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Home Meets
Where an olympic pool and our champions spend Saturday mornings!
Note: There may be last minute changes to these plans based on COVID guidelines from the Health department.
RUNNING A HOME MEET
The Stingrays will host TWO home meets this season at the Heath Pool on Saturday mornings in June and July. We welcome in the dawn bright and early with hot coffee and donuts, a bullpen to set up and lane lines to install. It takes a team of inspired parents to run a meet!
Rise and Shine with the 'Rays. BE THERE AT 6:45 AM! Home Meets start at 8:00AM with warm-ups for the 'Rays at 7:00AM. All home meets are over by 11:45AM in order to clear the pool before the noon opening.
STAFFING
As the home team we will provide the staff for the “critical jobs” of the meet: 1) The Starter, 2) The Head Timer, 3) Meet Referee, 4) Head Scorer, and 5) Announcer.
How you can help:
Each family will be expected to sign up for ONE or TWO positions during EACH meet (timer, runner, official, starter, bullpen, or scoring). We try to break up these positions by assignments for ONE HALF ONLY, so you are only working half the meet, but sometimes we shift volunteers from one position to another if we are short on parents. If you do not sign up for a meet duty prior to the meet, we will assign them as needed at the pool the day of the event.
SET-UP AND TEAR DOWN CREW: We need at least six strong parents to set up and tear down for the meet. This includes raising our tents, setting up the bullpen, installing the backstroke flags, and moving picnic tables. At the end of the meet we do all this backwards and at twice the speed because we have to clear all equipment by noon.
TIMERS: Volunteers are needed to be timers at home meets and at away meets, as well as championships. Timers stand at the blocks and time the race with stopwatches and then record an average time on the swimmer’s event card. Meets require three timers per lane (18 total – 2 are provided by the HOME team, 1 by the away team). One Head Timer stands at the back of the blocks with an extra stopwatch in case a watch (or parent) fails. Remember timers have the best place to view the meet! Sunscreen is encouraged. We provide the splash!
BULLPEN PARENTS: Bullpen parents organize the bullpen, use event cards to seed swimmers for events, hand out swimmers’ event cards, and walk swimmers to the blocks in a speedy, patient and organized fashion! We need two parents in the bullpen during home meets (an organizer and a swimmer shifter) and one parent at away meets. Bullpen parents get to know the children very well and are people who enjoy a little bit of chaos on a sunny day. A coach will always be assigned to the bullpen to help remind the swimmers of stroke, touch, turn, and start techniques.
RUNNERS: We need 4 runners (two first half and two second half runners) for all home meets. Runners collect time sheets from the timers after each race and deliver them to the scorers. Parents who like to be on-the-move during a meet are great for this position. There is always time with this position to stop and watch your child swim! And after the meet, there is no need to go to the gym: you've already had your morning exercise.
SCORERS: Scorers run the Hytek system, do all the data entry for the events, and score the meet. Requires 2-3 people for home meets, 1-2 people for away meets.
OFFICIALS: Officials are responsible for the equal and just treatment of swimmers at our meets. Parents interested in becoming an official must attend a clinic on TCAL swimming rules. Officials “walk the deck” to ensure no swimmer gains an unfair advantage over the others. Officials are dressed in white and wear an official’s patch. When an official views an infraction they usually signify by raising their arm and holding up the lane number with their fingers. The disqualification is recorded in red on the swimmer’s event card along with the letters “DQ” and the official’s initials. The swimmer is notified of the infraction whenever possible. We need four officials for a home meet and take at least two officials to away meets.
The types of officials are:
Stroke/Turn Officials - observes strokes and turns, finish touches and relay starts.
Starters- Ensures swimmers are ready to start their races and that each child is in the appropriate race and heat prior to starting the race. Uses the bullhorn to issue the appropriate starting commands to the swimmers. The event number, heat number, stroke and distance are also announced.
Meet Referee- runs the meet and makes all decisions final. The referee often serves as the starter.
BAKE SALE RETAILERS: Every family is asked to donate cookies, donuts, coffee, water, candy, or small toys to sell at our bake sale. These funds support our team programming. We also need parents to set up and serve as cashiers the day of our home meets. This is a fun and shady job. No sunscreen or experience necessary. And the math is pretty simple!
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