ASA Week 3 News and Scores Week 4 Refs
Week 3 News
ASA Championship Team Status– Due ASAP
Championship Coaches Names – Due Weds. June 18
We are halfway home, group, it will be over before you know it. I checked another box on my bingo card of “I never saw that at a swim meet” (thank you global internet service interruption). Thank you all for your patience in the Swimtopia outage on Tuesday. Another week of mixed weather, some thunder, some hot, some steamy weather graced our meets this week, Thursday unfortunately was a washout. Please remember, it is crucial to have conversation early in the week with the opposing team with what your plans are for bad weather, more on that below.
Meets are no longer disorganized chaos, they are now highly organized chaos. Most of the kinks have been worked out and we have had some great swimming, let’s keep the fun going. I have been really impressed with how quickly most meets are being completed. Teams are doing a great job of communicating and working together to make meets run quickly, keep up the good work. Thanks again for calling in your scores as soon as your meets end and for your feedback throughout the season.
The Swimtopia outage was a new one for all of us. Thankfully they were able to get their systems back up and running in time for Tuesday’s meets, and we identified a viable workaround for the meet. One big uptake from the whole situation though is the importance of printing key paperwork early on in the process, even if it is just in a pdf format as an insurance policy. Also,if you have not done so already, I would suggest exporting your team roster with key contact info to a spreadsheet format that is easily available if you are unable to access the communication tools of Swimtopia. These items will hopefully never be needed, but do provide a great deal of flexibility for your team. Situations like this are rare, but anyone who was trying to fly last year on the date of the Crowdstrike outage can attest happen to the best of companies.
As I mentioned hot weather is likely around the corner. With that in mind, it is something teams need to monitor closely and take measures to protect swimmers and meet workers who do not have the luxury of leaving the pool at any time. Please do your best to ensure adequate shade for team bullpens and more importantly plenty of water for every person at your meet, especially meet workers who cannot leave their posting (I’m looking after you timers and place judges) as well as your official. If you are the host team, please be a gracious host.
Another quick reminder though with regard to safety in the case of thunder OR lightning; if you see lightning or hear thunder it should be an automatic 30 minute stop of the meet. There is no difference between either thunder or lightning, and I don’t care if David Chandley himself said that after 20 minutes the heavy stuff looks like it is past us, wait the full 30 minutes before you allow anyone in or near the pool. These are clearly established safety guidelines recommended by just about every aquatic safety expert on the planet. Your first obligation is to keep everyone safe, then you can figure out how to complete the meet.
A quick request from everyone, CALL ME if you have a rules question or problem during the season, I am here to help, at any time of day or night or even late dark. We have had several cases where teams had rules questions and instead of looking at the rule book or calling me for help they called everyone but me, and in several cases got the wrong interpretation of the rules. One coach who was struggling with a Swimtopia issue finally caved and called me after struggling for 12 hours, the solution took 5 minutes. When I asked why they didn’t call sooner their reply was that they knew how busy I was this time of year. This is why I am busy, I am helping teams with questions and issues. I am never too busy for any team and always want you to feel free to call or e mail me any time you need help, just don’t ask me to be the anchor for your relay, as I will sink like an anchor only faster.
Good Deeds in ASA
A couple of shout outs to Alpharetta, Lake Forest and Windermere for doing some good for the community. The Alpharetta Sharks had their 4th annual swim meet to raise money for the National Alliance on Mental Illness. The Sharks lost both a team parent in 2022 (Darrell Salvia) and previous swimmer in 2023 (Kellum West) to suicide. These losses, along with the prevalence of mental health issues in our society, have been the driving force for our commitment to raise money for NAMI. This year 122 swimmers participated, including members from the Salvia and West families. The Windermere Waves with Lake Forest collected food for the local Blessings in a Backpack at Lambert High School. Our Neon Night “ Shine Bright, Swim Fast, Give Back”. https://docs.google.com/document/d/19DpJ5jX_e8FwaGMDDsBMSQ_Yt-gBwwJsVA74WfrsMKo/edit?usp=drivesdk. If your team is doing something to help those around you, please share it with us so we can bring attention to worthy causes in our community.
For the full recap of Week 2 please click on Week 3 Full Newsletter to view information about the ASA Championship, lots of useful rules reminders and Swimtopia notes. as well as meet scores and team standings. Please click on Week 4 Referee Schedule for this week's officials schedule.
Good Luck This Season,
Franke Marsden - ASA
404-664-3975
