Welcome to Prospect Bay Swim Team!
Your children are in for a wonderful experience that will help them grow not only as athletes, but hopefully as good citizens. As a parent, your role is to understand our program, its policies, and the coach/swimmer/parent relationship.
Here are some ways you can support your swimmer and the team:
- Be on time – get your swimmer to practice and events on time.
- Stay informed – Read team emails and visit the team website regularly: www.prospectbayswimteam.com. All team information, including meet sign-ups and information will be posted there. You will find a ‘Parent Resource’ page under team information page that will have valuable information for you and your swimmer. Also, get the On Deck parent app for your cell phone. We use that for time sensitive items such as cancellations due to inclement weather. You should have provided your cell information, including cell carrier, during your registration.
- Volunteer! All families are required to volunteer during the swim season. Most volunteer opportunities occur during swim meets. It takes a lot of people and many volunteer hours to make the swim team and swim meets run smoothly. It’s also a great way to meet other parents. It’s easiest to sign-up to volunteer when you sign your swimmer up for meets. Just sign in to the website, click on ‘Meet’, and then click on ‘Job Signup’ to view all the volunteer opportunities.
- Be your swimmer’s biggest fan – Always encourage and be positive. Let the coaches tell your swimmer what they could have done better.
Practices:
Practices are held Monday through Thursday. During the school year, practices are held in the afternoon starting on June 2nd. MS/HS swimmers practice from 4:00-5:00, and the elementary school swimmers practice from 5:00-6:00.
Our morning practices and Cubs begin on Monday, June 23rd. Once we shift to summer schedule, the practice times are:
Cubs from 8:00-8:30;
8 & under swimmers from 8:30-9:15;
9-10 year-old swimmers 9:15-10:00; and
11 & over swimmers 10:00-11:00.
Your swimmer will need a team suit, a team cap (included in your registration fee), and goggles. Our team suits can be purchased through our PBST Team Suit Store. We have suits available for suit fittings, if needed.
Merchandise:
We sell team apparel and merchandise through our NEW PBST Team Store! A portion of all purchases through the team store go back to Prospect Bay Swim Team!
Meets:
Meets are not mandatory, but the coaches strongly encourage swimmers to attend. It’s a fun, challenging time for your swimmer, and the reason they practice so hard! Parents should arrive 45 minutes before the meet for warm-ups. Have your swimmer check in at the PBST tent to get their event information, and get the info Sharpied onto their arm.
Registering for meets:
Sign in to website (www.prospectbayswimteam.com). Click on the meet and then click on ’Edit Commitment’. Click on ‘attend’ or ‘decline’. Even if your swimmer cannot attend, please ‘decline’ as that gives us a better handle on our number of swimmers. There is a ‘note’ section during registration, in which you can choose one stroke for your swimmer to participate in for that meet.
Alternatively, you can declare for meets using the OnDeck app, under Events.
Logistics of a meet:
- Arrive 45 minutes before the meet
- Check in at the PBST tent
- Swimmer will get their event info written on their arm by parent/parent volunteer.
- Warm up
- Swimmers 10 and under to report to their angel
- Swimmers should see the coaches immediately after each race for feedback
The event order is always the same, starting with the youngest girls, then youngest boys, and continuing switching back and forth through to the oldest swimmer age group for each stroke.
The stroke order is: Freestyle relay, Butterfly, Backstroke, Breaststroke, Individual Freestyle, IM, and Medley Relay.
Each gender and age group has its own event number. Then there are heats within the event, and finally lane assignment with each heat. Swimmers are seeded in heats with kids of similar abilities- the faster swimmers are in the middle of the pool and fan out to the outside lanes. The first heats are for slower swimmers, or swimmers who do not have a seeded time yet.
As an example: The event number is 58, heat #2, Lane #5. On the swimmer’s arm, it would read: E (event), H (heat), and L (lane)
E H L
58 2 5
Your swimmer’s event info would appear in this format on your swimmer’s forearm, listing all events for your swimmer. Events are listed in ascending order (i.e. event #3 would be listed before event #12).
