hi Poolshark Divisional Families -

*All ASA info, including heat sheets / handwriters are on the ASA Championship page HERE.

*Address: Georgia Tech Campus Recreation Center Aquatic Center, 750 Ferst Drive, Atlanta, GA. 

*Please try to sharpie your kid tonight before they go to bed - this is good luck!

*Please arrive tomorrow @ 7:25 AM - you may drop your child off if that is helpful.  Please do not be late as we are supposed to enter the building as a team (no stragglers).  We also need to hand out our parent volunteer wristbands and pair up our ASA timers (i'll have your stopwatches) and ASA bullpen volunteers.

*This meet is very well run - it is on time, the meet workers generally help make sure all kids get to swim and not miss their races.  At the same time, the meet especially at the beginning with the relays may feel hectic.  This is a big environment, parents we don't know can sometimes be unkind in the stands with seat saving etc, the blocks & walls are different (we'll talk about this with the kids tomorrow AM), the pool can be hard to get out of, the water is cold (we are used to that), and the referees are very very strict.  Remember that the goal is for our kids to have a positive, fun, and competitive experience representing the Poolsharks in a championship environment.  No one is earning a college scholarship tomorrow.  

*Awards - The top 30 swimmers will receive awards for each championship session. Medals will be provided for the top 10 individual finishers and top 3 relays in each championship session; ribbons will be provided for all other places.  We will hand these out on Thursday morning during our end of season celebration.

*Make sure to have secured your parking pass HERE.

*Thank you to everyone who has volunteered so far, 6+ volunteers still needed:

league required - 2 more bullpen workers (this is the ASA bullpen, not team bullpen)

league required - 4 more timers (girls pool & boys pool)

very helpful but not league required - Parent Relay Helpers - we need about 6 more of these - all younger age groups have at least one helpers except our 9-10 girls.

*Post Meet Lunch - please join us for an informal lunch at Decatur Grindhouse right after the meet - Meridith M-W has let them know that we'll have a pretty group joining around 1:30/2 pm.  To save time, via their app, you can also order head for 'pick up' which is helpful.  

*Relays - Thoughtful questions are appreciated - and a handful of parents & swimmers reached out to me regarding their position on A relays.   Swim/track coaches are fortunate that we can generally use numbers and math to determine our A relays, to help that decision be quantitative rather than a soccer/basketball coach when they determine their starters.  We had a few kids bump into A relay spots last night (or change strokes and stay in A relay) because they dropped time that got them into the top 4.  I spoke directly this morning to the kids affected so they know.  There are a few exceptions to using our mathematical top 4 in relays - usually it is because of either injury, or a teenager and their times are not as fast as earlier years (about half of teenagers get slower in their 15-18 years).  We also have had more issues than usual with our dolphin internet timers this year - so some kids had times that were not accurate in the system - i have tried to catch all of these, but not all of them since we get almost 400 times each meet - parents have generally let me know that their child's time appeared to be an outlier (too fast/too slow) and we were able to update/delete them so the system is more accurate.

*Where to sit - hopefully we can have 2 Poolshark Parent sections in the stands (boys side / girls side) - wear your Poolshark spiritwear so we can stand out and recognize each other.  The Georgia Tech Aquatic Center is a ten lane 50 meter x 25 yard 10 lane pool, this is a flat wall pool on finish and turn ends. Two competition pools will be used for all swimming sessions. The girls will swim in the east pool, located by the diving well; the boys will compete in the west pool located by the scoreboard.

*Order of Events for ASA Championship

1. 6 & Under Free Relays - All 6 & Unders should go to the bullpen as soon as they are done swimming their relays to get lined up for their freestyle swim.
2. All Medley Relays
3. 6& Under 25 Free - All 6 & Unders swimming the backstroke should go to the bullpen as soon as they are done swimming freestyle to get lined up for their backstroke swim.
4. All Remaining Freestyle Relay Events
5. 6 & Under Backstroke - After this event the 6 & Unders are done swimming.
6. All Remaining individual events (Short Free, Long Free, Back, IM, Breast, Fly)

The one thing that does remain intact are the actual event numbers used in a regular ASA meet. So event 13 (6 and under girls free) will be followed by event 77 (7-8 girls 100 Free Relay) based on the info above.

With that in mind, I am providing a link to a cheat sheet of sorts. If you click on ASA Divisional Order of Events it will provide you the order of events and the event numbers that go along with it.

The lane numbers at Georgia Tech are from 0 through 9 (not 1 through 10). Lane 0 is located closest to the window side of the pool, lane 9 is located near the spectator seating. 

Live Streaming for grandparents/family/friends wanting to watch - coverage of all sessions will be available free of charge. We will have a link to the webcast at https://asa.swimtopia.com/championship

If you have any questions between now and 9 pm tonight, please reach out via email or text/phone call (404.630.1440).  

Have Fun, Race Hard, Do Your Best, Go Poolsharks!

- Beth

[email protected]