High School Swimming Taking a Virtual Turn
Around this time, it would have been a normal swim and dive season for some high school teams. With the COVID-19 pandemic still at large in the United States, high school swim season and meets, though, are going to look very different. In many cases, swim meets are going from in-person to virtual, just like classrooms. Although there have been virtual meets in the past, that was before the pandemic. Now virtual swim meets are looking to become the norm.
“As an organization, NISCA understands the need for virtual swimming and diving meets during this time of pandemic. It is unlikely that swimming, diving and water polo teams will be able to fully compete in the manner to which we are accustomed during the 2020-2021 school year,” said the National Interscholastic Swimming Coaches Association.
NISCA says that it will accept results from a virtual swim meet for All America Swimming and Diving applications or NISCA National Records, needing to meet the following conditions.
- The meet must be conducted under the supervision of a meet referee who is a duly certified/registered NFHS or State Association registered official. There must be sufficient number of certified/registered official(s) on deck at each location to properly conduct the competition. The official or officials may not be coaches of the team(s) involved in the meet.
- The meet must be INTERSCHOLASTIC and follow all NFHS rules; or follow their state associations modification or limitations of these applications altering the NFHS rules where it is needed for proper health/safety considerations.
- Automatic timing is required.
- The course must be the same at each site. All teams must compete in SCY or in SCM.
- The meet has to be against another opponent, as scheduled on the school athletic calendar. The meets at the different locations must run concurrently (starting and ending on the same date). Time Trials and intrasquad meets are not allowed.
- NISCA encourages schools to use video for recording or live streaming of the meet or races to help verify results.
- An official meet result with meet date, all splits, meet manager signature and officials’ signatures will be required. Additional paperwork or information may be required by NISCA for application (links to video streams, Athletic calendar, etc).
- All other normal rules for All America application will still apply.
NISCA will only consider results from the 2020-2021 from the virtual meets with the above qualifications for the 2020-2021 school year only.
How does this affect high school swim meets? When the world wasn’t in a pandemic, swimmers would actually be able to compete against each other in-person without worrying about COVID-19 precautions. Virtual meets will look and feel very different. You won’t be able to see your opponent, rather only teammates in the water with you.
Will athletes even like this new normal of sports, not being able to see your opponent, no crowd, and no sort of high energy atmosphere? The crowd and the opponent is what motivates these athletes to get into the pool and to swim as fast as they can. When it comes to meets, there’s always a competitive environment as teammates are cheering on each other every time they hit the wall. Swimmers get the adrenaline pumping when they’re on the block waiting for the “on your mark.”
Without the competitive environment, how will teams be able to simulate it and get the adrenaline pumping? Over the past few months, professional sports have added tracks of a fake crowd to simulate the experience. Could this approach be an idea for high schools that are participating in virtual meets?
For swimmers, it’ll be a unique experience since it’s something that everyone isn’t used to. While many teams won’t be able to face off in person, they still have the opportunity to participate in a sport they love. Although seniors are marking off their last year in high school almost or completely virtually, swimmers and divers are still able to jump in the pool and get the feeling of the chlorine on their skin one more time.