Weekly Announcements for Week of 3/26-4/1

Dear SBSC families, Practice Schedule Riley HS Group 1 Next practice April 10 G1 Elite Next practice April 12 Group 2 Next practice April 10 Group 3 Next practice April 10 New Prairie HS Group 1 Next Practice April 10 Group 2 Next Practice April 10 Group 3 Next Practice April 10 Spring and Summer Season/Registration If your athlete is not swimming in the spring or summer you will need to notify me by email (coachvandriessche@gmail.com) no later than tonight, March 26. If you fail to notify me after this date that your swimmer is not participating for the spring/summers and are billed your account may be credited the amount charged but you will not be given a refund. If you have already informed me, please check your account page to see if your athlete is now listed as “suspended”. If I missed anyone please let me know and I will correct immediately. Our first practice for the spring and summer season will be Monday April 10. The on-line registration is now open. If you are currently registered for the fall/winter season your membership will just roll into the next month and you will need to do nothing more. If you selected the seasonal fee for the fall/winter you will be charged the seasonal fee for spring/summer. If you are on the monthly payment plan you will continue to be charged on the first of each month. There will be the additional seasonal charges for spirit wear ($20) and meet surcharge ($15) placed on your account for the May 1 payment date. Summer Meet Schedule I hope to have our schedule finalized by the end of this week. New Email I am in the process of switching internet service providers for my home. Sometime in the coming months I will lose access to my embarqmail.com email address. Please use coachvandriessche@gmail.com moving forward. Speedo Sectionals We have had a great three days of racing with one left to go. You can follow the action on IU-Natatorium YouTube page or on the Meet Mobile app. We have 8 individual swims and 1 relay this morning. The meet starts at 8:30. College Swimmers Returning This Summer If you have a college athlete returning home and they plan to train with SBSC there will be a new fee structure for them. College athletes will now be charged $100 per month but will be given up to $50 in meet entry fee credits per month. If they attend one full meet each month while they are home their training fees will be essentially the same as they always have been. We have had a large percentage of our college athletes come back and train with the club but very few have been willing to swim for us at meets. This is not to discourage our college athletes from returning. I hope it results in the exact opposite. There are a couple of reasons why I am instituting this change. One, I believe competition is extremely important for the continued development of all athletes. Two, and probably more important, our high school athletes look up to the college athletes. If our college athletes are attending meets it will set the appropriate example for their younger teammates. Third, I think these athletes should still take pride in their club and I believe the best way to show that is to represent us at meets. USA Swimming Memberships All athletes need to complete the USA Swimming Registration. Here is a link to the document with instructions on how to register with USA-S. A few of our members have had trouble adding their swimmers once they created their own account. If you have trouble after creating a parent account, try using this link. If your swimmer qualifies for the Outreach Membership (free/reduced lunch at their school) click on this link. Remember, if you use this link you will need to provide documentation to me that your athlete qualifies. If your athlete has never competed in a meet for SBSC (or another USA Swimming club) you will need to send me a copy of their birth certificate. The preferred way is to electronically send a pdf. If that is not possible you can email a pic or bring a hard copy to the practice. USA Swimming Guidelines - MAAPP/Safe Sport 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. Fall and Winter Meet Schedule/Dates of Meet/Location/Deadline to commit Below is our fall/winter meet schedule. The first date listed is the day(s) of the meet and the second date is the deadline to commit. Swimmers wanting to compete will need to commit to those meets. The deadlines are based on deadlines that were set in previous years. They may change once the meet hosts posts the meet information. When committing to multiple day meets if the option to select the days you want is not available, leave a message in the available notes section stating the specific days you would like to attend. Meets marked with an * require swimmers to meet minimum time standards. All pool locations can be found on our website under the "Pools" tab. Intra-Squad Meet/Riley High School/Tuesday October 4/ Swim-A-Thon/Riley High School/Saturday October 15/ WAR Monster Splash/Warsaw Community High School/Saturday October 29/Our Results NASA Sprint Meet (10 & Under ONLY)/Northridge High School/Nov. 5 & 6/Our Results CON Skypoint Invite (11 & Over ONLY)/Elkhart Aquatic Center/Nov 11-13/Our Results ELK Rudolph Romp/Elkhart Aquatic Center/Dec. 2-4/Our Results DUNE Rumble IN the Region/Chesterton High School/Sat. Dec. 17/Our Results IA Tim Welsh Invite/Elkhart Aquatic Center/Jan. 6-8/Our Results CON IMXtreme Challenge/Concord High School/ Jan. 20-22/Our Results CON Last Chance Showdown/Concord High School/Feb. 24-26/Our Results *IN Swimming Divisional Championships/Elkhart Aquatic Center/March 3-5/Our Results *IN Swimming Senior State Championships/Pike High School/March 10-12/Our Results *USA Swimming Speedo Sectional Championship/IUPUI/March 23-26/Our Results coming soon 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