Suburban Summer League Rules as of 2006

1. The coaches from each team represented in the Summer Suburban Swim League will meet twice prior to the beginning of the Dual Meet Schedule.  The first meeting will occur the first/second Wednesday in June.  At that meeting rules, amendments, and other outstanding or new business will be discussed.  If there is no business on the agenda which must meet with the approval of Town Administrators or Recreation Directors, the coaches may vote to suspend a second meeting and conclude the business of rules, etc. at that meeting.  When changes or additions are significant, coaches will reconvene on a second, subsequent Wednesday in June to further discuss and vote on the necessary and/or relevant issues on the agenda.
2. Once the rules are voted upon by the majority of the coaches at the June meeting(s) or at a Special Meeting called by the President of the League prior to the first meeting in June, there will be no exceptions or changes except by unanimous decision until June of the next year.  In a situation where coaches must meet to amend the rules once the League’s first Dual Meet has been held then an amendment may be made ONLY by unanimous decision of those coaches present.  Absenteeism in this instance is considered a forfeiture of vote.
3. The Dual Meet Schedule will be set 1 year in advance so the appropriate planning may occur for Recreation Directors, Swimmers and Coaches.
4. Swimmers must be residents, as considered by the town for which they swim.  Summer residents are eligible, if they spend at least eight weeks in the community.  Starting in 1999, out of town residents may swim unofficial in dual meets if approved by the other team but they may not be from a town within the league.  Dover/Sherborn should be considered one entity and grandfathered in. An exception to this rule is to allow the Head Coach and/or their children to swim officially for the town they coach even if they live in a different town.
5. If a team within the League has a problem with their facility, swimmers may swim with any team in the League for a maximum of two years or until the problem is resolved, whichever comes first.  Names must be submitted to the League Secretary.  Swimmers must stay with the first team they choose.  When the problem is resolved, the swimmers must return to their home team.  Swimmers who swam with teams during those two years may stay with that team if their town does not come back in our league.
6. To be eligible for the Regional Meets and Mile Swim, a swimmer must have swum 3, 4 and 5 meets to qualify for the Mile Swim, B Regional, and A Regional, respectively.  The B Regional counts as a dual meet.
7. Ages are as of July 1, 2006.  A boy or girl having a birthday during the season does not have to move up in class and is considered his/her age as of July 1.  In Dual Meets a swimmer MAY move up 2 age groups in an individual and/or freestyle relay event but MAY NOT move down an age group.  The Graduated Medley Relay must have swimmers from 4 out of the 5 age groups.
8. Age groups for the Regional and Dual Meets are as follows:

  8 and Under

  9 & 10 Years Old

11 & 12 Years Old

13 & 14 Years Old

15 – 18 Years Old

For the Regional Meets, swimmers MAY NOT swim up in age group for individual events and MAY move up only ONE age group for the Free Relays.  The Graduated Medley Relay must have swimmers from 4 out of the 5 age groups.

9. Swimmers are limited to three events, one of which has to be a relay.  Meets will start with a Graduated Medley Relay, one for girls and one for boys, with a swimmer from 4 of the 5 age groups swimming one length.  A swimmer who swims four official events during a Dual Meet will be disqualified from all points they have earned in the meet.  There will be two official swimmers from each team per Individual Event and two official Relays per team with no sweeps in the Relays.  A swimmer may never swim two Freestyle Relays in the same meet.  Teams may agree to use three official swimmers and three official Relays.  However, only two swimmers in the Individual Events and only one Relay team may place.  There will be no sweeps in either Individual Events or Relays.  The 8 & Under Relay must include one member of the opposite sex.
10. 8 & Under will be limited to 25 yards in Individual Events and will also swim a Co-ed Relay.  9 & 10 Years Old will be limited to 25 yards in both Individual Events and Relays unless mutually agreed upon by the Coaches.  Ages 11 through 18 will swim distances agreed upon by the Coaches.  Distances should be as close to 50 yards for ages 11 through 18 swimmers as possible unless otherwise agreed.  Girls swim girls events and boys swim boys events.
11. Coaches may schedule an 8 & Under Girls Relay and an 8 & Under Boys Relay to replace the Co-ed Relay when both Coaches mutually agree upon the substitution a minimum of 48 hours in advance of the Dual Meet.
12. Individual Event scoring in meets is as follows:

1^st Place           =          5 Points

2^nd Place          =          3 Points

3^rd Place           =          1 Point

Relay Event scoring in meets is as follows:

1^st Place           =          7 Points
 2^nd Place          =          2 Points

While a team may have two entries in the Relay events, only one entry will be scored.  NO TEAM MAY BLOCK AN OPPONENT FROM SCORING RELAY POINTS AS LONG AS BOTH TOWNS HAVE A RELAY ENTRY.  If only one town in a Dual Meet enters a Relay event, only 1^st place points may be scored.  Scoring arrangements should be made prior to the start of the meet.

13. Meets start at 6:00 pm sharp with the exception of Natick and Needham whose home meets start at 5:30 pm.  The 6:00 pm start rule may be waived if a mutually satisfactory arrangement can be made no later than the day before the scheduled meet or if the home team is notified within ˝ hour before the scheduled starting time.  Coaches list, beach or pool phone numbers, scoring sheets and maps are to be given to the Coaches at the beginning of the season.  Teams should be at a Dual Meet ˝ an hour before start time for warm-ups otherwise they forfeit the warm-ups.

14. In all Dual Meets judging will be by lane with four place judges, one for each team for the four official lanes, unless otherwise agreed upon by the Coaches.  Both the home and visiting teams may supply watches but judges will prevail (watches are for the coach’s benefit only).  Judging will be by FEDERATION RULES (High School) as much as possible.  Teams participating in a Dual Meet may mutually agree to use four place judges, two judges from each town.  These judges will call the place finishes for each lane.  Judges must be in agreement or the finish will be scored as a tie.  Effective 1997, jewelry will be allowed, waiving the Federation Rule.
15. Adherence to National Federation rules shall be considered subject to home team equipment availability.
16. Eligibility rules are to be determined by the Summer Suburban Swim League.  If a swimmer is disqualified because of ineligibility, their team will forfeit the entire meet as a penalty.  Written proof of ineligibility must be submitted.
17. Stroke rules follow NATIONAL FEDERATION RULES, except the Backstroke starts from a dive.  The swimmer must be on their back by the 2^nd arm pull or half way down the pool, whichever comes first.  Each team should provide a stroke and turn judge for each Dual Meet.  One of these may be the starter.  The stroke and turn judges will be across the board judges for relay starts, false starts, and individual events.  The two judges will have to agree.  No coach may be a stroke and turn judge.  If the judges do not agree, the race will be scored as finished.
18. No leniency will be allowed for all age groups in all strokes.  Federation rules to apply.
19. The coaches of any two teams anticipating any trouble in a close Dual Meet may agree to have an impartial referee who will make all decisions.  A coach must give a week’s notice to the other coach, who must respond within 24 hours if they disagree.  A coach has the right to ask the home coach or the visiting coach to remove an official they deem is not impartial.  Coaches may agree to submit entries before each event in tight meets.
20. Before the first Dual Meet, a roster sheet of swimmers must be submitted to the Secretary of the League on the forms provided (or something equivalent).  Use a separate page for each age group.  This roster does not represent a closed roster.  New entries may be made to the initial roster during the season.
21. Coaches must mail, on Friday, a properly completed score sheet for each meet swum that week.  Each coach is responsible for the SCORING OF THE MEET and the data for THEIR TEAM ONLY.  When there is a discrepancy in the score of the meet, the score sheet will be used to determine the outcome.  Unofficial swimmers should be attached to the score sheet for each meet.
22. The B Regional Meet will be held on the first Saturday in August.
23. To be eligible, a swimmer must comply with Rule #6 and must not be swimming in a Graduated Medley Relay or Individual Event at the A Regional Meet.  B Regional Meet contestants may swim a Freestyle Relay at both the A and B Regional Meets but between the two meets they may only swim three events.  Teams have no limit on the number of individual entries but swimmers may only swim two individual events and one relay or two relays and one individual event.  Teams are limited to one Relay Team per age group, one 8 & Under Co-Ed Relay Team and one Girls and one Boys Graduated Medley.
24. The B Regional Meet will use a cut-off time established from the A Regional Meet statistics of the last five years.  No swimmer will participate in the B Regional Meet when their time exceeds the established cut-off time.  During the scoring of the meet, cut-off times will be checked against the finish times.  Participants swimming in the 10 & Under level will receive no penalty when a cut-off violation occurs.  When a swimmer at the 11 through 18 level violates a cut-off time their team will lose the place points for the event.  The next participant’s team will receive the place points, assuming there is not a concurrent cut-off violation.  Swimmers will receive awards based on actual times swam, not points awarded.
25. The A Regional Meet will be held on the second Saturday in August.
26.  To be eligible, a swimmer must comply with Rule #6.  A team may swim only one group relay for trials and finals (the same four swimmers).  The trials and finals are considered as one meet.  Cards for relay events are due after the breast events of the preliminaries.  NOTE:  When the swimmers leave the bullpen to go on deck that is the official line-up.  Any swimmer who participates in trials is eligible to swim a relay in the finals if they are listed as an alternate.
27. Awards will be distributed as follows:

A and B Regionals –     Medals for 1^st through 6^th place, all events

                                    Place Ribbons for 7^th through 12^th place, all events

                                    Participant Ribbons for all other swimmers

28. The Mile Swim will be held on the Friday in July which precedes the B Regional Meet by one week.
29. Entry blanks will be filled out at the coaches meeting in July.
30. Each team is allowed to enter 5 girls and 5 boys who have met the standards set in Rule #6.  Additionally, the minimum age of a participant must be 11 years of age as of July 1st.  Coaches are reminded that this is a very physical event.  Only swimmers with the stamina and competitive nature should be entered.  The rain date, if used, does not change the eligibility of the swimmers or the alternates listed on the original entry blank.
31. When inclement weather may become a factor during a dual meet the coaches from each team must either call the meet complete and accept the win/loss score or reschedule the meet to continue from the point when it is stopped.  If the meet is restarted, both the original and final score sheets must be submitted.  If the meet is continued from the point where it was stopped, then the scorer must note on the score sheet where the original meet ended and the continuation meet began.  All swimmers who have swum in an actual event will receive credit for the Mile Swim, B Regional and A Regional.
32. On make-up/continuation meets the home coach is to submit to the visiting team two dates for rescheduling without conflicting with the league schedule.  If the visiting team can not make either date, they will forfeit the meet.
33. Meet protests must be called in to the President or Vice-President within 24 hours of the protested meet.  This protest must be followed up in writing to the League Secretary.  The team against which the protest is filed has 5 week days to answer the protest or the meet in question is forfeited in favor of the team filing the protest.  Documentation may be required to answer protests.
34. Each team must pay an entry fee of $400.00 due by July 1, 2006 to support the Regional Meets, Mile Swim, and other League-wide activities.  Teams whose dues are in arrears from the current season may not participate in the Regional Meets or Mile Swim.  This rule is to be strictly enforced.  If the League’s expenses are not met by the end of the summer an additional fee will be levied on each town.
35. Once a score is submitted it is considered final.  After all events (Mile Swim, B Regional and A Regional) are over the score is final.
36. Starting in 2005, an Entry Fee is being charged for the A and B Regionals.  Theamount is $5.00 per swimmer.