2009 IOWA GIRLS SWIMMING & DIVING MANUAL
RULES
The 2009-2010 National Federation Swimming and Diving Rule Book and Iowa Girls' High School Athletic Union Swimming and Diving Manual will be utilized.
2009-2010 SWIMMING & DIVING RULE CHANGES
2-7-0: It is no longer required, but it is recommended the meet score be posted and/or announced throughout the meet.
3-3-1: Requires the wearing of a one-piece competitive suit.
4-1-5: Allowing swimming and diving officials to dress uniformly other than in all white, as approved by the state association. NOTE: Officials working IGHSAU meets will be required to wear all white for the 2009 season.
4-3-1b: Prohibits the use of a pistol capable of discharging live ammunition for the use as the sounding device.
8-1-2: Permits the competitor to place his/her feet on the end wall, out of the water at the backstroke start, as long as the feet, including the toes, are not above or curling over the lip of the gutter or pool edge.
8-1-7: Clarifies how a swimmer legally finishes a race when a touch pad has been dislodged and moved out of its proper position on the end wall.
8-3-5: Defines a legal start for the second, third and fourth swimmers of a relay team when an in-water start is used.
8-3-8: Establishes the requirements under which the first leg of a relay may be recorded as an official time for that stroke.
IOWA ADAPTATIONS
Rule 3-1-1: (Applies to regular season only) At the regional meet each school may enter three participants for individual events and one relay team for each relay event.
Mascot/Nickname (Clarification of Rule 3-3-1): Member schools' athletic teams may only utilize one mascot/nickname. Schools involved in a cooperative sharing agreement must compete under the host school district's adopted nickname and/or mascot.
Rule 5-1-2b: A mandatory 15-minute break following the 200 Freestyle Relay, if four or more teams. (This break is in addition to the break following the 50 Freestyle.)
Rule 5-1-3: A mandatory 15-minute break following the 200 Freestyle Relay. (This break is in addition to the break following the 50 Freestyle.)
NOTE: The second break has moved this year from the 500 Freestyle in previous years to the 200 Freestyle Relay
GUIDELINES FOR MEET WARM-UP
Prior to any athlete entering the water to begin warm-ups, there shall be a meeting that includes head coaches and captains from each team and officials. The criteria to be reviewed should include, but not limited to: warm-up procedure, pool environment, water depth at both ends, jewelry and uniform rules, starting blocks, lane selection, emergency procedures, conference rule differences, lifeguard responsibilities and other pertinent issues. In addition, the following guidelines are recommended for warm-up procedures at all meets:
1. A designated supervisor whose sole responsibility is to observe the warm-up pool shall be on duty prior to any athletes entering the pool/diving well and throughout the entire warm-up period.
2. Swimmers shall enter the water feet-first except for starts, which are limited to specific lanes.
3. Specify Lanes 2 and 5 (six-lane pool) or Lanes 2 and 7 (eight-lane pool) as one-way sprint lanes with racing starts permitted at the starting end of the pool.
4. Place a cone marker or similar sign on starting platforms in lanes not specified as one-way sprint lanes.
5. Specify center lanes for circle swimming (two lengths of the pool beginning at the starting end of the pool.)
6. Specify the outside lanes as pace lanes (swimmers swim one or two lengths from an in-water push-off position from the starting end of the pool.)
7. May specify lanes for relay practice during the last 15 minutes of the warm-up.
8. Coaches should stand at the starting end of the pool and verbally start swimmers for sprint or pace work.
9. Swimmers should not be allowed on a starting platform when a backstroker is executing a start in the same sprint lane.
10. Swimmers shall not swim in the area where the diving warm up is occurring.
11. Pool shall be closed during the coaches meeting.
12. Jewelry shall not be worn during warm-ups.
Meet management or designated officials may remove a swimmer, coach and/or team from the deck for violations of these recommendations. In facilities that have a warm-up and/or warm-down areas, management shall provide supervision of the area(s) at all times.
REGULAR SEASON INFORMATION
Swimming Season - The opening date for an organized practice associated with a member high school shall be Monday, August 10, 2009 with the first allowable scheduled contest being the second Monday following practice (August 24). Meet limitation: Twelve (12) excluding Regional and State Meets. An athlete may participate in 12 meets during a season. This includes duals, invitational, and conference meets. As a result of some facilities not have diving wells; the competition of diving has a set of limitations of 12 varsity meets. If a school participates in a meet that does not have diving, the divers may participate in diving only meets in order to reach their 12 meet limitation.
CHOICE OF DIVES
Rule 9-4-1: In championship meets, the competition shall consist of 5 voluntary dives and 6 optional dives.
(a) The 5 voluntary dives shall come from each of the 5 groups, with their assigned dd and have a sum total of 9.0 or less. (See 9-3-6 and 9-3-6 Penalty).
(b) The 6 optional dives shall include at least 1 chosen from each of the 5 groups. No more than 1 optional dive from the same group is permitted through semifinals.
(c) All five groups must be represented in the first eight rounds.
(d) The dives to be performed during each round of championship competition shall be as follows:
Rule 9-4-6: In other meets, the competition shall consist of 1 voluntary dive which shall be done first - Week 1 (Aug. 24-30) = forward group, Week 2 (August 31-Sept. 6 = back group, Week 3 (September 7-13) = inward group, Week 4 (September 14-20) = twisting group, Week 5 (September 21-27) = reverse group, etc., and 5 optional dives, coming from at least 4 of the 5 groups and which may include any of the dives other than the voluntary dive. Any dive from a group may be designated as a voluntary dive. It will receive its assigned dd through 1.8. Any designated voluntary dive with a dd greater than 1.8 will be assigned a dd of 1.8.
Note: For interstate competition, the voluntary dive group of the week shall follow the schedule of the host school's state unless state association determines otherwise.
After week five has been competed, the rotation of voluntary dives returns back to week one and a dive from the forward group, week two-dive from the back group, etc. until completion of diving season.
ONLINE PERSONNEL ENTRY FORMS
All forms can be downloaded from the IGHSAU web page by clicking the ÒPersonnel Entry FormsÓ link. Remember that you need a password to access the online forms, if you do not know the password check with your Athletic Director. There are four forms that need to be filed with the respective site/office. They can be found under the Òother formsÓ section of the online forms menu.
1. State Swimming Competitors List: This list should contain only the names of the divers, swimmers, managers, and coaches that have officially qualified for the State Meet. This list will be used to let your swimmers into the competitive area. The list must be faxed/emailed to the Girls' Athletic Union by 4:00 p.m., Monday, November 2, 2009.
REGIONAL MEET INFORMATION
There will be six Regional Meets. Diving will be held on Thursday, October 29, 2009 and swimming will be held on Saturday, October 31 to qualify for the State Meet at the Marshalltown Y on November 6-7, 2009.
Regional sites will be unavailable for practice to outside teams and individuals ten days prior to the regional meets. This excludes those who use the facility as their regular practice site and any sanctioned competition that may occur within the ten-day limit.
ADMISSIONS: Admission price is left to the discretion of meet management. Only ONE ticket per person is needed to cover the complete meet. There need be no financial report filed with the Iowa Girls' High School Athletic Union. The host school retains all receipts.
LOCKER ASSIGNMENTS AND TOWELS: Swimmers will be assigned a section of individual lockers in the dressing rooms. Each swimmer should bring a towel and padlock for their locker.
OFFICIALS: The IGHSAU will assign three officials for the Diving event on Thursday and three officials for the Swimming events on Saturday, all at the expense of the IGHSAU.
SELECTION OF DIVING JUDGES: There will be seven judges used, three judges will be the officials assigned by the IGHSAU and four judges will be coaches. The four coaches judging the diving competition will be chosen at the Coaches' meeting. (Rule 9-6-4, the two high scores and the two low scores will be eliminated from the scoring procedure on each dive.)
ENTRIES: Regional entries will be done online. Each regional site will have a specific web page that head coaches will use to post their entries online. Head coaches will be e-mailed their user name on Wednesday, October 21 to access the online entry page. Regional entries must be submitted online no later than 4:00 p.m. Wednesday, October 28.
The completed Diving Entry sheet (per Rule 9-3-5) which is available for download on the IGHSAU website, must be in the hands of your Regional Meet Manager no later than 4:00 p.m., Wednesday, October 28, 2009.
DO NOT MISS THESE IMPORTANT DEADLINES.
Finalizing of diving sheets should be done by 5:00 p.m. (Thursday). Due to entry deadline of Wednesday, Oct. 29, any updates/changes to individual entries are to be declared by the team coach by 8:00 a.m. (Saturday). If you have changes contact the site manager via phone/fax/e-mail. This includes verification and updating of entries. Relay cards should only declare personnel of the relay team and alternates. If a coach does not show up for the Coaches' Meeting, the diving and entry sheet will become official entries for the school at the Regional Meets.
Regional host Athletic Directors will be sent the seeded Hy-Tek regional meet file Wednesday evening, October 28th. This format does not change the fact that coaches can make changes the day of the meet or prior to the meet.
ENTRY LIMITATION: Iowa Adaptation to Rule 3-1-1: Each school may enter three participants for individual events and one relay team for each relay event. Rule 3-2-1: Each individual swimmer may enter a maximum four events, no more than two of which may be individual events.
SEEDING: Times submitted on the entries will be used to seed the swimmers and relays. Diving order will be drawn by lot. Remember, only times gained in 25-yard pool meet competition may be used for seeding purposes. If a swimmer does not have a time in the event entered, she must be seeded with a ÒNo TimeÓ. Individual times must be actual times achieved by those competitors in that event(s). Relay times must be actual times achieved in meet competition. Protests related to verification of seed times must be resolved by the 10:00 a.m. Coaches' Meeting. Verification will be done by power rankings or official meet results. Penalty of the protest being upheld will be re-assignment of lanes and heats using ÒNo TimeÓ.
Seed times should be rounded to a hundredth of a second by dropping off all thousandths. Example: 51.111 and 51.119 would be rounded to 51.11 as a seed time.
SCORING: Rule 7-1-3, points awarded on the basis of sixteen places.
AWARDS: Medals for first-sixth place finishers in both individual and relay events will be awarded. All regional team champions will receive a banner.
TIME SCHEDULE:
Thursday
4:00 p.m. Pool opens for warm-up (divers only)
5:00 p.m. Diving sheets must be in (coaches meeting on deck)
6:00 p.m. Regional Diving Competition
Saturday
8:00 a.m. Entry Deadline (finalized) e-mail/fax/phone the site manager with any changes
10:00 a.m. Coaches' Meeting
10:30 a.m. Pool opens for swimmers
-- (after coaches' meeting)
11:45 a.m. Pool closes
12:00 noon Regional Swimming Competition
ORDER OF EVENTS: All swimming events will be run as timed finals.
1. 200 Medley Relay
2. 200 Freestyle
3. 200 Individual Medley
4. 50 Freestyle
5. 20 Minute Break*
6. 100 Butterfly
7. 100 Freestyle
8. 500 Freestyle
9. 200 Freestyle Relay
10. 15-minute break*
11. 100 Backstroke
12. 100 Breaststroke
13. 400 Freestyle Relay
COACHES' MEETINGS: Matters to be decided at Diving Coaches' Meeting (Thursday): (1) select four of the coaches in your Regional to be diving judges and (2) make all final changes on your diving sheets. Matters to be decided at Swimming Coaches' Meeting (Saturday): (1) Scratch any swimmer that is ill or not competing if she is listed on the entry sheet and follow the rules on an ill competitor and note which alternate is taking her place if she is swimming in a relay, and (2) select Regional Coach of the Year and Senior Scholastic Achievement Recipients.
STATE MEET INFORMATION
The State Meet will be a two-day meet at the Marshalltown YMCA on Friday and Saturday, November 6-7, 2009. Diving will be held Friday, November 6, commencing at 5:00 p.m. State Swimming events will begin at 12:00 (noon) on Saturday, November 7, and will be contested as timed finals.
TICKETS: Ticket prices for the two sessions will be as follows:
Diving Competition: Adults & Students - $8.00
Swimming Finals: Adults & Students - $8.00
LOCKER ASSIGNMENTS: There are designated locker rooms for the athletes to use throughout the meet. Athletes should bring their own towel and padlock for the locker.
SELECTION OF DIVING JUDGES: Diving judges will be State Meet officials selected by the IGHSAU. Seven judges will be used for this meet. (Rule 9-6-4, the two high scores and the two low scores will be eliminated from the scoring procedure on each dive.)
STATE MEET QUALIFIERS: A list of qualifiers together with heat and lane assignments for the State Meet will be posted on the IGHSAU website after the Regional Meet. Qualifications for the State Meet will be based on times and placement in Regional competition. The first place swimmers and relays from each Regional plus the next eighteen best performances from all Regional Meets will qualify for the State Swimming & Diving Meet. The top four finishers in the diving event at each Regional plus the next twelve highest point totals from all Regional Meets will advance to the State Swimming & Diving Meet. Note: If a regional champion's time is not within the top 24 qualifying times, the top 24 qualifying times will advance along with the regional champion that does not have a top 24 time.
Forms that must filed to the State Office no later than 4:00 p.m., Monday, November 2, 2009:
2009 State Swimming Competitors List: This form should contain only the names of the swimmers, divers, managers, and coaches that have officially qualified for the State Meet. This list will be used to let your swimmers into the competitive area without charge. All other team members not in the State Meet are to purchase a ticket.
IMPORTANT REMINDERS:
** No substitutions in the individual events. Only athletes who qualify in individual events at the Regional Meets can swim in the individual events in the State Meet.
** Relay team personnel can change from the Regional Meet to the State Meet.
** A competitor may withdraw from a preliminary event or final, including diving, with a declared false start. Notice must be given to the referee, or referee's designee by the swimmer, coach, or other personnel. The event still counts as an entry for the competitor. However, it does not disqualify the competitor from further competition or nullify previous performances. (Rule 3-2-3)
**Only swimmers and divers that have qualified for the State Meet, manager and coaches will be admitted to the State Meet free of charge. Again, only coaches employed by the school and those earning college credit for student teaching will be allowed on deck. This DOES NOT include Club and Volunteer coaches. Schools who make passes available to non-school coaches or athletes in addition to their qualifiers and alternates risk forfeiture of team allowance.
** Swim Coach Please Note and Comply **
HEAT & LANE ASSIGNMENTS: Made in descending order of qualifying times in accordance with Rule 5-3-3 (eight-lane pool). Divers' order will be drawn by lot.
SCORING: Rule 7-1-3, points awarded on the basis of sixteen places.
AWARDS: The champion of each event will receive an acrylic plaque. All other participants will receive a participation plaque. Medals will be awarded to first through sixth place finishers of each event. Trophies will be given to first and second place team finishers with the championship team coach receiving a plaque.
Diving awards will be presented immediately following diving competition Friday evening. If you only have Divers, coaches please remember to pick up participation plaques on Friday evening.
The first six place finishers are to report to the awards staging area one event following their race to be presented with their awards. Competitors recognized on the awards stand must be dressed appropriately. This means warm-up or other school issued clothing must be worn over the suit. Competitors who do not fulfill this obligation will not be permitted on the awards stand. Participation plaques and results may be picked up following conclusion of the meet. Team trophies will be presented at the end of the meet.
TIME SCHEDULE:
Friday
3:00 p.m. Pool opens for warm-up (Divers only)
4:00 p.m. Diving sheets must be in
5:00 p.m. State Diving Competition
Saturday
9:30 a.m. Coaches' Meeting
10:00 a.m. Pool opens for swimmers
-- (after coaches' meeting)
11:45 a.m. Pool closes
12:00 (noon) Parade of Teams followed immediately with Final competition
PROGRAMS: Programs for the State Meet can be purchased at the State Meet. Team packets will not include programs.
T-SHIRTS: Official State Swimming and Diving Meet merchandise may be purchased at the State Meet from Image Sport.
OFFICIAL PHOTOGRAPHS: Steve Pope Photography will be taking official award photographs at the 2009 State Swimming and Diving Meet. You can view photographs from the State Meet by visiting SteveÕs website: www.stevepope.com.
HANDLING BODY FLUIDS: DURING THE CONTEST, CONTEST OFFICIALSÕ LIMITS OF RESPONSIBILITIES
An examination of interscholastic sports rulebooks reveals there is little direction given officials regarding the handling of body fluids during a contest. Any mention that does exist is vague at best, and no rulebook outlines a protocol that officials are to follow.
Therefore, the purpose of this document is to provide officials information regarding their responsibilities during a contest should an injury or illness occur which results in an athlete losing blood or vomiting in the competitive area.
In the event an athlete sustains an injury or becomes ill during a contest on the competitive surface or in close proximity such that the problem affects play or the continuation of the contest, IGHSAU officials shall take the following steps:
1. Stop the contest at the point the problem is recognized. The IGHSAU recognizes some rulebooks make specific statements about play interruption. All rulebooks have an Òelastic clauseÓ which allows an official to take whatever action may be required.
2. Do not administer first aid to any athlete except to comfort the athlete until those designated to administer first aid arrive.
3. Do not take part in handling blood, vomit, feces, pus or other body fluids.
4. Officials shall professionally monitor the situation as observers, keeping in mind the rules addressing interruptions, stoppage of play, starting play, and other specific rules that may apply.
5. Officials with qualified training shall avoid participating in first aid treatment except when there is absolutely no other alternative.
6. Uniform rule - If through injury or illness the uniform of a contestant becomes contaminated with body fluid, the official will disregard rulebook codification on penalties for changing the participant's uniform.
The IGHSAU supports officials and coaches who are responding to a situation with the philosophy that the welfare of the injured player always comes first. We ask officials to be aware of their responsibilities and limitations as outlined above, with the understanding school personnel (coaches, trainers, etc.) are responsible to work directly with the injured or ill player.
IOWA GIRLSÕ HIGH SCHOOL ATHLETIC UNIONÕS
POLICY ON THE PRESENCE OF BLOOD DURING
ATHLETIC CONTESTS IN GRADES 7-12
1. Before competing, cover any open wounds.
2. When a contest official observes an athlete bleeding during competition, competition shall be stopped on completion of the play or action in progress. Injuries creating visible bleeding shall be treated as any other injury in that the injured athletes shall be removed from the contest for the length of time specified by that sport's injury rule and given proper attention.
As a point of reference, the specific injury rules for basketball, softball and volleyball are:
a. Basketball - A player who is injured to the extent that the coach or any other bench personnel comes onto the court shall leave the game and may not return until the first opportunity for such player to return.
b. Softball - Time shall be called when a player is injured and the appearance of blood is observed. Bench personnel will be allowed to spend reasonable time to cover and clean the wound before requesting a substitute. The pitching hand by rule may not be covered in part or whole by any substance. If the pitcher has an open wound on the hand that produces blood, she must be removed as pitcher until the problem is solved.
c. Volleyball - Time shall be called when a player is injured and the appearance of blood is observed. Bench personnel will be allowed to spend reasonable time to cover and clean the wound before requesting a substitute. A participant shall not continue competition until the bleeding is controlled and the wound covered.
For those sports not having a specific injury rule, the official shall allow sideline personnel to attend to the bleeding athlete for a reasonable amount of time before requesting a substitute. An athlete shall not continue competition unless the bleeding is controlled and the wound is covered. Any athlete who has left the contest due to bleeding shall not re-enter the contest until the bleeding has been controlled and the wound covered.
3. When a contest official observes an excessive amount of blood on a participant or their uniform that participant shall leave the contest for the length of time specified by the sport's injury rule and the blood shall be wiped from the participant and/or their uniform. If a team does not wish to remove the player from the game, one of its charged time outs may be used during which time the blood shall be wiped from the contestant. If the blood appears immediately prior to a quarter, halftime, or overtime intermission, sideline personnel may use such intermission to wipe the blood from the contestant. For those sports not having a specific injury rule, the official shall allow sideline personnel to wipe the blood off the athlete and play shall be resumed. An excessive amount of blood is that amount which could be easily transferred from one athlete to another.
4. Any time a contest is stopped due to blood being present, any washable surfaces (i.e. gym floor, pool deck, equipment) contaminated with blood shall be properly cleaned using OSHA accepted standards and procedures before competition resumes.
5. Athletes should render first-aid to themselves or first-aid shall be administered by sideline personnel, not by contest officials.
6. The risk of contracting the AIDS virus as a contest official or participant is minimal. There are no documented cases of AIDS being transmitted through athletic participation.
TEAM POWER POINT REPORTING
Schools are required to send in power point reports. There will be two check points during the course of the regular season. The first check point is Monday, September 21. The final reporting date is Monday, October 19.
Failure to report statistics by the first reporting date will result in a reminder letter sent to the coach, athletic director, principal and superintendent. Failure to submit statistics by the final reporting date will result in the head coach being suspended from coaching in the regional and state swimming & diving meets.
The purpose of power ranking is to keep the coaches and swimmers informed on what is happening in Iowa Girls' swimming and diving. The listings will be available for public access on the IGHSAU website (www.ighsau.org). These listings will help in giving girls recognition for their achievements throughout the season.
As in recent years, not only the top twenty performances are listed in these ratings, but detailed computer listings in each of the events. Reports will come out about five times during the season and posted on the IGHSAU website.
You can download the single Power Ratings spreadsheet now. We hope that it will be easier for all concerned to keep track of swimming statistics using this spreadsheet.
This form will be used for uploading your meet information to the web site and to calculate the top 50 swimmers in each event.
-- Each coach will send his or her own school's information for each meet to the following email address: jasoneslinger@ighsau.org. You do not need to send the other team's information.
--This means that you will have to send in your information for each meet you attend, as the host coach will not be doing it for other teams.
--Directions are located on page one of the spreadsheet.
--Download the spreadsheet from the IGHSAU website or contact the State Office to have it e-mailed to you.
The link is: http://www.ighsau.org/ighsauwebsite/swimming.htm
Instructions (found on page one of the spreadsheet):
1. Read the set of instructions.
2. Record meet information for your team on one Excel scoring
sheet.
3. Fill in all the information according to the instruction sheet.
4. Call 515-288-9741 if you have any questions.
IMPORTANT:
-- Make sure to include your meet name and date.
-- Save your file with the name and date of the meet. This will insure your file is not overwritten before being processed.
-- Your files will be e-mailed back to you if you havenÕt filled out this information.
If coaches have any questions regarding the power rankings, top 20 listings or swimming publicity in general, please feel free to call Jason Eslinger at (515) 288-9741 or via e-mail at jasoneslinger@ighsau.org.
TOP 20 ALL-TIME BEST TIMES
The top 20 best times are taken from any time swam in a 25-yard pool or 25-meter pool and reported through the Top 20 ranking system and Regional and State competition during the girls' high school swimming season. Individual ranks are based on the individual swimmer or diver's best career performance. Relays are ranked on the school's best performance during a given season of competition. Times will be obtained from the annual Top 20 listings, individual times reported to the Girls' Union by coaches, Regional and State Meet times.
The Top 20 All-Time Best Times start with the times from the State Meet of 1967, which was the first State Meet, and are current to this present date.
ALL-STATE TEAMS
All-State Team selections are based on the best time performances achieved at the State Meet. The top three performances in each individual event and the top two relays will be honored as First Team, All-State swimmers. The performances with the 4th, 5th and 6th times in individual events and 3rd and 4th best performances in each relay will be honored as Second Team, All-State. A certificate of merit will be awarded to each girl and school in recognition of being selected to an All-State Team.
ALL-AMERICAN
Due to the continued improvement of Iowa swimmers and divers, a number of competitors may qualify for High School All-American recognition. It is the coach's responsibility to fill out the necessary forms and information to gain this recognition. If you need assistance, contact the State Office.
REMINDER TO COACHES
Regional records can only be set in Regional Meet competition and State records can only be established at the State Meet. The times used for Iowa Girls' All-Time Top 20 Best Times will be those submitted for each year's regular Top 20 best times and times obtained in either Regional or State competition.