Cal Berkeley; he will be amazing to see if he actually starts training in earnest. I think he did a 1:36 in the 200.Do you mean Matt hasn't been crushing him?
BTW, Patrick Congrats on being AZ open water championDude, ditto you, except that you're the real champion as you posted the fastest times in every race without a wetsuit. I think I'm going to wimp down to the 1k loop next year.
I agree with Allen. The rules weren't followed and it's sad. What I'd like to know is what about the other 3 swimmers. This article only focuses on the 200 IM girl, Stock, but there were 3 other swimmers affected as well. We all know about rules when it comes to entering our own swims and I'm sure we've all been left out of a swim or 2 due to not following procedure. It's sad that this girl will be left out due to someone else's error but it happens.
If we rip apart the rulebook, we are left with this:
In championship and other multiple team meets, a competitor officially becomes a participant in an individual event when the official entry card is delivered to the meet director, or meet director's designee, at the specified time and place.
The official "place" can be DirectAthletics at some specified time (say 6pm like the article says); thus emailing the meet director would not be "at the specified time and place", and the swimmer is not a participant in the meet. And I would concur that this is a proper interpretation of the rule. In North Carolina, all of the coaches are thoroughly reminded at the rules meetings, mailings, and on the website for many years to make their entries on DirectAthletics. It is ultimately the coach's responsibility to ensure that their swimmers are entered in a timely and proper fashion.
Where the AIA is wrong is by saying that "there aren't any options." Since the AIA is essentially conducting the meet, it is serving as the de facto meet director and can modify the entry procedure and create exceptions. For example in North Carolina, the NCHSAA Handbook states that if a school doesn't send in their regional entries by the deadline, the meet director is to call the school to remind them, and accept their entries the day of the late call (provided the entries are accompanied by $100 late fee). Not knowing the procedures in Arizona, I'm not sure what options they have, but to say that there are none is untrue.
I can however see the AIA's position on the matter. By opening up exceptions to the entry rules, it makes it very hard for the state association to apply discretion. For instance, North Carolina's qualifying procedure is very complex. If a coach were able to submit late entries after learning the contents of the psych sheet, (s)he would be at a substantial advantage in knowing what events their athlete were likely to qualify into. It's a lot easier to say, "no this can't be done" rather than "no, we don't want to do this for reasons X, Y, and Z."
The NFHS swimming rules are well known for their strict nature in penalties as opposed to the USA Swimming rules. For example, no shows in events are strictly penalized (disqualification from the event or from the meet, depending on whether the meet is a championship meet or not). Swimming in the wrong lane (even by accident) results in a disqualification (unlike in USA Swimming, which is not an infraction). Jewelry and apparel rules are much stricter (although they are a lot more loose than they were ten years ago). Conduct rules are much more harsh in penalties (whereas there is more discretion in the penalty in USA Swimming). And let's not get started with situations where noncompetitors enter the pool for whatever reason, no matter how inocuous (the noncompetitor is disqualified from further competition, and all of their teammates in that heat are disqualified from the event too). There is a tendency in the high school rule book for more strict and harsh rules than in USA Swimming, and that is a reasonable viewpoint for them to take, even if we may disagree about their choice of wording of the rules.
Would I rule the same way? I don't know. But the ruling was reasonable, and in light of the remainder of the NFHS rules architecture, was not arbitrary and capricious.
Patrick King
While I appreciate your position, the email had the swimmers events and times. No advantage would have been gained by allowing the swimmers to swim. To me there is no slippery slope of exceptions. A school employee (not the student) screwed up; a school athletic governing body can fix it.
These guys are hard core wankers who are breathing in too much asbestos in their taxpayer-funded offices.
Damn! Has he committed yet for a college?
Cal Berkeley; he will be amazing to see if he actually starts training in earnest. I think he did a 1:36 in the 200.
BTW, Patrick Congrats on being AZ open water champion
Erica was at the meet today (spectating). She seems pretty philosophical about it and seems to have gotten over it. I wouldn't mess with her next year (her senior year).
BTW Gary Hall's 16 year old record in 100 Free went down to one Tyler Messerschmidt 43.71...kind of fast
Coming late to the party, I realize... I found this odd:
King, easily beating a 6 p.m. deadline, e-mailed tournament director David Hines....
Hines was not in his office when the e-mail arrived....
I don't know how they do things in high school, but my limited experience in masters swimming is that a meet director will typically be pretty closely involved with meet details. To find a state meet director effectively unavailable as the entry deadline looms seems unusual.
Having been around the AIA during all the meet prep as well as knowing David Hines personally...AND some other details that were left out of the article all I can say is that they were not the "bad guys" here. The rules were in place 3 months prior to the meet...not one single other coach or AD seemed to have a problem understanding them. Open the door just a crack and you will set precedent for every meet after this...
other details that were left out of the article all I can say is that they were not the "bad guys" here. The rules were in place 3 months prior to the meet...not one single other coach or AD seemed to have a problem understanding them. Open the door just a crack and you will set precedent for every meet after this...
Do enlighten me on the details. Did Erica do something, other than have a first year coach who cannot read instructions, to warrant her wasting three months of her life (that could have been spent training with her age group team) to be left out of the state championships?...you are right about opening cracks and setting precedents...turn around and dogs and cats are getting it on.:)
