The Skagit Valley Family YMCA Leads the Way with COVID Safe Swim Meets

This Friday, February 19^th, we will be hosting our first USA Swimming Intrasquad swim meet at the Skagit Valley Family YMCA.  This will be the first YMCA in Western Washington (and very possibly the State) to host a swim meet since the COVID-19 restrictions were put in place.  

We are very fortunate that Linda Vicik (a USA and YMCA Officials Trainer) will be our Referee, and members from other USA swim teams are coming to fill the roles of Stroke and Turn judges and Starters.  Christine Johnson has completed her initial training on the USA side and will be our team’s first apprentice official.  As soon as more restrictions are lifted, we will hope to get other parents trained as USA officials as well. 

What does this mean moving forward?  The success of this meet will be used as the standard for all YMCA’s in the PSSA to demonstrate that swim meets can be held safely.   Up to this point, the PSSA and the YMCA has not sanctioned meets.   However, we are confident that with a successful meet under our belts, the PSSA will feel comfortable sanctioning YMCA meets and this will be a catalyst to get other YMCA’s back into the pool and practicing.  Our team is making a major impact on the future of swimming in the Puget Sound and all of the YMCA’s in Washington will be positively impacted by our efforts.

Update (2/22/21): After a successful swim meet, we have been officially sanctioned by YMCA swimming and can begin to compete against other YMCAs. This will make us the first YMCA in our region to be sanctioned.