How to Deal with Poached Swimmers in the NVSL

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Who cares. Let the higher division teams poach the intense families. So our mid-division team remains a laid back team full of kids who grew up in the neighborhood.

I think the midlevel divisions tend to have the same level of crazy, if not more. The higher divisions let the coach run the team without too much parent politics except in rare cases.

Neighborhood pools have a lot of feelings, gossip, back stabbing, and drama. No thank you!

I would rather my kid not swim A meets in D1 than deal with politics, reps who don’t know what they are doing, and then families trying to backstab their neighbors.

[Anonymous]

Blessed to have the bare minimum crazy at our neighborhood, mid-division pool. Our culture is laid back, and when the crazy occasionally threatens to pop up, they very quickly understand that doesn't happen here, and either shut up or leave. Coach does the lineups, Rep (which I was for a few years) only verifies and doesn't interfere. Board very rarely hears team-related complaints, and always backs the Rep. We don't recruit (we have a multi-year waitlist and have never been asked to move swim families up) and just shrug when another nearby pool poaches our swimmers. Our club families completely understand what NVSL is (summer league) and drive this culture.

[Anonymous]

Mid level division pool member. We have the crazy on our neighborhood pool.

DCs left to swim at CSL pool. They are enjoying it so much more now. It’s so low stress. And my swimmers are AAA level swimmers. Club swimming is stressful enough, they don’t need a bunch of adults (including the coach) snapping at them the entire summer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Recruiting absolutely goes on in the NVSL and if you believe otherwise, your head is completely buried in the sand. A few seasons back while in D1-2 team, I timed with a parent who admitted they lived in Loudon County (passed Dulles) but swam for this particular team which was well over 20 miles from their home. The parent said her child never attended the team practices and only showed-up on Saturday morning to swim. And yes, she dominated and was by far one of the best kids in this particular team.

I’ve also timed with other [b]parents who openly admitted they had country club memberships and spent all their time at the club, while also simultaneously holding a membership at a top NVSL team pool (and never attended) solely so their kid could swim for a top team. That’s not technically recruiting per say, but you get a sense of what goes on at the top levels.

While a team may no officially recruit per say through coaches and team reps, you can absolutely bet your bottom dollar there is recruiting going in within internal pool families recruiting other external families to join their pool with the goal of putting together competitive relays at a high level. I’ve actively seen it first hand at our pool. Sometimes it comes to fruition, sometimes it doesn’t but to state recruiting doesn’t occur in the NVSL is a downright lie. It may not be official per say, but behind the scenes there’s a lot of absurdity going on.

There are quite a few kids who swim for the country club and an NVSL team. Country Club league has meets on Tuesdays or Thursdays, so these kids — many of whom will also swim at NVSL Divisional Relay Carnival and ASRs, are competing (1) Sat and Mon NVSL; (2) some Wed. NVSL; (3) Tues or Thurs CCSDA; and (4) some Fri/Sun for LC club swim. I don’t know about these kids, but this would be a recipe for burn out with my swimmer. It would not serve as any advantage.

https://www.gomotionapp.com/reccdccsdamd/UserFiles/Image/QuickUpload/an-v-wg_095168.pdf

https://www.gomotionapp.com/reccdccsdamd/UserFiles/Image/QuickUpload/av-v-wg_026303.pdf

https://www.gomotionapp.com/reccdccsdamd/UserFiles/Image/QuickUpload/be-v-cg_014237.pdf

https://www.gomotionapp.com/reccdccsdamd/UserFiles/Image/QuickUpload/bh-v-ke_065535.pdf

I just figured out that a lot of the top swimmers at our pool also swim in the country club league. I guess I am naive, but I was actually surprised. Is this fun for people? Must be. I don't get it.

My understanding is most of these kids don't practice with either team (they are still with clubs over the summer) and just show up for meets. Yay summer swim.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are you sure they are poaching them? We're in an area with one already high division pool and another that is trying to move up. People switch pools all the time. But the biggest reason I have heard of is that one pool in particular is just way more fun and has a huge group of kids from the nearest elementary school. People switch for their friends, even if it means driving a couple neighborhoods over.

We asked the exiting families why they left and they said team reps of the new pool reached out to them first or they had an existing relationship with one of the team reps who would try to sell a better pool, more activities, etc. Totally understand people switch pools for various reasons but would expect them to drive those decisions, and not team reps reaching out to them first.

Well, often "team reps" are other volunteer parents they know socially and would be talking to about this stuff anyway.

It's just summer fun swimming, so I don't know why it really matters. Let people go to the pool they want to go to.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Recruiting absolutely goes on in the NVSL and if you believe otherwise, your head is completely buried in the sand. A few seasons back while in D1-2 team, I timed with a parent who admitted they lived in Loudon County (passed Dulles) but swam for this particular team which was well over 20 miles from their home. The parent said her child never attended the team practices and only showed-up on Saturday morning to swim. And yes, she dominated and was by far one of the best kids in this particular team.

I’ve also timed with other [b]parents who openly admitted they had country club memberships and spent all their time at the club, while also simultaneously holding a membership at a top NVSL team pool (and never attended) solely so their kid could swim for a top team. That’s not technically recruiting per say, but you get a sense of what goes on at the top levels.

While a team may no officially recruit per say through coaches and team reps, you can absolutely bet your bottom dollar there is recruiting going in within internal pool families recruiting other external families to join their pool with the goal of putting together competitive relays at a high level. I’ve actively seen it first hand at our pool. Sometimes it comes to fruition, sometimes it doesn’t but to state recruiting doesn’t occur in the NVSL is a downright lie. It may not be official per say, but behind the scenes there’s a lot of absurdity going on.

There are quite a few kids who swim for the country club and an NVSL team. Country Club league has meets on Tuesdays or Thursdays, so these kids — many of whom will also swim at NVSL Divisional Relay Carnival and ASRs, are competing (1) Sat and Mon NVSL; (2) some Wed. NVSL; (3) Tues or Thurs CCSDA; and (4) some Fri/Sun for LC club swim. I don’t know about these kids, but this would be a recipe for burn out with my swimmer. It would not serve as any advantage.

https://www.gomotionapp.com/reccdccsdamd/UserFiles/Image/QuickUpload/an-v-wg_095168.pdf

https://www.gomotionapp.com/reccdccsdamd/UserFiles/Image/QuickUpload/av-v-wg_026303.pdf

https://www.gomotionapp.com/reccdccsdamd/UserFiles/Image/QuickUpload/be-v-cg_014237.pdf

https://www.gomotionapp.com/reccdccsdamd/UserFiles/Image/QuickUpload/bh-v-ke_065535.pdf

I just figured out that a lot of the top swimmers at our pool also swim in the country club league. I guess I am naive, but I was actually surprised. Is this fun for people? Must be. I don't get it.

My understanding is most of these kids don't practice with either team (they are still with clubs over the summer) and just show up for meets. Yay summer swim.

It’s hard to understand what is motivating these people. As a parent you want to spend every night of 5-6 weeks of summer at a swim meet? I guess it’s fun to dominate and crush people? Nice to be wanted? Unclear. It’s an ego trip for sure.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Mid level division pool member. We have the crazy on our neighborhood pool.

DCs left to swim at CSL pool. They are enjoying it so much more now. It’s so low stress. And my swimmers are AAA level swimmers. Club swimming is stressful enough, they don’t need a bunch of adults (including the coach) snapping at them the entire summer.

My child swims on a neighborhood team in a very high-level division and consistently makes the cuts in both the down and up years . However, I'm considering a move to CSL because I can't stand the drama, including backstabbing and the disappearance of volunteer roles. I also dislike being in a neighborhood where friendships are mixed with an "A" meet culture. This creates too much competition among neighbors and negatively impacts friendships, which I value more.

[Anonymous]

We left a pool to go to a higher-ranked pool. It wasn't because of the ranking, it was because of how the team and pool were being run.

[Anonymous]

We are at a higher ranked pool (D1-9) and decided to stay because the coaches and reps are great. The parents are all pretty nice and very welcoming, although a little clique-ish I guess because it is the same groups of people seeing each other at all the events throughout the summer. My kids are AAA/AAAA cuts but super humble and just happy to have a spot on the roster. We'll probably just stay here if there's no drama.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We left a pool to go to a higher-ranked pool. It wasn't because of the ranking, it was because of how the team and pool were being run.

Same and honestly we couldn’t be happier with our decision.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We left a pool to go to a higher-ranked pool. It wasn't because of the ranking, it was because of how the team and pool were being run.

Same and honestly we couldn’t be happier with our decision.

We are very happy with the change as well. Team is much better run, parent reps are great, coaches are fantastic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Mid level division pool member. We have the crazy on our neighborhood pool.

DCs left to swim at CSL pool. They are enjoying it so much more now. It’s so low stress. And my swimmers are AAA level swimmers. Club swimming is stressful enough, they don’t need a bunch of adults (including the coach) snapping at them the entire summer.

My child swims on a neighborhood team in a very high-level division and consistently makes the cuts in both the down and up years . However, I'm considering a move to CSL because I can't stand the drama, including backstabbing and the disappearance of volunteer roles. I also dislike being in a neighborhood where friendships are mixed with an "A" meet culture. This creates too much competition among neighbors and negatively impacts friendships, which I value more.

CSL has all this drama and culture. The stakes may seem “lower” and thus the drama is not as high but it’s all still there.

[Anonymous]

I generally think that poaching/recruiting claims are unfounded but, to feed the rumor mill, our daughter (who is obsessed with the NVSL website) noticed this morning that 2 of the top younger swimmers from a team that was in our mid-level division last year are now at Tuckahoe.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: I generally think that poaching/recruiting claims are unfounded but, to feed the rumor mill, our daughter (who is obsessed with the NVSL website) noticed this morning that 2 of the top younger swimmers from a team that was in our mid-level division last year are now at Tuckahoe.

Thanks for at least acknowledging that you are feeding the rumor mill. This was already discussed in this thread, overwhelmingly dismissed as unfounded for recruiting, and the posts were removed for being directed at specific individuals.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: I generally think that poaching/recruiting claims are unfounded but, to feed the rumor mill, our daughter (who is obsessed with the NVSL website) noticed this morning that 2 of the top younger swimmers from a team that was in our mid-level division last year are now at Tuckahoe.

Thanks for at least acknowledging that you are feeding the rumor mill. This was already discussed in this thread, overwhelmingly dismissed as unfounded for recruiting, and the posts were removed for being directed at specific individuals.

+1 love the response

Stop the rumors and let people swim where they want that is going to make them happy. It’s summer swimming.

Also I’m 100% confident that there was no recruiting or poaching here. Completely unfounded gossip.