Relay Policy
Relay Policy
The Plano Piranhas' relay policy rewards swimmers with the opportunity to swim in additional races. Relay races will be assigned at the discretion of the Head Coach. Relay selections are made based on fastest time and stroke legality. Only circuit meet results from the current summer season will be considered in the selection of relays. We will only participate in relays at the Regional and State swim meets. Additional practice times for relays will be allotted at the facility as necessary.
Although the Piranhas Swim Team is a fun summer team, we strive to balance competing at the highest level while allowing swimmers to fully experience swim team. We hope to enhance the swimmers' enjoyment and give them a good experience that will encourage them to work hard to achieve relay status.
Relays are special - swimming on a relay is a privilege and not a right. There are limited spots available on the relays. If you've selected that your child is available to stay for a relay and then leave, you are then taking a relay experience away from 3 other swimmers. Swimmers that miss relays due to arriving late to a meet or leaving early may forfeit their opportunity to be selected in future relays.
For meets with relays available, swimmers will indicate if they are interested in participating in a relay at the time they submit their meet entries online. Indicating interest in swimming in a relay does not guarantee placement on a relay. Our ability to build a relay depends on having enough swimmers within an age group who want to swim a relay and have legal strokes. If we have enough swimmers to build more than one relay, we will, but there are often not enough interested swimmers to build a B relay (if we were able to build an A relay). The Head Coach will inform swimmers if they are on a relay or not no later than the day before the meet.
Swimmers must arrive in time to participate in warm-ups. Swimmers that do not make it in time for warm-ups will be scratched from the relay teams. We have to check in swimmers and verify relay teams prior to the start of the meet. When a swimmer isn't here in time for team check-in's then the relay has to be re-seeded on deck and in the computer or scratched for legality purposes.
Relays may not be available for all meets, depending on the constraints of the host facility. The host facility for each meet sets limits for how many events athletes in different age groups can enter for that meet. It is common to have to swap out an individual event for a relay (for example, if each swimmer can enter a max of 4 events, you would have to drop 1 event in order to add a relay). If a relay team member does not show up or the relay is disqualified, there will not be an option to swap the relay for an individual event day-of.
Relays, especially in amateur swimming, are vulnerable to disqualification. If one swimmer DQs, the entire relay is DQ-ed. By selecting that your swimmer is interested in swimming a relay, you are accepting the risk that the race may not be successful.
In order to compete in a relay at the State meet the relay must be swam with a qualifying time at the Regional meet. If some swimmers at Regionals choose NOT to attend the State meet, swimmers who are listed as alternates at the Regional meet can be added to the relay team. There may not always be enough swimmers/alternates who have declared that they WILL attend State to put a relay together.
I have read and understand the relay policy and will direct any questions to the coaching staff.
