DUNLAP DOLPHINS

Membership Fees:

• Membership Fees are set based on the available number of practices and hours and coaches needed to offer these practices. The number of practices attended does not affect the Membership Fee.
• Practice schedules are subject to change based on pool or staffing obstacles, without a change in fees. There are no refunds for Membership Fees.
• Membership Fees are used to pay our coaches salaries and pay for the business of running the team, such as pool rentalif we need to use a different swim facility.  

Coaching Meet Fees - $150/season

DDST will be charging the Coaching Meet Fees upfront at the beginning of the season which covers all meets that will be scheduled for the season.  We will offer a Friday Night Sprint meet every few months or so, and we will also offer meets that are local and easy to get to for our membership.  We will also offer meets that those needing to compete at higher levels will attend.  These meets are generally further away and require qualification times and often overnight stays.  During long course season, not all swimmers are ready to race in a longer pool, and we will offer a balance of short and long course opportunities to race. 

• The Coaching Meet Fee will be charged at the time of registration as part of your downpayment and is nonrefundable.
• Coaching Meet Fees are used to pay our coaches expenses at the meets like hotels, meals and milage costs so swimmers can be adequately supported by coaches at these meets.
• Additionally, the team will also partially fund some fun events and activities our team does during the season, like a bowling or party outing, halloween workout or other special event.

USA Swimming Membership - about $90/year

All swimmers are required to be registered with USA Swimming.  Swimmers are unable to participate in practices or meets without this registration.  This is a once-a-year fee.  The DDST will register your swimmer(s) with USA Swimming. 

• The USA Swimming Membership Fee will be charged at the time of registration as part of your downpayment and is nonrefundable.
• USA Swimming Memberships run to December of this year.
• The USA Swimming membership is required for each swimmer, regardless of level, as a condition of USA Swimming insurance coverage.  Should we have any non-members training with us not on a 30 day tryout period, USA swimming would void any casualty coverage or cancel our team's coverage.

DDST Family Administration Fee - $30/season

This fee is charged per family and is used to cover team administration costs, including the use and service of our website, office supplies and equipment.

• The DDST Family Administration Fee will be charged at the time of registration as part of your downpayment and is nonrefundable.

Non-DDST Meet Fees – Vary by meet type and location:

These fees are charged by the meet hosts and include such costs as the fee set by IL Swimming, a facility fee, and fees charged per number of events swam at a meet.  These charges will be applied to your account each month for meets you register to swim.

For our Friday Night Sprints, we may charge a nominal fee for participation to cover the cost of any awards we would provide.

For USA meets, the host team will typically charge a facility use fee of about $20 for each swimmer, Illinois Swimming will charge $2 for each swimmer entered, and then there's a charge per event, normally about $4-6 per individual event and double for relays split 4 ways.  So a typical swim meet would cost about $40 per swimmer per day if entered in the entry limit of events, normally 4-5 per day.

2025 Season Requirements

Practices:

Come as often as you want, and when you can within the confines of our current situation and practice assignments.  We understand that many of our swimmers are involved in multiple sports & other extra curicular activities and that all our families are very busy.

As a swimmer rises to higher achievement levels, higher levels of commitment to training will be needed to be successful.  It is important to understand as one improves through the entry levels to higher levels of the team that in order to keep pace with the team more of a commitment is required. 

Those swimmers attending our silver group sporatically will find themselves having a harder time keeping up with the group as those who attend regularly will improve far more than those who are more occasional in their practices.

This will get even more difficult as one progresses from silver to gold and from gold to platinum groups.

Meets:

We are a competitive swim team, and our focus in practice is to train to race.  We have no minimum swim meet requirements.  But the Coaching Staff greatly encourages all swimmers to participate in meets.  Copper and Bronze swimmers are invited to race in our Friday Night Sprints. 

Among the expenses membership requires is for Coaching Meet Fees regardless of the number of meet sessions you attend.   Our meet schedule will be available on the website.  But please be flexible as meet schedules are flexible and subject to change.

There are a few meets where you must have a qualifying time to compete.  Those signing up for a meet will need to meet minimum requirements which means you are qualified to race and are regularly training to improve at these meets. 

Championship meets, which are Regionals, AG State Championships and events like Senior Sectionals or above also require qualifying times and we invite those who are regular in attendance and would be ready to compete in a championship.  For regionals, we also will invite some to swim in relays who are not yet qualified in regionals, but we will only invite those who would make our relay competitive in the meet.

Finally, swim meets fill out quickly, and entry deadlines will be as long as a month earlier than the actual swim meet, as entries are often closed once the numbers fill for each session.

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