2021 ANCC Swim Season - Call for Meet Officials!  

*Upcoming Certification Training Opportunities (5/26, 5/27, 6/1, 6/2)* 

Hello and Happy Friday! 

My name is John Fitzgerald and I am a proud swim parent of two girls who have grown up with the ANCC swim team experience as a memorable part of their summers and a great way to meet life-long friends. Like all of you, I am super excited to get back to a more "normal" swim team summer this year at ANCC. Coach Ian and Wendy are working diligently to put together a great season for the kids, organize practices and meets, and get the kids back in the water again to compete and have fun. 

As part of ramping up our swim meets this summer, we of course, need officials!!! There are three primary roles that officials serve at our meets: 

1) Stroke & Turn (S/T) Judge - The S/T Judges make sure that swimmers follow rules for stroke mechanics, perform legal turns and conduct legal relay hand-offs (We typically need at least 4 S/T judges at each meet) 

2) Referee- Organize the execution of the meet, and coordinate the various S/T judges and starter to keep the meet going; must also be certified as an S/T Judge (1 Referee is required for each meet) 

3) Starter - Starts each race to make sure the swimmers get off to a quick, legal start - coordinates closely with the Referee to efficiently execute meet activities; must also be certified as a S/T Judge (1 Starter required for each meet) 

The Country Club Swimming and Diving Association (CCSDA) provides free training to be certified for each of the above roles. We just received word from CCSDA last night that there will be 4 separate training sessions offered (2 next week on 5/25 and 5/26; 2 more on 6/1 and 6/2) Details are listed at the bottom of this email. You only need to attend one session for the respective role you are looking to get certified for this year. Certifications last for 2 years, so you won't have to recertify until 2023. If you have current certifications and are an official with current status in NVSL, MCSL, PVS, etc, these will qualify for CCSDA, so please reach out to me if you have current certs with these leagues. 

For parents that are taking the training/certifications for the first time, we will provide opportunities to "shadow" more experienced officials at our meets to help you feel more comfortable with the role you are taking on --- whether S/T Judge, Referee or Starter. For those who were competitive swimmers in the past, we highly recommend you consider helping out, at least from a Stroke/Turn judge perspective, as you likely have good residual stroke/turn rule knowledge :). For new officials, it's recommended to get a year or two of experience as a S/T Judge to get a feel for the meet execution before taking on Referee/Starter duties as well. 

If you have any questions regarding the training or how we conduct our swim meets, please contact me below: