Whether it’s high school, college or club swimming, officials are an integral part of the equation. These fine men and women often are seen as just the people that blow the whistle, sound the horn, or enforce the rules. They do so, so much more!
When I look back on my time as a swimmer, I can think of two officials that hard a major impact on my swimming and my development as a person. They would talk to me every meet, point out things in the pool, take an interest in what I was up to and my favorite…share their wisdom. Many officials were past swimmers themselves and have spent a lifetime around the pool. They’ve seen it all, and I was fortunate enough to grow up in a time where they shared a lot of it with me.
Is that present today? Definitely not as much. When we are a strong swimming community, we recognize and appreciate the role the officials play in the sport and understand they are an incredibly valuable resource within the community. As Minnesota Swim and Vibe continues to encourage us to build that strong community, we want our officials to be a welcome and valued part of it all.
The other aspect of officiating is that there never seems to be enough of them and there aren’t often a lot of new faces on the pool deck. We love the familiar ones, but recognize they can’t be around forever. Minnesota Swim and Vibe will look to create new pipelines into officiating from recent college grads that swam and other sources by making it fun, easy, and connecting it back to what we believe in…giving back to the sport that gave so much to you.