Weekly Announcements for Week of 9/13-9/19

Dear SBSC families, 
Practice Schedule These practices are being held at Arlington Pool. Group 1 Tuesday and Thursday 6:45-7:30 PM Group 2 Monday, Wednesday and Friday 6:15-7:30 PM & Tuesday and Thursday 5:45-6:45 PM Group 3 AM Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday 6:30-8:00 AM Group 3 PM Monday, Wednesday and Friday 4:30-6:15 PM & Tuesday and Thursday 4:30-5:45 PM **Practices at NP will begin on Monday 9-21** Practice Notes: There will not be practice on Monday morning and we may be possibly be cancelling all morning workouts due to the lower than expected temperatures. We took a pool temp check yesterday and the water is below a point where we feel it would be safe on Monday morning. We will be installing solar covers later today and we hope with the sunshine predicted for today and tomorrow it could raise the temperature back to a level comfortable for our swimmers. We will be making decisions day by day. Please check your email, text messages, our website news page, and our Facebook and Twitter pages before leaving for practice each day to check for any cancellations. The practice assignments for Group 3 can be found by clicking here. It it possible there are mistakes, so just let me know and I can correct on my end. Practice Returning To Riley The last communication I received was winter sports (swimming) will be allowed back into SBCSC buildings ahead of the possible return date for students on October 5th. When the exact day for us is still unknown. The Riley pool has been empty since March. Back in November it was decided at the conclusion of our winter season the pool would be shut down and most of the 20 year old mechanical systems in the pump room basement would be replaced. When the initial call to quarantine was made everything was still on schedule with the hope of having the pool up and running we returned to school after spring break. As you know we never returned and most of the custodial staff was sent home for the remainder of the school year. It was also determined for safety reasons no outside contractors were allowed in buildings until after June 30th. Once July arrived arrived the cleaning and the other basic maintenance of the pool resumed. Once that was completed the mechanical system was all set to be installed. Then the elevator to the basement pump room was not operating. So for the last several weeks we have been waiting for replacement parts for the elevator. But, thank you to the persistence of the Riley head engineer Mr. Pezan and the Riley AD Mr. Gavin they will be attempting to carry the equipment down the stairs to basement. Installation is planned to start on Monday and the pool will be filled as soon as the installation is completed. So, this long story is that our hope is we could be back at Riley on the 21st. I have been promised updates as they happen. Once we are given our date of return I will pass that along. If we are able to return to Riley earlier then anticipated, and we did not use all the fundraising money, those funds will be spent directly on our swimmers. I will be sure to communicate all the expenses to you in a future email. Billing All families who have returned to practice will be billed the training fees on the 15th. This will be either the monthly ($25, $35, or $50), the seasonal ($166.25, $232.50 or $142.50) or the annual ($247.50, $346.50, or $315). New families joining this summer who were not required to re-register will also see the spirit wear ($17) and the meet surcharge ($15) on their accounts on the 15th. Changes For This Season These will be some changes will be implementing for the upcoming season. Masks: All swimmers, coaches, and lifeguards will be required to wear a mask when not in the water. This will include when we are outside and certainly continue when we return to the buildings. Family Technology Fee: This fee was originally used to eliminate the need for credit card financing charges. Over time this has cost club a considerable amount of money. If you would like to avoid those finance charges you can always prepay with cash or check. Lifeguarding: We will be using a system we used a few years ago with the Riley High School team. Group 3 practices will be using our swimmers to guard practice. Each certified athlete will take a 15-20 minute turn in the chair and hopefully only once or twice a week. Volunteering Requirements: Each of our Group 3 athletes will be required to volunteer 4 hours each season. This is included in the Terms and Conditions document you digitally sign during registration. Those with lifeguarding will be expected to lifeguard. Those without will be expected to help the coaches during practice. Once a swimmer has fulfilled their volunteer requirement they can earn credit to the families swim club account to help pay for training and/or meet entry fees. We will have an area to sign-up for lifeguarding on the website and it will be active sometime later today. Team Caps: At any given practice this summer we only had a few of our swimmers wearing any of our club gear. This includes caps, T-shirts, and backpacks. If we had a visitor come to practice there would have been zero chance of the visitor identifying our team correctly. We saw gear from multiple high school teams, college teams, and former club teams. I feel for us to become more of a team we need to look more like a team. Staring this fall the only caps that will be allowed during our practices will be SBSC caps. These can be our regular meet caps, Divisional caps or State Team caps. We will be getting some silicone caps for those who prefer that type. We do have some silicone caps with our old logo but a very limited supply. USA Swimming Guidelines-MAAPPUSA USA Swimming issued a directive with regards to electronic communication and social media contact between coaches and athletes. Most of what is being implemented is common sense and falls in line with our club's policies. One new requirement we will need to adhere to is how your minor child communicates with me. For several years I have asked swimmers in Group 2 and Group 3 to text/email me if they would be missing practice. Moving forward, swimmers will be instructed to include a parent on all communication with me.
 If you are the parent of a Group 2 or Group 3 swimmer, and have never sent me a text before, please text me so I have your contact info in my phone. This way if I need to contact your swimmer about missing practice I can be sure to include you. My cell phone number is 574-276-6057.
 I encourage all parents and swimmers to read the full policy. We are required to keep this policy on our website, here is the link. As always, if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me. -- John VanDriessche Head Coach South Bend Swim Club South Bend Riley High School (574)276-6057 www.southbendswimclub.com #SBSCForLife