drag till nearly 9. We're lucky if we're done with FR by 7pm assuming a 6pm start time. Basically, we got to shit to do. On Sat, there's not so much the urgency.

Right. I get not staying for a B meet, but it seems half our team and their families head out by the time the A meets are done.

My bad. I completely misread your earlier post. That sucks about your A meets. Are the majority of folks leaving 12U? I think it’s a bit of herding sheep to get the 10U engaged and that burden really falls on the older teens.

Doesn't sound much like a team environment. Do you have issues with other team activities as well?

Definitely. Very much so.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have never heard of a summer team where anyone but the coaches did the meet lineup. Just wild!!

This happens regularly at my pool. Sometimes it’s subtle, like the rep’s kid somehow being in lane 4 even though the other 2 teammates had faster times. (They entered them as NT to make it work) Sometimes it’s a rep asking a coach to get a swimmer a coach time in practice to move a kid into a relay spot. We actually lost a phenomenal coach after a year over the meddling. Now we have a college age coach who isn’t particularly good and just lets the reps do it.

It's unbelievable; there are definitely politics at our D1 pool, but nothing like this. I wouldn't allow my child to participate with this kind of meddling.

We left a mid-level NVSL pool for a D1 pool and could not be happier. Everything is clear and transparent, and our kids (at least 12Us) don’t give a hoot if the friend is A, B, combo, or not even swim team meet-type.

Clear and transparent is super important to keep families and swimmers engaged. When reps and other people meddle with lineups or try to sway coaches on meet decisions it makes people want to leave.

We are also at a D1 pool and the other families are amazing. The kids encourage and cheer for their peers. They also all understand that we win and lose as a team, they are not hostile towards each other but are instead encouraging. We absolutely love it!

Do they stay for the entire meet?

MCSL parent and rep here. That’s our expectation of the kids for both A and B meets.

My own kid knows that the only meet where we leave early is the one when the out of town grandparents attend (grandmother is extremely heat sensitive).

There is no expectation on our MCSL team that kids stay for an entire B meet. Many of those kids are 6, 7, 8 years old swimming only freestyle. It makes no sense for them to stay until 9:30pm when the last fly race ends. A meets, kids are expected to stay for the whole thing to cheer on the team.

+1 from an MCSL parent and official. There's tons of cheering at the B meets, but no one expects anyone to stay until the bitter end. My kids were almost exclusively B meet swimmers their first two years and we never thought anything of people leaving when they were done.

A meets, absolutely people stay. We've had to make that expectation clear to new families, usually with 8&U kids who don't know about the graduated free relay.

See, that’s what I would like to see happen during our A meets instead of so many people leaving when they are done swimming. I understand not staying at a B meet.

I think it's tough bc it's a weeknight. Kids got morning practices to get to the next day and both my wife and I have work. Yes to team spirit but if you can cram it in 2 hours or less....but plenty of our B meets drag till nearly 9. We're lucky if we're done with FR by 7pm assuming a 6pm start time. Basically, we got to shit to do. On Sat, there's not so much the urgency.

Right. I get not staying for a B meet, but it seems half our team and their families head out by the time the A meets are done.

My bad. I completely misread your earlier post. That sucks about your A meets. Are the majority of folks leaving 12U? I think it’s a bit of herding sheep to get the 10U engaged and that burden really falls on the older teens.

It’s not the older teens jobs to keep 10u engaged. Sure, if they enjoy that sort of thing, but not all do. Teens are team members just like the 10u. If a teen is not interested, coaches and parents shouldn’t harp on those teens.

Teams should designate parent volunteers to watch the younger kids when the parents are volunteering. The teens are there to swim themselves. At one pool we were at we had a group of parents who refused to volunteer but would complain about the unsupervised kids and had no clue that it was due to parents volunteering. The kids weren't sitting perfectly still and being loud so one parent complained to me and I told her to step up or be quiet as what other optiosn do we have if people like her will not help and we have to volunteer to keep the meets running.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have never heard of a summer team where anyone but the coaches did the meet lineup. Just wild!!

This happens regularly at my pool. Sometimes it’s subtle, like the rep’s kid somehow being in lane 4 even though the other 2 teammates had faster times. (They entered them as NT to make it work) Sometimes it’s a rep asking a coach to get a swimmer a coach time in practice to move a kid into a relay spot. We actually lost a phenomenal coach after a year over the meddling. Now we have a college age coach who isn’t particularly good and just lets the reps do it.

It's unbelievable; there are definitely politics at our D1 pool, but nothing like this. I wouldn't allow my child to participate with this kind of meddling.

We left a mid-level NVSL pool for a D1 pool and could not be happier. Everything is clear and transparent, and our kids (at least 12Us) don’t give a hoot if the friend is A, B, combo, or not even swim team meet-type.

Clear and transparent is super important to keep families and swimmers engaged. When reps and other people meddle with lineups or try to sway coaches on meet decisions it makes people want to leave.

We are also at a D1 pool and the other families are amazing. The kids encourage and cheer for their peers. They also all understand that we win and lose as a team, they are not hostile towards each other but are instead encouraging. We absolutely love it!

Do they stay for the entire meet?

MCSL parent and rep here. That’s our expectation of the kids for both A and B meets.

My own kid knows that the only meet where we leave early is the one when the out of town grandparents attend (grandmother is extremely heat sensitive).

It depends on the team and situation. We had other early morning activities so the non-volunteering parent would pick up the kids when they were younger and needed to go to bed. Same with now teens as some parents just volunteer 1/2 but we seem to have to volunteer the entire time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have never heard of a summer team where anyone but the coaches did the meet lineup. Just wild!!

This happens regularly at my pool. Sometimes it’s subtle, like the rep’s kid somehow being in lane 4 even though the other 2 teammates had faster times. (They entered them as NT to make it work) Sometimes it’s a rep asking a coach to get a swimmer a coach time in practice to move a kid into a relay spot. We actually lost a phenomenal coach after a year over the meddling. Now we have a college age coach who isn’t particularly good and just lets the reps do it.

It's unbelievable; there are definitely politics at our D1 pool, but nothing like this. I wouldn't allow my child to participate with this kind of meddling.

We left a mid-level NVSL pool for a D1 pool and could not be happier. Everything is clear and transparent, and our kids (at least 12Us) don’t give a hoot if the friend is A, B, combo, or not even swim team meet-type.

Clear and transparent is super important to keep families and swimmers engaged. When reps and other people meddle with lineups or try to sway coaches on meet decisions it makes people want to leave.

We are also at a D1 pool and the other families are amazing. The kids encourage and cheer for their peers. They also all understand that we win and lose as a team, they are not hostile towards each other but are instead encouraging. We absolutely love it!

Do they stay for the entire meet?

MCSL parent and rep here. That’s our expectation of the kids for both A and B meets.

My own kid knows that the only meet where we leave early is the one when the out of town grandparents attend (grandmother is extremely heat sensitive).

There is no expectation on our MCSL team that kids stay for an entire B meet. Many of those kids are 6, 7, 8 years old swimming only freestyle. It makes no sense for them to stay until 9:30pm when the last fly race ends. A meets, kids are expected to stay for the whole thing to cheer on the team.

+1 from an MCSL parent and official. There's tons of cheering at the B meets, but no one expects anyone to stay until the bitter end. My kids were almost exclusively B meet swimmers their first two years and we never thought anything of people leaving when they were done.

A meets, absolutely people stay. We've had to make that expectation clear to new families, usually with 8&U kids who don't know about the graduated free relay.

See, that’s what I would like to see happen during our A meets instead of so many people leaving when they are done swimming. I understand not staying at a B meet.

I think it's tough bc it's a weeknight. Kids got morning practices to get to the next day and both my wife and I have work. Yes to team spirit but if you can cram it in 2 hours or less....but plenty of our B meets drag till nearly 9. We're lucky if we're done with FR by 7pm assuming a 6pm start time. Basically, we got to shit to do. On Sat, there's not so much the urgency.

We have B meets that go to 10, then clean up. Its hard when my spouse needs to leave for work by 7 AM to beat traffic and we have to be at practice by 7:30 AM.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have never heard of a summer team where anyone but the coaches did the meet lineup. Just wild!!

This happens regularly at my pool. Sometimes it’s subtle, like the rep’s kid somehow being in lane 4 even though the other 2 teammates had faster times. (They entered them as NT to make it work) Sometimes it’s a rep asking a coach to get a swimmer a coach time in practice to move a kid into a relay spot. We actually lost a phenomenal coach after a year over the meddling. Now we have a college age coach who isn’t particularly good and just lets the reps do it.

It's unbelievable; there are definitely politics at our D1 pool, but nothing like this. I wouldn't allow my child to participate with this kind of meddling.

We left a mid-level NVSL pool for a D1 pool and could not be happier. Everything is clear and transparent, and our kids (at least 12Us) don’t give a hoot if the friend is A, B, combo, or not even swim team meet-type.

Clear and transparent is super important to keep families and swimmers engaged. When reps and other people meddle with lineups or try to sway coaches on meet decisions it makes people want to leave.

We are also at a D1 pool and the other families are amazing. The kids encourage and cheer for their peers. They also all understand that we win and lose as a team, they are not hostile towards each other but are instead encouraging. We absolutely love it!

Do they stay for the entire meet?

MCSL parent and rep here. That’s our expectation of the kids for both A and B meets.

My own kid knows that the only meet where we leave early is the one when the out of town grandparents attend (grandmother is extremely heat sensitive).

There is no expectation on our MCSL team that kids stay for an entire B meet. Many of those kids are 6, 7, 8 years old swimming only freestyle. It makes no sense for them to stay until 9:30pm when the last fly race ends. A meets, kids are expected to stay for the whole thing to cheer on the team.

+1 from an MCSL parent and official. There's tons of cheering at the B meets, but no one expects anyone to stay until the bitter end. My kids were almost exclusively B meet swimmers their first two years and we never thought anything of people leaving when they were done.

A meets, absolutely people stay. We've had to make that expectation clear to new families, usually with 8&U kids who don't know about the graduated free relay.

See, that’s what I would like to see happen during our A meets instead of so many people leaving when they are done swimming. I understand not staying at a B meet.

I think it's tough bc it's a weeknight. Kids got morning practices to get to the next day and both my wife and I have work. Yes to team spirit but if you can cram it in 2 hours or less....but plenty of our B meets drag till nearly 9. We're lucky if we're done with FR by 7pm assuming a 6pm start time. Basically, we got to shit to do. On Sat, there's not so much the urgency.

Right. I get not staying for a B meet, but it seems half our team and their families head out by the time the A meets are done.

My bad. I completely misread your earlier post. That sucks about your A meets. Are the majority of folks leaving 12U? I think it’s a bit of herding sheep to get the 10U engaged and that burden really falls on the older teens.

It’s not the older teens jobs to keep 10u engaged. Sure, if they enjoy that sort of thing, but not all do. Teens are team members just like the 10u. If a teen is not interested, coaches and parents shouldn’t harp on those teens.

Teams should designate parent volunteers to watch the younger kids when the parents are volunteering. The teens are there to swim themselves. At one pool we were at we had a group of parents who refused to volunteer but would complain about the unsupervised kids and had no clue that it was due to parents volunteering. The kids weren't sitting perfectly still and being loud so one parent complained to me and I told her to step up or be quiet as what other optiosn do we have if people like her will not help and we have to volunteer to keep the meets running.

Parents should help and provide some direction/supervision, but it should be driven at the team level from the rep & coach through the older kids and down. Otherwise it is a bunch of helicopter parents trying to maintain order with kids who want to run around and play. The team needs to be a team. You won't get all the older kids to engage, but it only takes a couple to be enthusiastic and it can be infectious.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have never heard of a summer team where anyone but the coaches did the meet lineup. Just wild!!

This happens regularly at my pool. Sometimes it’s subtle, like the rep’s kid somehow being in lane 4 even though the other 2 teammates had faster times. (They entered them as NT to make it work) Sometimes it’s a rep asking a coach to get a swimmer a coach time in practice to move a kid into a relay spot. We actually lost a phenomenal coach after a year over the meddling. Now we have a college age coach who isn’t particularly good and just lets the reps do it.

It's unbelievable; there are definitely politics at our D1 pool, but nothing like this. I wouldn't allow my child to participate with this kind of meddling.

We left a mid-level NVSL pool for a D1 pool and could not be happier. Everything is clear and transparent, and our kids (at least 12Us) don’t give a hoot if the friend is A, B, combo, or not even swim team meet-type.

Clear and transparent is super important to keep families and swimmers engaged. When reps and other people meddle with lineups or try to sway coaches on meet decisions it makes people want to leave.

We are also at a D1 pool and the other families are amazing. The kids encourage and cheer for their peers. They also all understand that we win and lose as a team, they are not hostile towards each other but are instead encouraging. We absolutely love it!

Do they stay for the entire meet?

MCSL parent and rep here. That’s our expectation of the kids for both A and B meets.

My own kid knows that the only meet where we leave early is the one when the out of town grandparents attend (grandmother is extremely heat sensitive).

There is no expectation on our MCSL team that kids stay for an entire B meet. Many of those kids are 6, 7, 8 years old swimming only freestyle. It makes no sense for them to stay until 9:30pm when the last fly race ends. A meets, kids are expected to stay for the whole thing to cheer on the team.

+1 from an MCSL parent and official. There's tons of cheering at the B meets, but no one expects anyone to stay until the bitter end. My kids were almost exclusively B meet swimmers their first two years and we never thought anything of people leaving when they were done.

A meets, absolutely people stay. We've had to make that expectation clear to new families, usually with 8&U kids who don't know about the graduated free relay.

See, that’s what I would like to see happen during our A meets instead of so many people leaving when they are done swimming. I understand not staying at a B meet.

I think it's tough bc it's a weeknight. Kids got morning practices to get to the next day and both my wife and I have work. Yes to team spirit but if you can cram it in 2 hours or less....but plenty of our B meets drag till nearly 9. We're lucky if we're done with FR by 7pm assuming a 6pm start time. Basically, we got to shit to do. On Sat, there's not so much the urgency.

Right. I get not staying for a B meet, but it seems half our team and their families head out by the time the A meets are done.

My bad. I completely misread your earlier post. That sucks about your A meets. Are the majority of folks leaving 12U? I think it’s a bit of herding sheep to get the 10U engaged and that burden really falls on the older teens.

Doesn't sound much like a team environment. Do you have issues with other team activities as well?

Definitely. Very much so.

Quoting myself to follow up. What kind of “other team activities” are you thinking of? I was thinking of pep rallies, which are not well attended.