Good afternoon,

Initially, I was going to send out a survey to get feedback from everyone concerning the potential of moving practice to the Slate Belt YMCA. Plus, after discussing the water heater situation this whole season with many swim team families, the limited options to heat the pool further or to potentially practice elsewhere, I wanted to provide a real alternative for us to mull over.

The best alternative was a "temporary" move to the Slate Belt YMCA, but that does not come without its own challenges, ones that prompted the coaches to decide to stay at Nazareth to being with. It's "temporary", because there is no specific date the heater will be installed; it could be next week, it could be in June.

However, in writing up the "survey email" to layout the issues for families to consider, I decided the best move is to stay at the Nazareth YMCA for the following reasons:

1. Extra time & distance for many families that travel 45-60 minutes to Nazareth already would be even more, and that is not what they signed up for when initially deciding to join us.
2. White, Red, and Silver training groups would only be able to meet twice per week. This is too much of a drastic cut for most swimmers. Not to mention, for swimmers that usually only attend twice per week to begin with, if it's the wrong two days, they won't be able to attend at all. 
3. It's a headache and a logistical challenge to balance training group #s in our home pool. To do that all again with little planning time and even more constraints in pool hours and lane space than what we already face would cause confusion, annoyance, and disappointment for swimmers, parents, and coaches. If these aren't balanced right, it's a stress point that can break age group swim teams. 
4. The end of the regular season is only three weeks away. This is not the time to make changes unless absolutely necessary. I will send a follow up email describing how the end of the regular season works, and how post season is run. However, in general, for swimmers who will not have qualified for CHMC or Districts, Madison Champs is their last meet. Which means their season is over on January 22nd. Usually their practice days end there too, but we may extend that into February. Either way, changing facilities and taking on the challenges it entails at the end of the regular season is not how we prepare kids for success. 

As a result, it is not worth it for us to move to the Slate Belt YMCA. 

Please continue with your swimmers' regular practice times and groups at Nazareth YMCA. :)

See you on deck,

Coach Drake