With Thanksgiving behind us, it's time for the boys swim season to move into full swing. A number of conferences around the state have their season-opening swim meets tonight (many of them relay-only meets). There is also a good dual meet tonight "Up North," as Ashwaubenon travels to Sturgeon Bay in a match-up that features two teams that finished in the top 10 last year at the D2 state meet. Both teams lost some solid swimmers to graduation, so it will be a good test to see how these two traditional D2 powers look early in the season.
This weekend will see meets and inviationals at Oshkosh West, Cudahy, Nicolet and Janesville Craig, among others. We'll report on them as we get results.
A note (plea?) to coaches, parents, and other interested parties -- feel free to send results (in any format, but PDFs appreciated) to the email at: wimcdade@tds.net or simply post meet scores in the comments section. Thanks for your help in supporting the blog!
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Some of your top swimmers will be gone this weekend for US Nationals in Seattle.
How can this be? I thought WIAA had strict guidelines in regards to HS swimming ONLY during the swim season? Do they get special exemption from WIAA?
Check the WIAA rules and regulations section for swimming, along with rules intepretations, but I believe this is a pretty good summary and my understanding of this issue:
The WIAA sets strict seasonal dates for all seasons, i.e, the first day that athletes can practice under the guidance of a coach, and the end of the season (which, for swimmers, would be the state meet for those qualifying). The WIAA allows student-athletes to report "late" to their sport -- that is, to not practice with their team -- if they want to participate in a non-WIAA tournament or meet. But -- and this is the big caveat -- student-athletes cannot practice with their high school team and then go and play/compete in a non-WIAA tourney/meet.
The sport in which I'm familiar with this happening is girls golf, which begins practice well before the school year begins (in late summer), and some top-caliber golfers (I know of one from Middleton recently) have delayed reporting to their high school team to participate in an August golf tournament. But the delay in reporting is typically only a few days or a week.
The WIAA has allowed, to my knowledge, a very rare, occasional exemption to this -- the one I know of in swimming was Badger/Big Foot's Wes Lagerhausen a few years ago, who was named to a national Junior Olympics squad and was invited to compete in a meet overseas, I believe, during the high school swim season. The WIAA granted him the exemption. But I clearly get the sense it has to be something unusual like that, and not just a big tournament or meet somewhere, to get the exemption.
The one obvious high school boys swimmer for Wisconsin who might be out at the Nationals meet -- Madison Memorial's Michael Drives -- is not listed on the psych sheet in his two most likely events -- the 200 and 500 frees.
I guess I have heard of too many athletes being kept out of their sport due to involvement in "outside wiaa" sanctioned meets. The one that comes to mind is a BB player that decided on a whim to compete in the free throw shooting competition sponsored by a local organization and he ended up loosing eligibility. I guess another violation that always amazed me were the swim bags and apparel that were handed out at the YMCA state meet each year and were accepted by many of the top swimmers in the state. This merchandise clearly surpassed the WIAA allowance and was only given to those swimmers that placed in the top 2 or 3 spots. This was such a visible violation of WIAA code and from my perspective these great swimmers were risking their HS swim career for a nike bag or other apparel. I guess it is not up to the YMCA organzation to worry about wiaa but I would figure the athletes would have been told by their coaches that this may be trouble if ever reported. Whether we agree with WIAA or not the athletes still need to abide by their sanctions.
You can get a waiver from the WIAA to compete in meets, you also need a letter from your athletic director and I do believe you have to "prove" that the swimmer would be in the top 5 at high school state as well. We have had several swimmers from our club particpate at meets. You are right they cannot practice with their high school team until they are done competing for their club team. Our club goes to Oklahoma every year in Dec. and several of our boys stay on to do that meet then go to their high school team.
I think you underestimate the number of swimmers who get waivers each year. There are 3 WI hs boys in the upcoming 2009 Short Course Nationals backstroke events (teDuits - Mad Edgewd, Newenhouse - Cedarburg, Lentz - Sauk Pr/Wis Hts). There may be others in other events.
Cebertowitz, Laugerhausen, Baseheart all went to various events in past years. The paralympic swimmers also have gone during the hs season.
Upon further review, I do see teDuits listed on the heat sheet for the 100 and 200 back, Lentz for the 100 back, and Newenhouse for the 200 back.
Psych sheet here:
http://www.usaswimming.org/USASWeb/_Rainbow/Documents/23ccd32f-163f-4e73-baf7-f7c880408a5f/Psych%20Sheet_SCYNats.pdf
Regarding the stuff given out at the YMCA state swim meet...I've never seen things given out other than last year I believe they did begin handing out t-shirts recognizing all of the Y National qualifiers. But wouldn't that be similar to the "state champion" t-shirts given out to winners at USA state meets?
I didn't realize the WIAA had rules against this kind of thing. Does anyone know where to find more info on the rules?
"I didn't realize the WIAA had rules against this kind of thing. Does anyone know where to find more info on the rules?"
The best place is the WIAA website; click on "Boys Swimming and Diving" under the sports heading on the main WIAA website, and then click to "Rules and Regulations." The most relevant link re. your questions is the "Rule Interpretations and Questions & Answers" section; this will bring you to a long series of questions-and-answers regarding swimming in general, and some broader issues regarding eligibility, fund-raising, and such. You can also contact the WIAA with a question, or go through your local athletic director.
After quickly reading the WIAA rules at a glance,I noticed under the category of NON SCHOOL participation that it clearly states at the end of a passage:"Additionally, a student who was a member of a school team during the previous year may not delay reporting
for the school team beyond the school's official opening day of practice in order to continue nonschool training or competition. Does anyone see anything that refers to a "waiver"? Also, I believe the section concerning amateur status talks of accepting gifts for performance but I believe the Q and A surrounding this topic would offer greater definition.
I did find a section in the Q and A that allows "fall" sports to report late to practice due to outside competitions and girls swimming was specified but it made no mention of winter sports and boys swimming would fall under that category.
An athlete may jeopardize their WIAA elgibility by accepting "gifts", "prizes" or "awards" at any outside competition. These "gifts"', "prizes" or "awards" may include T-Shirts, water bottles, back packs, etc. that are Not given to each competitor. If each participant is given a t-shirt it's no problem but if they win it they jeopardize their amateur status within the WIAA eyes. Whether it is a swim meet, triathalon or skins contest. So here is the skinny USA state champion & YMCA national qualifier t-shirts are illegal. But so is not wearing a seat belt in Wisconsin, driving faster than the speed limit and the waitress who doesn't claim all her tips as income. Don't worry about it!
I agree..to a point... So it really is up to the athlete to decide if a water bottle or swim bag is worth taking after competing at a highly vissible competition where in all liklihood their HS coach is not present. And if by chance the HS coach learns of this breach of the WIAA rule during the HS season and feels compelled to report it to the WIAA or heaven forbid an over zealous parent chooses to report an infraction to the WIAA the team suffers at the expense of the individual. If I receive a speeding ticket or a seatbelt ticket I do not jeapordize my family's future accomplishments.
Do the HS coaches ever take the time to review these rules and regulations with their athletes? I agree that there are other rules that citizens break - seat belts, tips, and speeding. However, is it not the job of coaches and parents to attempt to instill in our athletes honesty? By "looking the other way," we continue to perpetuate the problem. I really take offense at the concept of "everyone is doing it." There are rules that have been developed by WIAA for a purpose. How can we enforce one but not another? Perhaps we only uphold rules that work to our benefit. Just my opinion.
At times I See the club sports as being at great odds with high school sports and I am afraid there is much "looking the other way". I do know the WIAA is not afraid to enforce their rules and I find it sad that club sports don't try to police themselves a bit so as to support the athlete that chooses to compete in both venues. Granted, club sports are often times much bigger and nationally recognized compared to state level competition, but as we all know, nothing is more energizing than a state competition, especially swimming and I just hate to see these great athletes feel compelled to separate the two organizations to the point where some simply choose one over the other. You are correct, the job of education clearly belongs to the WIAA, Athletic Directors and HS coaches.
I just tried e-mailing results from a meet to the address above and it came back undeliverable. Could you please post a corrected address? Thanks
The same thing happen to me trying to send results, the email address listed is not correct
This blog thread highlights, to me, how completely out of touch the WIAA and some in the high school swim community are with the realities of how swimming has changed. For some to be arguing that the receipt of a state champion t-shirt, or the less than $20 worth of gift bag stuff given out at Speedos, Zones or Junior Nationals some how jeapordizes a swimmer's amatuer status is just silly. I guarentee you if swimmers are forced to choose one over the other, high school would lose.
Hmmmm.... here is the email address:
wimcdade@tds.net
That's (by individual letter/symbol):
w i m c d a d e @ t d s . n e t
all squished together.
It should work; if not, I'll look into it. I know others have looked at the blog and used it successfully; I'll also post something on the main page.
Thanks for trying!
On your original post, you are missing the "d" after wimc___
It may clear things up if you make that correction to the original post.
I hope to get the Cudahy results to you on Monday.
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