A Rally Cry for Officials

The benefit of the doubt goes to the swimmer, and officials are there to educate. Officials do not disqualify, swimmers disqualify themselves, the official acknowledges the infraction.

It’s Not a Meet Without Officials

When you boil a swim meet down to its bare essentials, the whole thing can be distilled down to four essential, inalienable items – a pool, swimmers, a timing system and officials.

Coaches, timers, parents, sound system, a flashy scoreboard, etc., are amazing and it’s always great for them to be there; however, bare minimum, you need those four.

Unfortunately, across several Local Swim Committees (LSCs), there are fewer and fewer people volunteering to work as an official at local swim meets. This decline mirrors a decrease in the number of volunteers, and particularly officials and referees across almost all sports and the country. Officials with older swimmers are getting ready to move on, so the need for officials with younger swimmers is greatest.