The ASA Championship Email

Departure for Ga Tech:  Meet at the club at 6:45am.  We will consolidate into as few cars as possible and pull out at 7:00 am.  We’ll hand out the remaining T-shirts that did not get handed out at tonight’s practice.

Seating:  Our team has been assigned to the deck this year.  This means the swimmers and coaches will be sitting on the pool deck, while the parent’s and spectators will be sitting in the stands.  Those with small children may want to prepare your kids that they may not be sitting with you during the meet.  If this is a problem we can probably get you on the deck with us.  We will not know where on the deck we’ll be (its first come, first pick), but we usually try to get a spot near the diving well.  If you’re looking at the pool from the stands, the boy’s pool is to the left, by the scoreboard, the girl’s pool is in the center, and the diving well is to the far right. 

Order of Events:  The event numbering is the same as our dual meets; however, they are not swum in order.  First of all there are two pools, one for boys and one for girls.  Secondly, the first event is the 6 & Under relays.  Then the Medley relays for the other age groups.  6 & Under freestyle, followed by the Free relays for the other age groups.  Next comes the 6 & under backstroke.  At this point all 6 & Unders are done with all of their events.  They can either stay on the deck with the team or go up to the stands. 

Starts and Finishes:   Coaches have been working with the kids getting them ready for the Tech pool.  There are few things that are different.  First they use electronic timing equipment.  This means that they need to touch the timing pad on the wall to stop the clock.  If they do as we teach during the season to put their hands on top of the wall they risk not stopping the clock.  However, there will be timers watching them with a stopper and also a stop watch.  The other thing that is different is all events finish at the starting wall.  That means all 25 yard events will start on the interior platform and swim to the starting wall with the timing pads.  Don’t worry coaches have covered all of this and is mostly for your benefit. 

Bullpens:  All swimmers must report for their event through their respective bullpen.  They will not allow anyone to just show up at the starting block for their event.  If they don’t show up to the bullpen, they risk losing their spot to a standby swimmer.  Well before their event they show up to the waiting area and wait until their event is called for seating.  When called, the workers will seat them in a specific chair in a specific row for the Event, Heat and Lane they are swimming.  When it is time to go to the blocks, the whole row will walk out in order, often times hand-in-hand, and go to the starting blocks.  Coaches and some parents will be helping coordinate all of this. 

Finals qualification:  There are 6 sessions like ours.  At the end of the sixth session on Friday night all the swimmers will be ranked by their times.   Any 10 & under swimmers finishing in the Top 50 and any 11 & Over swimmer finishing in the Top 40 will qualify for the Finals meet on Saturday.  10 & Under meet is at 10:30am and the 11 & Over meet is at 4:00pm.  Unfortunately it can be pretty late on Friday night when the official list of qualifiers is posted on the ASA website.  I’m sure you’ll be watching the results, but keep those cell phones close to you if you’re not.  You could be getting a call to be at Tech on Saturday. 

Scratches:  Regardless of how unlikely you might think that your swimmer will qualify for finals, we must turn in a scratch sheet showing all swimmers that will not be swimming on Saturday finals.  Please make sure you inform the coaches if you’re swimmer cannot attend Saturday’s meets. 

Meet Mobile:  This meet will be on meet mobile if you would like to purchase the app and follow the results as they get posted.  This is great if you can’t be at the meet and want to follow the results. 

Volunteers:  We still have 6 required slots to fill for the meet.  We need a 2nd half boys bullpen workers and a partner for the girls pool timer, 1st and 2nd half.  

Post Meet:  Shortly after the last event, usually just as we finish cleaning up and gathering our belongings, there will be a short awards ceremony.  We could be getting an award so don’t be too haste in your departure.  It is also a Hammerhead tradition for the team to go to the Varsity for a delicious treat.  We hope you can join us. 

ASA Registration Payment:  Some of you still need to pay for registration, go to the Team Area menu, select Team Store, and add the number of ASA Meet Registrations you need to pay for.  Continue through to the PayPal payment.