Members of the Campus Recreation Center (CRC) and Georgia Tech community have no cause for concern when it comes to the Georgia High School Association (GHSA) State Swim and Dive Meet, happening from Tuesday, Feb. 2, to Saturday, Feb. 6. While events like these historically bring a lot of additional people and traffic to campus, this year’s GHSA meet will be a no-spectator event with several additional measures in place to ensure the safety of participants and others in the CRC.

Health and safety precautions will be stringent and heavily enforced. Most of the additional safety measures will only affect meet participants, but Yellow Jackets planning to use the facility next week should be aware that:

• No spectators will be allowed. The stands in the McAuley Aquatic Center where spectators typically would sit will be used for spacing out participants awaiting their events.
• Masks must be worn at all times by participants and coaches. The only time masks may be removed is to enter the water for warmup, competition, or warmdown. Failure to comply will result in ejection from the meet for that athlete and possibly their team.
• Participating teams will have timed arrivals to space out the number of people in the building.
• Temperature and symptom checks will be performed for every GHSA participant an hour prior to their arrival.
• Aquatic Center locker rooms will be for GHSA participant use only during the meet.
• There will be signage around the CRC entrance to guide participants to their designated areas and remind them about mask wearing and other rules.

Beyond the safety protocols inside the CRC, the impact of the event to campus will be limited. Participant dropoff will take place to the north along Ferst Drive in the parking spaces on the west side of the street. The campus community should exercise extra caution when driving through this area.

While in-person spectatorship will not be allowed, live coverage will be accessible on the GHSA website.