How to Deal with Poached Swimmers in the NVSL

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Arent rumors and gossip the whole point of DCUM?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

A lot of those parents aren't volunteering, which his frusterating.

[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.

They may have been on the waitlist for years and just got in. Lots of reasons. I'm sure some kids are poached but lots of reaons why kids change pools.

[Anonymous]

Around here "many" swimmers appear to be treated rather poorly. As the demand exceeds the supply. So, poaching seems fair game, though in practice it means the government subsidized teams at public pools that are supposed to be reasonably priced are owned by the parents that can afford to send their kids to private facilities/or do numerous private lessons until they can make the public pool teams.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Around here "many" swimmers appear to be treated rather poorly. As the demand exceeds the supply. So, poaching seems fair game, though in practice it means the government subsidized teams at public pools that are supposed to be reasonably priced are owned by the parents that can afford to send their kids to private facilities/or do numerous private lessons until they can make the public pool teams.

???

Is this the swimming is economically unfair argument again, somehow applied to swimmers leaving one pool to go to another, yet wrapped up in an allegation against AAC maybe?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Around here "many" swimmers appear to be treated rather poorly. As the demand exceeds the supply. So, poaching seems fair game, though in practice it means the government subsidized teams at public pools that are supposed to be reasonably priced are owned by the parents that can afford to send their kids to private facilities/or do numerous private lessons until they can make the public pool teams.

???

Is this the swimming is economically unfair argument again, somehow applied to swimmers leaving one pool to go to another, yet wrapped up in an allegation against AAC maybe?

Actually, I think it's the RMSC hater.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Around here "many" swimmers appear to be treated rather poorly. As the demand exceeds the supply. So, poaching seems fair game, though in practice it means the government subsidized teams at public pools that are supposed to be reasonably priced are owned by the parents that can afford to send their kids to private facilities/or do numerous private lessons until they can make the public pool teams.

???

Is this the swimming is economically unfair argument again, somehow applied to swimmers leaving one pool to go to another, yet wrapped up in an allegation against AAC maybe?

Actually, I think it's the RMSC hater.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Around here "many" swimmers appear to be treated rather poorly. As the demand exceeds the supply. So, poaching seems fair game, though in practice it means the government subsidized teams at public pools that are supposed to be reasonably priced are owned by the parents that can afford to send their kids to private facilities/or do numerous private lessons until they can make the public pool teams.

???

Is this the swimming is economically unfair argument again, somehow applied to swimmers leaving one pool to go to another, yet wrapped up in an allegation against AAC maybe?

Actually, I think it's the RMSC hater.

Yup, definitely the poster whose kid didn’t make RMSC last year and had to dive off a block at the tryout.

[Anonymous]

I thought everyone made the RMSC team?! 🤔

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I thought everyone made the RMSC team?! 🤔

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How often does something like this really happen where a top swimmer in their age group really jump to a new pool?

Seems like it would be a pretty rare occurrence in the NVSL and as other posters have mentioned probably good reasons to switch. Otherwise they would have stayed.

My NVSL team made a jump like that 40 years ago when an adjacent pool failed. We won every meet that season by over a hundred. Wasn’t really great for anyone but just economics
It happened this year with Tuckahoe, but I am *absolutely not* suggesting it was anything improper. Likely, it’s a family who finally got off the waitlist. But it did enhance their 9-10 girls group.

It happened a few years ago with an 8 year old girl who jumped to a top (D1-D3) team from a mid-division team. That girls group at the new top-division team was also enhanced. But with an 8 year old, I’m sure it was nothing improper either.

Several years ago, like maybe 2018-2019, a mid-division, very small NVSL team all the sudden got a bunch of top Makos swimmers (like swimmers who now are D1 swimmers in college). It was kind of crazy because these swimmers left two or three different NVSL teams and joined this smaller NVSL team, then that team moved up 7 divisions.