Cary Park Sea Dragons

Cary Park Sea Dragons Long Home Meet Policy

Situation: The limited size of the Cary Park pool (6 lanes) combined with the growing size of the Cary Park Sea Dragon (CPSD) team and its dual meet competitor teams, has resulted in home swim meets including >500 swimmers, and lasting 5+ hours. This increased duration has contributed to volunteer burnout as well as parent and swimmer frustration.

Background: In accordance with TSA rules regarding dual swim meets, the meets must start at 6pm on their scheduled evening and cannot be delayed more than 30 minutes for reasons other than inclement weather. Additional guidance regarding meet interruptions for inclement weather is found in the TSA rule book. TSA does not have rules regarding long meets due either to temporary weather delays or large meet enrollment.

Assessment / Recommendation: There is a need for intentional communication, transparency and planning to support dual swim meets of this size. Focus areas include:

1. Prioritize parent, swimmer and volunteer communication regarding anticipated meet length, timing of events and benefit of SwimTopia for tracking estimated heat start times
2. Educate families on TSA required order of events and parent / swimmer option to indicate during meet registration their preference to opt out of events occurring later in the schedule (e.g. Butterfly, Freestyle relays)
3. Target volunteers with significant experience for positions critical to meet efficiency, including Clerk of Course and Starter, and conduct pre-meetings for focused training
4. Consider additional volunteer positions needing to be split into shifts based on a time check and establish the expectation that 2nd shift volunteers stay until the end of the meet regardless of whether scoring events are complete.
5. Collapse heats to use all lanes when only CPSD swimmers or only Away team swimmers are swimming. *Communicate in advance via TSA rep*
6. Consider removal / rescheduling of extra events (e.g. Coach / Parent Relay) which contribute to meet length. *Communicate in advance via TSA rep*
7. Plan for additional concessions (volume and hours) to support larger, longer meets. *Communicate in advance via TSA rep*
8. Partner with Head Coach to ensure older swimmer training includes flyovers and quick starts

TSA Rep protocol to be communicated in advance to Away Teams -

At 9:30pm, if breaststroke heats are not completed, move to Plan B:

1. Plan B: Complete main heats* for breaststroke, butterfly and freestyle relays to ensure point scoring events are complete and to prevent the meet from having to resume the following night
2. Volunteers are required to stay to the end
3. Following completion of the main heats for all age groups, return to where heats left off in breaststroke and butterfly giving families the option to leave or stay.

*Main heat is the scored Heat 1 of each event.

Approved by CPSD Board of Directors 6.4.2023

CPSD Long Meet Policy FAQ

• The CPSD BOD has approved and may implement the Long Meet Policy for 2023 Cary Park Home Meets, if needed.
• Last season, the limited size of the Cary Park pool (6 lanes) and the large team size of Cary Park Sea Dragon (CPSD) team and its competitor teams (>500 swimmers combined) resulted in home swim meets lasting 5+ hours last season.
• This year, the CPSD team is a smaller size and strategies have been proactively put into place to make home meets run as efficiently as possible. Therefore, the policy’s real-time action plan (outlined in the last bullet) is intended to be a last-resort option.
• The policy was developed in consideration with TSA rules, opposing team input, operational input from the Tech Team, head coach feedback, and consideration for swimmer equity and parent volunteer participation.
• The policy addresses home meet length duration, preplanned strategies, and an as-needed, real-time meet course of action. 
• What can parents do to help improve meet efficiency?
  • When signing up for a meet, please indicate if your swimmer will participate in relays. The freestyle relays are at the very end of the meet, so swimmers that select to participate in the free relay are expected to stay to the meet’s end. Please be respectful to relay teammates! If a swimmer leaves early, three teammates are no longer able to swim the event.
  • Also, when signing up for a meet, if you do not want your swimmer to stay late, please leave a note in the textbox to the coach indicating which events the swimmer will commit to swimming. For example, “Swimmer will swim medley relay, free, and back. Will not stay for breaststroke, butterfly, or free relay.” Click here for TSA event order.
  • Note, TSA limits swimmers to 3 individual events and 2 relays per meet. This year, Cary Park and Away Teams have agreed to commit to these TSA event limits at our home meets.
• Policy Action Plan (only if needed): During the meet, at 9:30 pm, if breaststroke heats are not completed, Plan B will be implemented:
  • Complete main heats* (Heat 1) for breaststroke, butterfly and freestyle relays to ensure point-scoring heats are completed for each event and to prevent the meet from having to resume the following night.
  • Following completion of the main heats for all age groups, return to where heats left off (ex. Heat 2 and up) in breaststroke and butterfly giving swimmers and non-volunteers the option to leave or stay.
  • Volunteers will be required to stay until the end of the meet.

*Main heat is the scored Heat 1 of each event.