Anonymous
Post 02/07/2026 09:48     Subject: Oakmont Regionals - No scoreboard!
I know a volunteer who was involved in trying to get it running last weekend at Patriot’s meet. I’ll ask what the issue was, but I believe nobody on the Oakmont staff at the time knew how to operate it. Not 100% sure on that. Again, I’ll check and add a reply.
Anonymous
Post 02/07/2026 09:33     Subject: Oakmont Regionals - No scoreboard!
Anonymous wrote:Can someone tell me how the relay swimmers progress to finals tonight? The top what number? And for individual events, if you made consolation finals, does that mean you can’t progress to states? Thank you so much. Our coach doesn’t share this type of information so it’s hard to follow.


On your second question, consolation finals swimmers can only go to States by swimming the State cut.
Anonymous
Post 02/07/2026 09:07     Subject: Oakmont Regionals - No scoreboard!
Can someone tell me how the relay swimmers progress to finals tonight? The top what number? And for individual events, if you made consolation finals, does that mean you can’t progress to states? Thank you so much. Our coach doesn’t share this type of information so it’s hard to follow.
Anonymous
Post 02/07/2026 09:03     Subject: Oakmont Regionals - No scoreboard!
Anonymous wrote:NP. I really don’t think they “just needed a volunteer” for the scoreboard. But at least they were posting paper results in the lobby, so there was a way to see results (eventually).

I think you’re missing my point. It takes an army to run a swim meet and there are a ton of tiny details to manage. Swimmer safety and accurate times are the most important things to get right. When spectators just assume the worst rather than trying to understand why something is or isn’t happening or offering to help, it comes off as a little entitled.
Anonymous
Post 02/07/2026 08:52     Subject: Oakmont Regionals - No scoreboard!
NP. I really don’t think they “just needed a volunteer” for the scoreboard. But at least they were posting paper results in the lobby, so there was a way to see results (eventually).
Anonymous
Post 02/07/2026 00:06     Subject: Oakmont Regionals - No scoreboard!
I’m very sympathetic to technical difficulties and glitches that make the scoreboard inoperable. But this appeared to be a decision by meet organizers not to use the scoreboard at all. Can you image the organizers of a high school regionals football or basketball game deciding not to use the scoreboard or clock to save money. I’m not sure why it’s ok for swimming, esp in team competitions, to hide the ball on revealing times, standing, team point totals and more.
Anonymous
Post 02/06/2026 23:37     Subject: Oakmont Regionals - No scoreboard!
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Why was the scoreboard not used at Regionals at Oakmont tonight? Swimmers, coaches, and attendees were often completely in the dark about times. This is a big meet and the tiny display on top of the high dive is very difficult to view because it moves fast and sometimes skips certain lanes. It’s difficult for coaches and spectators to see finish times and placing, and worst of all, the swimmers can’t see their times when they finish their races.

For the past 3 seasons, the Oakmont scoreboard was not working because it wasn’t compatible with newer software. But Fairfax County purchased a new scoreboard for the facility last summer, and it’s now up and operational. I’ve seen it used at club meets at Oakmont. So it’s infuriating that it was not used tonight. Tickets were $10 per person which I would think would easily cover any costs associated with using the scoreboard. Can’t we do better?

Sorry to be cliche, but volunteer to make this happen. The entire meet is run by volunteers that are doing a million things to pull off the event at all. This isn’t a for-profit club meet, it’s public school sports.


I’m sympathetic to parents who don’t have a good meet experience, but PP is right in that there are a lot of moving pieces being run by volunteers who don’t do this every day.

I just got home from volunteering at a meet and we had scoreboard issues (not dmv). We had the times on the board, but the names were missing. We tried resetting the system, rebooting the computer that runs the scoreboard, and it kept cutting out on us. I was running the computer and my priority was to make sure that we were had accurate times and to make sure the many many many relay changes, scratches, kids swimming in wrong lanes etc got resolved, so I had to let go of the scoreboard. I also was busy leaving my computer to remind timers to please press the plunger, switching plungers to different ports, changing the timers’ sheets to reflect last minute changes, accommodating swimmers who wanted official splits from longer races, discussing snafus with the meet referee, printing splits for coaches on request, and asking coaches to verify times when the pad, plungers and watches all disagreed.

Even though I think the scoreboard is important, if it wasn’t working, it’s likely that there are other pressing issues concerning meet integrity that are taking precedent. I would email the meet director after the meet, thank them for running the meet and say that you wish the scoreboard was running properly.
Anonymous
Post 02/06/2026 23:35     Subject: Oakmont Regionals - No scoreboard!
Sure. But volunteer to be the person that handles the cable. The entry fee doesn’t manifest a person to handle this on top of the myriad other tiny details required to run a swim meet on a shoestring budget. Why do you assume incompetence rather than seek to understand and help?
Anonymous
Post 02/06/2026 23:31     Subject: Oakmont Regionals - No scoreboard!
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Sorry to be cliche, but volunteer to make this happen. The entire meet is run by volunteers that are doing a million things to pull off the event at all. This isn’t a for-profit club meet, it’s public school sports.


Isn’t it a cable or connector that is needed? Or a payment for use of the board? That doesn’t really sound like “lack of volunteer” cause.

Also, high school sports are run by the VHSL and school districts, so they are not entirely volunteer run. Plus, they charge for attendees.
Anonymous
Post 02/06/2026 23:13     Subject: Oakmont Regionals - No scoreboard!
Anonymous wrote:Why was the scoreboard not used at Regionals at Oakmont tonight? Swimmers, coaches, and attendees were often completely in the dark about times. This is a big meet and the tiny display on top of the high dive is very difficult to view because it moves fast and sometimes skips certain lanes. It’s difficult for coaches and spectators to see finish times and placing, and worst of all, the swimmers can’t see their times when they finish their races.

For the past 3 seasons, the Oakmont scoreboard was not working because it wasn’t compatible with newer software. But Fairfax County purchased a new scoreboard for the facility last summer, and it’s now up and operational. I’ve seen it used at club meets at Oakmont. So it’s infuriating that it was not used tonight. Tickets were $10 per person which I would think would easily cover any costs associated with using the scoreboard. Can’t we do better?

Sorry to be cliche, but volunteer to make this happen. The entire meet is run by volunteers that are doing a million things to pull off the event at all. This isn’t a for-profit club meet, it’s public school sports.
Anonymous
Post 02/06/2026 23:08     Subject: Re:Oakmont Regionals - No scoreboard!
Between the tiny scoreboard and Meet Mobile not working, I really don’t know what’s going on. Club swim is much easier to follow.
Anonymous
Post 02/06/2026 22:55     Subject: Re:Oakmont Regionals - No scoreboard!
Why would there be a charge to use it?
Anonymous
Post 02/06/2026 22:48     Subject: Re:Oakmont Regionals - No scoreboard!
Is it a money issue? Is Fairfax County charging the schools too much to use the board?
Anonymous
Post 02/06/2026 22:44     Subject: Oakmont Regionals - No scoreboard!
It was the same last week for the District meet.
Anonymous
Post 02/06/2026 22:41     Subject: Oakmont Regionals - No scoreboard!
Why was the scoreboard not used at Regionals at Oakmont tonight? Swimmers, coaches, and attendees were often completely in the dark about times. This is a big meet and the tiny display on top of the high dive is very difficult to view because it moves fast and sometimes skips certain lanes. It’s difficult for coaches and spectators to see finish times and placing, and worst of all, the swimmers can’t see their times when they finish their races.

For the past 3 seasons, the Oakmont scoreboard was not working because it wasn’t compatible with newer software. But Fairfax County purchased a new scoreboard for the facility last summer, and it’s now up and operational. I’ve seen it used at club meets at Oakmont. So it’s infuriating that it was not used tonight. Tickets were $10 per person which I would think would easily cover any costs associated with using the scoreboard. Can’t we do better?