Cobb County government recently announced limited capacity at government buildings including aquatic centers. For those of you who don’t know, it is the middle of the swim season and swimmers have been training hard all season. With the new announcement of the limited capacity, it not only strained high school coaches to devise new plans in less than 24 hours for swim meets happening this Friday and Saturday, but it also created a huge change on how the meets will be run in the future which includes the JV county and Varsity County championship meets a little less than 3 weeks away. The whole idea of a high school TEAM sport is to be together and win as a team. With the new limited capacity it will be virtually impossible for teams to be together, swim all their swimmers, and have the team spirit we have been able to have all season long. Additionally, if meets are forced to be separated by boys and girl, this puts an unhealthy strain on athletes as cool down is a very important step to not only prevent injuries at the meet, but also to help us prepare for our next events or return our bodies back to a normal rate. By not having the buffer of girls events between boys or vice versa, this puts swimmers in a very unhealthy and hard state because of the back to back swimming and not having enough time to recover from racing an event. In many cases, swimmers get sick because of the exhaustion and pressure they put their bodies in for that amount of time. COVID-19 has very little spread in chlorine treated pool environments because of the chemicals used, and with proper mask usage when out of the water, there should be little concern for the spread. Not to mention, limiting the capacity has no use because it’s not like 130 people COVID won’t be there but the moment another person steps in it appears?? Additionally, all other school sports are being played at full capacity allowing people to spectate and the stands are FULL. I hope everyone can sign this petition to help change Lisa Cupid and County Manager Dr. Jackie McMorris’ mind to give us OUR swimming season back without any restrictions or changes that prevent a team from being a team.