Parents and Swimmer's:
Wheatlands Sharks run CARDLESS meets. We use no heating cards for individual events, but we will have CARDS for RELAYS! How we need your help:
- In Sharpie, write your child’s LAST NAME on the back of their LEFT shoulder.
- Make an “Event/Heat/Lane” chart on their arm detailing their events. This can be done at the meet, or once the program is available. This chart should include any individual and/or relays your swimmer is in. Our team manager will be checking in swimmers at the door and can guide you with how to mark your child with the correct information. If the Team Manager is busy or unavailable, any of the coaches/junior coaches can help. An example, written on the forearm, is below:
The order for writing the information is:
E H L description
20 1 2 50 free
29 1 4 length/stroke
Please read below to make sense of this, and as age appropriate, help your swimmer know what these markings mean. When in doubt, ask another Shark family!
This is a section from a past year’s heat sheet/meet program. In this example, the #20 is the E (event number). The H (heat) is 1 and the lane for “Carole” is the 2 to the left of her last name. The description comes from the race which is Girls 9-10 50 Freestyle. The Seed Time of NT stands for NO TIME and means that Carole has never swam this race before. Otherwise you would see a time listed by her name.
Note: The order is: Event | Heat | Lane. This information can be found on the heat sheets that will be sent out Friday night are posted around the pool, or in the meet program. The application of some spray sunscreens can affect Sharpie, so you may want to do this after you have put the sunscreen on. (You may want to do a test-spot first.)
- At the meet, you (your swimmer) will have to listen to the first and last call for an event and also pay attention to the heating board with the first and last call for the events.
- Swimmers MUST check in with the Clerk of Course PRIOR to their race. Swimmers CANNOT just go up to the blocks during their heat, dive in and swim. (OLDER SWIMMERS, THIS MEANS YOU!!!)
- It cannot be emphasized enough that swimmers MUST check in with the Clerk of Course in the heating area PRIOR to their race. After checking in with the Clerk of Course, swimmers will be lined up according to heats and lanes.
The heating area will be run in the same way it was run with cards. The difference will be that there will be NO cards, except for relays. You still have to check in, you still have to line up.
In addition to the environmental impact of not using cards, we anticipate a significant number of volunteer hours to be saved as a result of this effort. Cardless meets model both high school and club team meets. Swimmers who may potentially swim in high school or on a club team will find this helpful for this future endeavor or familiar if they are already swimming on a club team or in high school.
