Hello NSD Family!

We had a great tryouts week and first week of practice! Thank you for coming out and supporting the community and the sport. We are motivated by your turnout and are working hard to make this season a positive experience for you and your swimmers. I've already seen excitement on a lot of faces from new (and returning) swimmers.

A few reminders:

• Regular practice schedule resumes next week!
  • Beginners: 6-6:30pm
  • Intermediate: 6:30-7:10pm
  • Advanced: 7-8pm
  • Beginning in October: 6:30-8pm
  • If you're still unsure of your swimmer's skill level, default lower and consult with the coaches.
• Families who registered to pay by check: Payment is due by this Friday, 9/15/23. We have a wait list of families wanting to join and will begin allowing them to register if we do not receive payment this week.
  • Scholarship recipients, you have until 10/15/23 to provide your check payments, if applicable.
• IMPORTANT: Did you get the SwimTopia alert as a phone notification about Huntersville Pool earlier this week? I'm not referring to the email I also sent.
  • If you didn't get a phone alert, please download the SwimTopia app to your phone and enable notifications (login with the email you used to register your athlete). We will send important alerts through SwimTopia such as practice updates in case of inclement weather. These come through best on the app and notification on your phone. If you choose not to install the app, the system will send an email instead. If you're like me, you will not see the email in time to properly consume the alert and show up when practice may be cancelled.
• "Free Swim" vs. "Family Swim" at Norfolk Pools: Many families enjoy letting their swimmers go in the pool before and/or after practice. As such, it's important to know the difference between the terms "free swim" and "family swim" and when those are scheduled at each pool. City pools are also open to the public during our practices and other city residents have a right to access the pool outside of the three lanes we have reserved for the swim team.
  • Free Swim: Norfolk pools require swimmers under 8 to be accompanied by an adult in the water. Swimmers 8 and older (who can pass the city's swim test) may swim freely without an adult family member in the water.
  • Family Swim: Norfolk pools require an adult family member to be in the water with their child(ren), regardless of their age or swimming ability.
  • At this time, "Family Swim" is scheduled from 5-8pm every weekday. Unfortunately, these rules are inconsistently enforced between pools and city employees. We appreciate your patience in complying when asked by lifeguards or other Norfolk employees to adhere to their requests.
  • We have a longstanding and beneficial partnership with the city of Norfolk to use our city's pool space at a reduced cost to the swim team. We encourage you to be cognizant of this and respect the city employees who are working hard to make the pool facilities run efficiently and safely while we're at practice, competitions, and other events.
• Coaches Reminders:
  • Goggles are very helpful for most swimmers so we encourage you to get them soon.
  • Please keep clear of the "coaches lane" the coaches use to walk-follow swimmers up and down the pool during practice. Please also allow the coaches to coach. This means parents should sit back, relax, and watch your child develop their swimming skills during practice with our experienced coaching staff.
  • Please be sure to arrive at practice early and be checking the time regularly if you're using the pool before your practice starts.
• Swimsuits: Be sure to purchase our team competitive suit from our SwimOutlet store early. Our suit colors are navy blue and white. I will have sizing kits at practice next week on Monday and Thursday (Northside) but feel free to text me if you need the sizing kit on another night.
  • You may purchase a competitive suit in our team colors with or without our NSD logo. If you order with our logo, processing and shipping time will double (from one week to two weeks, on average).
• Team & Individual/Sibling Photos: We will be scheduling a professional sports photographer for late October/early November to give families the opportunity to purchase individual and sibling photos. We will also be holding our larger team photo during the same session. It is important your swimmers have our team swimsuit by late October so we can show team unity in our photos and swim meets!
• Parents Meeting week of 9/25: We will hold a parents meeting the week of 9/25. We will have the same meeting at each pool: Monday (Northside), Tuesday (Southside), and Wednesday (Huntersville). Please go to our Meets & Events page and RSVP to the one that best fits your schedule (this will need to be done on our home page. The SwimTopia app is only good for receiving alerts and tracking your swimmers during a competition). At this meeting, we will provide you an update on our team vision, mission, and strategy. We will also provide more details about the USA Swimming opportunity that will start in October for those parents interested in enrolling their swimmers.

Finally, It is important you know that NSD is a SafeSport swim team, adhering to USA Swimming standards. This means all coaches and every member of the board of directors are trained to keep your athletes safe while at NSD functions. We take athlete safety seriously and have protocols in place to ensure swift and protective action when we identify potential signs of bullying, hazing, or any other abuse from anyone during NSD functions.

Thank you again for your support and turnout last week. I hope you have a great weekend! Go Hokies!

Matt Leech, President

434-841-9000 (Call or Text)