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Champs Meet
WHAT: This is the Championship Swim Meet for the Greater Richmond Aquatic League. Swimmers qualify for Champs during the course of the swim season by earning a Junior Varsity (JV) or Varsity (V) time in any individual event. Click here for the time standards.
WHEN:
July 31 for swimmers 10 and under
August 1 for swimmers 11 and older
Click here
to check your swimmer's Champs info.
Champs Practice Schedule
Morning Practice
8:00-9:00: 12 and Under (8 and Unders will finish at 8:45)
9:00-10:00: 13 and Over
Afternoon Practice:
4:00-5:00: All Ages
Thursday July 22- Morning ONLY
Friday July 23- Thursday, July 29: Morning and Afternoon
Friday, July 30- Morning ONLY
Champs Families, I trust that your swimmers have enjoyed the smaller, more intense practices and are excited about swimming best times at Champs. GRAL has sent out the following information: Warm-up Times: Saturday 8:30-8:45 in lanes 3-6
Sunday 9:15-9:30 in lanes 3-4
Volunteer Assignments:
Saturday Morning Session 6 Clerks (you do NOT need to be a certified Clerk for this position)
Afternoon Session 6 Runners
Sunday Morning Session Timers Lane 2
Afternoon Session Timers Lane 5
The morning session of the Meet starts at 10:00 am. and the afternoon session starts at 2:00pm. The order of events can be found at: http://www.gralva.com/2010/Champs/Order_of_Events.pdf
The good news is that all of our volunteering will take place at the pool so we will all see our swimmers in the water! You will be assigned a time for your volunteer rotation and given a name tag with the assignment/time on it. If you know you are arriving late or leaving early please let us know so we can take that into account when making assignments.
T-shirts and Heat Sheets will be available for pick up on Friday morning at practice. If you know you will not be there, have someone pick up your items for you as we will not be bringing items to the Freedom Center for distribution.
We will be bringing a table, napkins, plates and a cooler for the team to share. Please bring healthy snacks to share; fruit, cheese, whole grain crackers, pasta, vegetables and the like are all good options. Please carefully read the following from GRAL. It is all very important information.
G.R.A.L. 2010 Championship Swim Meet
George Mason University's Freedom Aquatic Center
July 31st and August 1st
Welcome to another year of GRAL Champs! This section includes information that will be helpful to your family during the weekend. If you have additional questions, please see your team’s Champs Coordinator or designated team contact person.
Facility Use and Building Access
o Only the first floor is available for our use. The second floor is strictly off limits.
o Use of
non-swim meet facilities (family pool, weight room, etc.) is available to GRAL families at a reduced guest fee. This fee is payable at the Freedom Center check-in desk located in the main lobby. Wrist bands will be issued and must be worn at all times in order to use the facilities as a guest. Play pool wrist bands are $4.00.
o The facility will be available to
coaches and workers at 7:00 AM each day. Swimmers, families and spectators can have access by 7:30 AM each day.
o Swim coaches and parents, as well as swimmers, are responsible for their team's behavior. Unsafe, unruly, or unsportsmanlike behavior will not be tolerated.
o All swimmers are expected to leave the pool area after drying off and not to track water into the hallway when leaving the pool area. This rule will be strictly enforced.
o All swimmers are expected to wear some sort of footwear to and from the pool area. In addition, all swimmers must have a TOWEL and pool-type SHOES when entering the pool area to swim or they will not be allowed in the pool.
o Locker rooms will be patrolled regularly by security to ensure swimmers do not misbehave or leave it messy. Any unattended children will be taken to referee table.
o No running is allowed within the facility.
Concessions
Concessions (breakfast/lunch) will be available in the community room located off the hallway leading to the pool.
Clerk of the Course
o The Clerk of the Course will be located in the hallway past the racquetball courts to the right hand side. Please advise your swimmers that this is a
quiet zone. When swimmers enter this area, they are expected to be quiet and pay attention. A swimmer with no shoes or towel will be sent back to get both.
o Please make sure that all of your swimmers know their event number, heat, and lane assignment. The Clerk will be calling swimmers only by these numbers.
IT IS THE SWIMMER'S
RESPONSIBILITY TO GET TO THE PROPER PLACE WHEN HIS OR HER
EVENT/HEAT IS CALLED. You may write it on the back of children’s hands.
o For Mite Relays, we will need the usual Parent Helpers to assist the children in getting to the proper ends of the pool. Only 2 parents per relay team are allowed on the deck. For Midget Relays, please have 1 parent helper to assist the children.
GymCityand Racquetball Court
o Gym City are for team use. Teams are assigned spaces based on the number of daily registered swimmers. All teams are expected to honor the boundaries of their designated space. A diagram will be posted at the gym doors to help swimmers identify and locate their team spaces. Please tell your swimmers not to "cut through" other teams' spaces and to use the designated walkways.
o Space is limited. It is highly recommended that each team take steps to limit the number of chairs and bags being brought in by families.
o All teams are required to clean their spaces and remove all belongings at the end of each day. Neither the Freedom Center nor GRAL will accept responsibility for any lost or stolen items. Failure to fully clean and remove belongings from one's space at the end of each day will result in a $100 fine to the offending team.
Hospitality and Medal Room
o The Hospitality/Medals Room will be in the last Racquetball Court.
o Medals will not be available until at least 30 minutes after the results have been
posted.
o GRAL will provide two medal boxes for each team. Team medals will be placed in the team’s medal box. In order to remove the team’s medals from the Medal Room, a designated COACH will replace the 1st medal box with the 2nd empty medal box. A medal box MUST remain on the table at all times. Medals may be picked up periodically (no swimmers or parents, please).
Event Results and Scoreboard Display
o Please remind your swimmers and parents that the order of finish displayed on the scoreboard in the pool area is not official.
o Official results will be posted in the hallway across from the racquetball courts.
o In the past, touch pad timing errors led to some confusion in determining the proper order of finish. US Swimming rules provide specific remedies for resolving these errors. This process is outlined in the heat sheets.
Bleacher Etiquette
o The facility boasts permanent bleacher seating for about 500 spectators. The three sections closest to the starting blocks will be reserved for short-term viewing. Spectators may sit with their belongings further down the bleachers.
o Please do not stand on or in the bleacher walkways or steps. Walkways must be kept clear of people and belongings.
o DO NOT STAND AT THE RAILS ANYWHERE ALONG THE BLEACHERS, INCLUDING AT THE END OPPOSITE FROM THE COMPETITION POOL. IT BLOCKS TRAFFIC AND RESTRICTS OTHERS' VIEW!
Workers, Volunteers and Officials
o All teams are expected to honor their assignments and provide the workers necessary to run the meet.
o All workers, volunteers and officials must wear their nametags/identification badges when on the deck. Badges will be available at the referee table for coaches and on deck officials. No one except Mite (2) and Midget (1) Relay Parents will be admitted on the deck without proper identification.
Parents
o Cheer hard for your child and understand that they are trying their best. Remember that they are swimming against the best in the league and not just a few good swimmers from one team.
o Be respectful of our coaches, workers, officials, and other volunteers. Everyone has worked hard this season to make it a good one. Let's finish on a positive note. Be an example for your child and others. And, have some FUN!
o Please take a minute to complete the survey located on the GRAL website and either give it to your GRAL rep, parent rep, or complete it on-line at
http://www.gralva.com/
.
Thank you to everyone who has contributed their time and talents to the meet this weekend. We hope your child swims his or her best and has a great meet.
To all Champs Qualifiers
As swimmers have qualified for Champs, you have received emails about the Meet. Many of you have had great questions and since Champs is just three weekends away it is time to bring everyone up to speed with what we know and give you some ideas about time lines. This is a long email…I apologize, but this is all essential information. First of all, let me thank Amy Foy for agreeing to help with Champs this year and next year and then be the Coordinator for the 2012 season! During the Saturday part of the meet, she will be the go-to person. Our T-shirt design is in process and the cost will be $15 each. The back will have all the names of the team members who qualified for Champs even if they cannot attend. The shirt design cannot be completed until next week when our t-shirt person returns from vacation. You MUST preorder! The GRAL website should soon have the Champs page up and running. The link for that page is: http://www.gralva.com/ Go to the 2010 menu and at the bottom you will find Champs.
Click here for the Google Maps link for the Freedom Center.
If you are spending the night, you should be making your reservations now! If you have children swimming both days you may want to spend the night. If you are just going for one day, it is really not necessary to spend the night as the travel time is less than two hours and is an easy drive. The Meet starts at 10:00 and warm-ups don’t start until 8:00 so worst case, you will leave at 6:00am. If you choose to spend the night, there are plenty of hotels nearby.
We will be assigned warm-up times and lanes, our volunteer duties, and our area in the gym by GRAL at a later date. As soon as this information is sent to me, I will be sending it to all of you. EVERYONE MUST VOLUNTEER! Typically this means that each family works for no more than 2 hours during the Meet. If you are sending your child with another family or if he or she is driving him- or herself, please let me know who will be taking your volunteer rotation. Also, if your child is driving, and is not yet 18 years old, let us know who the responsible, adult is for your child during the Meet. GRAL will be selling league t-shirts and heat sheets. The GRAL T-shirt cost is $10. It will be white with a 'Hanging 10 in 2010" byline on the front with an image of toes on the edge of a starting block and the back will list a tribute to the Everett’s, since Dora Everett passed away this year (Len Everett started the league and is the name sake of the sportsmanship award). All the teams will be listed on the back as part of the design. Heat Sheets will tell you in exactly what heat/lane your swimmer will be swimming in as well as their competition and times. Heat Sheets are $10 each. In the heat sheets, you will find advertisements for businesses and notes to swimmers. If you would like to order an ad for your business or to give a shout out to your swimmer, the Tidal Waves or our coaches, the cost is below. You will pay ONLY the Price to GRAL (other teams use this as a money maker). They must be in black white and appropriately sized.
Concessions will be available for breakfast and lunch. As a team, we will be bringing leftovers from our concession stand and a table to set up with snacks and a cooler with ice for drinks. We ask that everyone bring healthy snacks for our swimmers to share. Please make sure your swimmer has plenty to drink! Team Awards will take place during Champs. Division trophies will be awarded on Saturday morning prior to the beginning of the meet at about 9:45. And the Coaches’ Award and the Len Everett Award (Sportsmanship) will be awarded on Sunday morning. At the close of the morning sessions both days there will be Coaches’ Relays and with Sara, Soozie, Preston and Hunter swimming, I’m sure everyone will want to be on deck to see that! We will be posting the information for all swimmers so everyone can make sure no events are left unswum (mmm…what is the correct word there??). But parents make sure you write the event, heat and lane information on your child’s hand. NO parents will be allowed in the Clerk of the Course but coaches will be making sure our swimmers in the right places. Mite relays will have 2 parent helpers and Midget relays will have 1 parent helper….more info will be posted in a few weeks. Your child will not be allowed to enter the pool without shoes and a towel (towels can be placed on the bench behind the blocks). They are VERY strict on this point. Click here for a Champs order form. Please print one form for EACH swimmer you have attending and complete it with a check (preferred) and return to me either in person or put it in my paper box or under my front door at 6024 Chestnut Hill Drive (second street toward Millstone from the pool) and alert me that it is there. Please let me know what other questions you might have. I will be at the Dominion Club Meet and would be happy to chat with you and answer any questions you might have. This is a very fun Meet and I hope everyone who can attend, will take the opportunity. See you at the pool, Kate Meilink 364-1368
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