Anonymous
Post 01/30/2026 09:09     Subject: HS Swim - Districts this weekend?
Anonymous wrote:New twist—Patriot coach emailed that Oakmont was confused and thought we were doing timed finals this morning so now we only have pool tonight, not Saturday, and are now doing timed finals tonight?



PP-I ended this in a question mark because I’m just flabbergasted over the whole thing.
Anonymous
Post 01/30/2026 09:08     Subject: HS Swim - Districts this weekend?
Anonymous wrote:Sounds like Patriot is now doing timed finals only tonight.


We are not doing timed finals. Prelims are tonight and finals are tomorrow. Original plan.
Anonymous
Post 01/30/2026 09:01     Subject: HS Swim - Districts this weekend?
New twist—Patriot coach emailed that Oakmont was confused and thought we were doing timed finals this morning so now we only have pool tonight, not Saturday, and are now doing timed finals tonight?

Anonymous
Post 01/30/2026 08:32     Subject: HS Swim - Districts this weekend?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Is Concorde bumping club teams from the pool on Friday afternoon for this change? That’s annoying if no one has even told the affected teams.


The meet starts at like 10am and ends by like 4pm. There typically would not be club swim during those hours and HS usually has the 3:30pm-5:30pm slots for practice and meets on Friday evenings reserved.


There is a group of middle schoolers that practices in the afternoon before high school.
Anonymous
Post 01/30/2026 08:31     Subject: HS Swim - Districts this weekend?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:What is Liberty district doing?


Prelims in Friday and finals on Saturday.


Of course the Langley and McLean are doing prelims and finals.


If you look at the schools. The whiter well performing schools all have Friday prelims and Saturday finals. The "other" school districts do not. Just another way to snub and have bias.

This isn’t accurate.


Certainly true of National. We swim in the crappy pools all season - even at Districts. We have kids (often more than one) pass out at meets because we are in the pools that are so hot with no ventilation (Providence, Audrey Moore). Providence blocks are so bad and wobbly it’s a joke. The swimmers can barely stand on them without falling in.



Second that National district is treating very shabbily and heavily disadvantaged. Our district meet is Audrey Moore - an incredibly slow pool. All our meets are at slow pools. I am jealous that other district meets are at Oakmont - seriously, that is a great pool. They should rotate year to year who gets to swim in what pool for districts. We often have kids fall and get injured at our meets because the blocks are wobbly - the wobbliest ones are the center lanes. One time had a kid slice their thigh open. We have ambulances show up often at our meets from heat exhaustion - I seriously doubt that is normal for the other districts.

There are some really good swimmers in Nationals. They would probably be even better if they got to swim under better conditions.

Concorde districts are no longer at Oakmont.


Cub Run is not as good as Oakmont but it certainly is not as bad as Audrey Moore. The District meet pools are Oakmont, Cub Run, Audrey Moore, and Yorktown & W&L.

To say these pools are on equal footing is ridiculous.

No one said that, just pointing out that the Oakmont comment above no longer applies.
No one is disputing that some high schools within FCSP have fewer and/or lower quality resources. It stinks. But it's hard to agree that National was slighted for the Districts swim meet because of its demographics when you've got Concorde - with very different demographics - in the same position.


I think we have other posters saying that National district does not get to swim in good pools at any point during the season. Whereas that is not the case for Concorde, they do swim at good pools during the season. National has the misfortune swimming at Franconia, Audrey Moore and Providence during their season. Their districts are being held at Audrey Moore (I find that crazy). And the icing on the cake of inequality is that they get timed finals today after not being in the pool for a week.



100%. It sucks the kids don’t get a decent pool even once in the season. The ambulance had to show up 2x at our last meet at Providence. At the very least, these kids deserve a decent pool for districts and to have prelims and finals after having struggled through all season with the worst pools in the area. In a sport where a tenth of a second matters, no way it is equitable.
Anonymous
Post 01/30/2026 08:27     Subject: HS Swim - Districts this weekend?
Sounds like Patriot is now doing timed finals only tonight.
Anonymous
Post 01/30/2026 08:18     Subject: HS Swim - Districts this weekend?
Anonymous wrote:Is Concorde bumping club teams from the pool on Friday afternoon for this change? That’s annoying if no one has even told the affected teams.


The meet starts at like 10am and ends by like 4pm. There typically would not be club swim during those hours and HS usually has the 3:30pm-5:30pm slots for practice and meets on Friday evenings reserved.
Anonymous
Post 01/30/2026 08:15     Subject: HS Swim - Districts this weekend?
Anonymous wrote:I too wrote an email. Besides our DSA, I also sent the email to the FCPS Central office Activities / Athletics department email address - fcpssaap@fcps.edu

If standardizing what the districts are doing is not a central office function, I don’t know what is.


Thanks for the share! I'll write to the central office for sure.
Anonymous
Post 01/30/2026 08:07     Subject: HS Swim - Districts this weekend?
I too wrote an email. Besides our DSA, I also sent the email to the FCPS Central office Activities / Athletics department email address - fcpssaap@fcps.edu

If standardizing what the districts are doing is not a central office function, I don’t know what is.
Anonymous
Post 01/30/2026 07:59     Subject: HS Swim - Districts this weekend?


I wrote an email last night and have not heard back. I am impressed that at least one person did, even though it was a crappy canned answer.
Anonymous
Post 01/30/2026 07:55     Subject: HS Swim - Districts this weekend?
Anonymous wrote:As a parent of kid in National District, I’m less concerned about pool/disadvantages arguments. For me, it’s the lack of consistency between Patriot and National districts who are part of the same regionals. Second, the optics of the decision with timed finals just look devoid of any common sense.


I agree that Patriot and National should be the same and the fact that the decision was made WEDNESDAY when there was a slight chance of weather (too early) shows that our DSA is terrible. There is no weather and that was confirmed yesterday. Making a contingency plan is great, but to lock yourself into a plan when there is no reason to do so is lazy and poor decision making.

I do hope parents write and complain. I did last night.
Anonymous
Post 01/30/2026 07:52     Subject: HS Swim - Districts this weekend?
I’m a Concorde parent who is equally upset about the lack of consistency in the meet format across districts. I just can’t understand the inconsistency across the same school system.
Anonymous
Post 01/30/2026 07:47     Subject: HS Swim - Districts this weekend?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:What is Liberty district doing?


Prelims in Friday and finals on Saturday.


Of course the Langley and McLean are doing prelims and finals.


If you look at the schools. The whiter well performing schools all have Friday prelims and Saturday finals. The "other" school districts do not. Just another way to snub and have bias.

This isn’t accurate.


Certainly true of National. We swim in the crappy pools all season - even at Districts. We have kids (often more than one) pass out at meets because we are in the pools that are so hot with no ventilation (Providence, Audrey Moore). Providence blocks are so bad and wobbly it’s a joke. The swimmers can barely stand on them without falling in.



Second that National district is treating very shabbily and heavily disadvantaged. Our district meet is Audrey Moore - an incredibly slow pool. All our meets are at slow pools. I am jealous that other district meets are at Oakmont - seriously, that is a great pool. They should rotate year to year who gets to swim in what pool for districts. We often have kids fall and get injured at our meets because the blocks are wobbly - the wobbliest ones are the center lanes. One time had a kid slice their thigh open. We have ambulances show up often at our meets from heat exhaustion - I seriously doubt that is normal for the other districts.

There are some really good swimmers in Nationals. They would probably be even better if they got to swim under better conditions.

Concorde districts are no longer at Oakmont.


Cub Run is not as good as Oakmont but it certainly is not as bad as Audrey Moore. The District meet pools are Oakmont, Cub Run, Audrey Moore, and Yorktown & W&L.

To say these pools are on equal footing is ridiculous.

No one said that, just pointing out that the Oakmont comment above no longer applies.
No one is disputing that some high schools within FCSP have fewer and/or lower quality resources. It stinks. But it's hard to agree that National was slighted for the Districts swim meet because of its demographics when you've got Concorde - with very different demographics - in the same position.


I think we have other posters saying that National district does not get to swim in good pools at any point during the season. Whereas that is not the case for Concorde, they do swim at good pools during the season. National has the misfortune swimming at Franconia, Audrey Moore and Providence during their season. Their districts are being held at Audrey Moore (I find that crazy). And the icing on the cake of inequality is that they get timed finals today after not being in the pool for a week.

Anonymous
Post 01/30/2026 07:46     Subject: HS Swim - Districts this weekend?
As a parent of kid in National District, I’m less concerned about pool/disadvantages arguments. For me, it’s the lack of consistency between Patriot and National districts who are part of the same regionals. Second, the optics of the decision with timed finals just look devoid of any common sense.
Anonymous
Post 01/30/2026 07:45     Subject: HS Swim - Districts this weekend?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:What is Liberty district doing?


Prelims in Friday and finals on Saturday.


Of course the Langley and McLean are doing prelims and finals.


If you look at the schools. The whiter well performing schools all have Friday prelims and Saturday finals. The "other" school districts do not. Just another way to snub and have bias.

This isn’t accurate.


Certainly true of National. We swim in the crappy pools all season - even at Districts. We have kids (often more than one) pass out at meets because we are in the pools that are so hot with no ventilation (Providence, Audrey Moore). Providence blocks are so bad and wobbly it’s a joke. The swimmers can barely stand on them without falling in.


As a parent of kid in National District, I’m less concerned about pool/disadvantages arguments. For me, it’s the lack of consistency between Patriot and National districts who are part of the same regionals. Second, the optics of the decision with timed finals just look devoid of any common sense.



Second that National district is treating very shabbily and heavily disadvantaged. Our district meet is Audrey Moore - an incredibly slow pool. All our meets are at slow pools. I am jealous that other district meets are at Oakmont - seriously, that is a great pool. They should rotate year to year who gets to swim in what pool for districts. We often have kids fall and get injured at our meets because the blocks are wobbly - the wobbliest ones are the center lanes. One time had a kid slice their thigh open. We have ambulances show up often at our meets from heat exhaustion - I seriously doubt that is normal for the other districts.

There are some really good swimmers in Nationals. They would probably be even better if they got to swim under better conditions.

Concorde districts are no longer at Oakmont.


Cub Run is not as good as Oakmont but it certainly is not as bad as Audrey Moore. The District meet pools are Oakmont, Cub Run, Audrey Moore, and Yorktown & W&L.

To say these pools are on equal footing is ridiculous.

No one said that, just pointing out that the Oakmont comment above no longer applies.
No one is disputing that some high schools within FCSP have fewer and/or lower quality resources. It stinks. But it's hard to agree that National was slighted for the Districts swim meet because of its demographics when you've got Concorde - with very different demographics - in the same position.