It didn’t have to end this way.
Thirteen Acalanes swimmers had their seasons cut short after the Lafayette school’s coach did not properly register them through an electronic form for this weekend’s North Coast Section championships.
High school sports isn’t always about who wins or loses, but in this case, there is definitely no winner.
But there is one person who is responsible: Sorry, coach, this one’s on you.
Because of one error and strict adherence to the rules, seniors such as Taryn Veronda and Cale Hanson were denied an opportunity to swim on Friday at the Concord Community Pool and possibly next weekend at the state championships.
A cruel fate, given that the eight Acalanes seniors who qualified for NCS had their freshman season cut short because of COVID-19.
The Dons had until 1:15 p.m. on Sunday to register, a deadline that the NCS said came and went without the names of the 13 Acalanes swimmers who were supposed to be on the list. Only the school’s three divers were registered.
Coach Brett Usinger told the Bay Area News Group’s Nathan Canilao a glitch in the computer system used to input names was to blame.
After he checked that evening and didn’t see his swimmers on the list, he said his calls to section officials went unanswered.
The coach and school administrators frantically searched for avenues to appeal.
The section wasn’t hearing it.
“This occurred after a reminder was sent out to all NCS member schools by the section office that the deadline was mandatory and no exceptions for late entries would be made,” NCS commissioner Pat Cruickshank said in a statement to the Bay Area News Group. “The procedures and consequences for failing to follow these championship procedures were agreed to by NCS member schools.”
The worst part of this terrible situation is that it was completely avoidable.
It wasn’t as if Usinger checked at 1:17 p.m. – he told Canilao that he looked at the submission page later that night.
As the coach, the buck stops with him.
The Diablo Athletic League championships – a qualifying meet for NCS – were held on Saturday.
If the system was so complex, why does Acalanes appear to be the only school affected?
Why didn’t Usinger register his swimmers immediately after the meet or later that night and then check with the section office – perhaps with a time-stamped email – to ensure his swimmers’ entry forms reached the appropriate hands?
And even if Usinger, who could very well be the victim of a computer glitch, couldn’t fill out the form until Sunday morning, there was time to send an email to NCS.
Instead, the coach waited until it was far too late, an unfortunate decision that left his swimmers pleading with the section in an emotional YouTube video to reverse its decision.
“For us to miss our last NCS meet due to technical issues is extremely unfair,” one swimmer said.
“We deserve a chance to compete,” another swimmer said.
Even if Cruickshank and other NCS leaders were moved to tears by the video, their job is to enforce the rules agreed upon by the section’s member schools.
Acalanes, obviously, is one of the members.
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If Cruickshank bent the rules in this case, he’d have to do so in future instances.
Maybe the member schools need to include language in the bylaws to avoid punishing kids when a coach or administrator makes a clerical mistake.
But that won’t help the Acalanes swimmers now.
Instead of competing for championship medals, they won’t even be in the water.
Which is a shame, because it didn’t have to end this way.