Official shortage spills over to swimming, forces cancellation of Titan Firecracker Classic

QUINCY — The lack of qualified officials has forced the cancellation of what would have been the 29th Titan Firecracker Classic, which was scheduled for June 23-25 at Sheridan Swim Club.

Thomas Gerek, head coach of the Sheridan Swim Team, said the head official the meet has used in recent years informed the team earlier this spring she would be at a different meet this year, and a replacement could not be found.

“It’s hard to find someone qualified and willing to come here to run the meet,” said Gerek, the Sheridan Swim Team coach since 2020. “USA Swimming makes it difficult to have that level of official. You need to have five years officiating events before (qualifying to become a head official).

“We’ve had one team that has come here, and the wife of the coach has been our head official. But that team is going to a different event this year. Often parents who have kids swimming become officials, but we have no one affiliated with our team with enough years of experience.

“We need more people to step up to become officials.”

At its peak, the Titan Firecracker Classic drew between 500 and 700 swimmers from multiple states to Sheridan’s 50-meter outdoor pool, Gerek said, but last year’s field fell to about 200. 

“Everybody likes to find indoor meets now because there’s more control over the environment,” he said. “With outdoor meets there might be storms and you can’t control the pool temperature. Everything is controlled in indoor pools, plus you’re out of the sun.

“That could make it difficult in the future to run this event, but our hope is to have it next year.”

Holly Cain, executive director of the Quincy Area Convention and Visitors Bureau, conservatively estimates the event would have brought $288,000 to the community, notably for hotels and restaurants.

“Youth sporting events have the largest economic impact on a community,” Cain said. “This has been a great event for our city. I hope (getting sanctioned officials) is something that can be resolved.”

Even with the loss this year of the Titan Firecracker Classic and the Gran Prix of Karting, Cain said “there has been no shortage of events going on” and the hotel-motel tax revenue is showing “record levels at our hotels.”

“Each month is beating records over last year,” she said, pointing to QTown youth baseball and softball tournaments nearly every weekend, billiards tournaments, Fishing for Freedom, GermanFest and next week’s 50th anniversary of the Pepsi Little People’s Golf Championships.

“We have lost some events, but new ones are coming in.”

Gerek said the Sheridan Swim Team currently has about 40 swimmers. That’s down about 10 from last year, largely due to high school seniors graduating, but he anticipates another 10 to 15 swimmers joining the team in the next couple of months.

“Ideally, 55 would be really good for this team,” he said. “Seventy to seventy-five is where I would like to see it.”