How to Prepare Your Swimmer for Tryouts

Tryouts for the Skyline Swim Team will be held Monday, October 3, 2017 from 2:30-4:30pm at the Skyline pool. In order for your swimmer to participate in the tryouts the following items must be completed:

Must-be completed items

1. Attend the Parent Meeting on September 15 at 7pm in the Skyline Library.
2. Get a physical for your swimmer. THE BOOSTER CLUB IS NOT DOING TEAM PHYSICALS THIS YEAR. 
3. Register My Athlete. This is the GSD online registration system for athletics. You must complete the process before your swimmer can participate in tryouts. This includes obtaining a physical exam and uploading the form into the Register My Athlete system. Alternatively, the swimmer can turn it into Deb Bennett, Athletic Director, but the swimmer is responsible for making sure it is available to the school before tryouts. THE BOOSTER CLUB IS NOT DOING TEAM PHYSICALS THIS YEAR. Deb Bennett will attend our parent meeting to explain the process and answer questions.
4. Pay fees for Mandatory Gear, etc. Mandatory gear includes a team swimsuit, latex cap, team warmup jacket, team t-shirt, and team mesh gear bag. There are also other fees for participating in the swim class, bus transportation, etc. These will be added to your student account by the school bookkeeper and must be paid before October 3.

Should-be completed items

1. Join the Skyline Swim Booster Club. There are various levels of membership, and we encourage all families to participate. The funds raised by Booster Club membership are used to pay for bus treats, Saturday breakfasts, social activities, dinners, etc. More information will be provided at the Parent Meeting on September 15.
2. Get on the Booster Club email list. If you have not received emails from the Skyline Booster Club (boosters@skylineswimming.org), you are not on our list. Please send an email asking to be added to our list.
3. Register for the parent/booster club text blasts. We have the ability to send text blasts for parent information items (the bus is late, the meet has moved, pool is down) thru a text blast service. The service is thru remind.com, which is a free service. More information will be available once this service is turned on. 
4. View and purchase Optional Gear online. This year we will have an online store through Aquaholics to purchase optional gear. You will purchase gear directly from the online store and choose your sizes, etc. The Booster Club will not handle optional gear purchases. This will include warmup pants, leggings, shorts, sweatshirt, socks, additional team t-shirts for supporters, large swim backpacks, fins, paddles, and any other items that Joe may recommend. This store is not yet active, but we will send further information once it goes live. There will be a cut-off date for ordering, most likely October 7. 
5. Volunteer to be a timer at swim meets. Each family is expected to time at least once during the swim season.
6. Volunteer to provide bus treats for an away meet. Reimbursement is available from the Booster Club.
7. Volunteer to provide Saturday morning breakfast after practice. Reimbursement is available from the Booster Club.

Parent Volunteer Signups

There are many opportunities for parents to be involved with the Skyline Swim Team. The Booster Club organizes Saturday morning breakfasts, bus treat bags for every away meet, and timers for all the home meets. Without timers we can't hold swim meets. Each family is expected to time at one meet during the season. Swimmers are always hungry, and so parents provide a snack before away meets and breakfast after Saturday practices. Reimbursement is available if requested and receipts are turned in.

Bus Treats

Timers and Officials

Saturday Breakfasts

Senior Meet Committee

Social Events Committee

Swim Suit Sizes

We are gathering swim suit sizes! Please check with your swimmer to make sure they have told Joe or the captains what size suit they want.

Next week we will be sizing warmup jackets for the team. Stay tuned!

Welcome to Skyline Swimming. Background Information

For those of you new to Skyline Swimming, here is some important information about how our team works. We have a great tradition at Skyline of both athletic and academic achievement on the swim team. Our team last season had almost 90 athletes and we won both the Mens and Womens 4A State Championships. Our head coach Joe Pereira has received the National High School Swimming Coach of the Year award as well as numerous other recognitions. This should be another great season. We anticipate holding our parent meeting on September 15 (tentative date) in the Skyline library at 7pm.

The high school season runs from October 3 to February 11 (state championship). Before the season if kids wants to swim in the afternoons at Skyline, they can participate with the Eagle Aquatic Team, the USA Swimming club swim team at Skyline. Coach Joe is head coach of both EAT and Skyline high school team. There is a cost to swim with EAT outside of the high school season, but once the high school season starts, there is no fee. EAT will resume afternoon practices on August 29 when the Skyline pool is anticipated to reopen from annual maintenance.

Swimming is a no-cut sport. This means that as long as students come to the required amount of practices and are academically eligible they can swim in meets. If they don’t attend enough practices, they won’t compete. Practices are held before school and during first period and then after school as well. There is a girls morning (A day) and boys morning (B day). If your swimmer wants class credit they need to enroll in the first period swim class. The class runs all year long. They start at 6:15am and then are done and ready to go to second period. Otherwise they will have to swim before school and after school to get enough practice minutes in to qualify to swim in the meets. During the season afternoon practices are held MWF for varsity and TTH for JV, from 2:30-4:30pm.

“Tryouts” will be held Monday, October 3 at 2:30pm. This determines which swimmers will on the Varsity team, but everyone who plans to swim must participate in tryouts. The Varsity team is generally limited to 24 swimmers, to maximize the practice effectiveness and use of the equipment at the pool. This means JV practice can feel a little crowded, but the morning practices are better.

9th graders can swim with the high school team. If they want to enroll for class credit, they have to dual enroll at Wasatch or Churchill and then at Skyline. Churchill is easier because they are on the block schedule. Tell the counselor they are swimming at Skyline and which period (1A or 1B) they need. The counselor then will release them from that period at Churchill and you can register them at Skyline by going into the registrar which is in the counseling center. In the past parents have set up a carpool to get swimmers from Skyline back to churchill for 2nd period, but that is completely optional. Wasatch is a little more complicated because they are on the 7 period day. Generally ninth graders at Wasatch enroll for swimming at Skyline and don’t have a first period at Wasatch. That means every other day you take them to Skyline at 6am and then they walk to Wasatch with the other 9th graders after practice to get there by second period. The other day they sleep in (or whatever) and appear at Wasatch for the start of 2nd period. Then at the end of the school day, the students walk or get a ride from parents back to Skyline to get in the water by 3pm. Practice will have started already, but they get in as quickly as they can.

Meets begin in November and run thru January. The JV and varsity region championships will be held the last week of January, and the state championship will be held February 10-11.

We have an active booster club and welcome all parents to participate. Parents are expected to help with timing at meets and with other volunteer opportunities, like bringing food to various activities.

All of this information is subject to change — this is how things have been done in the past and we don’t anticipate any major changes, but this at least gives you an idea of how things have worked previously.

Karianne Prince, President, SHS Swim Team Booster Club

karianne.prince@gmail.com
801-455-6748