First of all, on
behalf of the entire PST Board & Coaching staff, we'd like to thank our
swimmers, parents and most of all our wonderful volunteers for a fabulous first
meet! Without all of you, we would never have a successful season.
Our appreciation
goes out to our timers, officials, ready area workers, ribbons team, our Clerk
of Course, Jo Ann Sprague, and all of the other volunteers who graciously gave
their time to help our meet run so smoothly.
Back at the
Parent’s Meeting, Coach Matt and Catherine Southerland briefly discussed how the
meets were put together and scored. But what does it all mean? Now that we
have a meet under our belts, we would like to do a quick review of how the meet
entries are done for the regular season and how the meets are scored.
Entries:
The Clear Creek Swim League (CCSL) uses meet
software created by Easy Ware. It is a data base program set up to track the
swimmers and create meets. All of our swimmers are entered into the database
and the software tracks their lifetime swim information. Swimmers are never
deleted; they are just made inactive if they are not swimming in the current
season.
Each week we ask you to complete the Sign Up form
on the PST website to let us know if your swimmer is participating in the
following week's meet. Those forms and information are checked by our Clerk of
Course, Jo Ann Sprague. The forms are then given to Coach Matt, along with an
entry grid from the software, to determine the entries for the meet. If you do
not complete the meet sing up, the Coach may put the swimmers in individual
events. The swimmer will not be in relays, since we cannot jeopardize the 3
other swimmers chance of swimming if we do not know if your swimmer is
attending. Please note that if you make a habit of pulling out at the last
minute, we may not put your swimmer in any relays.
The entry grid that is created from the software
pulls in the best time that swimmer has had in that event in this season, or in
last season. This way the swimmer is given a fairly accurate seed time. The
coach takes these grids and determines which events the swimmers are most ready
to swim. Coach Matt will work hard to ensure that each swimmer has an
opportunity to swim every event and to be a part of a relay. He takes the times
from the previous meets and has swimmers swim in events they have not swum this
season, or has them re-swim events in which they are close to a cut time, so
that they get every opportunity to make that Champ or Reserve time. If your
swimmer has not been able to swim in an event yet and would like to,
please let us know for the last meet so that we can make sure that
happens. The entries are then entered into the database by clicking on the
swimmer and the events they will be swimming. The software does the placement of
the swimmers in heats, with the fastest swimmers in the 1st heat.
Relays:
Relay events are the only chances in swimming for
our children to work as a team. In most cases they enjoy swimming the relays.
The “A” relay is determined strictly by the times that the swimmers have
achieved. The program uses an algorithm to determine the fastest combination of
swimmers in an age group. This may not be the most obvious combination because
the difference between the top times in an event are also taken into
consideration. For example, if a swimmer is the fastest freestyler, and the
2nd fastest is only .5 seconds away in time and the fastest swimmer is also the
fastest backstroker by 2 seconds, the fastest relay will put that swimmer in
backstroke because that is the quickest combinations of all times. All of the
other relays are based on response to the emails, swimmer times, and parent’s
dependability at meets. Coach Matt has been keeping track of the swimmers who
have swum in a relay, and the following week, other swimmers are given the
opportunity.
Scoring:
The primary mission of the CCSL is to encourage
swimming. That is why we award places for each individual heat and not just the
top eight for entire event. The meets are seeded according to time, so that the
swimmers in any particular heat should have comparable times. This makes it a
better race for all of the swimmers. To make the scoring fair for the teams
regardless of size, only the top two swimmers from each team that are swimming
in the first heat score for the team. Each team can only place 2 swimmers. The
scoring is 5 points for 1st, 3 points for 2nd, 2 points for 3rd and 1 point for
4th. Since each team can only have two places, it is possible for the fourth
and fifth finishers to be awarded 3rd and 4th place, if the top three finishers
are all on one team. If a team has no entries in an event, then the other team
can only score first place. If there is at least one swimmer entered from both
teams, then both teams can score 2 places. So if there is only one PST swimmer
in an event swimming against 3 swimmers, the other team will get two places to
our one. If the one swimmer scratches or DQs, the other team still gets 2
places.
Now comes the complex math
Six and under swimmers do not score at all if
they swim six and under events. 8 and under swimmers only have 6 possible
events they can score points in. The 9-10 and 11-12 have 7 possible events. And
the 13-14 and 15-18 have 8 possible events. Then you have to factor in the
events limitations of 3 individual and 4 total events for swimmers 14 and under,
and 4 individual and 5 total events for swimmers 15-18.
As stated in our mission statement, our goals are
to:
“…sponsor competitive and developmental swimming
and diving events and activities in the Pearland area and between other
communities in the Houston area; to develop in team members a love for the
sport, advanced aquatic skills, teamwork and the principles of good
sportsmanship.”
Please feel free
to contact Genine Burchell, Secretary, or Catherine Southerland, President, with
any questions, comments or concerns. We look forward to a great season and a
strong showing at Champs!
Go Pirates!
P.S. Don't
forget: Deadline to sign-up for the June 19th meet is the Friday June 11th,
3:00 pm!