Travel Coordinators

Rota Tiburones Swim Club travel coordinators for this year are Dawn Castillo and Amanda Heriford.

Team Travel

One of the best features of the European Forces Swim League (EFSL) is the opportunity to travel to and compete against other military communities around Europe.  The Board offers this information to help answer any questions.

 Meets and the Master Schedule

For the 2024-2025 season, the EFSL has 19 teams, located throughout Europe (see table at the bottom for a listing).  All teams in the league host swim meets, and generally, at least one other team attends the meet.  The EFSL encourages as much travel as possible and in fact asks teams to try to visit every other team in the league at least once every five years.  The EFSL develops and maintains a master meet schedule listing all of the meets.  All teams declare in advance the meets they plan to attend in the upcoming season, to allow the hosting team to properly prepare.   When a team declares a meet, it does not mean that the entire team will or must attend, it is really just reserving space for team swimmers.  The decision to attend any particular meet is up to the swimmer/family; not the team.    

The team's schedule is already posted, under "Meets and Meeting Calendar" on this site.  These are the meets where Rota has reserved space for swimmers to attend; again, it does not mean that attendance is mandatory.   As an example, only a few families may choose to go to Berlin, while most of the team may go to Lisbon. 

Only two meets have qualification standards:  Long Distance Champs and Short Distance Champs.  All other meets are open to attend for any member of the Tiburones.  To qualify for either Champs, the swimmer must have achieved the qualifying time for the particular event (for instance, 36.87 seconds for the 50-meter freestyle for 11-year-old girls), at any regular meet during the season.  The current qualification standards can be found here.

Coaches

The team does not pay for travel for swimmers or their families.  If enough swimmers attend, the team pays for one or more coaches to attend away meets, based on the number of swimmers participating in the meet (see table below).   At the meet location, the coaches are responsible for the normal coaching duties during the meet itself, but they are NOT the travel coordinators.  The team has a Travel Coordinator, who will work with traveling families. 

Traveling Coach-Swimmer Ratio

Meet Attendance and Family Responsibility

About a month before a declared meet, families will be asked by the Rota Statistician to state whether they plan to attend the meet.  Visiting teams are also required to submit swimmer information in advance so that the hosting team can build the meet program.  In addition, visiting teams are expected to provide some of the volunteers (timers, marshals, etc.) at the meet.  It is important to meet the Statistician’s deadlines.  Some meets limit the number of visiting swimmers; in these cases, the Statistician will sign swimmers up on a first-come, first-served basis. 

Hosting teams issue meet announcements; an example meet announcement is below.  It contains all the information about the meet, including pool address and start times, as well as travel information.   It is the swimmer’s responsibility to find their way to the pool, by the stated times. 

Example Meet Announcement

EFSL teams (Maps of teams and nearest airport here)