Weekly Announcements for Week of 11/22-11/28

Dear SBSC families, 
Practice Schedule Here is the practice schedule for this week. Riley HS Group 1 Monday 6:00-7:15 and Friday 10:00-11:15 AM G1 Elite Wednesday 9:30-11:30 AM Group 2 Monday 5:30-7:30, Wednesday and Friday 9:30-11:30 AM New Prairie HS (only for NPUSC students) Group 1 Monday and Wednesday 11:00 AM-12:15 PM CST Group 2 Monday and Wednesday 11:00 AM-12:30 PM CST Practice Notes: No practice on Tuesday at either site due to a high school meets. No practice on Thursday due to Thanksgiving. We are using the Train Heroic App during the RHS Group 2 and the G1 Elite practices. 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. Swimmers are encouraged to bring a yoga mat if they have one. Swimmers attending New Prairie practices will continue to 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 Spirit Wear Order Form As of this morning I have spirit wear orders from the following families: Gray Long Morrison Ramirez Stancati Thibodeau Whitmer All orders need to be returned to me no later than this Tuesday November 24. The order form Page 1 is attached here and Page 2 here. Page 2 is the form you will need to return to the club. If you are a NP family please return to one of the coaches and they will get it to me. RHS families, there is a manila envelope taped to the front of my desk and athletes can drop off the forms as they arrive to practice. STAR's Powerup Inviational-Elkhart Aquatic Center- A great fast first day for our swimmers. You can follow the the results on your Meet Mobile app or watch the livestream on the Elkhart Aquatic Center's YouTube page by clicking here. Upcoming Meets We are adding two meets to our schedule. The first one is the December Elkhart Invitational being held the 4th-6th. This meet is being hosted by Elkhart United and will be at the Elkhart Aquatic Center. We also are planning on attending the CPSC Winter Invitational being held at Crown Point High School on the weekend of January 8th-10th. I will have these posted to our website later this week. Daily Self Checks Thank you to all of the athletes and parents who have using the on-line Google form. If it is at all possible please fill out the form as opposed to bringing in a printed copy or having your swimmers fill one out when they arrive. If you do fill out the Google form for your athlete please inform them you did. Wifi is at best very weak and mostly non-existent by the door so it is difficult for us to check on-line if the form has been completed. But the use of the Google form allows us to quickly get the swimmers inside without too much congestion by the doors. So, if you have the ability to fill out the Google form please do so and inform your swimmer it is completed. Lifeguarding 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. We still have one spot left in November on Monday the 30th. There are 12 spots still open for December as well. Since we are not required to have lifeguards at NP Group 3 athletes may volunteer to help as assistants during the Group 2 or Group 1 practices. Please talk to Coach Ashley about times since the number of athletes in the pool/on the deck will be limited. If a NP athlete took our lifeguarding course they will need to volunteer time as a lifeguard at Riley. 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