January 2000

Dear Swimming Coaches and Officials:

HAPPY NEW MILLENIUM! I hope you all had a joyous holiday season and are ready for the new year and all the exciting things it will bring. The first part of the swimming season has gone extremely well and extremely fast! We are only six weeks away from district swimming on February 12!

SPORTSMANSHIP AND THE RULES

It is important for coaches and swimmers to understand the rules, and for officials to be consistent in applying those rules. Coaches, be sure you are instructing your swimmers about all the rules pertaining to their events and that everyone understands the rules pertaining to meet conduct and proper sportsmanship. Your swimmers should know what is expected of them by this point in the season. It is not sportsmanlike for a coach to permit swimmers to "get around a rule" just because the coach doesn't agree with the rule!

Officials, you must be consistent when applying all rules, in all meets, all year! It is not sportsmanlike for an official to strictly enforce the rules they like and "look the other way" when it comes to enforcing rules they don't agree with. Enforce all the rules the same way from the beginning of the season to the end of the season. No one does swimmers any favors by being lax when enforcing some rules and strict when enforcing others. In fact, we do those swimmers a disservice by not consistently enforcing all rules, in all situations. It is very difficult to teach swimmers expectations if those expectations change depending on the official and the situation.

CONDUCT VIOLATIONS

We are very fortunate in swimming to have great coaches, great officials, and great student-athletes! Coaches and officials, you both do a good job of setting high expectations regarding the behavior of swimmers and the swimmers are meeting those expectations. In the unfortunate event a conduct violation occurs, it must be dealt appropriately by the official and the coach. Remember, if a swimmer, or coach, is ejected from competition for violent, verbal, or flagrant misconduct that behavior must be reported to the Athletic Association by both the official and the school. The Athletic Association's student-athlete and coach ejection policy states, "A student-athlete, or coach, ejected from a contest for flagrant, violent, or verbal misconduct will be ineligible for the next regularly scheduled contest at that level of competition, and all other contests in the interim at any level . . . " With your guidance, most athletes will conduct themselves within the rules. Should a conduct violation does occur it must be penalized, with consistency, according to the rules.

I hope you continue to have a productive season. If you have any questions or comments please feel free to call, fax, write, or E-mail me. The Association's E-mail address is ihsaa@mail.opencominc.com.

I look forward to seeing many of you at the first boy's state swimming meet of the new millenium!

Sincerely,

Alan Beste

Administrative Assistant