Swimming State Schedule Format Survey Questionnaire Distributed to Athletic Directors and Principals

Throughout this year and at meetings held throughout the state, staff has reviewed the logistical issues surrounding the State Swim Meet. Simply put, despite years of adjusting time schedules, there is not a facility in the Commonwealth that can handle the capacity of the friends, families and supporters of our current state meet. The Commissioner and staff have discussed at length with various constituent groups including our Board of Control, the membership, veteran meet managers and even other states, to see formats that might help alleviate the issues. Even a new facility set to come online in a couple of years at one of our colleges and universities will not be built with the capacity to totally eliminate the problem, and only time will tell if the projected size of that facility remains the same following construction. This is not a problem unique to our state. It has also been made worse by significant capacity restrictions in some of our usually used facilities, both in seating and in deck space, that started with the pandemic but will now be continued on a permanent basis.

When the sport was realigned a few years ago to expand regions, the project was, potentially unfortunately for the state meet format at that time, a huge success in growing the sport into newer areas. As part of that realignment, additional qualifiers were added to ensure the philosophy that two from each region advance to the state, along with ensuring a large quantity of at-large qualifiers with the state meet expanding to 40 competitors per event. This realignment has also led to significant growth in several regions, which has placed major stress on facility capacity even at that level.

At the state meet, the separation of genders into different days has been a big help with capacity, but not enough to help solve the issue. For the last two years, lines trying to enter the state meet facility and permanent capacity restrictions due to fire regulations, have meant that in many cases, family and friends of swimmers were not able to enter the facility until near the very end of the meet, even in the final round where only 16 competitors were in each event.

In trying to find workable solutions, there are five options, most all of which were discussed in regional meetings of the membership last fall, and were discussed frequently throughout this past season. We also know from our membership and even our own experience with pandemic facility restrictions, that restricted attendance (certain numbers of fans per competitor) don’t work in that family structures and dynamics are simply not consistent throughout our regions and the state. We know the value of state championships is to draw entire families to support the year-round efforts and commitment of the competitors and we are challenged to find an alternative structure.

Five options have emerged, and those are listed on the ballot for member school Principals or Designated Representatives (primarily the ADs) to restructure the championships in Swimming and Diving. Those are contained in a membership survey with a deadline for response being midnight, Monday, May 8, 2023. This survey must be completed by the Principal or Designated Representative of each member school. 

While other information and surveys may be solicited from both Athletic Directors and coaches in the entire membership in the future (as in the past), the feedback on this issue should come from each school sponsoring the sport through its Principal or Designated Representative. The philosophy of the Board of Control in the last several years has been to seek opinions in compliance with Bylaw 1, instead of small group recommendations that might not find favor with the majority of the membership or surveys where response integrity can be brought into doubt. So your participation is critical. This same methodology will be used on another pair of surveys related to the basketball shot clock and the State Wrestling Format.

To keep the general public or others from making potentially fictitious or malicious responses, we are again using our Board election system which is in the school subdomain to conduct this member school survey. We are asking for each school to submit their choice using this system using the directions below. This will require that only the Bylaw 1 Designated Representative submit the choice (or the Principal). 

REPORTING YOUR CHOICE

• The system is available for this vote beginning April 24 and is due back in by May 8.
• The survey is open and will show on the link at http://schools.khsaa.org/ under the menu link entitled “Board Of Control Election/School Referendum Operations” for each of these surveys.
• You can use the general instructions located at https://khsaa.org/02-15-21-board-of-control-election-procedures/ for general directions as it mirrors the balloting.
• These options will NOT be available to individuals, such as coaches, who do not have rights in the system as Principal or Designated Representative.
• Those holding multiple roles in the system, be sure and log in as Principal or Designated Rep. and please do not login with coaching or Athletic Director roles.
• The response must be submitted by May 8 and results will be considered at the May 10 Board of Control work session and full meeting.

YOUR CHOICES

You will be asked to select from 5 options on the survey. Diving would likely advance the same number of qualifiers as the ultimate swimming decision, but that determination would be made at a later date. Sites will be determined once the format decision is finalized after the survey results.

OPTION 1- Continue to have 40 swimmers advance from the regional meets.
Continue to advance 18 automatic qualifiers (2 from each region) and the same number of at-large qualifiers (22 statewide) from the regions.
Insert an intermediate round (i.e. semi-state, state first round, etc.) with two to three sites.
This could include consideration of rotating region pairings/groupings where geographically feasible and likely allow the season to start one week earlier to accommodate an additional week at the end.
This format could also allow for realignment to eight or 10 regions if needed due to postseason region combinations.
Then following this state first round, bring the top 24 competitors in each event to a state preliminary and final competition.  

OPTION 2- Advance a total of 32 competitors in each event from the region to the state.
Reduce the number of at-large qualifiers to 14 per event, leaving the 18 automatic qualifiers, two from each region.
Then bring only the top 32 in each event to the state preliminaries and finals state meet.

OPTION 3- Advance a total of 32 competitors in each event from the region to the state.
Reduce the number of automatic qualifiers per region from two to one. This would make swimming and diving unique from the other individual sport where two per region are automatically advanced.
Increase the at-large qualifiers to 23 statewide.
That would set the field to a total of 32 per event to the state preliminaries and finals state meet.

OPTION 4 – Advance a total of 24 competitors to the state meet in each event.
Advance six at-large qualifiers statewide per event.
Advance the 18 automatic qualifiers, two from each region.
This would bring 24 in each event to the state preliminaries and finals state meet to ensure capacity will hold the meet and allow for other potential schedule changes.

OPTION 5 – Advance a total of 24 competitors to the state meet in each event.
Advance 15 at-large qualifiers statewide per event.
Advance nine automatic qualifiers, one per region. This would make swimming and diving unique from the other individual sport where two per region are automatically advanced.
This would bring 24 in each event to the state preliminaries and finals state meet to ensure capacity will hold the meet and allow for other potential schedule changes.

Thank you in advance for your participation.