Thanks to our Y States Officials from Ed Miller

I spent some time down at Rutgers this past weekend at JOs, and I reflected on that meet and on our YMCA State Championship Meet. That meet was very well run and well officiated in terms of the numbers of officials, instruction of officials, etc However, the officiating at our YMCA State Meet was really at a championship level, and several levels above the high level of officiating that I experienced at Rutgers. That is a tribute to our leadership team, you folks who put in many hours on deck, carefully paying attention to all the details of the officiating, and had to endure my stroke briefings several times. You could easily step onto the deck at Y Nationals and with a little orientation run that meet, and that is no knock on the great officiating teams we have assembled for Y Nationals over the years, but a tribute to your individual and collective professionalism, dedication and competence.

States ran well because all of you did your jobs well. None of you were just picked out of a hat to do the jobs we asked you to do; you were chosen because we knew you could do it and you sure did rise to the occasion. I received nothing but praise from the coaches about how well the meet was officiated, and even when coaches questioned calls made on the deck, which is their prerogative and responsibility, we satisfied them with our responses and they accepted those calls. This was one of the toughest meets I have ever had to run, as we literally squeezed a three day meet into two and a half days, making long days for all of us, but you were up to the task.

Thank you once again for all your efforts. You made the YMCA officiating community very proud and the provided the swimmers, who are why any of us are there, with a true championship meet experience!

And a special note of praise and thanks to our officials and meet workers at Somerset Valley, particularly Luke Dubiel, Paul Jennings and Dave Rzewnicki, who worked tirelessly behind the scenes to make our work on the deck manageable. You guys were great!

Hope to see a lot of you on the deck in Fort Lauderdale in two weeks. All the best to each of you, and again. many thanks.

Ed