Commentators to the blog have on occasion debated the pull of club swimming vs. competing for your high school. It's a decision faced by only a handful of high school athletes -- soccer and volleyball come to mind -- as those sports offer high-level club competition at the same time as the high school seasons.
Here's an article from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that focuses on that very decision by Waukesha South/Mukwonago sophomore Kayla Skenandore, who earned a top seed for this week's D1 state meet in the 200 free (and a #2 seed behind only defending champ Emma Goral of Hartland Arrowhead in the 100 fly). Skenandore skipped her freshman year of high school swimming to compete for Waukesha Express, one of the most competitive clubs in the state, but decided to compete for the Waukesha South/Mukwonago co-op this year.
http://www.jsonline.com/sports/preps/69821002.html
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8 comments:
A former teammate of ours just moved to Missouri, where they have a dual participation rule. Swimmers can train and compete with their club team during the same season as their high school team. I'll be interested to hear from them how that works out.
This is a tricky one. I think that there is still a great deal of Club Coach's that encourage their kids to not swim HS because they have little faith in the HS coach's ability and it takes money out of the club's pocket for a session.
We really need to move to an era where the Club Coach and HS Coach can be on the same page and do what is in the best interest of the Student/Athlete.
We have too many good swimmers NOT swimming HS because their club coach has encouraged them to not participate. I think it really hurts the Student/Athlete.
Let's not forget the Skenandore transferred from Waukesha West to Waukesha South. I think this was reported in the Waukesha Freeman on Tuesday.
I believe the WIAA allows swimmers to pratice with their club teams during the season. But they cannot participate in club competitions during their high school season. See this from the Milwaukee newspaper when it named Brookfield Academy's Kelsey Hojan-Clark as its swimmer of the year:
http://www.jsonline.com/sports/preps/35348844.html
There are some exemptions to this rule -- I know of golfers who have "delayed" reporting to their HS teams so they can participate in a major late-summer tournament, for instance. And swimmers can apply for an individual exemption to the meet participation rule; I think Badger/Big Foot's Wes Lagerhausen (now with the UW) did this a few years ago when he was selected for a Junior Olympics-like overseas competition during the boys HS season. But those are on a case-by-case basis, and my sense is that the WIAA would examine those pretty closely before allowing the exception.
Part of the issue, it seems, in getting club and HS coaches on the "same page" is that the nature of club vs. HS competition is quite different, and how a coach might utilize a given swimmer is also different.
Talk to a parent of a decent distance swimmer, and their child's training during the club season is likely to be different than the training for the HS season. High school meets are driven by freestyle sprinting -- a third of all the "swims" in a typical HS meet are 50/100 free sprints. There is really only one legitimate "distance" event in HS, so nearly all distance swimmers in HS are going to be trained somewhat in free sprints in HS, because that's what's swum. There are other examples, of course.
Just read the same story and was going to send it on to you. With the boys swimming club and high school they have the issue that the H.S. program is over the winter, and club state is the week or so after H.S. state. The only meet where they can earn new USA cut times is State, where it is observed by USA officials.
H.S. swimming can be fun, and it is very sprint focused. My son is also a "A" time distance swimmer who is learning to be a sprinter during H.S. season.
@Becky - I think that if the meet is big enough (other that HS State) you could always have a USS official present and authorize the swim. There is no rule that is can only be HS state
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As a HS only coach, I know the last thing that I want to do is to "screw" up a kid that has trained all year with the club and then comes to the HS season. HS is 14 weeks, club is the other 38 weeks.
I purposely go out of my way to email, call, visit, plan parent/athlete/coach meetings with the local club coach so that all lines of communication are open. It does me no good to bite the hand that feeds me :) This open approach has seemed to work with most of my athletes.
I got this information about from a USS official. Hope this clarifies when a USS official can be present.
"Meet must be a season culminating Championship, e.g. league, conference, district, sectional, state, regional or be specifically approved by the USA Swimming Program Operations Vice President or designee. A time trail held in conjunction with the season-culminating championship meet that is officiated in accordance with the same standard as the championship meet may also be obbserved."
However, there are also a number of high quality HS programs that can train distance swimmers, especially the larger schools. I am willing to bet there are many HS coaches in the state who know how to train distance swimmers as well.
It is not all based on sprinting, although you are right about the majority of the swims being sprints. I would be a fan of adding another "distance" event to the high school event list. It could be a 1000 or 1650 Free, or even a event to the extent of a 400IM. Those distance swimmers do deserve some love, they swim the largest amount of anyone.
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