June 18, 2022

Teams,

Thanks for taking part in today’s ASA Championship orientation Zoom call. I will send out a recap and link to the recording shortly. I am reaching out to you regarding this week’s upcoming meets. As you all know, we are in some record territory with the weather. We are seeing temps at or above 100 degrees and matched with the humidity even higher heat indexes. With that in mind and the brutal forecast for this week we want to advise teams to consult each other over the next day or so and discuss alternative plans if it will be too hot to swim at the host pool. There’s another one of those, I’ve never brought this up before about a swim meet moments.

We cover a lot of territory in the league and where it may be too hot in one location it may be several degrees cooler in another. The other big factor that comes into play is where teams have to be located for their team areas. Several pools don’t have enough room on deck or in a shaded area to accommodate both teams. In some cases, team areas end up being located on a tennis court, or in a parking area. Even with portable tents, those locations can be even hotter than the temperature or heat index, creating an environment that is just unsafe to be in for a prolonged period of time.

With these factors in play teams should explore alternatives. This can include changing the date or venue of your meet. Saturday morning may be a good option if you can get the pool time. The more likely option, that several teams are already pursuing will be a virtual meet. Just a recap on virtual meets. This is where both teams swim their portion of the meet at their own pool on a date and time of their choosing during the week, this can be done on the same date/time at each pool or teams can swim on the date that best suits their needs and pool availability. I am reaching out to Swimtopia for specific steps on the adjustments that need to be made to accommodate the pivot to a virtual meet and will share those as soon as I get them. To get a jump on how this will work you can refer to https://help.swimtopia.com/hc/en-us/articles/360042589792-Meet-Maestro-Virtual-Meets to get an overview of how this works. Some other things to factor in for virtual meets are as follows:

• Meets can be self-officiated by teams. However if you want an ASA meet at your part of the meet please let me know as soon as possible.
• Teams will use all lanes in their pool to swim their side of the meet, not just the odd or even lanes
• If you choose to have us send a ref you will be responsible for the full ref fee of $100.
• We have not pulled any officials from their scheduled meets, they plan on being there as of now.

Please keep you assigned ref as well as Franke in the loop if you will be pivoting to a virtual meet. We want to avoid refs showing up for meets that won’t happen.

Ultimately the decision as to what to do with your meet will be up to the teams. As I mentioned, the weather is different in different parts of the league and temps can vary by 5 to 7 degrees, some pools are far better equipped with adequate deck space and shade for each team area and may be able to safely host a meet, others may not have that luxury. This is something the teams need to work together collaboratively to do what is in the best interests of the well being of everyone at the meet. We are in a historically hot stretch of weather and want to make sure everyone is as safe as they can be. Please keep me, as well as you meet ref in the loop as to your plans for your meet so we can ensure your meet is covered if it will swim in person. If you do choose to swim in person, please be sure that swimmers are provided ample and adequate shade for their team areas and that water is readily available for everyone present, especially your meet workers and official who can’t leave their post during the meet. I thank you all for your understanding and patience in this situation, this is new territory for all of us.

Stay Cool and Stay Hydraed,

Franke Marsden

ASA

404-664-3975