And our feeling was, if you have an objective outside party who's there, and they see the time, that ought to end the little bit of controversy. One of the biggest problems was GHSA rules were not clear on when and where a swimmer could qualify for state. That left some coaches honestly confused. Riverdale coach Michael Walraven was forced to disqualify one of his swimmers from two events at the last minute when it was discovered the swimmer had met the times at United States Swimming meets but not a high school meet. Proof of performance must be verified by two GHSA coaches who are in attendance at that meet.
Most coaches agree the proof of performance system is a good thing for the sport.
Pete Higgins, swim coach at Westminster, has been one of the leading proponents for a verification system. This way we have a lot of proof readers. Higgins said the problem of swimmers competing at the state meet with falsified qualifying times has been around for years, and has not been a big secret. We're just very hopeful that it's going to solve a few of our problems.