You don't want to ignore the tent behind the start line at the state meet, but you do want to spend as little time there as possible. And, it will probably be a little larger than the tent shown in the illustration above.
By now, you should have heard the rumors about the state meet tent. It's nothing to fear, but it is going to take a little bit of time, and it's going to help the officials check for compliance in a huge way.
Team check in will start very early at 7:30 AM (races do not begin until 9:20 AM). Teams and their coaches will check in together. You may want to plan to get this done early. If temperatures stick to the current forecast, there's going to have to be some shedding of layers done to get down to the actual uniforms.
At the tent, team uniforms will be checked for compliance. When a team's uniform passes, each team member and the coach will be issued a wrist band. In addition, teams will be given a box number and that number will be written on the back of the competitors' hands. Once this is done, teams will be released for warm-up.
The CHSAA e-mail about the tent doesn't specify that GPS watch checks will be done, but GPS watches will not be allowed and this is presumably where they would check for that.
When teams return for the race, the tent will be divided into two sides--the right side (think of this as the express lane) for teams already wearing wrist bands. The left side will take a little longer and will be for teams that do not yet have their wrist bands and need to be checked for compliance.
From here, teams will enter the holding area. Only athletes and coaches with wrist bands will be permitted in the holding area. athletes will be permitted to do run-outs during this time. The area will open up immediately after the start of the preceding race. Coaches must exit the holding area at five minutes prior to race time.
Changing uniform items after a wrist band has been issued will be cause for disqualification.
There. That's it. That's what you need to know about the tent at state.