FSPA High School Invitational Swimming & Diving Meet
Location Hotels Sponsorships Volunteers
In its 34th year, the FSPA Invitational Swimming & Diving Meet is
one of the most exciting and fulfilling event the Florida Swimming Pool
Association supports. The meet is the largest meet of its kind in the
southeastern United States. The two-day event attracts about 2,000 high
school students from almost 80 Florida high schools.
The first day is a developmental meet while swimmers must qualify to participate in the invitational meet on day two. The meet is sanctioned by the Florida High School Athletics Association (FHSAA) and observed by USA Swimming. For students planning on swimming at higher levels, having their times sanctioned and USA Swimming observed is important.
We want your feedback! Let us know what you think about this meet.
The 2011 meet took place OCTOBER 7-8 at the YMCA Aquatic Center, Orlando. The results are in! Developmental Meet results(pdf) or Dev. Hytek zip file and Invitational Meet results (pdf) or Inv. Hytek zip file. Thank you to the 74 schools and nearly 1,800 athletes for making this event great!
Invitational combined team scores: 1st place: Bolles; 2nd place: Palm Harbor University; 3rd place: Chiles
Psych sheets (as of 10/5): Developmental Meet and Invitational Meet. The Florida Swimming observation number is #OB-1011. For Orange County Public Schools, our vendor number is 133217. Hytek event files: Developmental or Invitational
The meet is open to all high schools in Florida. Registration is due September 26 by 5:00 p.m. To contact Mitch Norton about your registration, call 386-295-7443. Meet questions can be sent to ctyson@floridapoolpro.com or call 800-548-6774.
Location
YMCA Aquatic Center
8422 International Drive, Orlando, FL 32819
Hotels
Get good deals with some of the YMCA Aquatic Center's preferred hotel partners. Tell them the YMCA sent you and receive special pricing.
Sponsorships
The meet would not be possible without support from industry members and
the community. View levels of sponsorship.
Volunteers
It takes many volunteers to make this a successful meet, and we are looking forward to your participation and support! Volunteers are needed on Friday and Saturday. Sign up here. Friday, October 7: 3:45 p.m. - 8:00 p.m. and Saturday, October 10: 8:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m. or 5:45 p.m. - 8:30 p.m.
Call Charis Tyson at (941) 952-9293 / (866) 930-FSPA or e-mail ctyson@FloridaPoolPro.com
for additional event information.
Coach and swimmer comments
Coach from Creekside to Northeast Florida Chapter of FSPA:
“Thank you so much for sponsoring Creekside High School this year! We brought 23 swimmers and one diver to compete (unfortunately the other 2 entries were too sick to travel). For most of the swimmers that attend, it was there first time being there and they were amazed at the excitement and organization of over 900 participants! Creekside had an extremely successful meet with many of our swimmers reaching their best seasonal and personal times. Even more exceptional was the fact that we had 3 individuals return for Finals that evening with phenomenal results: Evan Jacob (Senior) swam Championship Finals in 200 IM (7th) and 100 Butterfly (6th), Meghann Haila (Sophomore) swam the Consolation round of 500 Freestyle (9th) and Finals in 100 Breastroke (3rd), and Danielle Gordon (Freshman) completed the Consolation round of 100 Breaststroke (16th). In addition, our Girls 400 Freestyle Relay took (12th) in Consolations that night!
I have been the coach for Creekside since the program and school started in 2008, and our program has made an appearance at FSPA every year since then. Thanks to your generosity, this was the largest participation group we have had, with the highest finishes. My team and I are looking forward to 2012 FSPA!!!!”
Letters from Yulee High School to the Northeast Florida Chapter of the FSPA:
"Yulee is a small town in Northeast Florida. Our school is new – only 5 years old. The student population is made up of softball players and football players. The “country club” sports like swimming, golf and tennis are very small. So when I began inquiring into the FSPA meet I really thought we didn’t have a shot. However, to my astonishment, ½ of my team had qualifying times. The major hurdle for us would be to find a way to fund the trip. The expense was not only the entry fee but there would have to be an overnight stay. When I was contacted by our local chapter of the FSPA about a scholarship opportunity I was thrilled. This would provide a way for my kids to be able to swim at a top-notch swim meet. Most of the kids I took had never been to a meet that was half as big as this meet. When they walked on the pool deck the looks on their faces made all of the preparation worth it! Total awe was what was written on their faces. They knew that they were in the presence of the top swimmers in the state of Florida. This kind of opportunity doesn’t happen every day and without your help financially it would not have happened for this great group of swimmers that I am lucky enough to coach. I don’t feel that thanks are enough – but thank you for supporting us in our endeavor." -Coach Wheat
The following letters are from a few of my team members – I have not edited them so they are their words and how they felt.
"This year was our teams first year participating in the FSPA Invitational meet at Orlando, and it surely will not be our last. As we walked through the doors for the first time we were awe-stuck with the size of not only the pools, but also the amount of people attending. While waiting of warm-ups, our team assembled and went over every event they would be swimming. Once warm-ups started, we trekked to the diving well and jumped eager to start the day. To our surprise, the water was not bone chilling, but instead quite comfortable. The biggest adjustment that was made was swimming in a pool that was over 17ft deep. After about 15 minutes, all of our back-strokers had to move to the regular lap lanes because there were no flags in the diving well making it very difficult to get accurate stroke counts. At the start of the meet, our whole team was nervous about swimming in the 200 medley relay. After the first race, our nerves calmed down and we waited until our next swims. While we waited, we kept ourselves busy be reading books, listening to music and staying warm. Despite the indoor pool, the awful weather kept the sun from shining. Once out of the pool it was clear that everyone had the same idea, keep warm. As the day went on, the swimming just got better and better. By the end of the meet, there were some amazing times being posted. This meet was one of the most funs I have ever had and definitely the biggest I’ve ever been to. "
" The Orlando swim meet was the biggest swim meet I’ve ever been to, and it made me nervous. It was very exciting that our little team was able to make it all the way to Orlando. Of all the teams we must have had the largest percentage of our team make it, even if that is nearly 9 out of a team of about 17… We were not there to win, just to experience a bigger meet, and to help our ever improving times. I think everyone swam their best times. The pool was, honestly, very intimidating. Our warm-up was in the deeper end of the diving well, I think it was about 17 feet deep… It seemed like we were swimming on a thin layer of glass and if you mess up, the glass will break; releasing you down to the depths of the pool. Of course it wasn’t really that bad, I just don’t like swimming over especially deep pools since I was maybe 7 and thought there to be an alligator lurking in the deep end of a swimming pool. After warming up for probably 2 hours, we went to wait for the meet to begin. The water was so cold; at my first event, the 100 free, I was shocked as the freezing water hit my bursting nerves and sent me flying through the water. I was a couple seconds slower than my best time, but I’m glad I was able to swim in the event. My 50 free was what I was looking forward to the most anyway, and I dropped half of a second on that. The girls freestyle relay was also really fun; I think we dropped a second making that our best time. In all it was a pretty good meet for our team. I’m really glad that we were able to go; we may have been the smallest team there but we swam our best and hopefully showed the other teams how even if we are a little team we can still make it in a big meet. In conclusion, I’m glad that my swim team and I were able to go to and participate in a big swim meet. I am proud that we qualified and able to go thanks to our sponsors."
"Getting to participate in the invitational was a huge deal for me and for the entire team. Everyone’s goal this year was to get the qualifying times necessary to participate in the Orlando swim meet. Nine of us made it and for team as small as us making the cut was a huge feat.
We arrived in Coach’s hotel room for the team meeting and you could feel the air of nervousness. Everyone was thinking about the coming morning. We had made it down to Orlando in one piece and we were going to leave Orlando in one piece. Our coach guided us through the different rules and showed us how the morning would go. Coach Wheat helped us realize that we are, in fact, a team and that there is no such thing as an individual event. We were all in this together. Tomorrow was going to be a big day for everyone.
The hotel we were staying at had a complimentary breakfast so we all got up bright and early to eat together and have one final run-through of what warm-ups would entail. As I walked into the swimming pool area, I remember being overcome by a feeling of awe. There were swimmers getting ready to compete everywhere.
After warm-ups, we crawled back onto the bleachers to catch our breath and prepare for the upcoming races. We put in our IPods and took out our books in order to help calm ourselves and overcome the increasing anxiety we were all feeling. You would never have been able to tell how nervous we were by our “chill” demeanor.
Looking at the number of heats and swimmers, you would have believed the meet could have lasted two weeks but I, personally, had never see a meet run so smoothly. There was very little confusion and everyone knew what they needed to do, something that really helped to calm my own ever-increasing nerves. The relays went by fast and so did the individuals, as we cheered for our fellow teammates whenever their names flashed up onto the scoreboard. We joked, laughed, and just talked as the racing continued around us, happy to be at the meet together.
Before we knew it, the meet was over and everyone had finished swimming. No one made it to the finals but that did not matter to any of us. Slowly we all exited the pool deck amazed that the Yulee High School Swimming and Diving team had actually swum the Orlando Invitational.
We earned the times to qualify and I hope you realize that we also earned your sponsorship. Without your generosity and immense kindness, we would not have been able to partake in such a wonderful experience. This meet was unlike any meet I have ever been a part of before. Not only did our team grow tighter as a family but also, for the first time in a long time, we went to a meet and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. The entire team left with a feeling of pride and accomplishment because now we could say that we had gotten to compete with the best. Thank you for this amazing opportunity."
2010 MEET RESULTS:
Developmental Meet Results / Developmental Results in hytek
Invitational Meet Results (includes diving) / Invitational Results in hytek
Invitational girls / boys team scores AND combined school scores
2009 Meet Results
Developmental
meet results / hytek files
Invitational meet results / hytek files
Finals Meet results
Team scores
