Quote:
Originally Posted by thealmighty
Could you explain all the "not going to state" kids. What's the deal, putting in so much practice time to qualify and then not going (or did I miss some other explanation on another page)?
|
Nope you didn't miss anything, and you are right I probably should have explained better.
Basically, when we are dealing with Summer League you have both year round and non year round swimmers and there are a number of reasons why a kid/family might choose to skip the State Meet.
1. Family vacation is scheduled at or around the time of the State Meet...(this actually happens a lot)
2. Non-year round swimmers don't want to practice swimming for an additional month leading up to State
3. Boys have Summer Football practice (I believe summer practices start right before the State Meet, but I'm not positive)
4. Year round swimmers elect to miss this meet to prepare for the Year-Round state championship
5. Families don't want to spend the money on a hotel room for the State Meet (this isn't an issue for our county this year as the meet was moved to a neighboring county, but it has been a consideration in the past)
6. Summer State is a long, drawn out meet, that is very hot (as there are thousands of swimmers and teams have to sit outside in the heat between events), and many that have done it in the past determined that it wasn't worth it...
I'm sure there are other reasons, these are just he ones I hear most often. Remember Summer League is like Rec League in another sport. The kids that are on All-Star or traveling teams in other sports will play for those teams before the Rec Team...and swimming is no different.