It may be a few minutes farther and in another state, but I second the Rockville Rays. It’s a great community for your kids to go to every Saturday from 9-12am

Last I heard, Armfield Farm allows non-residents to join.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thanks again everyone for the feedback. Looks like some of the genuine comments were removed. I guess that answers my question about which teams I’ll continue to consider. Also looks like it confirms some of people’s concerns.

Oh man I missed them! Can anyone say what they were generally about? I know lots of people at both of those pools. Gimme the dirt!

Another option is International Country Club, if you are considering joining there. The country club league is the least competitive of the 3 leagues in the area but there are still some good swimmers. There are some big neighborhoods with fairly expensive homes that don't have their own pools, so that tends to draw people to join the country club in order to have pool access.

Franklin Glen, Armfield Farm, or Chantilly Highlands might be other options but not sure if they allow outside members. Smaller than Franklin Farm but nice community feel.

I have heard a lot of nice things about ICC, but that is a pretty penny to spend for summer swim. Country Club memberships are too rich for my blood.

Anonymous wrote:Thanks again everyone for the feedback. Looks like some of the genuine comments were removed. I guess that answers my question about which teams I’ll continue to consider. Also looks like it confirms some of people’s concerns.

Oh man I missed them! Can anyone say what they were generally about? I know lots of people at both of those pools. Gimme the dirt!

Another option is International Country Club, if you are considering joining there. The country club league is the least competitive of the 3 leagues in the area but there are still some good swimmers. There are some big neighborhoods with fairly expensive homes that don't have their own pools, so that tends to draw people to join the country club in order to have pool access.

Franklin Glen, Armfield Farm, or Chantilly Highlands might be other options but not sure if they allow outside members. Smaller than Franklin Farm but nice community feel.

Thanks again everyone for the feedback. Looks like some of the genuine comments were removed. I guess that answers my question about which teams I’ll continue to consider. Also looks like it confirms some of people’s concerns.

I have heard good things about both teams, I know swimmers on both teams. Reach out to the team reps with questions, don't believe everything you read on an anonymous internet forum.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That’s actually really helpful because I think we are focusing on Franklin Farms and Fair Oaks which happen to be csl and nvsl respectively. Still would really love any insight on the coaches and culture of them. Thanks.

I know nothing more than this about the Fair Oaks HC from last season: He pitched a full on tantrum when one of his older swimmers was DQed. It was embarrassing and not a good look for a head coach. His team was not even in the meet, losing by hundreds of points, so the tantrum was misplaced. Further, his swimmer simply missed a wall on a turn.

Whoa! That certainly gives me pause for concern. A definite red flag.

I've been hearing some stuff from others (outside DCUM) that lead me to believe that this may not be the pool for us for similar reasons.

Generally been hearing positive feedback about the others. Thanks again everyone for your feedback.

Anonymous wrote:That’s actually really helpful because I think we are focusing on Franklin Farms and Fair Oaks which happen to be csl and nvsl respectively. Still would really love any insight on the coaches and culture of them. Thanks.

Looks like both pools have virtual information meetings. I'd sign up for those and figure out which is best for you based on that.

Franklin Farm website: https://www.gomotionapp.com/team/reccofff/page/home

Fair Oaks website: https://www.gomotionapp.com/team/recnvfos/page/home

You can also go on the NVSL and CSL websites and lookup times for last years meets. That will give you an idea if your kids will be able to swim in A meets or not.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Given the area you mentioned look at Franklin Farms, Fox Mill and Fair Oaks. Hopefully others will chime in on which one of those is good, bad or indifferent b

Franklin Farm- Pool is nice and in a beautiful area with nice tennis courts. Great community feel. Colonial League, so don’t know much about the swim team.

Fox Mill- there are two pools: Fox mill woods and Fox mill estates. Both NVSL. Both lower divisions so swim team is less competitive/more fun. FMW has beautiful facilities and is surrounded by woods so feels very secluded.

Fair Oaks- NVSL division 3. Much more competitive. Your swimmer would most likely need to be swimming year round if they wanted to do A meets. No tennis courts, but pool is decent.

Pinecrest- Not on PPs list, but if you are in the 20171 zip code, you are eligible to join this club. Friendly, tight-knit community. NVSL division 5. Also probably need to be a club swimmer if you want to swim the A meets. Nice pool with great diving boards and slide. Really nice tennis courts. Clubhouse was refreshed over the summer so changing facilities/ bathrooms are brand new.

I didn’t get the impression that the younger Fair Oaks swimmers were year-rounders last summer. Their talent seemed to be loaded with the older kids, so if your children are 10U, it may not be quite so competitive.

The coaches can change year to year. I wouldn’t pick a pool based on the current coaches.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That’s actually really helpful because I think we are focusing on Franklin Farms and Fair Oaks which happen to be csl and nvsl respectively. Still would really love any insight on the coaches and culture of them. Thanks.

I know nothing more than this about the Fair Oaks HC from last season: He pitched a full on tantrum when one of his older swimmers was DQed. It was embarrassing and not a good look for a head coach. His team was not even in the meet, losing by hundreds of points, so the tantrum was misplaced. Further, his swimmer simply missed a wall on a turn.

*by 100 points

Anonymous wrote:That’s actually really helpful because I think we are focusing on Franklin Farms and Fair Oaks which happen to be csl and nvsl respectively. Still would really love any insight on the coaches and culture of them. Thanks.

I know nothing more than this about the Fair Oaks HC from last season: He pitched a full on tantrum when one of his older swimmers was DQed. It was embarrassing and not a good look for a head coach. His team was not even in the meet, losing by hundreds of points, so the tantrum was misplaced. Further, his swimmer simply missed a wall on a turn.

That’s actually really helpful because I think we are focusing on Franklin Farms and Fair Oaks which happen to be csl and nvsl respectively. Still would really love any insight on the coaches and culture of them. Thanks.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Given the area you mentioned look at Franklin Farms, Fox Mill and Fair Oaks. Hopefully others will chime in on which one of those is good, bad or indifferent b

Franklin Farm- Pool is nice and in a beautiful area with nice tennis courts. Great community feel. Colonial League, so don’t know much about the swim team.

Fox Mill- there are two pools: Fox mill woods and Fox mill estates. Both NVSL. Both lower divisions so swim team is less competitive/more fun. FMW has beautiful facilities and is surrounded by woods so feels very secluded.

Fair Oaks- NVSL division 3. Much more competitive. Your swimmer would most likely need to be swimming year round if they wanted to do A meets. No tennis courts, but pool is decent.

Pinecrest- Not on PPs list, but if you are in the 20171 zip code, you are eligible to join this club. Friendly, tight-knit community. NVSL division 5. Also probably need to be a club swimmer if you want to swim the A meets. Nice pool with great diving boards and slide. Really nice tennis courts. Clubhouse was refreshed over the summer so changing facilities/ bathrooms are brand new.

How are the coaches for these clubs? Any insight?

From talking to friends, it seems like NVSL teams hire adult head coaches who also coach club teams and tend to coach the same summer team for multiple years. My sense of CSL is that there is more hiring of recent college grads who grew up in the neighborhood (since they are HOA based pools) as head coaches. This does lead to more turnover as many of those kids move on to non-coaching jobs. There are pros and cons. The adult "career" coaches will be a bit more professional, but it also means they take it all more seriously, maybe too serious for summer league.

Another tradeoff with CSL vs. NVSL is the number of individual events at A meets. I think you get 3 at CSL and 2 at NVSL. If your swimmer is a fast year round swimmer, then it's great either way. If they are more of a summer swimmer who is strong at only one or two events, it can be tough to break into the lineup for a CSL A meet because the fastest few kids can basically cover all of the events. On the flip side it's a lot easier to make CSL all stars because there are not nearly as many teams.