There's a trend in this state (Rhode Island) that disappoints me. From time to time, in certain meets, they will do away with the 500 freestyle. And (when my daughter was on the HS team) I personally witnessed that it's sometimes because the coaches can't entice anyone to swim it. Lame! Sometimes it's because the team is so small that they don't have enough swimmers. OK...maybe! First, if I were the coach, and I have plenty of swimmers on my team, I pick a kid and tell him/her to get up on the blocks and swim the race!!! But...if the rules are going to be bent by not conducting an event...when a team is truly shorthanded...why not bend the rules differently? Instead of scratching an event, let certain swimmers compete in an extra event so that ALL the scheduled events can be competed?
Dan
OK, I agree the analogy to football was a bit weak. I suppose that if at a track meet neither team had a pole vaulter that you couldn't just tell some kids to go do it. But as I've witnessed in HS swim meets, the decision to hold the 500, or not, is arbitrary. When my daughter was on the HS team I witnessed occasions wherein both head coaches would just agree to NOT conduct it. And that was when both teams had more than enough swimmers. Other times they would conduct the event but with only non-scoring exhibition swimmers from both teams swimming in lanes 1 and 6. That's just ridiculous. Put those kids in lanes 2 and 3 and let them score points. To at least prevent THAT from happening there should be a rule stating that if your team has enough swimmers and you don't put at least one in a given event...you get penalized. If the coaches can agree to not conduct an event, why can't they agree to allow one or two swimmers from each team to swim an extra event...ONLY the 500?
Dan
OK, I agree the analogy to football was a bit weak. I suppose that if at a track meet neither team had a pole vaulter that you couldn't just tell some kids to go do it. But as I've witnessed in HS swim meets, the decision to hold the 500, or not, is arbitrary. When my daughter was on the HS team I witnessed occasions wherein both head coaches would just agree to NOT conduct it. And that was when both teams had more than enough swimmers. Other times they would conduct the event but with only non-scoring exhibition swimmers from both teams swimming in lanes 1 and 6. That's just ridiculous. Put those kids in lanes 2 and 3 and let them score points. To at least prevent THAT from happening there should be a rule stating that if your team has enough swimmers and you don't put at least one in a given event...you get penalized. If the coaches can agree to not conduct an event, why can't they agree to allow one or two swimmers from each team to swim an extra event...ONLY the 500?
Dan
