Practices & Meets

Practices: Specified practice times must be adhered to, unless other arrangements have been made with the coaches. Please do not drop your child off more than 15 minutes prior to his/her practice, or pick him/her up more than 15 minutes after practice ends. If you choose to stay at the pool during practice, please remain in the gallery area. Coaches are on deck during this time to help your child improve his/her swimming, so please allow them the time to accomplish this. If you would like to speak to the coaches, do so after practice, or make an appointment to speak with them privately. A request for early dismissal from a practice or meet should be made in writing and given to the appropriate coach by the parent. Your cooperation in this regard will be appreciated by the coaches who need to know that your child is leaving practice early for legitimate reason and with your permission.

Locker Rooms: Locker rooms are not playgrounds. They are to be used for changing and showering before and after practices and meets. The coaches cannot be expected to police the locker rooms. Monitoring children from both teams in the locker rooms is necessary at both home and away meets. It is the parent’s responsibility to supervise their children when they are not on the deck with the coaches. Any child guilty of disruptive or inappropriate behavior at a meet -- whether in the water, on deck, in the locker room, before or after practice -- will be disciplined according to the discipline code.

Meets: If it is last minute, anyone who is not able to swim at an upcoming meet should call one of the coaches right away. The meet line-up is usually made up a week before a meet, but the strategy for developing a meet lineup is a longer process. It is not fair to the coaches or the team to have to redo the meet lineup to accommodate a family that has known for some time that they will not be at a particular meet. Parents have the major responsibility for running all home meets and for assisting at away meets. Every parent is required to lend a hand during the course of the season; he/she may "volunteer" for any or several of the jobs described in the Parents Association section. The various chairpersons will use a team roster to "volunteer" parents for events and will assign jobs to those who have not already volunteered. Parents are expected to volunteer at four meets minimum.

What to Bring to a Meet:

Swim suit, team cap and goggles. Baby or talcum powder to 'dust' the inside of the swim cap. This helps preserve the cap and makes it easier to put on.
Sweat suits. Bring at least one. You may want to bring two, because they can get wet and soggy.
T-shirts. Two or three. Same reason as above.
Towels. Realize that you will be there awhile so pack at least two;
Deck shoes. Clean water shoes, sandals, or flip-flops, etc. are recommended.
Games: Travel games, coloring books, anything to pass the time.
Food: Bring nutritious snacks. Although you can always find something good to eat at our concessions stand, it is a good idea to pack a pick-me-up just in case the line is long. Also, you never know what will be for sale at away meets.
Suggested drinks: Water, fluid replacement sports drink, fruit juice.
Suggested snacks: Granola bars, yogurt, dry cereal, cheese sticks, sandwiches, fresh fruit.

Once you have attended one or two meets this will all become very routine.

Clothing Identification: We ask that you clearly mark your child’s bathing suits, cap, T-shirts, jogging suits, towels, etc., with their name on the label or some other readily visible place. There is a tremendous amount of lost and found that goes unclaimed and, unfortunately, it will be disposed of after a couple of weeks. It might be helpful if your child has specified towels for swimming and that your last name is clearly written in permanent marker along one of the edges. All identifiable articles will be returned.

Practice Groups: Swimmers will be assigned into an appropriate skill level practice group at the beginning of the season. If, during the season, a child shows marked improvement, the coaches may change his/her practice schedule. Swimmers and parents are asked to leave this decision up to the coaches. Swimmers may not swim with a different age group without the permission of the Head Coach.

Practice Times: Practice schedules are set up by the coaches and published on the calendar. Once practice groups and times have been assigned, each swimmer is expected to be on deck and ready to swim at the beginning of each practice. Following each practice, swimmers are to be picked up promptly; coaches cannot supervise children who have left the deck and locker room. Should a swimmer's practice time prove to be truly inconvenient, the parent should speak to the Head Coach before changing his/her child's practice times on his/her own. As a rule of thumb, a swimmer may swim with the next younger age group, only swimmers with "A" times should be considered for swimming up.

Cancellations: Practice is canceled when Oxford schools are closed due to inclement weather. Practices may be held on a limited basis during school vacation periods. The team does not practice on school holidays such as Veteran's Day, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, etc.

Email: Parents and swimmers will be notified by email of most changes to practices or meets. Please make sure your current email is registered with the team secretary. If you do not have email, notify the team secretary so you can be contacted by phone for emergency notification of changes.