Back at the Parent’s Meeting, Coach Blake and Catherine Southerland briefly discussed how the meets were put together and scored.  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 our Clerk of Course, Patti Caddell, sends out an email asking you to let us know if your swimmer is participating in the following week’s meet.  Those emails are checked and the information along with an entry grid from the software is given to the Coach to determine the entries for the meet.  If we do not receive a response, 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 seedtime.  The coach takes these grids and determines which events the swimmers are most ready to swim.  Coach Blake 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 Blake 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 Rhonda Paz, 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!