How do I enter a meet?

Throughout the season, swimmers will have many opportunities to participate in meets against other swim teams. Coaches will post information concerning entering meets. Entering a meet is one of the most confusing situations to face a new parent. The following guidelines will help answer some of the many questions that come up. If you have any questions, please ask your swimmer's coach or ask a parent of an older swimmer. They have entered many meets and will be glad to help.

Meet Entry Forms

All entry forms need to be filled out completely and correctly and then turned in to either the coach or the entry chairs. If entry forms are filled out incorrectly and /or are incomplete, they will be returned to the returned to the swimmer. Often swimmers wait until the deadline to enter meets and if forms need to be returned due to error, the swimmer will miss the deadline and have to late-enter at double the cost. In this situation, there is no guarantee of available lane space.

Meet Entry Forms are also located on the Desert Sharks Web Page for your convienience:

Short Course Entry Form
Long Course Entry Form
Read your team meet schedule
Read your Sharks Newsletter
Read the Bulletin Board

*Turn in your meet entries on or before the due date.

The host team will state a date for when the entry forms need to be in their hands. Our entry chairpersons will process all of the forms and send them to the host team before the deadline. If you turn your entry forms into the chairperson late, they will be returned to you. You may than call the meet director to see if you can make arrangements to enter directly or to "late-enter" on the deck at the meet. Since late entry fees are usually double the cost, it is best to enter ahead of the deadline.

When the meet is held out-of-town. If the meet is an away meet, you will be given information of who to contact to help with reservations and directions. Please contact the person listed as soon as possible.

The number of events a swimmer can swim is different at each meet. A meet may offer as many as eight or nine events each day for an age group, but the meet information will limit each swimmer to three to five individual events plus relays per day. Please do not enter more than the allowed number of events. Do not sign up for relays. The coach chooses relays after the collection of all meet entries. When four or more swimmers are available, there will be a relay. If you are entering a meet and must leave early, please notify your coach and also state this on your entry. Swimmers are very disappointed when their relay is scratched due to this circumstance, so please try to stay for the duration of a meet. The DSSC club pays for relays.

Entry Fees

All competitions require an entry fee paid to the host team. The fees run between $1.50 and $5.00 per event depending on the meet. Most meets run $2.50 per event. In order to facilitate the entry process, please make checks out to the Desert Sharks when you turn in your entries. This charge may include a surcharge to the host Local Swimming Committee (LSC). Your monthly bill will reflect any meet entry fees that the team has paid for your swimmer and you will need to include payment for these fees with your monthly bill. If you enter a meet and cannot attend, there are no refunds of the meet entry fees.

Qualification / Time Standards for a meet

Whether or not a swimmer is qualified to swim in a particular meet depends on the classification of the meet and the swimmer's best times. Please check with your coach if you have any doubts as to your qualifications.