Updates to STX sanctioning policies & procedures

Jessica Evans

Club Contacts, please forward this message to your coaches, administrators, and meet directors.

Clubs,

The STX Board of Directors approved the changes below to the South Texas Swimming Sanctioning Policies & Procedures, effective September 9, 2025. Please take a minute to review the changes, and let me know if you have any questions.

The goal of these updates to our sanctioning procedures is to make it easier to sanction swim meets, to remove barriers to competition, and to support and increase the number of competitions available to our athletes. The Sanctioning Policies & Procedures update is posted here and includes all of the details you need for writing your meet information and planning your meet. You can continue using the same Meet Sanction Application as usual to request your meet sanctions.

The changes in the update are:

  • Safe Sport Recognition is no longer required to sanction swim meets, but we still strongly encourage all STX member clubs to gain SSRP recognition.
  • The types of sanctioned swim meets was updated to include dual (a closed competition between two clubs), intrasquad (a closed competition for members of your own club), and development meets (for 12&Under athletes only, planned not to exceed two hours in length; athletes may only compete in one session each day; and with only the following events: 25/50/100 Freestyle, 25/50 Backstroke, Breaststroke, Butterfly, 100 IM, and 100/200 Freestyle Relay and 100/200 Medley Relay by gender or mixed).
  • Three officials (deck referee, admin official, and starter) are required for sanctioning intrasquad, dual, and development meets. Four officials (deck referee, admin official, starter, and stroke & turn judge) are still required for sanctioning all other meets.
  • The requirement barring meets with overlapping (competing) time standards on the same dates as LSC championship meets has been removed, to allow clubs to sanction meets at any time. However, we still encourage our STX member clubs to fully support the LSC championship meets.
  • The requirement for clubs to attend the annual HOD meeting to be eligible to sanction meets has been removed. However, we still encourage our STX member clubs to participate in the HOD meetings to support and remain engaged in the LSC’s operations.
  • Splash fees are no longer assessed for any STX sanctioned swim meets.
  • A sanction application fee of $175 per day of the meet is the only fee assessed for sanctioning swim meets in STX.

We hope that these changes will help your club to provide more competitions for our STX athletes. If you have any questions about sanctioning swim meets, please contact me at [email protected].

Jessica Evans
Sanction Chair
South Texas Swimming