Weekly Announcements for Week of 10/25-10/31

Dear SBSC families, 
Practice Schedule Here is the practice schedule for this week. Riley HS Group 1 Tuesday and Thursday 6:00-7:00 Group 2 Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday 5:30-7:30 Group 3 Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday 4:30-6:00 New Prairie HS (only for NPUSC students) Group 1 Tuesday and Thursday 6:30-7:30 CST Group 2 & 3 Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday 5:00-6:30 CST Practice Notes: We are adding 30 minutes to the RHS Group 2 practices for dryland. We will be using the Train Heroic App. If your swimmer has a smart phone we would like them to bring it to practice. If they do, please have them download the app and create an account. The access code for our Group 2 swimmers is G22020. Swimmers should come to practice in dryland clothes over their suits. They should also be wearing quality workout shoes as well. Flip flops or Crocs are not acceptable options. No practice at NP on Wednesday due to a winter sports meeting for NPHS. 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. 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. Group 1 is at capacity and all spots are filled, 1 more spot is available in Group 2, and all the spots in Group 3 are taken. If you would like to be added to the waiting list please send an email to me and Coach Ashley. Spirit Wear Order Form True to our recent history we have hit some road bumps with a vendor. We went with a different company this year due to the struggles with the vendor from last season. But, somethings never change. The process started in early September and has required multiple emails from me just to keep the ball rolling. I've been promised better service moving forward so we shall see. Page 1 is attached here and Page 2 here. Page 2 is the form you will need to return to the club. The due date listed is incorrect. All orders need to be returned to me no later then Tuesday November 24 For our new families this is different then the T-shirt your swimmer will receive. That price was included in the spirit wear you paid for when registering. Typically these shirts would have been distributed a couple of weeks ago, but like I said we've hit some road bumps. I hope to get these out to everyone very soon Practice Incentives I believe we have accomplished our goal of looking more like a team at practice by wearing only club caps. I also believe being part of team means having a little fun and allowing athletes a chance to express themselves. So moving forward practices on Friday will be considered "Fun Cap Friday". Athletes will be able to wear any cap they'd like to practice on those days. We will also be starting a monthly drawing to win club gear. When an athlete arrives to practice they will be allowed to fill out a small ticket to place in tumbler to be drawn at the end of the month. There will be one drawing but it will include both practice sites. The first prize up for grabs will be a new TYR team backpack. It will be embroidered with the club logo and the athletes name. Changes Coming to New Prairie Practices As you noticed we are adding time to the RHS Group 2 practices. Because of our limitations of space and numbers allowed we are unable to offer the dryland as a group at the school. But, the workouts are designed to be done with little or no equipment and can be done by athletes at home at anytime. Also because of the limits on the number of swimmers allowed in the pool at NPHS the boys and girls high school teams will need to have split practices. This unfortunately means our club practices will be pushed later into the evening. So our window of practices will be from 7:00-8:30 each evening there is not a high school meet. We are currently trying to figure out the staffing but we are searching for a solution. I realize there may be some families who feel finishing practice at 8:30 will be too late for their swimmers. We do have space at Riley for additional swimmers. But unlike previous seasons parents would need to contact me to confirm there is space on any particular day. Elkhart Invite November 7 & 8 Beacon Health and Fitness Center Hopefully everyone received information about our next meet, the Elkhart Invite hosted by Elkhart United. The deadline to commit to this meet is next Sunday, November 1. All high school swimmers are eligible to compete in this meet without obtaining a waiver. Once a meet letter is available I will post it to our website. The information I do have is the morning sessions will be for the 13 & over and the 8 & under swimmers. The afternoon sessions will be for swimmers ages 9-12. Until the entry file is received from Elkhart United you will be unable to select specific days/sessions for your swimmer. You will be able to commit with a "yes" response. If you do commit your swimmer please leave a note for the day or days you'd like your swimmer in the meet. If you know you will not be attending please decline committing to the meet. Lifeguarding For November The lifeguard sign-up for November is now available. Please remember all Group 3 athletes are required to volunteer 4 hours of their time during each season they are members of the club. If they are lifeguards they will be expected to guard practices. If they are not they will be expected to help assist coaches during Group 1 or Group 2 practices. This requirement is to be completed by the end of the winter season in March. If they received their lifeguarding certificate from the club they have an additional 10 hours of lifeguarding to complete by the end of the summer season of 2021. If your athlete has completed their volunteer hours please wait until October 31st to sign up for any additional hours. If your athlete has finished more then 4 hours your credit will be added to your account prior to November 1. 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. 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. 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