General Information and Team FAQs

Swimmers should have a desire to improve their basic strokes and skills, look forward to making new friends (at Montrose and at away swim meets) and want to HAVE FUN. For more information on the training groups please see the page: Practice Times and Group Description

Do team members have to compete?

It is not required that team members compete in every competition; but swimmers are encouraged to compete. In addition, it is required that a team member compete in at least one competition per season in order to rejoin the team in the following season. While the team is meant to be fun and good exercise, it is not fair to those swimmers who are there to practice for competition to have swim time and lane time taken up by swimmers who are only there for fun.

What costs are involved with joining the team?

Every swimmer will need to register and pay a fee to both the Marlins/USA Swimming and CSI (Colorado Swimming, Inc.) In addition, swimmers must pay to swim at the pool. For more information, Parent Financial Repsonsibilities

Who operates the team?

The Montrose Marlins is a membership-elected board run team. We are a non-profit organization.

How do I sign up for the team?

You can call our President, Cindy Sperling, 596-7274 or email her at winsling@rocketweb.net. You can also check our home page for tryouot dates. Information on how to sign up for the team can be found under Information for Parents.

Who manages the team?

Most aspects of the team practices, meets and other events are handled by the volunteer parents of the swimmers.

Who governs the team and sanctions swim meets?

The Montrose Marlins operates under regulations and standards set by Colorado Swimming, Inc. (CSI), which is a Local Swimming Committee (LSC) of USA Swimming. USA Swimming is the national organization that sanctions national competition and sets the standards by which most competitive swimming takes place.

What kind of events do the swimmers compete in?

Nearly all meets and events that the swimmers compete in are structured as "Age Group" categories. This means that swimmers compete in age brackets and male/female categories; e.g. 8 & Under Girls, 9-10 Boys, 11-12 Girls, 15 & Over Boys, etc. There are also many stroke/distance combinations in each age group; such as 50 yard Butterfly, 100 yard backstroke, 200 yard freestyle, etc.

At meets, events are typically divided into 2 sessions (morning and afternoon), although some may have more sessions. The sessions are usually age specific; e.g. all the 9-10 and 13-14 year old events are in the morning session, while 11-12 and 15 & Over events are in the afternoon. For a typical meet event listing, click on the link Montrose Specific Information under Swim Meets on the team home page and check out the meet information.

Who are the other teams that the Marlins compete against?

The Marlins are part of Western Slope Zone of CSI (Colorado Swimming, Inc.) and is typically referred to as a Western Slope Team. Western Slope Zone is designated as those teams in Colorado west of the Continental Divide, although there are a couple exceptions to this. You can visit the CSI site at csi.org for more information on area boundaries. Do not confuse Western Slope Zone of CSI with Western Zone of USA Swimming. Western Zone is a designation by USA Swimming for the western portion of the U.S. Note that information on the website may list "Zones" in meet information, qualifiers or results. This is for Zone competitions related to national USA Swimming competitions. The championship competition for Western Slope (Zone 4 of CSI) is called Western Slope Championship.

There are 18 teams that are considered part of the Western Slope teams. For a listing of these teams, visit the Western Slope Zone. There is a link on the Marlins home page to this site.

Does the team swim year around?

The Montrose Marlins is registered as a year round team. The Western Slope teams are comprised of both Seasonal and Year-around teams.

When are practices held?

The practice schedule is posted on the practice times page.

When are meets held?

For a listing of a typical meet schedule, click on the link Meet Schedule under Team Info. Most regular season meets are non-qualifying, which means there are no minimum time requirements for entry in events. The only requirement is that you are a registered CSI swimmer.

Meets are usually 2-3 days (weekends), but some can be as many as 5 or as few as 1. Typically, Friday sessions are for the younger swimmers and long distance older swimmers. Warm-up for the morning session usually starts between 6:30 - 7:30 AM, with the meet beginning immediately after warm-up. Some warm-up sessions are split into 2 time slots in order to accommodate the number of swimmers. When this occurs, teams are assigned to a specific time slot.

Are there any Championship Meets?

At the end of the regular season meets, there are several Championship Meets. The most prominent of these for the Marlins is the Western Slope Championship. This meet is held after the last meet of the regular season and is hosted at various locations on the western slope. Championship meets are qualifying meets. This means that in order to compete in an event, a swimmer must have previously made a minimum time in that particular event.

After the Western Slope Championships are other championship meets. These consist of JO’s, a State Championship for the best swimmers in the state; Silver State, a State Championship for those swimmers not quite making JO’s; and the 8 & Under Fest, a State Championship for swimmers who are 8 years old and under. Following these meets are Sectionals, Regionals and Nationals.

All of these Championship meets are qualifying meets (minimum time requirements). Qualifying times are determined at the beginning of the season and can be found on the CSI site, Zone 4 site and the Swimmers section of the Montrose Marlins site.

The Marlins typically sends some swimmers to the Sectionals, Regionals and Nationals.

Who are the Officials at meets?

Officials are volunteers who have taken the necessary tests and trained to become certified as a swim official. Any one interested in officiating is encouraged to become certified. Officials are a necessary part of a swim meet. Without enough officials, a swim meet cannot be Certified, so results cannot be used in determining eligibility for championship meets. Information on becoming an official can be obtained from the CSI website (CSI.org) or by just asking any official. The more officials there are, the easier it is on everyone. A list of officials associated with the Montrose Marlins can be found under CSI Certified Officials in the Marlins' Team Info section on the team home page.

Do parents have to work at swim meets?

Teams are expected to provide help at swim meets. It takes many people to hold a meet, and the typical host team does not have enough people to do it by themselves; so volunteers from visiting teams are needed. Typically, volunteering as a lane timer is all that is required. However, at Championship Meets, teams are assigned duties; such as specific sessions for lane timers, event board updating, clean up, hospitality, etc. Job descriptions can be found here.

Do parents have to do any other work for the team?

The team operates because of the parents. It takes everyone doing something to make the team and the swimmers successful. The team relies on its parents and swimmers for support. There are many tasks that must be done to make the team function; such as swimmer registration, meet entry registrations, social event planning, fund raisers, etc. These are described in more detail under Parent’s Financial Responsibilities and Organizational Structure under the Marlin's Team Info. There are many things that must be done for the team to operate and EVERYONE'S HELP is needed.