Overbearing Swimming Parents

A father of a girl I swam with actually became an offical so he could be on deck with his older daughter swam and judge his younger daughter in diving. Niether girl ever said a word to him during a meet. The swimmer made state cuts her freshman year easily by senior year she was significantly slower ...Heather, I think you will find that most officials and other meet personnel are parents of the swimmers. I applaud these fine volunteers! Please don’t confuse involvement with obsession.

I've been an official since a year or so after my children started swimming. I do it not because I want to be on deck with them while they swim but meets in our LSC are always short on officials and was asked by our coach to do it. I've really enjoyed it except for the time when I had to DQ my son.

I've been an official since a year or so after my children started swimming. I do it not because I want to be on deck with them while they swim but meets in our LSC are always short on officials and was asked by our coach to do it. I've really enjoyed it except for the time when I had to DQ my son. That's great ... I'm talking about a different story ... rumor had it that he became an offical only because that way he could be on deck when his kids were competing ...

There was a family (a boy and girl) that swam age group in Nebraska in the late 60s/early 70s. They lied about their ages. The boy was 9 and swimming with the 7 year olds and the girl was 12 or 13 and swimming with the 9-10 year olds. Needless to say they eventually got caught and were never seen or heard from again.

I don't want to be an overbearing swimming parent, so how does one handle a situation where your kid's team screws up her entries for a big meet (i.e., they apparently disappear into the void) when you submitted them well before the entry deadline and have the emails to prove it? No deck entries either. No apologies either. This is what we write the big checks for?

Greg: Yep. I checked to make sure my kid was on the list before the deadline. She wasn't under "meet entries." I emailed the coach in time to notify him of the problem in plenty of time to correct it. Never heard. Emailed again. Never heard. Called today. I think it is too late to fix the problem. I usually love her coaches, but on the administrative side, there are some issues. But neverthleless, I'm kind of PO'd.

Sprinter, talk to your coach and have the coach contact the meet entry chair. this is very common(I know, I am the meet entry chair to our meets), and most times they are very understanding, especially if entries have not closed for the meet yet. It is good that you have a way to check entries, it sounds like your team now needs a some way to fix the problems when parents find them. Having gone through this the last 4 years, we are still struggling, but things are improving. We have the coach actually ask for the entries and close it before the meet entries open. Then these get posted for the parents to check, and problems can be fixed before the entries are sent. In defense of the coaches, they have parents contacting them constantly with late entries, and this can mess them up. Many coaches are not good at administration, and sometimes it is wise to get a computer savvy parent to help with these things.

Dorothy: Thanks. I did talk to the coach and he is contacting the meet director. The team does ask for meet entries early. And I tried to bring the problem to their attention early. Hopefully, it can get fixed, but today is the deadline for "correcting" entry errors and it may have just fallen through the cracks. I'm sure coaches get all kinds of crap from parents, so I really try hard not to be "overbearing." P.S. I have never gotten a meet entry in late!! P.S.S. You sure are a busy person!

Leslie, Our coach sets the entry deadline 2-3 days before they need to be submitted so she has time to go through them before giving them to the computer person that actually submits the team entry. She usually notices if a swimmer's entry is absent or missing and will call them to make sure they don't get missed. But we have a small program. I'm sure the coaches of larger programs have too much to keep track of without worrying about individual meet entries. But at the same time thay should help when entries are misplaced or overlooked through no fault of the swimmer or parent.

Poolrat: Thank you for the response. I see that you have truly abandoned your running compulsion for a new one. (I have done the same.) I applaud you. My daughter is on an fairly new emerging team in our area (which is 400+ swimmers) -- an area typically dominated by Curl-Burke -- so I think they should have noticed and been surprised if she wasn't on their meet entry lists and emailed me. (Especially since they know she has now thankfully given up that sport called travel soccer.) And I thought they might be interested in team scoring and relays. (Who're they gonna get to swim what Peter Cruise affectionately calls that "progressive" breaststroke stroke?) I think the coaches were all at a travel meet last weekend and didn't respond to my emails and it all fell through the cracks. My daughter is more frustrated than me. She had her heart set on swimming a couple new events and prepping for the championship meets in December by swimming the 200 ***. I'm thinking I can sleep in and not schlep to MD if she doesn't swim...