Marlins Swim Team - Questions & Answers
| The purpose of this
web page is to help answer questions you may have about the Marlins
Swim Team or any functional area of our team. We
hope to address and answer many of the common questions that are
asked each year.
This Q&A web page is sorted by category so if you are looking for a specific answer to a question, please start by scrolling down to the category.... then look for the question. If we haven't addressed your question on this web page, please send your question via email to webmaster@macombmarlins.com.
Concessions If I donate something to concessions, when/where do I bring my donations? For each home meet, there will be a designated concession area at the facility. Our "HOME" pool facility is located at L'Anse Creuse North High School. Currently our concession area is in the main lobby area when you enter at the north side of the building. Bring your donation to this area before the meet starts, and preferably before the warm-up session begins. For our home swim meets, am I required to donate to Concessions? NO, you are not required to make donations to our concession area. However, if we are asked to help provide food/beverage items for our swim meets, as a TEAM we would expect that everyone be conscientious and generous in helping in this area. Donations to our concession area should ALWAYS be a TEAM effort!!! Also please note that most of our item requests will cost less than $10 (per item). How can I contact the person in charge of the Marlins concession area? You can reach our committee head for concessions via email at concessions@macombmarlins.com. Fundraising What are my fundraising requirements? The Marlin Marathon is the only mandatory fundraising activity of each swim season. All Marlin swimmers are expected to participate in the Marlin Marathon (NO EXCEPTIONS). There are also other fundraising exercises throughout the season of which we hope to have our TEAM participate in. Each fundraiser helps us minimize increases to our dues. The Marlin Marathon usually takes place within the first few months after the start of each new "short course" swim season (September-March). Registration When can I register for the Marlins? You can register for the Marlins at any time. You MUST register before you can start to practice and compete in swim meets. The only exception would apply to NEW swimmers who can use our FREE trial period prior to registering for the swim team. The short course season begins with our trial period in early September. Returning swimmers should register before the trial period. How do I signup for the Marlins Swim Team? You will need to fill out 3 forms:
All 3 forms (Marlins Swim Team Registration Form, Emergency Contact Form, YMCA Membership Form) need to be filled out in its entirety, and turned in at the Macomb Family YMCA. How do I know which practice group fits best for my child? One of the reasons we have a trial period is to help you determine which practice group fits best. Our coaches want to place swimmers in the group that will provide the best benefit to their swimming development and their athletic ability. The practice groups are categorized into 4 different groups: Freshman, Sophomore, Junior, Senior. By comparison, in the Freshman practice group, there is more emphasis on proper technique, whereas with Senior practice group, more emphasis is placed on conditioning. Another comparison can be made that Freshman swimmers are typically much younger than Senior swimmers. Exceptions can be made in both comparisons.... this is why our coaches want to help you make the correct choice. Swim Meets What should my child and I bring to swim meets (or invitationals)? Your child should have extra goggles and an extra swim suit in case of an emergency. Additionally, they should have flip flops and sweat clothes to wear in between events (particularly if they plan on leaving the swim deck to get food or visit relatives in the stands. Parents should have a highlighter (for highlighting their swimmers name in the programs); a pen (for writing down their times), and a permanent Sharpie (just in case their child did not get his/her events written down on their arm. Can I come on deck to watch my child swim? Barring any extraordinary circumstances, parents are not allowed on the pool deck during a meet (primary viewing area, is the stands). The only people that are allowed on deck, are the swimmers, coaches, and any volunteers that are working on deck at the meet. This is obviously one of the perks for parent volunteers. Can I leave the meet right after my child swims? If parents have obligations outside of the meet, it is perfectly fine to leave after the child swims his or her events (please make sure that coaches are informed as soon as possible, so arrangements can be made in case the child was scheduled or thrown into a relay event). Ideally, we look at Marlin swimming as a team event, so we'd like to see children attend the entire event so they can cheer on their teammates (you'll find that as they make friends, the children will want this also). How can I retrieve awards if I need to leave the meet early? PLEASE remember that the retrieval of YOUR awards is ultimately YOUR responsibility!! Even if you need to leave early, awards are usually ready and distributed by the host team approximately 10 to 15 minutes after each race. With that said, our coaches will usually retrieve those awards that are left behind before leaving the meet. If it's a two day meet (as with invitational meets), they won't be retrieved until after the meet has ended on the last day of competition. In some cases where the coach may not retrieve awards, the host team may make arrangements with the respective visiting teams to send the awards via postage mail. How are swimming awards determined?? Awards are assigned at the discretion of the host team. At many swim meets, ribbons may be awarded for places 1 through 16 (in individual events). In some cases, medals are awarded to the top 3 or top 6 finishers. For more information about awards, go to the host team's web site, and check their meet packet (information). Some host teams will have a web page designated for "Visiting Teams" which contains information about their meet. If you are unable to find the award information for a particular swim meet, please contact one of our team's entry chair persons. How do I sign up for swim meets? How are the swim meets categorized? First, note that the Marlin web site’s Online Signup will require a User Name and Password. You must be a Marlin swimmer or a parent/guardian of a Marlin swimmer to obtain the login information. The User Name and Password are communicated in the Yahoo Email Group during the first portion of the season, or you can obtain this information by requesting it via email to: webmaster@macombmarlins.com. The Marlins Online Signup is used for the following meets:
Second, note that our entry chair persons are only responsible to enter your swimmers into meets that are “targeted” on our schedule. Swimmers may enter meets that are not on our schedule by accessing the entry information from the host team’s web site. The entry form needs to be filled out (per the host team’s requirements) and sent/mailed to the host team’s entry chair person. If you need help with this process, please contact one of our Marlin entry chair volunteers. There are 4 different types of meets throughout the swim season. Each meet is approached in a different manner.
If you need further assistance with meet definitions or meet entry, please contact our entry chairperson via email at entries@macombmarlins.com. How many meets are swimmers required to participate in? The Marlin Team does not have any requirements with regard to the number of meets a swimmer participates in. We encourage all of our new swimmers to make every effort to gain "BIG" meet experience (i.e. Invitationals). Although it is not a requirement, we expect everyone on the Marlin Team to swim in the dual meets and in particular, our Marlin Invitational in January. There is one YMCA requirement which states that a swimmer must participate in 3 sanctioned YMCA meets in order to be eligible to swim in championship meets. The championship season starts in February, and the first championship meet is Eastern "A" Cluster. Which swim events should I select for my child? We will direct our answer to this question with regard to novice swimmers. Most novice swimmers should select the shorter distance events in the freestyle and backstroke. For novice swimmers 8 years of age and younger, select 25 yard events.... and nothing longer than 50 yards ( which is two lengths of the pool). For novice swimmers 9 to 12 years of age, select 50 yard events. For novice swimmers 13 years of age and older, select 50 yard events.... and nothing longer than 100 yards (four lengths of the pool). Selecting shorter events is a certain path to take in the early stages of the swim season. If swimmers are attending most of their practice sessions, and they are making good progress as the team moves into the New Year, they may be ready for a race with more distance. If you are still unsure which events to select, bring the meet entry form to practice, and the coach will select the events for you. Experienced swimmers, typically those in our Junior and Senior practice groups, should know themselves which events they should be swimming. Experienced swimmers should always be looking to challenge themselves throughout the swim season..... so selecting all short events would not be a good path to take. Swim Try-outs Do swimmers need to try-out to make the team? The Marlins offer a FREE two-week trial period or try-out at the beginning of every short course swim season (which starts in early September). Please note that EVERYONE makes the team!!! The purpose of the try-out is to give a swimmer an opportunity to swim at our practices and to see if they would like to be a part of the swim team. It also gives our coaches an opportunity to help you place them into the practice group that best fits their ability. If you missed this trial period, you can contact one of our board members to make arrangements for a FREE 3-day trial period (see Contact Us web page). With the Marlins, Everyone Swims, Everyone Wins!! Volunteers How can I volunteer? Who should I contact to volunteer? When available, we need volunteers for committee chairs as well as for the Marlins Board of Directors (BOD). If you wish to help as a committee chair or as a member of the Marlin BOD, please contact our BOD President. We also need volunteers for other activities such as Fundraisers and Swim Meets. Our need for volunteers at HOME swim meets is ongoing, and covers many functional areas like concessions, awards, marshaling, officiating (if certified), scoring, timing, and setup/cleanup. It becomes even more vital that we have plenty of volunteers at our Marlin Invitational in January. For our Marlin Invitational, one other functional area we need volunteers for is advertising. If you are interested in volunteering for any of our meets, please contact our Meet Director. Web Site I can't open a file/document from the web site....What's wrong? All of our web site files and documents are posted in PDF format (Portable Document Format). This is a universal format, available for every computer and operating system.... and the PDF Reader is FREE from the Adobe web site, If you are having download problems, typically you may have one of two problems: 1.) Your computer does not have a PDF Reader installed or your current PDF Reader software is outdated (see the link at the bottom of the Marlin's web site home page), or 2.) Your browser (i.e. Internet Explorer, Safari, Mozilla, etc) is setup to block pop-ups. One remedy for problem#2 is to change your browser to allow pop-ups. If you are having trouble downloading any of the files/documents from the Marlins web site, and are unable to resolve the issue yourself, please contact our web site administrator at webmaster@macombmarlins.com. Why are some of the web pages (or portions of web pages) on the Marlins web site scrambled or unreadable? This might be caused by your browser settings although most of the time it is caused by incorrect formatting techniques on the web site. If you are having any problems viewing any of the web pages on the Marlins web site, please contact our web site administrator via email at webmaster@macombmarlins.com. Yahoo Group Email What is the Yahoo Group email system? The Yahoo group email system is our team's "Life-Line". Through this email system, and throughout the swim season, we communicate a significant amount of information to the team with regard to team activities, newsletters, upcoming meets, practice updates, and much more. During the swim season, it is strongly suggested that everyone check their email daily for potential practice session updates. I am not receiving email from the Marlins Yahoo Group email system. Who should I contact? If you are not receiving any email from our team's email system (Yahoo Group Email), please contact either Marianne Ross (mrossmym@comcast.net) or Bridget Pitlock (bridgetpitlock@yahoo.com). I can't open a file/document from an email sent via our team's Yahoo Group Email....What's wrong? Chances are that the attachments contained in the email are Microsoft Word documents. Does your computer have Microsoft Office or Microsoft Word installed on it? If not, then this is certainly the reason why you can’t read these attachments. If you do have MS Word installed, then there might be an incompatibility problem between your version and the one contained in our emails. Most (if not all) of the attachments you receive from the team’s Yahoo Group Email (i.e. newsletters, meet entry forms, etc) will get posted to our web site. For instance, all of the newsletters and calendars are found on our Calendar & News web page, and all the meet entry forms are found on our Meet Information web page. The difference on the web site is that each document is converted to a PDF format. Every computer should contain an Adobe PDF Reader. If not, then you can download one for FREE (see link at the bottom of our web site’s home page). For more information or help in this matter, please contact our web site administrator via email at: webmaster@macombmarlins.com. |