Weekly Announcements for Week of 9/18-9/25

Dear SBSC families, Practice Schedule Riley HS Group 1 Tuesday and Thursday 6:00-7:00 G1 Elite Wednesday 5:30-7:15 Group 2 Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday 5:30-7:15, and Friday 5:00-6:30 Group 3 AM Tuesday and Thursday 5:30-6:45 AM Group 3 PM Monday Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday 3:45-5:45, and Friday 3:45-5:15 New Prairie HS Group 1 Monday and Thursday 6:00-7:00 CST Group 2 Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday 4:30-6:15 CST Group 3 Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday 4:30-6:30 CST Practice Notes: NP Group 1 swimmers and parents continue to use door N17. NP Group 2 and 3 swimmers and parents should use door N18. Parents are welcome to stay to watch practice and masks are optional. Riley families please use door #22. For our new families this is the door on the north west corner of the building and faces Fellows Street. If you are planning on staying to watch practice there is a stairwell that is adjacent to this door and this will lead you to the seating area. Everyone choosing to stay to watch practice must be wearing a mask and social distance while in the seating gallery. Parent Meetings We are planning on having our parent meetings this week. Riley's parent meeting will be on Tuesday (9-21) in the RHS cafeteria starting promptly at 6:00. The cafeteria is on the 2nd floor and is a short walk from the east exit/entrance of the seating gallery. The New Prairie meeting will be on Thursday (9-23) on the pool deck, also starting promptly at 6:00 CST. I still hope to be able to stream this meeting and if my technical skills are up to the challenge I will send those links on the days of the meetings. The meeting's will last no longer than 60 minutes but I will stay as long as needed to answer any questions. Communication During Practice Parent's this is a reminder that once your swimmer is on deck their focus needs to be on practice. Please limit any communication to waving back to them if they waive to you. We are also asking if you need to speak to your child's coach please do so before practice if it is something minor. If will require a long conversation please email me about setting a time up to discuss after practice. I will coordinate/facillitate with the other coaches if they will be needed at the meeting. If there is an emergency and you need to speak to a coach please do not hesitate. But, anything short of that our focus needs to be on swimmers. Lifeguarding/Assisting with Group 1 and Group 2 The last several years we have had a 4 hour volunteer requirement for our Group 3 swimmers. We have previously not enforced this but with such large numbers we will be this season. Starting tomorrow your Group 3 swimmers will be able to sign up to help with either lifeguarding or acting as an "assistant" with Group 1 or 2. We also still have several of the swimmers who took our lifeguarding class last fall not finish their 10 hours of volunteering. It helps the club considerably more to have those swimmers fulfill their commitment as opposed to billing those families for the class. Just Add H2O Our team vendor is Just Add H2O. They are a locally owned swim shop located near the corner of SR 23 and Ironwood, across the street from 1st Source Bank. If you are in need of any swimming related gear they will be able to take care of you. Swimming Apps For all of our new families there are two apps that you will want to get for your phone. The first is the OnDeck app. This app is free and is tied directly to our website. It is incredibly useful and you will be able to do everything you do one our website. The second app is Meet Mobile. There is a small yearly fee but well worth it. This is the app most swim parents use when attending meets. It can serve as a heat sheet, list your swimmers events, and keeps track of their final times and places. Fall/Winter Meet Schedule You can find the initial offerings of our meet schedule by clicking here. We added another meet in November and another in December. Swim A Thon Thank you to the 6 families who have already received donations. We are 17% of our way towards our goal. This year we are requiring all families to raise at least $75. This is a per family requirement, not per swimmer. If a family does not meet that threshold they will be billed the difference. We will also be offering incentives for swimmers as well. Our team goal is to raise $10,000. This is our only fundraising event of the entire year. We need everyone's help! GoSwim Team Education Plan We are starting a new program this year. Our hope is to access the power and the resources of the GoSwim library. Literally, thousands of videos on stroke technique will be just a click away for our swimmers. We will also plan to video and store our swimmers strokes so we can track their development season to season and year to year. We also hope this helps our coaches identify areas of technique we need to improve upon. This will be $10 charge for each swimmer and will be billed on October 1. Here is a promotional flyer distributed by GoSwim for those looking for more information. 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