OKEMOS, Mich. — Just like other sports, the season for girls swimming and diving was very much in limbo just a couple of months ago.
“We were kind of cutting the wire with the district as far as whether we were going to have a season or not. We voted to have it, which we’re thankful for,” said Okemos swim coach Patrick Saucedo.
Saucedo says he polled swim parents, and they all had the same thing in mind.
“Our whole goal here is to give these young ladies a decent season, get them to the end of it safely, and give them something that resembles some level of normalcy,” Saucedo said.
He says he got the idea of running virtual swim meets as a coach with USA Swimming.
“We’ve been running our COVID and safety protocols all summer, so it was nice to have a leg up on that," Saucedo said. "I just figured it was the easy way to stay safe and to put everyone in their own little bubble so to speak, and still have some competition.”
Each school swims in their own pool and their times are recorded.
“I collect them, merge them together electronically, email them to the other officials. If we don’t have any complaints, we count them as the score," said Saucedo. "We have an official on deck so they’re signing off that we did everything legally.”
Saucedo says they don’t know results until long after the meet is done, but says he’s happy to have gotten the whole conference on board to make the season happen.
“The swimming community is very close, very tight, and very supportive of each other, and it’s been that way not just in this area, but across the state too. So, it’s super helpful and that’s what I love about what we do.”
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