Dear SBSC families,
Practice Schedule
Riley HS
Group 1 Next practice Tuesday September 5
G1 Elite Next practice Thursday September 7
Group 2 Next practice Tuesday September 5
Group 3 Next practice Tuesday September 5
New Prairie HS
Group 1 Next practice Tuesday September 5
Group 2 Next practice Tuesday September 5
Group 3 Next practice Tuesday September 5
Practice Notes:
Potential Practice Site Change
The Riley pool is drained and the bulkhead has been moved to the shallow end for repairs. Fingers are crossed for work to begin tomorrow and finished by the end of the week. I am doubtful we will be back at Riley for our first week of practice. We have secured pool time at Washington High School for the first two weeks of our season as a back-up plan.
Help Wanted
We are once again looking for coaches for our Group 1 this season at Riley. If you know of anyone who might be interested have them contact me at coachvandriessche@gmail.com
Welcome To Our New Families
Thank you for choosing the South Bend Swim Club! Every Sunday moving forward you will receive an email from me, just like this one. The email will include all information pertinent to our club. There will be a lot of information that is repeated week to week. All in an effort to make sure information is not missed.
The emails will include the weekly practice schedule, deadlines to commit to meets, links to meet results/info, and anything else you might think that relates to SBSC.
If there is something that is not covered you have questions about please do not hesitate to contact me at coachvandriessche@gmail.com. No question is too small. We will be having new parent meetings for both NP and RHS later next month, specific dates are still to be determined. But if you need something answered before then please do not hesitate to ask.
We also have links on our social media sites when the weekly announcements are posted to our website. I suggest to each of our new families that they follow us on our three social media sites, Facebook (SouthBendSwim), Twitter (@SBSwimClub), and Instagram (south_bend_swim_club).
There will also be two apps you will eventually want to get. The first one is SportsEngine Motion. This app ties directly to our website and uses the same login information. The app is free. The second app is Meet Mobile. There is a small annual fee but once your athlete starts competing you will find it very useful. This one is not a necessity but it can make your experience at a meet more enjoyable.
Team Apparel
The local swim shop in town is Milinko’s Scuba & Swim (formerly Just Add H2O). This is a great place to find a good practice suit or pick up a spare pair of goggles.
We are also partnered with A3 Performance. You can purchase a logoed team suit directly from this site (these will once again be offered as prizes for raising enough money during our Swim-A-Thon). Here is the link to the A3 Team Store. When your swimmer is old enough to purchase a tech suit (13 and over) this company is who I recommend purchasing from.
We will have spirit wear available in the coming weeks as well. Once that is ready I will send out the order form in a future weekly email.
Fall/Winter Season
Our first practice for all groups will be the Tuesday after Labor Day, September 5. All swimmers will need to re-register. Our on-line registration platform is active and you can register at any time.
Our fall/winter meet schedule is posted and also open for commitment. The entry files are not yet available so if you do not want to swim every day of a particular meet leave a message in the note section as to which days you’d like to swim.
Some important dates to put on your calendar include our intrasquad meet on Wednesday, October 4 and the Swim-A-Thon on Saturday, October 14.
Our tentative practice schedule is posted for both sites for the first two months of the fall.
Also of note for this upcoming season the Riley Group 1, with the exception of week one, will be moving to Monday and Wednesday evenings. It will give us the most consistency for practice scheduling. New Prairie Group 1 nights will still be based on coach availability.
USA Swimming Memberships/Birth Certificates
All athletes need to complete the USA Swimming Registration. This should be done no later than October 1st. The new membership link will not be live until sometime in September. Please do not try to register until at least September 15th.
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, please email a
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 all coaches. For several years we have asked swimmers in Group 2 and Group 3 to text/email their coach if they would be missing practice. Moving forward, swimmers will be instructed to include a parent on all communication with me or any of our coaches.
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 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.
Intrasquad Meet/Riley High School/Oct. 4/Oct. 3
WAR Monster Splash/Warsaw High School/Oct 28/Oct. 8
NASA Sprint Meet/Northridge High School/Nov. 4 & 5/Oct. 8 (10 & under ONLY)
CON Skypoint/Elkhart Aquatic Center/Nov. 10-12/Oct. 8 (11 & over ONLY)
ELK Rudolph Romp/Elkhart Aquatic Center/Dec. 1-3/Nov. 12
IA TW Invite/Elkhart Aquatic Center/Jan. 5-7/Nov. 25
CON IMX/Concord High School/Jan 19-21/Dec.31
CON Last Chance/Concord High School/Feb 23-25/Jan. 28
*IN Swimming Divisionals/TBD/Mar. 1-3/Feb.18
*IN Swimming Senior State/TBD/Mar 7-10/Feb. 25
*IN Swimming Age Group State/IUPUi/Mar 15-17/Feb. 25
ELK 8 & Under Superstar/Elkhart Aquatic Center/Mar 16/Feb. 25
*USA Swimming Speedo Sectional/IUPUI/Mar 21-24/Feb.11
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
#SBSCForLife
