FROM KAREN UMBACH / NJSDC SWIMMING COORDINATOR

NJSDC Coaches and Parent Reps,

Please read this email in it's entirety as it contains a lot of important information. I hope that each of your season's have gotten off to a great start and that all of the swimmers are having a blast competing again! We have received several questions and concerns regarding the conduct of meets, virtual meets, and officiating that I would like to address with everyone.

I have attached the most up to date list of officials for each team. I do still have several people that attended the class that have not taken the test so be sure that everyone that is officiating for your teams are certified.

We are so excited that we have swimmers competing again but I do want to go over a few rules that were discussed in the Coaches Meeting and/or Officials Clinics.  If you have any questions or concerns, please contact me (karen@njsdc.org).

• Extra heats should be limited to 13 extra heats per meet unless mutually agreed upon by BOTH head coaches at least 12 hours prior to the start of the meet. Heats may be combined in order to help move the meet along, but please ensure that the swimmers ages and team are properly marked on the meet sheet. The 13 unofficial heats MUST be recorded together on ONE single meet sheet, which must be submitted with the meet results.
• The HOME team may choose up to 7 unofficial extra heats and may assign swimmers to half of the available lanes, or 3 lanes in a 5 lane pool. The remaining lanes must be available to the VISITING team. If the Visiting team does not fill the remaining lanes, the Home team may assign additional swimmers to fill the heat.
• ALL Heats, including extra heats, should be judged fairly. In other words, swimmers that present with stroke infractions in any heat shall be disqualified. We do not want swimmers coming to championships or even conferences with Seed/Qualifying times that were achieved illegally.
• ALL potential DQs must be made by Raising your hand ABOVE your head. If an official does not raise their hand, then there shall be NO Disqualification made.
• Two official teams may be entered by a team in each relay event. In the 9-12 and 13-18 relays, at most two swimmers can be from the older age group. For example in the 9-12 relay, it can have at most 2 swimmers of the age 11-12, or up to 4 swimmers of 9-10 age group. If a relay does not meet these requirements, please CLEARLY indicate on the Meet Sheet that the relay is UNOFFICIAL.
• If you are planning to run a virtual meet, it must be fairly officiated. Please ensure that there are ample officials to monitor the Relay Take-Offs as well as all stroke infractions. Each official should be watching the same number of lanes at their respective pool. In other words, if the officials at one pool have jurisdiction in 3 lanes each, then the officials at the other pool must also be watching 3 lanes each. Finish will be determined by the times. In other words, the order of finish will go by the stopwatches.

Regards,
Karen
NJSDC Swimming Coordinator