Texas High School Swimming Community,
I wish we'd have made a stronger push for rule changes a year ago. Coach Murphy made a great case for revision after last year's state meet and we didn't take up the cause, did we?
The original post on 2010 UIL state meet results is here. Kevin's comment was professional, sincere, and - unfortunately - prophetic:
At 5:24 PM, murphyk said…
#1 Congratulations to the Kingwood Girls and Coach Duin for their Texas 5A State Championship in Girl's Swimming & Diving.
Congratualtions to the Woodlands Boys, especially Knox Hitt, (100 back from lane 8 in consols put the nail in the coffin for southlake Carroll) and Coach Kirchner for their Texas 5A State Championship in Boy's Swimming & Diving.
A job well done!
The TRUTH of Southlake Carroll's DQ in the Girl's 400 free relay in prelims:
Prelims, HT 2, Ln 6, Girls 5A 400 free relay:
Kingwood and Southlake Carroll are stroke for stroke to the finish of the 300, almost identical touches.
*one foot distance seperated the touches, .2 of a second, maximum.
HUKI's 300 time(touchpad) 2:38.02
SOCA's 300 time(touchpad) 2:38.79
(.77 of a second, or one full body length, according to the "infallible" touch pad!)
Southlake Carroll was disqualified, by the "machine" -.03, with no human (dual)confirmation.
Note: Of 17 other Prelim relay exchanges, by Southlake Carroll, having been instructed by the Coach, to use "safe starts", every single one of those 17 exchanges was between .3 and .5
The last swimmer on this 400 free relay, to whom the false start was assigned, was swimming in her 4th Texas State Meet, had never false started before, and was following her Coach's directions to a "T". A four-time HS All-American, swimming in Prelims on a relay dominating the heat, side by side with Kingwood.
No danger of not making the Top 8 in Finals. In fact, the relay time, if it was allowed, would have put the Southlake Team as the #2 seed in Finals, just behind Kingwood.
Team video, soon to be on U-Tube, will show the entire relay, along with the relay exchange in question. Take a look and see if you, as a coach, or a parent, or a swimmer, would like to see your relay, next year, DQ'd in a similar manner.
NCAA protocol was used, that says the "machine" rules from -.09 to +.09, but the NCAA recognizes the possibility of pad malfunction at the end of each of the the first three legs, and, therefore allows for pre-set video, in Championship Meets, at the finish end, for all relay exchanges, in case of a dispute, within the -.09 to +.09 band.
With no video back-up at the Texas State Meet, every HS swim program at the Texas State Meet risks a relay exchange result similar to that of Southlake Carroll. Maybe other teams, this year, were disqualified in the same manner, relying 100% on the "machine", within the designated range of -.09 to +.09
Let's see if we, as a swimming community, can effect a change at future Texas HS State Meets to protect the efforts of our swimmers as they strive to perform to the very best of their ability on a level playing field.
Injustice thrives when men say nothing. The outcome of the meet cannot be changed, but the future credibility of the Texas State HS Meet depends on a correction of our protocol, to accept the possibility of equipment malfunction.
Kevin Murphy
Head Swim Coach
Southlake Carroll HS
In hindsight, I wish I'd have presented it as an extra post so more would have seen it.
For the young ladies of Southlake Carroll HS, it shouldn't have been, as Yogi Berra would put it, "deja vu all over again".
Sincerely,
Button
5 comments:
Wondering if it would have made a difference??? Seems that while people read your blog and post responses and even email the "rule makers", we haven't seen anything come from someone official that says they are seriously considering making a change to the rule. This probably falls under the "this too shall pass" theory whereby the folks in charge understand that the folks not in charge will eventually tire of talking about a topic and it will just go away on its own with no action required.
interesting point. probably right.
certainly hope that if nfhs/nisca can't get something done on a national level that uil/tisca will take care of it here in texas.
i've been a real don quixote with my anti-proportionality rants.
so, you're telling me mr. hope/change doesn't give a hoot?
ouch! the truth really hurts!!
There are enough people who know the truth to keep this from going away. The arguments of the "rule makers" are built on lies, and they play on the fears of those subject to their sanctions. As the number of people who see the evidence grows, so do the chances of tipping the scales back in the favor of fairness.
The powers that be are currently backing each other up with complete denial of any problem. They are patronizing with their feigned interest, then dismissive in their actions. Amazing how these people who claim to be working for fairness are actually just protecting their own interests. (Sounds like the federal government, eh?) If reason doesn't work, how about some public pressure? Anyone know Dale Hansen???
How are the UIL heads of state "elected/selected/appointed"? And why does the UIL report to the VP of divesity for UT - why report to UT at all?
If the UIL admits there was any problem at all, then it admits either that one of their own made a mistake OR that the equipment at UT failed. Sounds like a huge conflict of interest. Why can't there be an independent group of coaches, officials and maybe even swimmers assigned to look into this? Or why can't they just go with the NCAA rule? If you use electronic equipment to judge then you MUST have a backup to verify that the equipment didn't fail. Something that seems so absolutely obvious should not cause this type of consternation.
The UIL could easily stop all of the calls for media/calls for lawsuits/calls for an end to the controversy if it would just come out openly with an opinion - "we feel there was no problem because of X" or "While we don't think there was a problem, we believe there could in the future and want to make changes" or "There was a problem, now we are fixing it."
PS Not sure if this is sensational enough for Hansen but I believe that swimmingworld magazine might have a lot to say about it - they published a lot about this same issue in 2001 and then again in 2008/9. All one has to do is google that...
If the media does look at this then the NFHS and the UIL will end up looking silly with their heads stuck in the sand if they don't come out and address it. And that does nothing good for our sport...
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