A rule revision related to the required minimum swimming pool depth for starting blocks resulted in International Falls’ season-opening girls swimming and diving meet being moved Thursday from the FHS pool to Hibbing.

The standard being implemented for 2011-12 by the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) and also being adopted for this season by the Minnesota State High School League (MSHSL) calls for a minimum depth of 4 feet next to starting blocks, but the FHS swimming pool is only 3 1/2 feet in that area, said Falls Superintendent Jeff Peura.

As a result, Peura said both girls and boys swimming meets will only be able to be held at the FHS pool during 2011-12 if the teams involved agree to start all swimming events in the water, because the starting blocks will no longer be able to be used.

“It’s a response to the concussion issues,” he said.

Tuesday’s meet, which initially was scheduled at the FHS pool, has now been moved to Grand Rapids.

The NFHS has announced that the rule change, which was approved in late March by its Swimming and Diving Rules Committee, is being put in place for pools with a depth of less than 4 feet and at least 3 1/2 feet for “risk minimization purposes and to reflect current trends.”

“This rule change does not require any change in equipment,” said Becky Oakes, NFHS assistant director and liaison to the Swimming and Diving Rules Committee.

However, following the conclusion of Falls’ boys and girls swimming seasons, Peura said the district plans to deepen the first 30 feet from the starting blocks to 5 feet, so that future swimming meets could be held there in the usual way with the competitors being able to dive in the pool from starting blocks.

He said the project could cost in the neighborhood of $100,000, based on what some other school districts in Minnesota are experiencing.

Given the funding restraints Falls’ school district is facing, Peura said there presently isn’t money available to pay for a project to deepen the pool.

“I’ve got to find the money,” he said.

Peura said injury from diving off the starting blocks has not been a problem at the FHS swimming pool because of coaches teaching swimmers how to do the “shallow entry.”

While the starting blocks presently can’t be used anymore where they have been located, he said swimmers would be able to practice diving off starting blocks set up around the diving pool, which is 10 feet deep and also complies with rules for holding diving events.

MSHSL Associate Director Lisa Lissimore, who oversees boys and girls swimming and diving, said school districts are not able to obtain a waiver from the pool depth rule implemented by the NFHS, because it is a mandated directive rather than a recommended change.

When asked how school districts in Minnesota will be able to comply with the rule change in 2011-12, Lissimore said districts could still hold swimming meets in their current facilities by starting all events in the water or moving the starting blocks to the deep end of the pool — if possible — or else find an alternate site with the correct water depth.

Lissimore said the new pool depth standard for starting blocks is the same one used by the NCAA and USA Swimming.

Another school in Minnesota being affected by the rule change is Mankato East High School, which this season will be holding its home meets at Minnesota State University, Mankato.

Mankato East head coach Tim Johnson, who noted he is a retired physical education teacher with more than three decades of experience coaching boys and girls swimming, said the research he has done hasn’t found there is a problem with injuries from diving 8 inches off the water into 3 1/2-foot depths during competitive swimming events.

Johnson said the National Interscholastic Swimming Coaches Association (NISCA) favored not going ahead with the new rule in 2011-12, but that sentiment did not receive the majority support this spring from the NFHS.

Though the pool at Mankato East has two lanes that have the proper depth to practice diving off starting blocks, Johnson said it would not be able to host a swimming meet because of being 3 1/2 feet at its shallowest.

To make that pool compliant with the new rule for starting blocks, Johnson said it could cost in the neighborhood of $500,000, money that he believes would be better spent toward building a new swimming facility.