Riley Scott Disqualified at North Coast Section Championships After Coaching Protest

Riley Scott entered Saturday’s final session of the 2015 North Coast Section Championships as a heavy favorite to win the titles in the 100 breaststroke and 200 IM races, but a protest robbed her of the opportunity to win her first title in the former of those events.

Scott was the defending section champion in the 200 IM, and placed 2nd in 2014 in the 100 breaststroke – 1.4 seconds faster than any other returning swimmer.

Scott cruised to a 1:01.86 second seed in prelims, but when finals arrived on Saturday, her lane was occupied by the eventual champion Marie-Claire Schillinger (whose finals 1:01.12 would’ve given Scott all she could handle anyway).

According to SwimSwam’s Dean Ottati, the explanation given was that Scott did not have a CIF accredited coach on deck during her 100 breaststroke prelims swim, as compared to prelims of the 200 IM where she did. After a protest was filed, Scott’s 100 breaststroke prelims swim was disqualified and she was unable to race in finals.

The head NCS representative was the only one authorized to answer questions about the incident, but he was unavailable for comment after the meet.

As documented in Petaluma360.com, Scott was allowed to swim time trials in prelims of her league championship meet, but not participate in finals: a brokered solution between her coaches and the meet director after complaints from other coaches in the league about Scott’s relative lack of participation in the high school season.

Scott is a senior who has signed to swim at USC, and was the only Petaluma High School swimmer at the North Coast Section meet.

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Hulk Swim
8 years ago

“Most of the swim coaches in the SCL did not want her there.”

“Unfortunately for the coaches, there was nothing in the SCL rules to exclude Scott.”

A bunch of adults didn’t like that the was going to compete… within the rules, mind you… and so they found a way to keep her out.

Why wasn’t her HS coach at the meet? They didn’t have any other swimmers there… so it makes even more sense that a swimmer at her level stay at her club team and train.

You can spout off a billion names of kids who did both but it doesn’t always work for everyone. I’ve been around a few National Teamers who’ve competed HS and loved it… Read more »

Hulk Swim
8 years ago

“Most of the swim coaches in the SCL did not want her there.”

The coaches proposed a rule change that swimmers need one seed time from a dual meet next year…

Haha. Bunch of frauds. If HS swimming is such a TEAM sport why would they only want times from one dual meet? Why not ALL the dual meets? There are presumably kids who swim all the teams meets amd attend all the practices… why should they lose out on spots to kids who train elsewhere and compete just once?

I think those coaches know full well that most of the top tier kids would walk and not score points and win titles for their TEAM.

The relaxed rules… Read more »

OORAH
Reply to  Hulk Swim
8 years ago

I’m not sure what CIF region you swam in or coached for, but I can very confidently say that statistic should be reversed – I guarantee 75% or more of “these kids” compete in all, or the vast majority of their high school swim commitments. I don’t think the 20+ girls from San Ramon Valley 2015 CIF championship team (NCS) attended zero or one meet all season before league and CIF. I imagine with a coach that has been with LSU, Cal, Oregon State, and ASU runs a far from “summer league” program. I imagine all of these kids show up to all the high school meets and battle it out with the other big gun programs in the league.… Read more »

Kevin Murphy
Reply to  OORAH
8 years ago

Excellent outline. You can add Dana Vollmer to the list of “summer-league” swimmers, who went on to swim USA w Forth Worth Aquatic Team (FAST) and then Grandbury HS.
Of course Missy franklin managed to swim HS and Ryan Lochte, and almost ALL of the University of Texas NCAA Men’s National Champion Team..

This is my last post as I am confident that we will never convince some that HS Swimming has great value as a part of a Team. Lesson from Geese….

Swimming and competing “for the Team” at HS meets, along with the peer recognition that comes from swimming for your HS is priceless.

With HS Swimming comes the rules that each HS Athletics governing body… Read more »

Hulk Swim
Reply to  Kevin Murphy
8 years ago

Your right. Swimming for her HS team where she was going to be swimming alone at NCS far outweighs traveling to Ireland with a- ahem- TEAM of athletes that even elected her the captain.

One size doesn’t fit all. You can keep dropping names about who did HS but I can assure you that a handful of the ones listed so far did so in a way that was EXTREMELY similar to Ms. Scott.

HS Swimming IS great… for most. It was great for me. I loved it. It was a great competitive arena for me. Never missed a workout or meet. And we had a kid who came by after school, said hello, and went on his way… Read more »

OOORAH
8 years ago

This is not the first time something like this has happened, and it unfortunately won’t be the last. There are plenty issues between club swimmers and their involvement in high school swimming, but as a current coach of both platforms I do believe much progress has been made in bridging the gap. Generally, if not exclusively, this is due to very accommodating USA swimming coaches and very hard working and inspired high school coaches. And, swimmers that are team players, and don’t take themselves too seriously. Often, situational factors come into play. This one has many layers after reading the Petaluma 360 article.

What stands out is this is a high level kid (If she were placing 34th in… Read more »

V
8 years ago

“Scott is a senior who has signed to swim at USC, and was the only Petaluma High School swimmer at the North Coast Section meet.”

She goes to Petaluma High, but is she on the team? Did she go to any practices? Did she swim any high school meets this season? At all? Is the reason the PHS coach not there because Riley was not her swimmer?

OOORAH
8 years ago

This is not the first time something like this has happened, and it unfortunately won’t be the last. There are plenty issues between club swimmers and their involvement in high school swimming, but as a current coach of both platforms I do believe much progress has been made in bridging the gap. Generally, if not exclusively, this is due to very accommodating USA swimming coaches and very hard working and inspired high school coaches. Often, situational factors come into play. This one has many layers after reading the Petaluma 360 article.

What stands out is this is a high level kid. And she had no interest in her HS team. Here’s an article dug up from another superstar from… Read more »

Coach JB
8 years ago

Once again – HS Swimming showing exactly what it thinks about inclusion. This is why many elites skip it. If it’s about maintaining a bureaucracy, more power to you.

Hulk Swim
Reply to  Coach JB
8 years ago

SMASH

Crean mom
8 years ago

Not sure about the rules in NCS, but my daughter swims in CIF-SS and they just had their champs this weekend. All coaches had to check in for the meet. Is it the same rule up north? Did the coach check in and left? If the coach did not check in why they let her swim in prelims? I had no clue that the coach has to be present on deck during swims. Coaches normally do, but I didn’t know there was a “rule”. After all, we are all human and have our moments.

Kevin Mills
8 years ago

The reason for my attack on Mr. Murphy’s response is that the same political issues that have existed since the 70’s between High School, NCAA, and USA (then AAU swimming), and FINA fiefdoms for decades. The athletes which come from non-existant or start-up programs have little representation. Not much has changed — get it right, work together for the good of the student athlete.

About Braden Keith

Braden Keith

Braden Keith is the Editor-in-Chief and a co-founder/co-owner of SwimSwam.com. He first got his feet wet by building The Swimmers' Circle beginning in January 2010, and now comes to SwimSwam to use that experience and help build a new leader in the sport of swimming. Aside from his life on the InterWet, …

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