Minutes were approved at the Winter 2013 Competition Committee Meeting
Potomac Valley Swimming
Fall Competition Committee Meeting Agenda
Lee Graham Community Center
7319 Lee Highway
Falls Church, VA 22042
September 23, 2012
· Attendance – Bill Marlin-Sr. Chair, Manga Dalizu – AG Chair, Riley Eaton-General Chair, Paris Jacobs-Admin Chair, Bruce Andersen-HACC, Emily Menard-HACC, Steven Menard- AAC, Derek Young-AAC, Dave Crocker-RMSC, Aaron Dean-OCCS, Mark Harris-FBST, Denise Adams-ASA, Bob Walker-ASA, Eric Adams-SNOW, Elvin Foreman-ERSC, Heather Haddock-MAKO, Brian Pawlowicz-NCAP, Tom Ugast-NCAP, Pete Morgan-NCAP, Dan Jacobs-MACH, Greg York-YORK, Kira Oliver-BWST, Simon Morley-FISH, Bob Petraites-JFD, Art Davis-NCAP, Kim Case-FBST, Tim Husson-PVS, Terri Marlin-PVS.
· Call to order – The meeting was called to order at 10:10 am by Senior Chair, Bill Marlin
· Approval of Spring CCM Minutes – Motion to approve the minutes from the Spring CCM, seconded and approved.
· PVS Meets
o Establish the 2013-2014 PVS Schedule –
§ October Open, October 18-20, 2013
§ November Open, November 8-10, 2013
§ January Distance, January 4-5, 2014
§ January Open, January 18-19, 2014
§ February Distance, February 9, 2014
§ 18 & U Champs, February 21-23, 2014
§ SC Senior Champs, March 6-9, 2014
§ Junior Champs, March 6-9, 2014
§ 14 & U JO’s, March 13-16, 2014
o Motion to approve the recommended 2013-2014 PVS Meets as proposed and send to the PVS Board of Directors for final approval, seconded and approved.
· Club Meets
o Last call for January 1 – March 31, 2013: The following club meets were submitted as a bid for January 1-March 31, 2013.
§ MAKO - Winter Invite, GMU, January 5-6, 2013 (date change)
§ AAC - Senior Circuit #3, Washington Lee, January 12-13, 2013
§ MACH – Green & Orange Bowl, Madeira, January 12-13, 2013 (date change)
§ NCAP – Polar Pentathlon, Claude Moore, February 3, 2013 (date change)
§ OCCS – President’s Day Classic, WARF, February 9-10, 2013
§ FAST – Munchkin Mania, Fairland, February 10, 2013
§ PM, 14 & U JO Qualifier, Cub Run February 16-17, 2012 (date change)
§ AAC – Winter Gator Meet, Washington-Lee, February 23-24, 2013
§ SNOW – February Qualifier, Claude Moore, February 23-24, 2013
o Motion to accept the club bids for January 1, 2013 – March 31, 2013 as recommendations to send to the Board of Directors for final approval, seconded and approved.
o Second call for April 1 – August 31, 2013
§ YORK – March Madness, Oak Marr, April 12-13, 2013
§ SDS – Spring Sprints, South Run, April 20-21, 2013
§ MACH – LC Classic, Lee District, April 26-28, 2013
§ SNOW – SC Spring Classic, Claude Moore, May 3, 2013
§ SNOW – LC Spring Classic, Claude Moore, May 4-5, 2013
§ FISH – FISH Derby, GMU, May 4-5, 2013
§ MSSC – Early Bird LC, Fairland, May 4-5, 2013
§ MACH – May Mini Olympics, Madeira, May 11-12, 2013
§ PM – VA State LC Champs, Oak Marr, May 24-26, 2013
§ SNOW – LC Invite, Claude Moore, May 31 – June 2, 2013
§ FISH – June Invite, Fairland, June 8-9, 2013
o Motion to accept the club bids for April 1, 2013 – August 31, 2013 as recommendations to send to the Board of Directors for final approval, seconded and approved.
· Election for Head Coaches for Short Course Spring Zones – PVS have received one nomination for the PVS Zone Emily Menard, Head Assistant Coach, Derek Young.
o Motion to accept Emily Menard as Head Coach and Derek Young as Assistant Head Coach for the 2013 SC Spring Zone Meet by acclimation, seconded and approved.
· Establish the SC Zones Athlete Selection Process –
o It was recommended to the body that we elect the 2013 SC PVS Zone Team the same as it was in 2012 – i.e., based on the two fastest times for 13&Overs and the fastest 3 times for 12&Unders (limited to those swimmers eligible to represent PVS on the zone team and who apply to be on the team). The selection period would start September 1, 2012 and end for 15-18 athletes at the conclusion of PVS Senior Champs (March 10, 20013) and for 14/Under athletes at the conclusion of PVS 14/Under Age Group JO Champs (March 17, 2013). Times eligible for consideration would remain as in 2012.
§ Relay lead-off split times do qualify for consideration (including those occurring later than the primary swim during meets occurring on the final weekend of the selection period)
§ Times from time trials do not qualify for consideration.
o There was no discussion
o Motion to select the 2013 PVS SC Zone team in the same manner as 2012, as outlined above, seconded and approved.
· 2012 PVS LC Zone Team Report – The 2012 LC Zone Team Head Coach, Steve Menard, gave a brief report on the Zone Team from the summer 2012.
o The LC Zone was held in Richmond at the new LC pool (2008 Olympic Trial pool). It was a nice facility and the meet ran well. PVS was second behind Mid-Atlantic. MA came to the Zone meet “full force,” they chose not to attend other championship style meets in order to bring the top kids. They were ahead from the first day and without a larger number of older swimmers, there was no real way that PVS could have caught them. There were no significant athlete issues.
o Update on LC Zones from Paris – At the recent EZ Meetings held in Greensboro, NC, during the USA-S Convention, several LSC submitted bids to host the 2013 LC Zone Meet (Niagra at Ithica College, Mid-Atlantic at Penn State and STAR Swimming at Buffalo Univ. and Erie Community College). The EZ voted for Niagra/Ithica College; however within 24 hours of winning the bid, they discovered there was a NASCAR race at Watkins Glen the same weekend and hotel rooms are difficult to find and quite expensive. A more in depth study of the area and meet has been requested and will be submitted to the Eastern Zone Directors. Once a final decision is made, all LSCs will be notified.
· Set 2012-13 PVS Travel Reimbursement criteria –
o 2012 Junior/Senior Nations – December 2012:
§ 4 swims in PVS sanctioned meets from April 1, 2012 through the entry deadline, no requirement to swim the individual event in a PVS meet which is swim in Nationals for while travel assistance is being requested. No Double Dipping.
§ Funding $250/swimmer for SC Jr Nationals with a total cap of $9,000.
§ Funding $450/swimmer fro SC Sr. Nationals with a total cap of $8,100
· Amendment from Bob Walker: if we exceed the cap, the power is given to the PVS Board of Directors to find the money in the overall budget to cover all the approved athletes, seconded and approved. [This amendment is for all four motions regarding PVS Travel Reimbursement.]
§ Motion to approve the travel reimbursement requirement for the 2013 LC Senior Nationals in June 2013 as outlined above and including the amendment for the soft cap, seconded and approved.
o 2013 LC Senior National (June 2013) –
§ 4 swims in PVS sanctioned meets after April 1, 2013 through entry due date, with no requirement to swim the individual event in the PVS sanctioned meet.
§ No Double Dipping
§ Funding set at $450 per athlete with a cap of $13,500
· Amendment to change the date from April 1 to Jan 1, 2013 through the deadline seconded and approved.
§ Motion to approve the travel reimbursement requirement for the 2013 LC Senior Nationals in June 2013 as outlined above and including the amendment for the soft cap, seconded and approved.
o 2013 US Open (July 2013) –
§ 4 swims in PVS sanctioned meets after April 1, 2013 through entry due date, with no requirement to swim the individual event in a PVS sanctioned meet
§ No Double Dipping
§ Funding at $250 per athlete with a cap of $4,000
§ Motion to approve the travel reimbursement requirement for the 2013 US Open as outlined above and including the amendment for the soft cap, seconded and approved.
o 2013 LC Junior Nationals(August 2013)
§ 4 swims in PVS sanctioned meets after April 1, 2013 through entry due date, with no requirement to swim the individual event in a PVS sanctioned meet
§ No Double Dipping
§ Funding at $250 per athlete with a cap of $7,500
§ Motion to approve the travel reimbursement requirement for the 2013 LC Junior Nationals (August 2013) as outlined above and including the amendment for the soft cap, seconded and approved.
o A request was made that when there is a request denied, understand that the BoD doesn’t want to deny any of the funding, please submit a full explanation as to why your athlete should be exempt of the required criteria, so that each appeal can be looked at and an informed decision can be made.
· Distance Swimming Awards – The PVS Distance Awards are not voted on, but rather taken directly from the SWIMS database.
o The award winners for Female - Katie Ledecky and Male - Garrett Powell.
· Disability Swimming Award – Jessica Rogers from FISH is the PVS Disability Swimmer of the year.
· 2012 PVS Scholar Athlete Forms due – As a reminder, September 30 is the due date for all PVS Scholar Athletes forms, please be sure to have your athletes turn in their forms.
· Eastern Zone News -
o EZ Tech Planning – They will be updating both the SC and LC Eastern Zone Manuals regarding the number of deck passes given to each LSC for the meets.
§ A motion was passed to determine a heat based criteria to determine the size of each event for Super Sectionals in order to help control the overall size of the meet.
§ There was a discussion regarding the number of 18 & U athletes who qualify for Finals at Sectionals. In many Zones they find that there are so many college swimmers attending Sectionals that the 18 & U athletes do not have an opportunity for second swims. Several member of the EZ looked closely at this and determined that this is not a major issue in the Eastern Zone. It really only affects the 50 and 100 freestyles. Therefore no significant changes will be made to the structure of the meet.
§ A motion to eliminate Relay only swimmers from doing Time Trials (due to size of meet) passed.
§ Motion passed to allow Disability athletes in Zone and Sectionals (get from Bill)
· USA-S Convention Reports
o Senior Report – Frank Bush is still very much in favor of Age Group Swimming and bringing swimmers up through the ranks.
§ 2014 Junior Nationals will before Senior Nationals due to World Champs, but only for this year.
§ Qualifying Times for 2013 (Juniors) will be the same as 2012.
§ Grand Prix meets
· A change has been requested from the television studios to only run A and B finals; however each host has the option of a C and D after the initial Finals is over. This motion passed.
· Entries for FINA top 100 will get to enter first. Will max at 600 athletes with A & B flight standards. A little bit of wiggle room will be allowed
§ Banners will be awarded for the winning teams at Junior Nationals.
o Age Group Report –See report submitted
o Coaches Rep Report – No report submitted. Please be sure to contact the Coaches Rep if you have any issues.
o General Chair –
§ General Chair luncheon – Aaron Perisol was the guest speaker, he talked about how several years ago a group of his contemporaries were talking about who was going to “take over” when they are gone. Who is going to be “next” in USA Swimming? This past summer Aaron was at Jr. Pan Pacs and commented after the meet, “we have seen the future”. The performances at this meet gave him a good glimpse of the next generation of USA Swimming Athletes.
§ As of the Sept 1, 2012 there are 10,500 athletes in PVS. We are currently the fourth largest LSC and the geographically the smallest. We are one of the very few that are continuing to still have growth. We will start to see an impact of this continues growth and our large numbers when the 2012-2013 competition season starts.
§ We need to keep the size of our LSC in mind as we head in towards the future and start looking at how meets are run in PVS.
§ At the USA-S Convention it was noted that PVS is one of the leading LSC in terms of all legislation particularly in terms of Safe Sport. Just this year USA S passed a “no deck changing” rule passed. This rule came from the policy, which we in PVS established and added in the PVS meet announcements two years ago. PVS is ahead of the curve in making sure our athletes are safe in everything we do. We, as coaches need to be aware and know what we are looking at. We must remember that our actions are visible. A big part of what goes on is perception and we need to be aware of what is going on. As a leader in your club be sure to bring back to your staff what is appropriate and what is no longer acceptable.
· At convention the others are starting to look at PVS to see what we are doing and we want to stay there! We were the first to have a voting Safe Sport Board position. (?)
o Admin Chair report – There are six new clubs in PVS in the last 6 months. We must be proactive in making sure we are continuing to certify new Officials in every team. Regardless of your club size or whether or not your club host meets, you MUST have officials that are willing to work, or else it is possible that your will not be invited to swim at some of the club meets.
§ Paris Jacobs reported as the Eastern Zone Director (as a member of the USA Swimming BoD) – Please note, there is a lot of false of information and many “attackers” out there looking to blame USA Swimming. If you have questions, come and ask. You can call USA-S Executive Director, Chuck Wielgus or USA S President Bruce Stratton. Call Paris to ask questions; just don’t automatically assume that what you are ready or hearing is accurate. There are bloggers out there that are attacking our Sport. USA Swimming is ahead in Safe Sport when compared to all other National Governing Bodies. There is a lot of good going on in our sport we need to remember the good and ask questions in order to stay informed.
§ Coaches Education – All new legislation from the 2012 USA S Convention can be found in Volume 36 of USA Swimming News, which goes to all coaches by email.
· Currently “Foundations of Coaching 101” is required by the end of the first year coaching. NEW as of January 1, 2012, “Foundations of Coaching 101, will have to be passed prior to getting registered for any new coach hired and starting after January 1, 2012. LEVEL 2 must be completed within the first year.
· ASCA has nothing to do with the Level 2 Foundations
· This is designed to give all new coaches a better understanding of the rules as they being coaching and working with the young athletes.
o Diversity Chair – no report submitted – Miriam was voted in as the first ever Eastern Zone Diversity Chair. Congratulations Miriam.
o Safe Sport – It was legislated at the USA Swimming Convention to add a Safe Sport Chair position to each LSC board. This will be a voting position in PVS. While at convention we had a presentation from Praesidium with updates on where USA Swimming is within Safe Sport. A presenter from Praesidium will be at Swimposium on Sunday Sept 30. Also not that there is now a Parent Track (course) that is available on line. It is free and only takes about 20 minutes to sit though. All PVS parents are strongly encouraged to watch the course, please encourage all the parents on your team to participate.
§ Transparency was a big topic at Convention. Everyone is under a microscope and need to understand that times have changed and no one can hide. Everyone and everything should be out in the open.
§ There will be a Safe Sport meeting in Colorado Springs in January. At the last CCM Greg asked for each club come up with a Safe Sport Coordinator for each club. So far only one club has done this.
§ In accordance with the new USA S legislation, all clubs have been asked to come up with their own Anti-Bullying policy, or use the model the USA Swimming policy. This policy is still being developed and will be ready and published by January 1. However, clubs need to be prepared because once USA Swimming releases their anti-bullying policy all clubs will be expected to adopt it, if they have not already established on.
· Anti-bulling/hazing is being taken very seriously and it does not only apply to “coach to swimmer”, but “coach to parent”, “official to coach”, “parent to coach/official”, etc.
o Others –
§ Tim – Many discussion regarding Officials
· It is not the job of The Officials Committee to secure officials for your club meet. The purpose of the Official’s Committee is to certify Officials and set the standards for our LSC. There is a fairly significant amount of turn-over with our Officials; one reason is their kids aged out of swimming, so they move on with their children. The second reason is that many Officials unappreciated.
· Often clubs ask “What is the best way to get more officials?” Posting requests and the clinic schedule on your website is helpful, but it is often not enough. The best way, we have discovered is the Personal Touch! You know the parents on your team, ask them personally. Thank them aside and tell them how much you want them to be an Official.
· Please refer to the clinic schedule on line and remember we can set up more clinics if necessary.
§ We want the coaches and officials to continue to get along. In PVS our coaches and Officials get along better than in many LCS. Coaches and Clubs need to remember that Officials love this sport as much as they do, and they want to continue to foster this relationship. All coaches are welcome to attend the clinics and should feel comfortable to ask Officials about the rules directly. The goal is for all of us to be on the same page.
· One member of the body asked “How do we get the teams that do not participate in these meeting be more proactive in recruiting Officials? They are not here at the meetings and do not gain the valuable information that is discussed at the meetings.”
o The Administrative answered by agreeing that clubs not attending meetings such as Competition Committee and HOD is a huge problem in PVS and one that the Board of Directors will be looking at in the near future.
o The Officials created an Assistance program, to help the clubs by offering ideas and recommendations as to how to recruit parents to become Officials. This program has been in place for over a year, please reach out to the Official’s Committee to find out who your “Mentor Official” is.
· Any official from NVSL/Summer league, still has to do the training sessions (shadowing), but do not have to take the test again.
o Open Water – Art Davis did a short report about Open Water swimming in PVS. He indicated that Open Water is supposed to be a part of the total swimming experience for our athletes.
§ A registered swimmer can participate in any National level Open Water meet without ever swimming in an Open water venue (there is a three tiered qualifying structure)
§ There are many non-sanctioned events are still very safe for our athletes. Non-sanctioned doesn’t mean that they are not well guarded or safe, it just means they have not go through the full process to be sanctioned. But all of the same safety features are still in place.
§ There are many opportunities for Open Water Swimming. Each club should attempt to be aware of the opportunities.
· Age Group Coach of the Year (April 2011-August 2012) -
· Swimposium – Administrative Assistant, Terri Marlin, gave a brief plan for the Swimposium on September 30, 2012.
o There are 5 tracks planned for participants; Club Business, Coaches, Parents, Officials and Athletes.
o The Athlete track is currently full. Mutual of Omaha BreakOut Clinic is sending Ian Crocker and Christine Magnuson to instruct a 4-hour clinic.
o USA Swimming Operations Vice-Chair, Jim Sheehan will be presenting for the Officials.
o We have several speakers coming in to talk with the parents to discuss topics such as, College recruiting, how to be a great swim parents and what is USA Swimming/PVS?
o Coaches will also hear a presentation on how to help your swimmers swim in college and discuss burning issues in Age Group Swimming.
o All participants will hear a presentation on Safe Sport given by Praesidium. All coaches and Officials are strong encouraged to attend, even if they are not attending the rest of the Swimposium.
· Old Business
· New Business
o Meet Mobile – Meet Mangers have the opportunity to load up meet results and psych sheets. There is now also an option to sell meet sheets through Meet Mobile. All new options are available in Meet Manager 4.0 which is the current version of MM being used. Teams are urged to upgrade to MM4.0 (3.0 will no longer be supported by Hy-Tek tech support).
o The CDC is looking to change the requirements to the competition diving rule to 2 meters (6 ft). If this rule gets changed then many of the pools in PVS will no longer be available for competition.
§ Senior Chair, Bill Marlin, has done some research and from what USA Swimming has been able to report; since the minimum depth has gone to 4’ depth for competition diving there have been no bottom strikes reported to USA Swimming.
o Meet Managers training / new requirements – At the conclusion of the Swimposium there will be a mandatory Meet Managers/Officials meeting. A Meet Director’s handbook is also being written to aid all Meet Director and ensure that all meets (both PVS hosted and Club meets)are on the same page that all meets in PVS are of well run.
o Distance Swimming in PVS – If the Olympics are any indication, distance swimming is alive and well in PVS. At the Age Group Development Committee Meeting at Convention, Bill Marlin gave a presentation on how PVS runs Distance meets. He found it interesting that out of 44 meets 16 to do the 1000, and 19 to do the mile. There are many opportunities in PVS for all swimmers to participate in Distance events.
· LC SR/JR Champs – As the Competition Committee, what does this body, want to do with the structure of LC Junior and Senior Championships. Do we want to continue to put Jr. Champs in between prelims and finals of Sr. Champs? Or do we want to move Jr. Champs on a separate weekend. If we continue to put Jr. Champs in between then the cuts are going to get significantly faster.
o As a reminder PVS is predicting that we will have nearly 10,000 athletes, it is coming.
o The size of both meets the past couple of years were too large and we need to look at making some sort of change in order to allow all swimmers participate in their summer championship meets.
o One reason, the meets are structure they way it is, is because the LC meets conflict with summer league. One member of the body asked. “Why do we continue to do this? Are we going to continue to cater to summer league and not run meets on multiple weekends.”
o One thought was to run the meets on the same weekend, but different locations? How does that affect coaches and officials?
§ Small clubs might have an issue?
§ Swimmers in one to two events
o No definitive answer was given.
· Disability – Motion to make Disability award male and female that fit the minimum requirement, seconded and approved.
· Old Business
o SC & LC Junior Olympics –
§ Planning to go back to 2 sessions. The SC 14 &U JO meet will be held at University of Maryland this year, so spectator space should not become an issue, nor should deck space.
o Senior & Junior Champs – At the spring CCM there were several motion and recommendations brought to the floor; however many of them were tabled until the Fall meeting to allow for all members of the body sufficient time to review and comment.
§ Motion for the SC Senior Championships to allow for a break prior to the start of the 1000free/1650 free on Sunday for 15 minutes; the pool will be open for warm up and cool down with lanes 1 & * reserved for pace, seconded and approved.
§ Motion for PVS SC and LC Senior Championships the 500/400 Freestyle and the 400 IM swim the fastest 4 heats of women (slow to fast – circle seed top 3 heats), then the fastest 4 heat of men, in the same manner, followed by the remaining heats alternating women and men swimming fast to slow, seconded and approved.
§ Motion to mirror the USA Swimming Scratch policy for both the LC and SC Senior Championships and make the scratch deadline on Thursday at 6:00 pm, then Friday and Saturday 30 minutes after the start of Finals, seconded and approved.
· Comments
o Administratively this is more difficult; however it is doable. It would require an Admin referee for the meet. For the past could of years we have had one at the meet.
o One issue is that not all swimmers are going to be at Finals at the meet.
o From a zone perspective it would be good for coaches and swimmers to get used to this type of format.
§ Motion to limit the involvement of outside teams only to those who also allow PVS into their meets, seconded, defeated.
· Discussion
o When we are struggling with timelines, why are we still allowing outside teams into our meets?
o In PVS this champ meet is often our only option, but yet we bring in teams who may have other options.
o Often times, we do not know the size of PVS Senior Champs in enough time to be able to offer or deny any outside teams. Decisions on whether or not another team can come must be made well in advance. We often do not have enough information to make a good decision earlier enough.
o Several members of the body expressed their opinion, which outside competition is good for our swimmers.
§ Motion if the meet sessions for SC Senior Champs are less than 4 hours and 15 minutes after the entry deadline with 15 sec interval, then the warm ups will open at 7:00 am and the prelim session will start at 9:00 am. Finals war up will begin at 4:30 pm with the meet starting at 6:00 pm. If the meet sessions are less than 5 hours, but more than 4 hours and 15 minutes with a 15 sec interval, then the warm ups will start at 6:30 and the events start at 8:30am, second, approved.
· PVS has and can recommended guidelines for the warm up and start times, but this cannot be legislated. It will ultimately be up to the Meet Director, Meet Referee and Senior Chair. This motion, can be accepted as a recommendation and considered for each meet, but cannot be written into policy.
§ Due to a recommendation from the floor, if there is a significant change to the meet line up of Senior Championships, it would ideal if there were a scratch down rule in meet announcements, so that swimmers can enter more than the required number of event, but then scratch down once the final structure of the meet is determined, based on timelines and the size of the meet.
· Set Winter Competition Meeting, Wednesday January 9, 2013.
· Adjourn