Aquatics Season Format 1

Objective The purpose of this power point presentation is to educate our aquatics programs on the updated criteria for all levels of competition throughout the aquatics season. It is our goal that by the end of the presentation the person viewing it will have all of the advancement information for the upcoming season and understand how Special Olympics Massachusetts developed these updates. All individuals who view the power point will be asked to take a quick quiz that reviews the information in this presentation. Aquatics has been identified as a capacity sport at Special Olympics Massachusetts. It is the goal of SOMA to continually evaluate our capacity sports and find avenues to offer more opportunities for our athletes to compete and train throughout the season. 2 / Special Olympics

Capacity Sports It is in keeping with the sports philosophy of Special Olympics International that regardless of ability level, competition progression is key to acknowledging and rewarding every athlete’s hard work, improvement and athletic excellence. This practice is consistent with many of the world’s sports organizations. Other factors such as venue capacity, schedules, funding, volunteer workforce, and more, dictate realistic parameters regarding the size and duration of Games. This inherently necessitates constraints on how many participants can be accommodated and how many competitions can be contested during a set time. 3 / Special Olympics

Sport Advisory Committee- SAC Committee is comprised of athletes, coaches, program coordinators, volunteers and staff SOMA staff brings current or anticipated issues to the group to determine recommended course of action Capacity sports were brought to the SAC and it was determined that sub-committees would be formed to investigate each sport in greater detail 4 / Special Olympics

Aquatics Sub-Committee A sub-committee was formed to explore what changes were necessary for the future of the sport Advancement criteria to progress through competition levels was the Sub- Committee’s primary focus The sub-committee wanted to build criteria that was easily understood by all Sub-Committee was comprised of current coaches, program coordinators, family members, athletes and staff It was important to SAC that all SOMA groups were represented on the sub-committee 5 / Special Olympics

Aquatics Season Overview February 25 th - Season Overview & Information PowerPoint available to all Middle of March- Spring Season Coach Meetings April 26 th - State Qualifying Tournaments Milford & Bridgewater State May 2 nd - State Qualifying Tournament Chicopee May 3 rd - State Qualifying Tournament Boston University June 6 th & 7 th - Summer Games Competition Traditional Aquatics at Harvard Unified Team Competition at Boston University on June 6 th NEW 6 / Special Olympics

Aquatics Season Overview Traditional Athletes are permitted to register for two events and participate in one relay Athletes in developmental events are limited to choosing from that category 7 / Special Olympics

Aquatics Season Overview Traditional Events Developmental 10M Assisted Swim 15M Flotation Race 15M Unassisted Swim 15M Walk 25M Flotation Race Individual 25M Butterfly 25M Backstroke 50M Butterfly 50M Backstroke 50M Breast Stroke 50M Freestyle 100M Butterfly 100M Backstroke 100M Breast Stroke 100M Medley 100M Freestyle 200M Butterfly 200M Backstroke 200M Breast Stroke 200M Medley 200M Freestyle Relays 4X25M Freestyle Relay 4X50M Freestyle Relay 4X100M Freestyle Relay 4X200M Freestyle Relay 4X25M Medley Relay 4X50M Medley Relay 4X100M Medley Relay 4X25M Freestyle Relay 4X50M Freestyle Relay 4X100M Freestyle Relay 4X200M Freestyle Relay 4X25M Medley Relay 4X50M Medley Relay 4X100M Medley Relay 8 / Special Olympics

Aquatics Season Overview Unified Overview Unified Sports® Team Aquatics is based off of standard High School team swim meets. Teams will be formed with an approximately equal number of athletes with and without intellectual disabilities. They will be divisioned based solely on athletic ability (not on whether they have or do not have i.d.). Each team member can earn points for their team and the team with the most points wins the meet. Team Rosters Rosters are of between 8-20 participants who are of similar ages. The team composition should be a combination of athletes with intellectual disabilities and without disabilities. Ideally, 50% of the team should be composed of athletes with intellectual disabilities. 9 / Special Olympics

Aquatics Season Overview Unified Events 25 Y Freestyle 4 x 25 Freestyle Relay 25 Y Backstroke 4 x 50 Freestyle Relay 50 Y Freestyle 50 Y Backstroke 10 / Special Olympics

Aquatics Season Deadlines March 11 th - Registrations from 2014 Summer Games sent to all coaches April 8 th - Changes to aquatics registrations & new team registration due by 12pm Teams who wish to attend a State Qualifying Tournament must declare so on registration form All head coaches must be fully certified May 20 th - Agency report (final registration) sent to coaches Housing Forms Due May 22 nd - Final changes to agency report due by 12pm Each team must have one person on team be CPR/First Aid certified 11 / Special Olympics

Advancement Criteria 12

Advancement Criteria The committee was tasked with forming a detailed advancement criteria that all teams must follow to attend an aquatics competition. Each level of competition (State Qualifying Tournament, State Tournament) has specific criteria each program and athlete must meet in order to qualify to participate. It was the goal of the committee to develop criteria that was easily understood by all constituents and can grow with the sport of aquatics. 13 / Special Olympics

State Qualifying Tournament Criteria Submit registration on or before established deadline Head coach certified by registration deadline Class A Protective Behaviors General Orientation Sport Specific Aquatics Training Unified Sports Training- Only for Unified teams Program must fundraise in one of the following manners Agency paid fees LP/Independent Fundraising Event Participate in a SOMA Fundraiser 14 / Special Olympics

State Tournament Criteria Must have met all prior advancement criteria Must have participated in a State Qualifying Tournament Must finish in the top 2 of assigned division at State Qualifying Tournament to move only in quota events- 4 x 50M Freestyle Relay 4 x 25M Freestyle Relay Representative attended Seasonal Coach Meeting Fully Certified head coach at or before established deadline Individual within the program who attends practices that holds a First Aid/CPR certification 15 / Special Olympics

State Tournament Quota Due to the relocation back to Harvard University from Boston University for Traditional swimmers, the quota will be brought back up to its original number of 600. The quota for Unified competition at Boston University will be 200 athletes and unified partners. 16 / Special Olympics

Divisioning & Awards 17

State Qualifying Tournament- Divisioning Divisions at the 2015 State Qualifying Tournament will be limited to 3 relay teams per division or 6 athletes in individual events Division sizes may expand in future years The honest effort rule (within %15 of registration time) will be enforced when medaling in all events. 18 / Special Olympics

Aquatics Season- Awards State Qualifying Tournament- Medals & Ribbons will be awarded to athletes based on their placement within their division State Championship: Summer Games – Traditional: Medals & Ribbons will be awarded to teams based on their placement within their division Unified: Ribbons will be awards for individual races. Medals & Rosette Ribbons will be awarded for overall team awards 19 / Special Olympics

Thank you for reviewing the Special Olympics Massachusetts Aquatics Season Format 20 / Special Olympics