SHRSL - Southwest Houston Recreational Swim League

Apr 19

2020 APRIL UPDATE

The Board and League Reps (of all kinds – coaches, team reps, prez…and more) just entertained a virtual meeting. Actually, it went pretty good. Thanks for cooperating. Sorry about the muting. The chat room worked just fine until the “side comments” started…but that’s not really different than normal, right? MISS Y’ALL!

Here are the high points, but really…we are still on hold.

Please keep in mind that the BOD knows as much as you do, so here we go:

SEASON: We are still planning on having a season and are moving forward accordingly. No teams will swim prior to MAY 15 . NOTE: your insurance is only good thru 4/28/20 – please don’t do it….

We’ll share info as we have it. We are clearly at the mercy of local governments (county/city) and HOAs. That being said, please understand that things might not be “even” across the League. We have teams in MoCity, Sugar Land, Houston, Stafford, Meadows…all with their own governments. That doesn’t even mention the HOA’s…

  • MEETS:
    • First Meet – June 1 as posted.
    • We are willing to push back one week to June 8. If it looks like we need to push further than that, we’ll have to cancel the season for obvious reasons.
      • See Reg & Ins below:
        • Final call on the season will be made by May 29 by noon, to accommodate a June 8 start (that would involve a canceled June 1 meet).
      • Registration has to start NOW for any of this to happen. More info below.
    • The End of Season is a fixed date.
  • It’ll be up to the individual teams as to whether or not you will participate this year….if parents are questioning social distancing rules, it is what it is.
  • Does anyone think potentially one week of practice is enough? No we don’t BUT….we aren’t willing to cancel the season because of it. As it is, some teams start the day we allow them to, and some don’t start until 2nd week of May. It’s all over everything – at least in this situation, we’d all be at the same disadvantage.
  • Should the stay-a-home and social distancing “orders” drag on into late May with no end in site (which very well could happen, and we know it), a FINAL decision will be made sometime on May 28, and communicated on May 29 (Friday….) by noon and we’ll communicate accordingly via email, website and Facebook.

REGISTRATION & INSURANCE: Teams have been asked to go ahead and REGISTER YOUR TEAMS. It’s up to the team if they want to go ahead and charge a registration fee now or just register KIDS with no payment – to demonstrate intent.

  • We need these registration numbers by MAY 14 (or earlier). Keep in mind a May 15 “tentative” start day for practices. It’s aggressive…we know it.
  • That being said, your team MUST BE REGISTERED by May 14, if we turn all loose for practice on May 15. Non-negotiable. And this might change…please be flexible.
  • Change in team payments for 2020:  We’ll work off of 2020 swimmer counts for required team payments and we’ll need those payments pretty fast……
  • At this time, Swimtopia says they will process a 100% registration refund to families, should a refund be necessary.

STROKE CLINICS: Obviously are canceled and we’ll get info out to you as soon as we have it. The website will be our primary information source and will be updated accordingly.

DIVISIONS & SCHEDULES: (Updated 4/20/20)

  • We have Divisions “sort of set” but will need more information from the teams – mostly size. Yes…there might be modified divisions according to team size/registration numbers for 2020.
  • Will this affect divisions for next year? NO. PERIOD.
  • Just sharing our thoughts + a lot of wiggle room:
    • If government opens May 1, ,then league starts May 15th, insurance purchased about May 8th, meet 1 on June 1.
    • If gov opens May 15, then league starts June 1, insurance purchased about May 22nd, meet 1 on June 8
    • If gov opens June 1, then league starts June 1 (no delay), insurance purchased about May 22nd since we’ll have team expectations (numbers) by then and Meet 1 on June 8

OPTIONS & DISCUSSIONS that were entertained:

  • Insurance: There’s no change in insurance for the “what if someone catches a cold/ear infection/COVID”. The swimmer’s primary insurance would come into play…just like normal seasons.
  • Social Distancing at practice and. meets: CLEARLY if there are governmental rules regarding groups of people, we’ll need to follow.
  • Volunteers: Due to expected team size issues, we’ll look at reducing the required number of volunteers if need be. (ex: timers..scribes,etc)
  • USA/Club Drop Deadline: NO CHANGE – it’s April 30, 2020.
  • Will there be a change in number of meets required for MOC: NO.
  • SUGGESTION: Virtual Meets: Should the social distancing orders allow for practices, groups of 20-30 folks OR less than a swim meet would host…. We could time the kids and share…score out a meet according to time.
  • SUGGESTION: Can we have a “season” of practices with no meets if it looks like things will open up in June….probably? We’ll just have to watch. That would involve a quick vote – we’d still need registration fees to cover insurance.

Please Please Please be flexible and know we are trying to NOT cancel, but trying to be smart/conscientious at the same time. Know that the League Board will make what we think is the best decision possible for the League and some might not agree….do we all agree 100% all the time? No….we don’t and we’ll work with that.

Please share any creative ideas/suggestions/concerns with [email protected] and we’ll get back with you!

Stay home. Stay safe. Stay healthy. LET’S DO THIS and get these kiddos back to some sense of normalcy!

Melanie Remy