Welcome to the Cincinnati Marlins! Since 1961, the Cincinnati Marlins have been dedicated to fostering uncommon excellence. Our families and coaches are excited to embark on our season. We hope the supplemental information found here will help introduce our new families to the many facets of our team as well as the sport of swimming. 

At the Cincinnati Marlins, our vision, mission, and core values are at the epicenter of all of our actions. Not only are we dedicated to the pursuit of uncommon excellence in the pool, we also strive for operational excellence. We value our members and aspire to operate from a place of trust, respect, and open communication. We encourage all members to ask questions.

If you need additional guidance after reading through the material on our team website please contact the following:

Coaches: Your swimmer's coaches are the best source of information for questions regarding your swimmer’s training, development, and opportunities. Find your coach's contact information under Meet Our Coaches.

Business Manager: Jen Hedger can answer all questions regarding account access, billing, and registration. jhedger@cincy-marlins.com 

Board of Directors: Our Board of Directors are happy to answer all administrative and executive questions including mission implementation and strategic planning. Find their contact information under Meet Our Board of Directors.

Official Chair: Rob Razzano can answer all questions regarding becoming an official. See the Swim Officials page for more details.

Meet Director: Agnes Serafin can answer all questions regarding swim meet procedures, including functionality and operations, find her contact on the Meet Management page.

Volunteer Coordinator: Our Volunteer Coordinator can answer all questions not addressed on Volunteer Central regarding the fulfillment of our volunteer requirement. If you need help choosing a volunteer job, reach out, we can help! Our Volunteer Coordinator's contact can be found on the Meet Management page.

New Family Welcome: Our New Family committee is happy to answer any questions a new family may have about the team or swimming in general. If you have questions, or would just like to connect with a Swim Parent "pro", please email them at newfamily@cincy-marlins.com

Locations

The Cincinnati Marlins have 3 training locations: Keating Natatorium, Northern Kentucky University, and 5 Seasons. 

Our Programs

• Competitive Team: Training groups based on age and ability. Our group names are Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Blue, Senior, and National.
• Groups train at all or some of our 3 locations. 
• Further group details, including group descriptions, can be found in the Membership Packet. 
• Pre-Competitive Team: Seasonal sessions for those not quite ready for competition.
• Pre/ Post High School Conditioning: Seasonal sessions for high school athletes.
• Masters: A training group for adults.

Our Affiliations

• USA Swimming: The national governing body of swim teams in the USA. 
• Ohio Swimming, Inc.: Structurally within USA Swimming, this is our Local Swim Committee (LSC). 
• USA Swimming Central Zone: Our regional group of State LSCs. 
• TYR: The Cincinnati Marlins are proud to be sponsored by the brand TYR. Please support TYR; training equipment, competition swimsuits, and team apparel should be TYR products.

Competitive Swim Year Calendar

• The 2 Competition Seasons roughly follow a school year and combine to make a year-round program.
• Sept.- March: Short Course Yards (SCY).
• Competitions held in a 25 yard pool.
• April-July: Long Course Meters (LCM).
• Competitions held in a 50 meter pool (aka Olympic size).

Team Website

Registration, account access, swim meet & volunteer sign up, directory, schedules, boosters, spirit wear and more! Please log into your account to ensure all information is up to date; including email addresses. Also on the team website you can:

• Sign up for swim meets (details below).
• Sign up for volunteer jobs/ service credits (details below).
• Manage account billing.

Emails

Each family will receive various updates from the Cincinnati Marlins staff and coaches. This includes training group and team updates, announcements, swim meet information, volunteer service credits, as well as other very important updates. Please ensure you are receiving emails: check your junk and spam folders and make sure you confirm your email address.

Social Media:

Follow along with the Cincinnati Marlins on Social Media! We have Instagram and Facebook accounts.

• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CincinnatiMarlins/
• Instagram: @cincymarlins

Training Equipment

Training Equipment can be found on our website. Each swimmer will need a mesh bag to store their equipment in. Please label all equipment with first and last names. The chlorine will eventually wear a sharpie off of equipment, please check occasionally to refresh. 

Team Apparel & Team Swimsuits

Team Apparel can be purchased at Swimville USA which is located in Kenwood. At Swimville, you can purchase Cincinnati Marlin team suits, equipment, and optional team apparel such as parkas and warm up jackets and pants. Swimville offers a 20% discount to Marlins families on certain items. Order forms, details, and links can be found on our website.

Team Store/ Spirit Wear 

In addition to team apparel, the Cincinnati Marlins also has a Team Store to purchase to optional spirit wear and gear for the whole family. Show your Marlins pride!

Swim meets are a great opportunity to have fun with teammates, apply what the swimmers have learned at practice, and race. Meet Information can be found on our website. Here you will find some basic how-tos for swim meets.

How To Sign Up For A Meet on our website

• Coming Soon!

Finding Meet Details on our Web Site

• Coming Soon!

Types of Posted Swim Meet Information: 

• Meet Announcement: When a club hosts a swim meet, they submit a Meet Announcement to Ohio Swimming for advanced approval. This is typically 3-4 pages long and will tell you all the facility details (address, type of pool, concessions, vendors, etc) as well as the rules for the swim meets (awards, procedures, order of events, contested age groups for events). These Meet Announcements are typically the earliest documents posted under the Event Page (where you commit to the swim meet).

• Meet Notes or Meet Updates: During the week leading up to the swim meet, updates will be posted containing information about timelines, psych sheet, changes to the original plan stated in the Meet Announcement, etc. These usually post a day or two prior to the meet.  

• Heat Sheet aka Meet Program: This document tells you what and where your child will be swimming for each event (the heat and lane). This is uploaded to Meet Mobile (see below) the day of the event or during warmups. 

• Timeline aka Session Report: A few days before a meet, a detailed timeline will be posted for each event’s start time. This will help your swimmer plan their breaks and help their fans catch their swims on the live stream or in person. 

• Psych Sheet: A psych sheet is a ranking of each event by the swimmers' entry time. This tells you what place you child is seeded at and who is swimming the event. Not all meets post psych sheets. A psych sheet is a great way to check your swimmer's event entries to confirm what they are swimming at the meet.

• Warm up times: Please arrive 15-20 minutes early for warm ups. This allows the swimmer to place their bag down with the team and get ready to warm up. Meet warm ups are typically 20-30 minutes, so being ready to jump in is important.

• Parking Information or other final updates: Any last minute details will be communicated by coach via email or posted on the event page.

What to Pack for a Meet:

• Towels
• Snacks / money for concessions
• Water bottle
• Team apparel: parka, warm ups, spirit wear
• Cap, goggles, suit
• Bleacher seat or folding chair for away meets
• Sharpie to write events on your swimmers’ arm

Helpful Hints for Swim Meets

• Speak to your coach before signing up for a meet if you have any questions. They can provide guidance on the appropriate meets and sessions within the meet for your swimmer.

• You don’t have to commit to the full swim meet. For a multi-day meet, you can make a note in the comments section if there are sessions your swimmer is unable to attend.

• Arrive 15-20 minutes prior to warm-up start time to get situated. 

• A swim meet is broken down into sessions by age groupings. Typically, 13-14 and 15 & Over swim in the morning sessions and 11-12 and 10 & Under swim in the afternoons. Even though a typical swim meet is 5 sessions long, you child will not swim in them all. Details about which age groups swim at which sessions can be found in the Meet Announcements.

• Some swim meets have awards such as ribbons and medals. Details about awards can be found in the Meet Announcements. If your swimmer wins an award, it will be placed in our award folders after the conclusion of the meet. The award folders are located outside the coaches' offices on the balcony. Each family has a folder which are organized by training site. For our NKU and 5 Seasons families, please check with your coach about the award folders as sometimes they will bring their site's crate to their location.

• Swimville USA will attend some of our home swim meets which makes purchasing and ordering items easy. Typically, details about days they will attend will be in the Meet Announcement.

• At our home meets, the Marlins host a wonderful concession stand, located on the balcony. The concession stand accepts credit card or cash and has many great items.

• Look for veteran parents to help with reading heat sheets/knowing when to send your child up to swim! Swim parents love all things swimming and would love to help out!

Meet Mobile 

Meet Mobile is an app that is available in the App Store for a small subscription fee. Many swim meets have gone paperless, so heat sheets/ meet programs are often only available on the Meet Mobile App. Results also post to Meet Mobile. 

Time Standards

Some travel and championship swim meets have time standards for entry, commonly known as cuts. None of our Cincinnati Marlin home meets have time standards for entry; all Marlins are eligible to swim. Typically, local away meets also do not have time standards for entry. If there are time standards for entry, it will be stated in the posted Meet Announcement.

The most common time standard for age group swimmers (under 14 years) are to qualify for the Ohio Junior Championships, formerly known as Junior Olympics, held in March and July. Time Standards can be found on our website. 

Timed Finals vs. Prelim/ Final Meets

A swim meet session can either be Timed Finals or Prelim/ Finals.

• Timed Finals is when the swimmers compete in the event 1 time. Their time is their final result. 10 & Under events are contested as Timed Finals.
• Some meets, including our Cincinnati Marlins TYR Sport Classic, Ohio Regional Age Group Championship, Ohio Junior Champs, and the Ohio Senior Meet (all held in both February and June), are Prelim/ Final meets for the 11 and Older Age Groups. 10 & Under age groups will be Timed Finals.
• Typically the top 16 swimmers per event according to the results of the morning prelims (or top 2 heats) will swim the event again later that evening in a session called Finals.
• Information describing Timed Finals and Prelims/ Finals will be detailed in the Meet Announcements, posted on the Swim Meet Information page of our website.

We want you to come join the fun! It is easy to volunteer at our swim meets and a fun way to get involved, support our swimmers, and make friends! Please visit our Volunteer Central for details!

Why do we host swim meets?

Our home swim meets provide high quality experiences for our members while also keeping member dues and travel expenses low. Swim meets supplement our budget through meet entry fees. Every meet we host is an opportunity for families to stay in town, maximizing swim-life balance. For these reasons, participation of our families is an essential factor in our team’s success- many hands make for light work! All families are needed to fulfill their seasonal swim meet volunteer commitment in order for our team to thrive.

Volunteering Tips 

Do I have to work the session my child is swimming in? 

• Not at all! If it is easier for your family, come volunteer at a session your child is not swimming at. Or, make it a family affair! Take the opportunity to volunteer with a family member (age 15+) and earn 1 session credit per person simultaneously. 

When I arrive at the swim meet, what do I do?

• First, sign in at the Volunteer Check-In table, located directly as you enter the building. Then locate the Meet Director, with the help of the check-in table. The Meet Director will explain your job and expectations. The Meet Director is your point of contact for the meet session. 

If my child finishes before the session ends, can I leave?

• Sometimes, swimmers finish slightly earlier than the session end because of where the events happen to fall in the session. Our volunteers, however, must stay until the session is over to ensure a smooth and quality meet for the rest of the participants. If you leave early, you forfeit your session credit. Your swimmer will probably not mind staying and cheering with their friends!

Other Tips:

• Check out the season calendar on our Swim Meets page- plan in advance which home swim meets your athlete will be available to attend and which sessions you would be able to volunteer at. Planning in advance helps families balance the volunteer requirement and also helps the team provide consistent coverage at our swim meets.
• Look for an email about 2 weeks prior to the swim meet for the emailed sign up announcement. Pick a session and a job. 
• Need help picking a job? Let us help! See Volunteer Central for details.

The Cincinnati Marlins have established family booster and sponsorship programs. Please consider supporting our team through these programs. Monies raised through this fundraising support our coaches’ professional development, purchase training equipment, and fund other program supplements. The Cincinnati Marlins are truly thankful for the support of our families, community, and alumni!