Relay Carnival Proposal

==Links==
* SHSSC
==Proposal for a new SHSSC “Relay Carnival”==
:Draft from July 23, 2006
Feedback welcomed to: Mark Rauterkus, 412 298 3432 = cell, Mark@Rauterkus.com, and http://69.36.175.17/wiki/index.php/Relay_Carnival_Proposal
These are suggestions. Everything is subject for discussion and review.
===Background:===
As a coach and parent of the teams at Green Tree and now Crafton, I've come to HATE the meet format of the Relay Carnival. The principles of relays and fun in summer swimming is great. But, we can do better in terms of meet structure of events -- for sanity, cooperation, competition and the good of our sport and the teams in the league. I think we need to hold a relay carnival. But I'd love to make drastic changes to its format as described below. These view are my own and not that of the Head Coach, Coach Mike S., nor the board of the team who is gracious to provide me with a paycheck next week. Some do like the relay carnival. I hope I don't hurt your feelings. I do think everyone would find this proposed meet a new highlight to the start of every summer, if we choose to make the change.
===Check it out.===
Let's have a casual meeting to ponder these ideas and weigh its support and objections following the All-Star Meet at South Fayette, on Wednesday at CiCi's located on Washington Pike on Rt. 50. 
==Format for a NEW Relay Carnival:==
#	Event
Event 1: 8 & Under 100 y/m Medley Relay
Event 2:	10 & Under 100 y/m Medley Relay
Event 3:	12 & Under 100 y/m Medley Relay
Event 4:	14 & Under 200 y/m Medley Relay
Event 5:	OPEN 200 y/m Medley Relay
Open means ANY Age. So, coaches, parents, graduates are eligible to swim. 
Event 6:	8 & Under 100 y/m Free Relay
Event 7:	10 & Under 100 y/m Free Relay
Event 8:	12 & Under 100 y/m Free Relay
Event 9:	14 & Under 200 y/m Free Relay
Event 10:	OPEN 200 y/m Medley Free
Event 11:	8 & Under 200 y/m Free Relay
Event 12:	10 & Under 200 y/m Free Relay
Event 13:	12 & Under 200 y/m Free Relay
Event 14:	14 & Under 400 y/m Free Relay
Event 15:	OPEN 400 y/m Medley Free
Distances for the Free Relays for the 14 & Under and Open Age Groups could be either 200 y/m and 400 y/m OR else distances could be 100 y/m and 200 y/m. 
===Prelim teams include:===
South Fayette, Green Tree, Mt. Lebo, Scott and Crafton – PLUS a CONFERENCE Squad. There are SIX teams for Prelims. The CONFERENCE Squad team is made up of designated swimmers who are relegated to the CONFERENCE Squad from the five other teams in the league. 
===Break===
After the last event in PRELIMS, we take a 20-minute break for warm-ups and reformation of teams for FINALS. 
===Finals===
In Finals, the teams are Girls, Boys, Co-Eds, and Conference. There are four teams in the final events.
Finals consist of ONE heat of EACH of the 15 races from prelims. 
The fastest (non DQed of course) six relays in the prelims swim in finals. 
====Scratching and Alternates:====
Scratching finals is not an option, but ONE alternative relay (7th place in prelims) will be designated to stand by for each race. The four swimmers in the alternate relay will be asked to sit on a bench positioned at the edge of the deck. Should any of the six relays not be positioned to swim at the start of the race, and if the alternates are on the bench, ready to swim, then the alternates get to be inserted into the finals race.
==Swimmers and Team Entries==
Each swimmer can compete in up to three events in prelims with one being a medley relay, one being a short distance freestyle relay and one being a long distance freestyle relay. Swimmers should be be expected to do back-to-back relays, i.e, 10-and-under Medley and then entered into the 12-and-under Medley. 
Swimmers who make finals in all three events might swim in six races, three in prelims and three in finals.
Swimmers should be entered into relays by their respective club coaches within their respective age groups. Swimmers can compete in the next older age group. Anyone can compete in the open age group. However, rather than moving a swimmer up an age group, to round out a relay, this meet is designed so 'extra swimmers' can be relegated to the CONFERENCE Squad and NOT be forced to swim with older swimmer and NOT be forced to sit OUT of the event.
Each team may enter an unlimited number of relays per age group. So, A, B, C, D, E, F relays are possible. 
Clubs can enter relays as Boys, Girls, and Co-Ed in every age group.
:Example; Mt. Lebo has 22 swimmers in 8 and Unders and that yeilds:
:* Medley, Mt. Lebo 8 & U Girls “A” 
:* Medley, Mt. Lebo 8 & U Girls “B” 
:* Medley, Mt. Lebo 8 & U Boys “A” 
:* Medley, Mt. Lebo 8 & U Co-Ed “A” 
:* Medley, Mt. Lebo 8 & U Co-Ed “B” = need 20 swimmers. 
:Then, two (2) Mt. Lebo 8 & Unders are “extras” and are “RELEGATED” to the CONFERENCE TEAM and would be joined with other swimmers from other teams and entered into the event as CONFERENCE “A”, Conference “B”, etc. as the numbers allow. = 22 total swimmers and all get to participate.
==Every event accepts all relays – Girls, Boys, Co-Ed, and Conference==
All relays are in a timed prelims, deck seeded in a random method. For example: event #1 heat #1 might have in lane #1 Green Tree Girls “A”, lane #2 = Green Tree Girls “C”, lane #3 = Mt. Lebo Boys “B”, lane #4 = Crafton Co-Ed “B”, lane #5 = CONFERENCE “A” relay, lane #6 = Mt. Lebo Co-Ed “A”.
No seed times are needed for PRELIMS. No entry forms or line-ups are needed before the meet.
Club coaches and teams send relays (Girls, Boys, Co-Ed) to the bullpen with event cards with swimmers names. Meanwhile, swimmers that are relegated to the conference relays are sent to a “CONFERENCE COACH AREA” to be put into relays there.
==COACH Duties rotates: Annual Assignments include:==
* HEAD Coach of the CONFERENCE team (for prelims and/or finals).
* Head Coach for the Girls Team (for finals)
* Head Coach for the Boys Team (for finals)
* Head Coach for the Co-Ed Team (for finals)
===Mix and Match Among Swimmers===
One swimmer could be on a Girls Medley Relay, a Co-Ed Sprint Free Relay and a Conference Long Free Relay. Kids could mix and match on various teams in finals, depending upon the events they were entered into by that swimmers club coach. However, most of the time, coaches are expected to form a relay and have those four stick together throughout the duration of the meet. One might expect that a trend would be for a Girls “A” relay from a team in an age group to stick together for all three events.
==Finals is a re-do:==
To swim a relay in finals, all four swimmers must have been on the the same relay in prelims. No swimmer substitutions are permitted between prelims and finals. If a swimmer gets sick or injured and can not participate in the finals, then the 7th place (alternate) relay gets to enter that spot as a wholesale change.
The order of a relay can change between prelims and finals. The first swimmer in prelims can be the anchor and so on. Switches within a relay are permitted. The order of swimmers written on the card does NOT need to match the order of swimmers who swim in the relay. All four names of the swimmers need to be on the card, but the swimmers can swim in any order.
==Meet records will be established.==
Team records will be published in the heat sheet too. Records will be announced and hyped.
==Scoring in prelims==
* 1st = 8 points; 
* 2nd = 6 points; 
* 3rd = 5 points; 
* 4th = 4 points; 
* 5th = 3 points; 
* 6th = 2 points; 
* 7th (alternate relay) = 1 point
* Bonus points: New Team Record = 2 extra points. 
* Bonus points: New Meet Record = 2 extra points. 
When a Conference Relay finishes prelims and scores in the top 7 places, every swimmer for every team with swimmers on that relay gets scores points for his or her club team. So, if a CONFERENCE RELAY gets 3rd place, 5 points, and that relay includes two swimmers from South Fayette, plus one swimmer from Mt. Lebo and one swimmer from Green Tree, then South Fayette picks up 10 points (5 + 5) and Mt. Lebo gets 5 points and Green Tree gets 5 points.
==Scoring in Finals is only by FOUR TEAMS:==
Girls, Boys, Co-Ed, Conference
* 1st = 8 points; 
* 2nd = 6 points; 
* 3rd = 5 points; 
* 4th = 4 points; 
* 5th = 3 points; 
* 6th = 2 points; 
* 7th (alternate relay) = 1 point for showing up.
* Bonus points: New Club Team Record does NOT apply = 0 extra points. 
* Bonus points: New Meet Record = 2 extra points.
==Meet Details and Operational Notes==
If this meet format change is adopted, Mark Rauterkus would design and build a computer software program that would be able to RUN this swim meet. It would be programmed from scratch to fit the needs of the meet by taking the event cards after PRELIM Races, rank the results, score the teams, and making a heat sheet for finals. It would organize race results, teams relays finishes, team points, team bonus points, seeding of finals, final heat sheet, final scoring. It won't do ribbons nor splits nor swimmers names. 
We'll need to sell or provide heat sheets for Finals for $2 to cover the printing. A copy machine should be available at the swim pool to make these final sheets for all teams, swimmers and spectators. Mark Rauterkus has a high speed printer if we host the meet out of the reach of a Kinkos.
===Two timers per lane===
Coaches would be hard pressed to get splits at a meet such as this. However, splits would be a benefit for the education of the swimmers and the teams. So, one timer in each lane should be a SPLIT TIMER who takes the splits of each of the swimmers in the relay and records the time on note cards and provides those split times to the swimmers in the lane. First swimmer's time, 30.3 on a card. Second swimmer's time on its own card. Etc. Swimmers could then know their split time without needing a parent nor a coach to get it for them.
The other timer in the lane needs to be exact with the times and the cards. The times are the ONLY way the ranking for finals is going to occur. Place judges are not good because we'll have multiple heats in prelims. So, we'll need one good watch on every relay in the prelims, without the distraction of getting splits for each swimmer.
===Team Relay Records===
As a league, we should require in advance of the meet, team relay records. Teams that break relay records for the meet and for the team get a bonus 2 points in that event. Records are meant to be broken. Charting relay records is something that could be made with more fanfare and hype to everyone's benefit.
===Blending===
A coaching duty rotational system, year by year, can be organized. This can be made as part of the bylaws and relay meet for the record book. We have five teams in the league and there are five duties for finals: Girls Coach, Boys Coach, Co-Ed Coach, and Conference Coach for Prelims and Conference Coach for Finals. Assistant coaches could split among the teams and move away from their respective head coaches.
I think that the blending of the teams and blending of the coaches could provide a lot of fun for the kids. 
There will be no “bull pen” for events in the finals. The teams will come from their squad bases. The relays will report directly to the starting blocks and lanes. 
==Uneven and IMPOSSIBLE to predict is a forumla for FUN and excitement==
Lots of kids won't swim finals. Every kid will have an opportunity for multiple events. 
If a team only has 3 kids in one age group, they all can be relegated to the CONFERENCE TEAM and then joined with others, and even moved up to another age group or to the OPEN age group, to make more relay entries.
The BOYS vs. GIRLS vs. Co-Ed vs. CONFERENCE nature of the finals – and the associated points – will be hard to predict. We won't know who is going to win. 
In our league, as it has been, we often know who is going to win the meets. This gives various kids various opportunities to compete with others and have the event outcome be decided there in the races. 
===The score of the meet should be given throughout the meet.===
After every event, the team score should be announced or put up onto a scoreboard that is easily visible for swimmers and spectators to see. Age group awards could be calculated too. Perhaps Mt. Lebo has the best 8 and unders, Scott the best 10 & Unders, Crafton the best 12 and unders and South Fayette the best 14 and unders, and with Jason, Green Tree the best at OPEN. 
==New Social Component and Team DUTIES around the Relay Carnival==
Every team in the conference gets a social duty for the time around the Relay Carnival. The team that hosts the relay carnival swim meet, however, does NOT have a social duty that summer. The social function can be organized by each team and held either before or after the relay carnival, but it should be held within one week of the Relay Carnival. As a best case, a Saturday morning relay carnival meet is joined with Saturday afternoon and/or evening socials that are open to those among the various league swimmers and families.
* Host Team hosts the swim meet, and has no SOCIAL Component Duties that year. 
* One team hosts a Relay Celebration designated for the benefit of the Girls Team
* Second team hosts a Relay Celebration for the Boys Team
* Third team hosts a Relay Celebration for the Co-Ed Team
* Fourth team host a Post Meet Celebration for the OPEN Team geared to the older crowd.
For example, Scott might host the GIRLS TEAM for a pool party, cost $4 per head, RSVP not necessary. Green Tree might hold a pot-luck at a park shelter and play frisbee golf for the BOYS TEAM, no RSVP necessary. Crafton might hold a party for the Co-Ed Team at the Science Center, cost of admission, no RSVP necessary. Mt. Lebo might hold a party for the OPEN Team at someone's home, cost $12, includes wine tasting, RSVP by 10 days before event. South Fayette hosted the meet, so they pass on the social hosting and just go to respective parties of their choice. Social crews can be creative year in and year out. Charge admission if desired. Request RSVPs in advance as desired. Do drive-ins, movies in park, put-put, Sandcastle, Zoo, Duckie Boat, Wildthings, Lazer Tag, whatever.
If a team does NOT want to host a party, then one won't be held for that squad that year. No big deal.