NVSL Seeding Surprises?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Dowden Terrace has continued to fall, now down to Division 9. Their long time head coach is gone so it will be an interesting season for them.

DT is Division 8 this year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Dowden Terrace has continued to fall, now down to Division 9. Their long time head coach is gone so it will be an interesting season for them.

DT is Division 8 this year.

Typo on my part.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The Alexandria area has seen Mount Vernon continue to fall and Little Hunting Park continue to rise. LHP has great facilities and no neighborhood restrictions on membership so it will be interesting to see how high they can go

This PP brings up an interesting point. Are community based/neighborhood restricted pools destined for mid level divisions?

Isn't DR (D1) neighborhood restricted?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Am I the only one rooting for Old Keene Mill to kill it in division one? It would be nice to have not a legacy team (but a normal one) take some wins.

We go to Overlee and would like this as well. Then maybe the team would be less psychotic and more fun.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Biggest fall was Brandywine - from division 7 to division 13.

Biggest jump was not that big but Waynewood 10 to 7. So it looks like the seeding is sorting itself out.

Going back a little further ..

Biggest jumps over last 5 years:
Parklawn 15->7
OKM 8->1
LHP 11->4
South Run 12->5
Springboard 12->6
Canterbury Woods 13->7
Poplar Heights 11->6
Rolling Hills 12->7
Fox Hunt 13->8

Biggest drops over last 5 years:
Sideburn Run 5->13
Rutherford 10->16
DT 2->8
Annandale 10->15
Fox Mill Estates 10-> 15
Fox Mill Woods 8->13
Walden Glen 5->10
MVP 3->8

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Biggest fall was Brandywine - from division 7 to division 13.

Biggest jump was not that big but Waynewood 10 to 7. So it looks like the seeding is sorting itself out.

Going back a little further ..

Biggest jumps over last 5 years:
Parklawn 15->7
OKM 8->1
LHP 11->4
South Run 12->5
Springboard 12->6
Canterbury Woods 13->7
Poplar Heights 11->6
Rolling Hills 12->7
Fox Hunt 13->8

Biggest drops over last 5 years:
Sideburn Run 5->13
Rutherford 10->16
DT 2->8
Annandale 10->15
Fox Mill Estates 10-> 15
Fox Mill Woods 8->13
Walden Glen 5->10
MVP 3->8

Aww, Sideburn. Nice pool facility, no neighborhood restrictions...surprised they've struggled as much as they have to maintain a solid team. Count me in as also rooting for OKM!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The Alexandria area has seen Mount Vernon continue to fall and Little Hunting Park continue to rise. LHP has great facilities and no neighborhood restrictions on membership so it will be interesting to see how high they can go

This PP brings up an interesting point. Are community based/neighborhood restricted pools destined for mid level divisions?

Or the bottom of the barrel divisions, even.
-someone at a D16 pool

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Dowden Terrace has continued to fall, now down to Division 9. Their long time head coach is gone so it will be an interesting season for them.

They have a membership problem. They have failed to improve their facilities. They have no waitlist. Across the way there is Parklawn, which used to be a "less desirable pool" for as long as I could remember and DT was full of important families. Then ten years ago or so Parklawn really improved their facilities, culture, etc. and I believe took alot of DT over.

[Anonymous]

Explain how Overlee (or any of those pools) remain on top when they have 10 year waitlists.

They should have no kids under the age of 12 to seed a meet - yet, somehow by magic they do.

Even accounting for large families with kids of all ages, it does not add up. Those teams should die because of their membership situation. It does with other pools, but not them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Explain how Overlee (or any of those pools) remain on top when they have 10 year waitlists.

They should have no kids under the age of 12 to seed a meet - yet, somehow by magic they do.

Even accounting for large families with kids of all ages, it does not add up. Those teams should die because of their membership situation. It does with other pools, but not them.

The widely discussed speculation is that it’s not a first in/first out wait list. Families with stronger swimmers jump the line (and may be recruited). Our pool has a multi-year wait list (5-7 years) and there is zero prioritization given to families with competitive swimmers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Explain how Overlee (or any of those pools) remain on top when they have 10 year waitlists.

They should have no kids under the age of 12 to seed a meet - yet, somehow by magic they do.

Even accounting for large families with kids of all ages, it does not add up. Those teams should die because of their membership situation. It does with other pools, but not them.

The widely discussed speculation is that it’s not a first in/first out wait list. Families with stronger swimmers jump the line (and may be recruited). Our pool has a multi-year wait list (5-7 years) and there is zero prioritization given to families with competitive swimmers.

I know of other pools that are true to the their waitlist and have publicly stated that they are struggling to fill their younger age groups because of their waitlists (and are also dropping in the league because of it).

It would have to be shenanigans. You cannot have a 10 year waitlist and have young swimmers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Explain how Overlee (or any of those pools) remain on top when they have 10 year waitlists.

They should have no kids under the age of 12 to seed a meet - yet, somehow by magic they do.

Even accounting for large families with kids of all ages, it does not add up. Those teams should die because of their membership situation. It does with other pools, but not them.

The widely discussed speculation is that it’s not a first in/first out wait list. Families with stronger swimmers jump the line (and may be recruited). Our pool has a multi-year wait list (5-7 years) and there is zero prioritization given to families with competitive swimmers.

I know of other pools that are true to the their waitlist and have publicly stated that they are struggling to fill their younger age groups because of their waitlists (and are also dropping in the league because of it).

It would have to be shenanigans. You cannot have a 10 year waitlist and have young swimmers.

We had a family move away to McLean. Before they even closed on the new house, their kids were swimming for a D1 team.

[Anonymous]

At our pool the waitlist isn’t quite as long as Overlee but the people selling memberships are primarily empty nesters and the people buying memberships are young families so it’s a constant influx of young kids who then join the team when they’re old enough.

I’d assume the demographics of sales and purchases are the same at other pools that aren’t limited by HOA

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Biggest fall was Brandywine - from division 7 to division 13.

Biggest jump was not that big but Waynewood 10 to 7. So it looks like the seeding is sorting itself out.

Waynewood had no business being in Division 10 last year. They won 261-158, 234-186, 241-179, 269-151, and 300-120. Given that, it's no surprise they are making the biggest jump, and at the same time returning to where they were in 2022.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Explain how Overlee (or any of those pools) remain on top when they have 10 year waitlists.

They should have no kids under the age of 12 to seed a meet - yet, somehow by magic they do.

Even accounting for large families with kids of all ages, it does not add up. Those teams should die because of their membership situation. It does with other pools, but not them.

This is actually a topic of great concern to people who are deeply invested in remaining in D1 (who yes, are insane). Someone ran for the Overlee board on this very platform because Overlee does NOT let people jump the wait list despite rampant rumors to the contrary. Apparently this fear of what will the waiting list do to our D1 status resonated with people, because people voted for the guy.

Part of the answer is more people than you think get into these pools really early, before they even have kids. A lot of them grew up in the area and understand the NVSL pool scene so knew enough to get into these pools pre-kids.

Another reason why these D1 pools remain good is just sheer volume. It's a big pool and there are a lot of members. They are drawing from a densely populated area and are always at capacity.