You know what was nice(?)… When we got to River Falls last Saturday, there were available spots in their parking lot. Do you think it’s a good idea to save spots in our parking lot for the visiting team at our home meets?

Yes. Yes I do. For Saturdays and Wednesdays, if you can, walk to the meet. If that’s impractical, then drop-off your swimmer and park on one of the nearby streets. The reality is, except for the biggest meets (like Relay Carnival on July 6), we cannot police the parking lot. We’re on the honor system. But please do try to save spots for the folks who are traveling to us and who, by design, arrive after us.

If you are arriving late (after visiting team warmups have started), like after 8:30am on a Saturday morning or after 5:30pm on a Wednesday, then all bets are off, so to speak. Pull in wherever you fit in.

So, I am really fascinated by the Officials. What are the different ‘jobs’ and what do they do during the meet?

I am so glad you asked. At a typical Wednesday meet, there are six officials – three from each team. The home team provides a Referee and two Stroke & Turn (“S&T”) Judges; the visiting team provides a Starter (in this case, a person; the machine is also referred to as the Starter, which can get confusing) and two S&T Judges.

The S&T Judges are the real heroes. They watch each race to ensure that the kids are swimming the correct stroke. The most common infractions they are likely to observe are: (i) kids that swim a 24 meter backstroke and then turn onto their front for the last meter of the race, (ii) swimmers that finish breaststroke or butterfly by touching with only one hand, and (iii) younger swimmers who have not yet mastered the mechanics of breaststroke or butterfly and may be doing the wrong kick-style (which is not easy to explain in writing, but you ‘know it when you see it’). If the S&T Judges observe an infraction, they raise their hand and talk to the…

…Referee. The Referee confers with the S&T Judges and is the ultimate arbiter of whether the observed infraction warrants a disqualification (“DQ”). You may or may not see these Referee/S&T Judge interactions, but you will definitely know which one is the Ref because (s)he will be blowing a whistle throughout the meet. The series of short ‘chirps’ indicates that the heat in the water is complete; and the long whistle tells the swimmers in the next heat to get in place to start (in backstroke, there are two long whistles – one tells the swimmers to get in the water and the second tells them to get to the wall). Once the swimmers are in place, the Referee makes an arm gesture indicating that the next instructions the swimmers will receive will come from the…

…Starter. Again, Starter, the person. Who also happens to be using the Starter, the device. The Starter holds the microphone and says “Take Your Marks”. Once the swimmers are set/stationary (or as close to that as possible – do 8 & Unders ever actually stop moving?!?), the Starter presses a button on the microphone which causes a light to flash and a horn to sound. The race starts, the timers start their watches, etc. The Starters work is finished.

Note: on Saturdays, there are also two Relay Takeoff Judges from each team. They stare at swimmers’ feet until the feet leave the wall. Then they look at the incoming swimmer – if that swimmer has not yet touched the wall, that is an early takeoff. If two Relay Takeoff Judges (one from each team) observe the same early takeoff, that is a DQ.

My kid’s friend says his team is better than our team. We don’t swim against them, so I guess there’s no real way of knowing.

Not so fast, my friend. Not that I necessarily condone this behavior, especially the part where you’re arguing with a kid (my advice is to just act impressed by how fast their team is and move on with your life), but if you really want to know… check out https://reachforthewall.org/virtual-meets/

You can select any two teams from the MCSL (so, Stonegate and [insert name of friend’s team here]), select a meet date (usually, the most recent Saturday, unless you have a reason to look at a specific date in the past), and the web site does the rest. Shows you what the score would have been if those two teams had competed.

Alas, for now, this site only captures results from Saturday meets. Perhaps someday it will also factor in times achieved on Wednesdays.

Note: if you are of a certain personality type, this site can be a real ‘rabbit hole’. I have spent way too many hours matching up all the teams in Divisions A through D against all the other teams just to see who truly is the cream of the crop.

Are these real questions from real readers? -- Tom L., Silver Spring

As far as you know ;-)