Dear SBSC families,
Practice Schedule
Riley High School
Group 1 Monday and Wednesday 6:00-7:00
G1 Elite Thursday 5:30-7:00
Group 2 Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday 5:30-7:00, and Friday 5:00-6:30
Group 3 Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday 3:45-6:00, and Friday 3:45-5:15
Group 3 AM Friday 5:30-6:45
Practice Notes: Riley families please use door #22. This is the door on the northwest corner of the building and faces Fellows Street. If you are planning to stay to watch practice there is a stairwell that is adjacent to this door, and this will lead you to the seating area.
The parts for the NP pool have been delivered. We are just waiting on the repair crew to be scheduled.
New Parent Meeting Wednesday September 27 6:00
We will be having our new parent meeting at RHS this Wednesday, September 27. We will meet in the school cafeteria. The meeting is geared for our new families but all are welcome.
The cafeteria is on the second floor and is a 15 second walk from the east entrance of the pool seating gallery. The meeting will be from 6:00-7:00 during practice. The first 30-45 minutes will be a presentation from me about our club. The last 15+ minutes will be a question and answer session. I will stay as long as needed to answer any questions you might have.
If you have a laptop I suggest bringing it to the meeting. If you have questions about anything related to billing/Swim-a thon/committing to meets, using a laptop is the preferred tool to handle these tasks. Our website is not fully optimized for use on a smartphone. Parents from both Riley and NP sites are welcome to attend. We still plan on having a meeting at NP. We are just unsure when the date will be.
Intrasquad Meet Wednesday October 4
We are hosting our annual intrasquad meet on Wednesday October 4. We would like all athletes to be on deck by 5:30. We will have a very short warm-up and we plan to start the meet at 6:00. The meet typically takes between 60-75 minutes. All athletes will be entered in the meet unless I am told they will not be attending.
Every athlete in our program is ready for this competition. Even if your swimmer is brand new to the club and you are unsure they can handle this, we believe they can. For our new parents this is sometimes more challenging for you then it is for your children.
After the meet we will head to the cafeteria to have a pizza/potluck dinner. The club will provide the pizza and water bottles and families will each bring a dish. Families with a last name starting with A through M are asked to bring their favorite side dish. Families with the last name starting with N through Z are asked to bring their favorite dessert.
We will need your help. The job sign-up section of our website is open. We need timers, help setting-up the cafeteria, and most importantly help cleaning up.
Swim-A-Thon Saturday October 14 Riley High School
Thank you to everyone who has started getting donations. Unfortunately, that list is very small. We have 87 members in our club right now and only 26 have started fundraising. We are a little over 25% of our way to our goal. Our top 5 fundraisers so far are:
1.RaeAnne Hastings (Group 2 RHS)
2.Kadison Berkson (Group 2 RHS)
3.Taryn Kirk (Group 1 RHS)
3.Annie Kirk (Group 1 RHS)
3.Evyn McFadden (Group 1 RHS)
We have 11 swimmers that have raised at least $200 and will be receiving a logo’d team suit.
If you haven’t already please share the fundraising info to your Facebook pages. It is an extremely easy way to help promote this event. This is our only fundraiser we do for the entire year and it is critical for us to hit our goal.
Our training fees for our members have remained the same since we started in 2006 but our costs have grown exponentially. The Swim-A-Thon has helped keep our fees the lowest in the state (and possibly the country!).
Each swimmer is required to raise $100. If they are unable to raise that amount the family account will be billed the difference. Every swimmer that raises $200 or more will receive a logoed team suit. There are some other incentives offered by USA Swimming if certain amounts are hit. We will offer some prizes for our athletes as well.
Help Wanted
We are still looking for one more coach 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
Spirit Wear Fee
I apologize, but I made an error when I was setting up the registration page this fall. Any of you that registered on or prior to August 27 you were only billed $5 for the spirit wear. You will see an additional charge of $15 on your account this month. Again, I apologize for the error.
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.
USA Swimming Memberships/Birth Certificates
All athletes need to complete the USA Swimming Registration. This should be done no later than October 1st.
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
