Wellington Dolphins Swim Team

“Have fun, because that’s what life is about.” -Ryan Lochte

THE DOLPHINS HAVE A 10-LANE, 25-METER POOL. We look forward to hosting your team for an exciting and fun swim meet.

The Wellington Pool is located at 9700 Wellington Road, Manassas, VA 20110 in the City of Manassas. Our Setup Areas page has diagrams showing team areas, deck and clubhouse layouts and location of key areas.  

USEFUL CONTACT INFORMATION: 

Our team email address is [email protected]. If you are not sure who you need to talk to, email us there and your message will be sent to the person who can help you.

SWIMMER DROP-OFF: Before finding parking, you may drop off swimmers and belongings at the circle in front of the Clubhouse via the Wellington Road entrance.

PARKING: Limited parking spaces are available in the pool parking lot. Reserved parking is provided for Head Coach, Head Official and Computer Person in the main Wellington pool parking lot (enter on the Clover Hill Rd side). If handicap parking is needed, please reach out to our PWSL representative with the number of handicap spaces your team requires.

Street parking is available on surrounding streets and neighborhoods with overflow parking at Grace United Methodist Church (GUMC) a short walk from the pool via a paved walking trail.  Parking Do Nots:

• Do not park overnight in our pool lot. The towing company contracted by the HOA will tow your car.
• Do not park ANYWHERE across the street in the Townhomes. All Townhome parking in Wellington requires a resident sticker or a visitor hang-tag. The towing company contracted by the HOA will tow your car, any time of day. The only exception is if you can find public street parking on Berkshire Street or the Townhome side of Clover Hill Road.
• Clover Hill Court is no parking before 8:00 A.M. Obey all posted parking regulations on this street.
• Do not park in or block a Bike Lane. This includes parts of Clover Hill Road and all of Hendley Road. Parking in a Bike Lane will be ticketed by Manassas City Police and in some cases they will tow.
• Also, (1) do not park against curb areas marked in yellow in the Wellington Pool parking lot or in the circle in front of the Clubhouse. These areas are fire-lanes and must be kept clear; (2) do not park in any Handicapped-marked space unless your car displays the appropriate plates or hang-tag. (3) Use common sense and don’t park too close to or block intersections, fire hydrants, mailboxes or driveways. Neighborhood residents will call the police. 

TENT/CANOPY SETUP: There are NO personal tents, canopies or chairs allowed on the pool deck. (Refer to our Setup Area page.) Only Coach/Team tents and gear are allowed on deck. If you need an exception for deck access, please reach out to our PWSL representative to make this request.

NIGHT BEFORE TENT SET-UP: You may begin setting up NO EARLIER than 9:30 p.m. the night before the meet, unless we notify you otherwise. No tents/canopies are allowed on the HOA-owned Basketball Court and the HOA-owned Tennis Courts are always OFF LIMITS. Please follow directions of any posted signs and do not enter any areas that are roped off for non-access. If you are set up in an area that needs to be kept clear (refer to our setup maps), you will be asked to move. We always recommend you leave the cover off and your tent frame lowered overnight in case of storms. Also, night before tent setup is at your own risk. There have been incidents of late-night tent hooligans in the past.

VISITING COACHES AREA: Visiting team coaches set up by the pool in and around the slide near the deep end of the pool. Set up can start after 9:00 pm on Friday night unless we notify you otherwise.

LANE ASSIGNMENTS: Lane 10 is not used for 13-14 and 15-18 events.

RELAY LANES: Visiting team relay lanes are 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10. You can make up to an E relay (5 Teams) for 12 and Under events; and up to a D relay (4 Teams) for 13+events, unless meet rules state otherwise (e.g. Divisionals). At Dual meets, our Head Coach welcomes "exceptions" to PWSL relay team format for the sake of just letting kids swim. For example, add a girl to an 8-U Boys Free relay to be able to create an "E" relay. Understand, any "just for fun" relay teams will swim as Exhibition.

WARM-UPs: The meet starts at 7:00 AM. Warm-ups are 25 minutes for each team. Wellington has the first warm-up from 6:00 to 6:25 AM, and the visiting team warms up is from 6:25 to 6:50 AM. The pool is cleared at 6:50 AM.

VOLUNTEERS

VOLUNTEER SHIFTS: For a typical dual meet, Wellington runs two shifts. First shift goes from 7:00 AM until 9:30 AM. Second shift is 9:30 AM until meet ends. Meets typically end around 12:00 noon or earlier.

STROKE & TURN OFFICIALS and EQUIPMENT: Since we have a 10-lane pool, please bring as many Stroke and Turn officials as possible. Please also bring your starting equipment. 25-meter events start at the opposite side of the pool. Timers and Recorders stay in the same location all meet. As such, we position the second starter machine (visiting team starter machine) there to avoid the need for moving the equipment during the meet. Please have your starter machine fully charged and set it up by the backstroke flagpole near the slide. A tripod is provided. S&T officials do not execute the standard shift as described above in the overview. Lane assignments and rotation is promulgated at the S&T officials meeting prior to the meet and depends on how many officials are available. The S&T officials meeting is conducted at 6:30 AM. Announcements over the public address system provide the meeting location.

TIMERS and RECORDERS: For each of the 2 volunteer shifts, the Visiting team must provide 15 Timers and 5 Recorders. 2 Timer volunteers for all odd-numbered lanes (1, 3, 5, 7 and 9); 1 Timer volunteer for all even-numbered lanes (2, 4, 6, 8 and 10), and 1 Recorder volunteer for each even-numbered lane (2, 4, 6, 8, 10) for each shift. A Timer and Recorder meeting is held before the start of the meet at 6:30 AM. Announcements over the public address system provide the meeting location.

HEAD TIMERS: Wellington Provides 1 Head Timer per shift, and the Visiting team provides 1 Head Timer per shift. All Head Timers must attend the Timers and Recorders meeting at 6:30. 

CLERK of COURSE: Our CoC area is set up inside and around the baby pool area. The visiting team is requested to provide 3 Volunteers per shift. To assemble swimmers for the first Individual event, CoC Volunteers for Shift 1 begin at 6:45 a.m.

COMPUTER TEAM: For Computer Operations, Wellington provides 2 laptops for data-entry, and one tablet-style laptop for use during data entry verification. At a minimum, the Visiting Team should bring their laptop and printer. Please bring any additional laptops you can provide for data-entry.

Wellington asks the Visiting Team to handle printing of award labels starting at 2^nd shift when we start our Ribbon volunteering. Wellington provides the labels.

Visiting Team Volunteers for Computer Support: We ask the Visiting Team to provide 6 computer volunteers per shift to be used as described below.

• Computer Lead +1 volunteer per shift for data entry assistance
• 1 volunteer per shift for DQ processing (identifies DQ matching to Timer Sheet, and Codes) (Wellington provides 1)
• 2 volunteers per shift for Verification (2 teams of 2 confirming Timer Sheet times vs. Times entered in computer) (Wellington provides 2)
• 1 Heat Ribbon distributor per shift (Wellington provides 1) Heat Ribbon Volunteers attend the Timers and Recorders Meeting before meet start.
• 1 Runner per shift to collect timer sheets and deliver to Computer table, check with Referees and Stroke and Turn for DQ slips that need to go to Computers.

In general, computer volunteers may “float” through the process, that is change positions, or handle extra tasks, e.g. post results or take score reports to announcer. If you have additional volunteers who are training to work on the computer, by all means, bring anyone you want. Wellington does not want/expect anyone to be glued to a computer during shifts

RIBBONS: We do not start assembling award ribbons until the second shift and ask for 2 Ribbon volunteers to begin at 9:30. Wellington provides all the ribbons and the labels. (Because Heat Ribbon distribution begins during the first shift, those volunteers work as part of the computer team. Wellington provides 1, and Visiting team provides 1 heat ribbon passer outer each shift to easily cover all 10 lanes.)

OTHER GENERAL MEET INFORMATION

SPECTATOR FLOW and WHERE TO WATCH THE MEET: The area of the pool deck behind the start-end in front of the pavilion, and over by the public address announcer and S&T officials by lane 10 are off limits except for swimmers and volunteers. This is not a pass-through area either. Spectators are asked, upon entry through one of the two gates, to proceed to the turn end of the pool for spectating. Entrances to the pool deck are by the club house through the double gate and over by the guard shack by the pavilion.

PHOTGRAPHY/VIDEO: No photography/video is allowed behind the start end of the pool except by an officially designated team photographer. (Note the start-end of the pool changes for 25-meter events.)  We ask that spectators keep their phones and cameras turned down until after the start. Additionally, there is to be no photography/video where one could have a reasonable expectation of privacy. This includes bathrooms, locker rooms, lifeguard office, etc.

BATHROOMS: Men and women bathrooms are on the pool deck level in the rear of the clubhouse. We ask that the showers not be used during the meet by swimmers or otherwise. Additionally, the bathrooms are not a hangout area. Bathrooms are monitored by marshals, officials and guards over the course of the meet.

MEET PROGRAMS/HEAT SHEETS: The meet program is be released to the SwimTopia  App for Pro users and a copy is available on the Wellington Dolphins website, typically, on Thursday evenings. The Visiting Team has access to the meet reports through their computer representative. Wellington prints and supplies enough meet sheets for Officials and our Volunteer Area Leads. Please plan on printing your own copies of reports for your coaches or any others from your team that may need them.

SCHOOL SUPPLY DONATIONS: Our friends and neighbors over at Grace United Methodist Church (GUMC) generously share their parking lot with us on Home Meet Saturdays for overflow parking. To pay this generosity forward, we have partnered with GUMC to support their School Supply Drive for our community. At any Wellington Dolphin Home meet, including Divisionals, you can drop off your school supply donations at the Wellington Welcome Tent. After the meet, supplies are collected and taken to the church.