The meet schedule is determined by the coaching staff and posted on the team website as meets are announced by host clubs and our Northern New Jersey YMCA swim league. When new meets are posted, you will receive an email notification.
Families will need to read the meet descriptions on our website and the attached documentation for each meet as they are updated by the coaches. Meet information and entry deadlines are posted as early as possible on the team website. However, it is not uncommon to have short turnaround times between the meet announcements and the entry deadlines. Please stay alert and do your best to monitor your email and the “meets” section of our website to ensure your swimmers are able to compete in them.
MYM swimmers and their families will need to sign up for meets through the team website or the OnDeck app. After logging in, we ask that you either commit or decline participation. The coaches will be specifying the appropriate groups and ages of swimmers for each meet description on the calendar. Swimmers will be asked to pick their events for invitational meets and championships, while for dual meets and some others, the coaches will pick the events for the swimmers. If you would like the coaches to pick the events for your swimmers or you need any guidance at all, please feel free to write to the coaches or you can insert a note in the entries. We are more than happy to walk you through the entry selection process. As a general guideline, please pick a diversity of events for your swimmers throughout the season.
After the coaches approve your selected entries, you will receive an email with the "entry report". These same reports are attached to the meet on our calendar. Please review the report and be aware of your swimmer's participation. Any changes, if at all, or cancellations must be received in advance of the date and time when the meet entries are opened by the hosts (which is also noted on the annoucements). Please note that you will be responsible for all meets entry fees when you sign up for meets and the coaches enter you into them. Given the tight deadlines for meets, please minimize any changes after the registration deadline and avoid cancelling your initial committments to avoid being charged. The coaches will make every effort to change or cancel your registrations, but it may or may not be feasible given the timeframes involved. If you are unable to attend the meet after you sign up and are entered, the coaches scratch you in person at the meet around the time of the warmup and those fees will still be incurred. Similarly, if you miss the entry deadlines, you should not expect to be added to the meet.
In some cases, the coaches will send out reminders about meet entry deadlines or extend the deadlines, but, again please be sure to declare your final plans to commit or decline participation prior to the meet entry deadlines on our website.
Occasionally, we are shut out of meets by hosts because they become oversubscribed.
Arrival time at Meets
The warm-up times for meets will be communicated by the coaches before each meet as they become available and are sent to coaches by the meet managers. The meet timelines and other details, like precise warmup times, are typically sent to us the week or in some cases a few days prior to the start of the meet. This information will also be posted to the TeamUnify site and emailed to you. Please plan to arrive promptly before the posted warm up times. Coaches are required to submit our team’s attendance to meet managers at the start of a warmup. If you are not present for warm up start times, at the latest, a coach is required to submit a “scratch sheet” to the meet managers and if you are scratched your entry is cancelled for that day. This is done to avoid empty lanes at a meet. Also, at some meets, there will be two and even three warm up sessions. If that is the case, you will still need to arrive for the initial or first warm up time, as the coaches are almost always required to submit any scratches within 15-20 minutes after the first warm up starts. If you are running late, please call or text the coaches, so that they know you are late, and they will do what they can to hold your entries. But you may be scratched, depending on the circumstances of the meet.
Detailed Tutorials on how to declare attendance for meets will be a topic for discussion by the Parent Board workshops. And you are always welcome to reach out to the Parent Board or Coaches with any questions at all.
Meet Results
Meet results are often posted live to an app called MeetMobile. Each swimmer’s best times can also be found on the OnDeck app under Membership: Best Times.
Meet results are often shared in press releases and YMCA communications. In the event that a photo is to be used, we ask for a photo/video release permission form be completed for all swimmers. Photo release forms will be provided at events and sent to the team separately.
