General Events

CAT is looking to build our roster of Swim Officials, and we need YOU!

Top 5 Reasons to become a USA Swimming certified Swim Official!

5. The best view of the pool! Swim officials have the best view of the pool. While officials are not allowed to cheer, or show any kind of impartiality on deck, they do experience the excitement of watching their kids, up close and personal, making great starts, turns and finishes.

4. You meet fun people! Our kids make new friends on the team every year while we just taxi them back and forth to practices. Becoming an official means that you get to make team friends too. We might look stern and serious during the meet, but we have a lot of fun.

3. You get to see your child swim in person! Being on deck, in the middle of all the excitement is always more pleasant than the hot, stuffy, bleachers in most pools. It's better on the deck.

2. You are contributing to your child's swim development! Learning the rules and techniques required of each of the strokes/races truly puts you in a great position to discuss (not coach) your swimmer’s challenges, successes, and yes, sometimes failures. By identifying stroke infractions, we are enabling our coaches to have teachable moments with the swimmers, and hopefully improve their next performance because of it.

1. Your kids and the team need you! A meet cannot run without a minimum number of officials and timers, and while anyone can serve as a timer, having a roster of qualified and trained officials is imperative. We want our kids to have ample opportunities to compete this year, but we need officials to do that.

Did I convince you?

There are no costs involved in becoming an Official. The Cougars will reimburse you the training fee. Once you complete the class and pass the test, you will work a qualifying number of meet sessions and be trained extensively on deck before you are expected to ‘make a call’.

Please see the schedule of upcoming training classes this fall below.

Please feel free to email or call me with any questions or concerns you have regarding officiating.

Thanks and I hope to see you on deck this year!

Ashley Emala,
CAT Officials Coordinator
ashleyemala@gmail.com