Weekly Announcements For Week of 9/20-9/26

Dear SBSC families, 
Practice Schedule Here is the practice schedule for this week. Arlington Group 1 No practice until we return indoors Group 2 Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday 6:00-7:15 Group 3 Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday 4:30-6:00 New Prairie (only for NPUSC students) Group 1 Monday and Tuesday 6:00-7:00 CST Group 2 Monday 4:30-6:00 CST, Tuesday 6:00-7:15 CST, Wednesday 4:30-6:00 CST, and Thursday 6:00-7:15 CST Group 3 Monday and Wednesday 4:30-6:00 CST Practice Notes: Our outdoor practice schedule is being adjusted due to the earlier sunset. Click here to see the list of Group 3 swimmers allowed to attend Arlington practices each day. If you know your swimmer will not be there on any given day please alert me as soon as you can. The earlier you let me know the sooner I can contact other swimmers who wanted to attend those practices. Group 1 practices at New Prairie, as in years past, will vary each week due to coach availability. But the schedule will follow similar format. Swimmers attending New Prairie practices will enter the building through door N17. Everyone entering the building will be required to wear a mask. Parents will not be allowed on deck but will be allowed to walk our Group 1 swimmers to the pool. Each athlete will need to fill out the attached form and hand deliver to the coach when entering the high school. All swimmers should come dressed ready to practice. There may be limited use of the locker rooms after practice. If you have any questions regarding procedures for NPHS practices please email Coach Ashley at awojtysiak@npusc.k12.in.us Due to limits imposed by NPUSC for safety reasons no more then 24 swimmers will be allowed in the pool at any one time. This means we have to put limits on our roster groups. Each NP group will be limited to 12 swimmers. This will only allow for 3 more in Group 1, 6 more in Group 2 and 3 more in Group 3. This will be on a first come first serve basis. Practice Returning To Riley We will not be returning this week. At the meeting I attended I was told no club sports would be allowed back into the SBCSC buildings at this time. High School winter sports athletes (swimming, wrestling and basketball) will have very limited access. Per a new IHSAA regulation these athletes will only be allowed 2-two hour practices each week. I will be emailing the new Director of Athletics and again asking for permission to be allowed to return. We have proven we can practice safely and I would hope the administration can appreciate all we do to keep our athletes safe and consider allowing us to return sooner rather then later. 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 20-25 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