Greenbriar Dolphin Swim Team

NVSL rules require white shirts and blue shorts, pants, or skirts to be worn by all officials.

The Clerk of the Course is the "gatekeeper" for all swimmers in our meets. The people who perform this function get the swimmers to the right lanes for the correct race. You can't run a race without swimmers and the clerk of the course makes sure the right swimmer gets to the right place at the right time.

The referee is the chief official for each swim meet. They are responsible for the conduct of the meet and is the final authority on the interpretation and enforcement of all swimming rules. Prior to the start of each race, the referee sounds two or three short blasts to advise the participants to get ready. After the announcer or starter announces the event, the referee sounds one long blast as a signal for swimmers to get into position for the start or to jump feet first into the water for a backstroke event. For backstroke events, a second long blast is given to bring the swimmers to the wall for the start. When the referee sees that all the swimmers are ready, he extends his arm pointing towards the starter. At this point, the starter takes control.

The starter is responsible for insuring that all swimmers are given a fair and equitable start. The starter will instruct the swimmers to "take your mark". After all swimmers are ready and still, the starter will start the race using a "Colorado System" (so called because it is built by Colorado Timing Systems). This system consists of a public address system, a horn, and a strobe light.

A race can be recalled only if it was a bad start by the starter (i.e. not all the swimmers were ready) or for a safety reason. This is done using a recall signal on the Colorado system (you'll know it when you hear it). For more information, see False Starts in Chapter 7.

Once the race has started, the stroke-and-turn judges are responsible for ensuring that all swimmers obey all the rules for the stroke that they are swimming. These people are always at the ends of the pool for starts and finishes and walk the sides of the pool as best they can within the physical constraints of the pool. If a stroke-and-turn judge sees a violation of the rules, he raises his hand to signify that an infraction has occurred. A disqualification is recorded on a DQ slip, which the referee reviews and approves, then forwards copies to the table workers and the team rep.

Marshals are responsible for ensuring that meets are conducted safely and that order is maintained during warm-ups. Duties include: insuring that diving starts are used in warm-ups only when a lane is “one way” (away from the starting end), stopping any horse play, and making sure swimmers aren’t hanging or sitting on the lane lines.

During relays, you'll see four relay takeoff judges at each end of the pool (two per lane). Their job is to ensure that each swimmer touches the wall prior to the next swimmer in the relay leaving the deck. Each judge notes on a slip of paper whether each swimmer in his lane left before or after the swimmer in the water touched the wall. Relay takeoff judges do not raise their hands when they observe an early takeoff because a disqualification occurs only if both relay takeoff judges observed an early takeoff.

Timers are the most important people to every swimmer. They are the people who determine each swimmer's official time for each race. Being a timer is a good entry-level position for new parents. Some parents have been timers for years and wouldn't want to see a swim meet from any other viewpoint. If you can start and stop a stopwatch, you can be a timer. We'll even provide the stopwatch. Timers start their watches on the strobe light from the Colorado system and stop their watches when the swimmer touches the wall. There are three timers per lane and all three times are recorded. The middle time is the official time. The chief timer collects the time cards from the timers, reviews them for accuracy and completeness, and forwards them on to the table workers.

The time cards from the timers, and any DQ slips, go to the table workers, who determine the order of finish for each event, enter the times in the meet database, and prepare ribbons for the participants. Several people from each team perform these functions to insure that errors are caught before the results are announced.

The team rep is the designated recipient of all DQ slips for his team and is the only person with any official standing to challenge any decisions made by the referee. It sounds like an easy job, but remember, most of the team rep's job is done before the meet starts.

During the meet, the coaches’ primary responsibility is to encourage and praise the swimmers and to make sure that they get to the clerk of the course in time to swim.

It would be impossible to host a swim meet without a number of people in other very important positions. These people edit newsletters, set up the pool and sell concessions. They also announce the results, run social activities, act as marshals in the team area, and do other jobs that need to be done. We need the help of every family in order to have a successful swim season. Almost every event we post on the team website includes a sign up for families to help out. Many hands make light work so please help out as much as you can.