Welcome to 2023

WELCOME TO 2023!

DON’T FORGET TO COMPLETE YOUR 2023 USA SWIMMING REGISTRATION

The Southern California Swimming Officials Committee would like to wish everyone a Happy New Year and provide a few important points of information.

As you may have read in the National Officials Committee newsletter that was sent out a couple of weeks ago, there are some changes starting January 1, 2023.  Among the notable changes are:

1. At least one toe from both feet must be touching the wall when using the backstroke ledges at the start of the backstroke.
2. Arms and legs no longer need to be on the same horizontal plane in breaststroke

1. PLEASE NOTE:  The Officials Committee is asking for clarification on this change, specifically does this mean “Scissor Kick” is no longer a disqualification along with arms not on the same horizontal plane.

3. Host teams must have a minimum of two certified Meet Marshals (one male and one female) as assigned meet staff.  Certification involves taking an online test after going through the online training.
4. The Unattached period is now 60 days from the last competition before a swimmer may change teams.
5. The “No Show” penalty (removed from next event) has been removed from SCS meet rules. 

1. This applies to timed finals meets and prelims only.  The penalty for “No Show” at finals of a Heats and Finals event still applies.

If you did not receive the newsletter, please contact your Committee Representative (listed below) or email the Officials Committee at scs.officials@socalswim.org and we will forward a copy to you.

Andrew Jones – Eastern Committee Representative (awjones@yahoo.com)

Shay Kerby – Desert Committee Representative (kirbyfamily@me.com)

Adrian Juarez – Orange Committee Representative (adrianjuarez@verizon.net)

Bettie Williams – Pacific Committee Representative (blswim@earthlink.net)

Patty Garcia – Metro Committee Representative (xpgarcia@cox.net)

Omar de Armas – Co-chair and Coastal Committee Representative (omarswimref@gmail.com)

Leanne Colvin – Co-chair (ltc5@hotmail.com)

The OTS portion of Swims 3.0 has been updated to allow all Meet Referees to enter officials who have worked at meets in the past. 

1. Meet Referees should go into the USA Swimming portal and click on the Officials tab and then on OTS Meet Search. 
2. Entering a minimum of two pieces of information (LSC and Host Team name) and then search will bring up the meets for that team. 

1. Clicking on the “+” sign on the right (first time) will bring up the meet.  Clicking on the magnifying glass will bring up the dialog box to search for an official.  This requires the First name and Last name as they have entered them in SWIMS. 
2. Click on the “+” sign by their name and then save will add them to the meet. 

3. Once the name is added, click on position worked and you can pick the position and the dates worked. 

1. If a different position is worked on separate days, those must be done separately. 

4. This procedure must be done for each official in the meet.