All motions passed by the Competition Committee are recommendations to the PVS Board of Directors.
ATTENDEES: Bill Marlin, Chair; Janet Auger, PVS; Colleen D'Anna, PVS; Riley Eaton, PVS; John Ertter, PVS: Mark Faherty, PVS; John Hirschmann, PVS; Dan Jacobs, PVS; ; Greg York, PVS; Denise Adams, ASA; Robert Walker, ASA; Manga Dalizu, FAST; Emily Felker, HACC; Bruce Anderson, HACC; Chris Huott, MSSC; Paris Jacobs, MACH; Mike Kraeuter, FISH; Terri Marlin, PM; Jim Garner, RMSC; Brian Pawlowicz, CUBU; Evan Stiles, AAC; Christian Doud, MACH; Victor Abrahamian, SDS; John Cyganiewicz, OCCS; Kent Williams, RMSC; Rich Gordon; YORK; Brian Pawlowicz, CUBU; Tim Kelly, CUBU; Yuri Suguiyama, CUBU; Sean Link, DCPR; Harold Houston, DCPR; Richard Phipps, DCPR; Macovoy Tyree, DCPR
Call to Order: The meeting was called to order by Competition Committee Chairman, Bill Marlin at 6:53 PM at McLean Community Center, McLean, VA.
Agenda: Bill Marlin provided an agenda for use at the meeting.
Approval of Minutes: The minutes of the January 23, 2008 Competition Committee Meeting were unanimously approved as submitted. They had been posted on the pvswim.org website and copies were available at the meeting for review.
General Chair Report: Greg York reminded everyone that all future sanction requests for club sponsored meets must be submitted with the referee's name. Greg York also stated that all sanction requests for any meets PVS clubs wish to hold in VSI territory must now go through the PVS Administration office. They will coordinate the request with the VSI Sanctioning Officier.
Senior Chair: Riley Eaton, Senior chair, discussed the new USA Junior Nationals meets that was presented at the recent Eastern Zone meeting. The meet is scheduled for December 11-13th in Austin, Texas and will use the NCAA format. A one day LCM meet will be offered on December 14th. Greg York said he would ask the House of Delegates to approve funding for PVS athlete travel to this meet, since the addition of this meet to the USA-S sponsored competition calendar was not known about when the PVS Board in April approved the budget to recommend to the PVS House for adoption. John Ertter would develop and make the specific recommendation as to by how much to amend the budget.
The requirements for receiving travel assistant to attend the following meets: USA Open, USA Junior LC Champs, SCY Champs, and the new SCY Junior Champs were also discussed. It was noted that the first two meets are in late July and at the beginning of August and we have not yet approved nor announced what the PVS meet participation requirements are. The recommendation from Competition was to use the same meet participation requirements for these meets as they were in 2007. Since SC Junior Championships is a new meet, it was recommended the meet participation requirements be the same as SC National Championships which will be held the prior week.
Coaches Representatives: Dan Jacobs and Mark Faherty, PVS Jr.&Sr. Coaches Representatives, submitted a proposal to amend the format of the PVS B/BB Championship Meet planned for February 2009. The amendment states: add the 15 and over swimmers to a 13 and over session and make the other session for 12 and under swimmers. The 15-18 swimmers must qualifiy with a no slower than B time and no faster than PVS Junior Short Course Championship. The amended proposal was endorsed by the Committee and sent to Board for their approval..
USA Swimming Age Group Representative: Ward Foley asked if the LSC would be interested in sponsoring a IMX meet in December 2008. This is a meet USA-S Age Group swimming would like to see held in various parts of the country. It is a meet being recommended by United States Swimming for inclusion in the competition program. He indicated they would like the meet held in the November or December timeframe. Discussion was had and it was agreed that the PVS November and December competition schedule was already crowded - therefore it would be difficult to add. Bill Marlin expreseed interest in the meet, but asked if they would be willing to change the time frame.
Ward also discussed swim wear legislation that will be voted on at Convention in September: He informed the Committee that that the proposal being recommended by Age Group swimming was as follows "Swim wear – The swimsuits worn for all age group defined competition (i. e.,. 10&U, 11-12, 13-14, 15-16) shall conform to an amended USA Swimming rule 102.9 and shall not extend past the top of the shoulder (the armorial process) a triangular projection of the scapula; no further down the leg then the knee cap."
Sanction Requests for Club Sponsored Meets for the Period September 1, 2008 to August 31, 2009: Competition was provided with a calendar indicating meets already approved and requests that have now been received for endorsement of sanction for additional club sponsored meets. Several additional meets were presented at the meeting and were also endorsed by Competition to be added to the proposed calendar, resulting in the following meets being recommended to the Board as meets to be sanctioned:
The Committee was informed this was the last opportunity to submit bids for club sponsored meets to be held during the period September 1, 2008 to December 31, 2008. Bids for meets to be held between January 1, 2009 and August 31, 2009 may be submitted at the September 2008 Competition Committee meeting.
The following bids were submitted for club sponsored meets during the period September 1, 2008 to August 31, 2009
RMSC requeseted a waiver in order to have their RMSC Kickoff Meet on October 17-19 – the same weekend as the PVS October Open. They indicated this was due to a one time scheduling issue and was not intended to create a precedent for future years. Competition agreed to endorse this meet on that weekend for 2008 based on that understanding.
Paris Jacobs confirmed that DC Recreation and Parks Department wants the Black History Meet authorized by PVS as a sanctioned meet this year rather than authorized as an approved meet as has been the case in the past. This means all athletes, coaches and officials participating in the meet will have to be registered with USA-S.
PVS Sponsored Meets for the Period June 1, 2009 to August, 2009: Competition was provided with a calendar indicating proposed dates for PVS sponsored meets during the 2009 LC season:
The dates already approved for USA-S Championship meets and the two Eastern Zone meets in the summer of 2009 were provided to competition. These Eastern Zone meets are both scheduled for later than they will be in 2008. After discussions, the Competition Committee voted to recommend that dates proposed for the first three meets be endorsed and that PVS LC Sr/Jr Championshps be held on July 16-19 and PVS Age Group Champs be held on July 23-26.
PVS's Eastern Long Course Zone Coaches -- The Committee was reminded that Head Coach Mike Kraeuter and Assistant Head Coach Peter McDonough had previously been selected. The Committee was asked to vote on Assistant Coaches. Bill Marlin informed the Commtee that following names were put forth as coaches interested in serving.
Competition was also informed that the Eastern Zone at its recent meeting voted to permit more coaches on the deck for larger teams. Given the expected size of the PVS team, we likely could have up to 15 coaches on the deck. Given this, Competition decided to recommend by acclimation that the above 7 names be added to the PVS coaching staff as Assistant Coaches. It also agreed to recommend that the remaining passes that become available to PVS be circulated amongst our coaches so they can be on the deck at appropriate times. Bill Marlin as Age Group Chair would oversee this allocation process.
After extensive discussions Competition voted to recommend to the Board that the athletes would not be provided housing or transportation for the meet. Other options considered by Competition were to continue to house, feed and transport the team in the same manner as if the meet were not in PVS territory. It was pointed out that this would be considerable more expensive and there are advantages to allowing athletes to sleep in their own bed if they live close enough to the venue. Also, swimmers only qualifying for one or two events need not commit for several days in order to be on the team The possibility of only requiring those athletes qualifying for three or more events to be housed as a team was also discussed as an option. It was also noted the application form for Zones will also need to ask if an athlete is available for relays if chosen to swim on them since they will not be housed as a team nor required to be present for all sessions. A motion was made to recommend to the Board of Directors that the ceiling for athlete fees to be on the zone team would b no more than $500.00.
Bill Marlin announced that the Eastern Zone Open Water Event on August 10th would be a 1K rectangular course for the 10/U swimmers. Age Groups 11-12 and 13-14 will swim 2K rectangular course and the 15-18 will swim a 3K rectangle shape course. He highlighted that the meet will be open to all PVS swimmers, the swimmers need not be on the PVS EZ team in order to participate. The Open Water application form will be available on line and swimmers will need to preregister. There was a call put out for water crafts to help patrol the water during this event. There will be local water patrols but would like to have more people in the water. Fairfax Fire and Rescue has also been contacted to be on-site while the competition is occuring..
Bill Marlin informed the Committee that changes had been made to the order of events for Senior/Age Group I and II Long Course meet. It included not necessarily ending a session with a longer distance event.
Eastern Zone Short Course Report -: John Cyganiewicz reported that the team did well. There was a straw poll conducted by Competition that endoresed that PVS should recommend to the Eastern Zone that they modify the meet rules to permit an additional swimmer in each 10/U & 11-12 age group events. Bill Marlin also proposed that PVS recommend to the Zone that the 15-18 age group be redefined as 15-16. Both these recommendations passed unanimously as a PVS Competition Committee recommendation.
PVS Age Group Coach of the Year -- Marlin reminded the members that nominations for the PVS Age Group Coach of the Year were still being accepted. The deadline is May 31.
USA Swimming Catch the Spirit Camp -- Manga announced the camp held in April was successful. There were some athlete openings when the initial entry deadline passed, thus the deadline was extended allowing additional swimmers to participate. Manga also provided Competition with a written report regarding the camp.
Old Business -- Mark Faherty had previously been asked at the January 2008 Competition Commitee meeting to chair an ad-hoc committee to review PVS warmup procedures. The ad-hoc Committee consisted of himself, Mike Kraeuter, Dan Jacobs and Manga Dalizu. After meeting and discussing the matter, they concluded that the procedures currently in place warm-up policies of PVS do not need revision -– as they feel it provides sufficient flexibility. It was determined that the Meet Manager would have final say over warm up procedures within the parameters of this policy.
Chase Start Update: A reminder was made to not use until them the the PVS Officials Committee haves established their procedures and have trained PVS officials in how to do so.
New Business -- Victor made a proposal as to how future PVS Championship Meets might be conducted. There was limited discussion of his proposal due to the lateness of the hour. Bill Marlin appointed a special committee to be chaired by Victor. Several coaches volunteered to serve on the Committee with Victor and were appointed to the ad-hoc Commitee by Bill Marlin.
Adjournment -- The meeting was adjourned at 10:20pm. No date and time was selected for the next Competition Committee meeting.