Arranging Observation of High School Invitationals

To the hosting team:

Pre-Meet:

Note: UHSAA representatives have expressed concerns about inadequate high school deck staffing due to our “taking” of officials to do USA Observations, therefore prior staffing of the high school deck is advised.

Many of our USA Stroke & Turn Judges are also dual-certified as High School Officials. The hosting team should have “first call” upon these officials to staff the high school deck.

The expressed preference - not mandate - is to have a USA Swimming certified Referee and a USA Swimming certified Administrative Official.

It is the responsibility of the hosting team to fill the necessary officiating slots for both the high school and the USAS-observational officials (a list of current LSC USASofficials can be found on the swimutah.com website).

If assistance is needed, the UTSI Officials Chair can help the host team to recruit and assign the additional observational officials.

By LSC practice, any swimmer desiring to obtain an “observed” USA time must have been registered with USA Swimming for a minimum of two weeks prior to the competition.

“Blanket” observations may be done [i.e. 4 USA Swimming Officials will observe all participating swimmers for all events throughout the meet], or “individual” observations may be done [i.e. 2 USA Swimming Officials will observe only the requested swims of individual swimmers].

If blanket observations are done there is a policy proviso that allows a swimmer to request an after-the-fact crediting of an obtained time to be recorded in the SWIMS database, if the request is made within 10-days post-meet. The fee for handling this retroactive request is $20 per event. Please contact Todd Etherington.

For blanket observations, the observing officials will only require a normal heat sheet.

For individual observations, the observing officials should be given a heat sheet with the names of the swimmers requesting observation highlighted.

Participating coaches and teams should be informed as early as practical of the observational opportunity.

The names, birthdates,swim club affiliation, and USA ID numbers of swimmers requesting an observed swim(s) must be submitted to the host team.

A $5 per swimmer fee (per swimmer, not per observed event) should accompany the request.

Generally, observational requests are accepted both prior to the meet date and on-deck to allow for maximum participation. However, if individual observations are being done, the host team should set a submission deadline that allows for a print out of the requested observations to be provided to the observing officials by the meet administrative official.

Note: Compressive-type tape (and kinesio tape, etc.), while allowed in high school with a note from a health-care professional, is not permitted for USA swimming. High school swimmers who plan on wearing tape should be informed by the Referee that this will result in a USA observational DQ.

At the Meet:

For individua swimmer observations a minimum of 2 USA-certified officials are required.

For“blanket” observations to be done a minimum of 4 USA-certified officials are required.

If blanket observations are not being done the observing officials need to be provided with a list of swimmers and their events that have been requested to be observed.

The easiest way to do this is to simply highlight their names/events on a heat sheet.

If swimmers are observed individually (no blanket observations) no “after-the-fact” requests may be made to count a swimmer’s time.

If blanket observations were conducted, swimmers who did not arrange for an observation prior to the meet, have a 2-week period, starting on the first day of the meet, to retroactively request that a time be entered into the SWIMS data base. Such requests must be accompanied by a $20 fee per event.

Post-Meet observational reporting instructions:

The Officials Chair and the Utah National Times Verification Officer should be provided with a normal meet back-up, a list of swimmers who requested observations, a copy of the DQs called by the observational officials, and a list of the observing officials.

Additionally, the administrative official must take a copy of the meet database and do the following (remember, copy, donot alter your original results database):

1. Select file and then save as…save database as “meet name-USA observed”.

2. Make sure all swimmers wishing observation are entered with their USA Swimming registered name and ID numbers.

3. Create “Club” abbreviation and name in Teams section of database.

4. Change swimmers requesting observation HS team name to the Club team name – once this is done, allhigh school teams/athletes are deleted, leaving only the USA Swimming swimmers.

5. Confirm that all DQ’s (both USA Swimming and high school) have been input,with observational DQ documentation supplied.

6. Backup the database and email the backed-up database to Todd Etherington ()no later than three day after the conclusion of the meet.

7.The money collected from the observational requests fees should also be sent to Todd Etherington (PO Box 71837, SLC, UT 84171).

Handout for the USA Officials who are observing High School meets:

Thank you for your volunteer service in helping at this meet. Following is a quick procedural review, as all are not equally familiar with the expectations of this position.

This is a High School meet and the normal officiating on deck is done by High School-certified officials. USA Swimming officials have no direct meet jurisdiction and their observations should not have any effect on the outcome of the meet.

The secondary USA-certified set of officials, who work their positions side-by-side with the High School officials, are only observing to see that swims comply with USA swimming rules (where they differ from high school rules).

This is done solely so that swimmers’ times may then be attributed to them in the SWIMS database.

Remember that we are guests on the deck.High School officials are sometimes uncomfortable with having someone “looking over their shoulder”, so to speak. Please do all that we can to help the high school officials, who may not be familiar with observational procedures, to feel comfortable in working alongside us.

Please make it clear that the high school officials have priority in selecting their deck positions. We then work around them.

When a stroke infraction is observed, the USA officials do not raise their hand or otherwise visibly indicate this.

Furthermore, we do not comment on or point out infractions to the High School officials. Even if questioned (as sometimes happens) we should not confirm/deny a possible infraction to the High School official – politely defer their inquiry, explaining thatthe officiating teams should act independently, without influencing one another, and that you cannot comment.

Please be courteous to and friendly with the other officials, just avoid discussing the observed performance of the competing swimmers (at least until after the session finishes).

Each USA officiating team will need to record any disqualifications that they observed. We usually do this by the traditional method of taking notes on a heat sheet. All observed DQs should be recorded together on a DQ log. (Disqualification logs may be printed from the swimutah.com website by clicking on the "Officials" tab (ignore the drop down options) and then clicking on "DQ log" found under official forms.) One of the observing officials should be selected (quick! nominate the other guy!) to be responsible for collecting this data and making sure it gets turned into the proper meet administrative representative who is responsible for reporting it to Todd Etherington (this will probably be either the Meet Director and/or the person handling the computer operations at the meet). If possible, please send a second copy to me (either mailed Wane Oviatt 957 S. 200 E. Lindon, Utah 84042-2116 or scanned & emailed to ) for reference in case there is a later problem/question. Please also confirm who officiated so that we may arrange payments.

The USA Swims Times Module: Policy and Guidelines states for observed meets that "Where the technical rules as listed in Article 101 are the same as the host organization, the judgment of the organization officials shall be sufficient".

This means that we do not need to observe Free Style individual events or freestyle relays (except for one person observing at the starts just to confirm that no illegal tape is being used).

During freestyle events, USA observational officials are on break and should leave the deck.

In general, we do not observe relays done by a team, whether freestyle or medley events, because, even if all four swimmers are affiliated with the same club team, their relay times are not eligible for entry into the SWIMS data base as they must be unattached to compete in high school events and USA requires that “Relay teams shall not compete unattached.” [USA Swimming Rule 102.3.1 of 2015 Rulebook].

However, while the 50-backstroke distance of the initial leg of the Medley Relay is a not a “recognized” event for the SWIMS database for this age group, such times can still be recorded in SWIMS, so this initial leg should be observed.

Compressive-type tape (and kinesio tape, etc.), while allowed in high school with a note from a health-care professional, is not permitted for USA swimming. High school swimmers who plan on wearing tape should be informed by the Referee that this will result in a USA observational DQ. Upon noting the wearing of tape during a swim, observing USA officials should note it as a DQ (on the DQ log record it under “other” (code 69) “tape = illegal uniform”).

Utah Swimming Inc.

Individual OVC Request

Name: ______

(as registered with USA swimming)

Phone number: ______Birth date: ______

USA Swimming Registration #:

USA Swimming Club Name:

High School Competing for:

$5.00 per swimmer entry fee payable to Utah Swimming

Please return form and payment to: to be forwarded by the team to:

the meet host administrative officialUtah Swimming P.O. Box 84171