Greater Fort Wayne Homeschool Swim Team

We want this team to be a fun, relationship building experience for our student athletes and are excited to develop our swim family bonds.  We do have a few requirements and expectations of our athletes in order to make this a great first year. 

This is a high school team. At this time, all competitive athletes must be entering their Freshmen-Senior years. 

Upon coach approval there is limited space for 8th grade athletes to attend some of our practices to begin preparing to join fully their Freshman year.

All entering student athletes must have prior swim experience and be legal in all 4 strokes and able to complete 100 yard swims of at least 2 strokes. Currently our staff and facility availability are too limited to be able to offer a full learn-to-swim program or heavy stroke development. We strongly recommend if the athlete needs intense stroke development, they join one of our local USA or YMCA swim teams and return in a year.

Our first week of practices, we will assess the athletes to be sure they are prepared for high school level competition.

As homeschoolers, we understand that every athlete will have drastically different availability. We have tried to build our schedule with that in mind but do have limitations based on pool availability. We will be offering 4 practices weekly for our High Schoolers (8th grade schedule will differ; see handbook):

~ 3- 1.5 hour swim/dive practices at Carroll Natatorium

~1- 1 hour weights/dryland practice

It is recommended athletes attend as many practices as possible for optimal team cohesion and endurance. For meet eligibility athletes will have to have attended at least 1 practice in the week leading up to that meet. 

These are limited practice hours, we strongly recommend our athletes practice outside our team with a local club or private training.  Swimmers success is directly linked with pool time practice.

We have high expectations for our athletes at both practices and meets regarding behavior.  We will be practicing and competing in spaces that are being very gracious in allowing us to be there. If we want to continue this program in the future, we need to put our best swim fin forward and show them what a great community our homeschoolers come from.

We want to be welcomed back and have competitive teams spread the word that we are a great team to compete against.

This means always:

Show respect

Show gratitude (thank our host facilities and competition coaches)

Display good sportsmanship (congratulate and encourage teammates AND competitors)

Pick up our spaces when done at practice and meets

Offer help with lane lines at the end of the meet

We are trying to keep costs at a minimum, so it does not become a barrier to entry. We do however have to pay for lane rental, insurance, and a weights facility. Registration fees are:

$250/Swimmer

$200/Divier

$300/Swimmer & Diver Combo

$150 for 8th grade participant

All registrations include $3 that goes directly to our team management software and another $15 goes to the single issue of a team swim cap required for meets (both fees are required). There is a possibility that some meets may have a small entry fee ($5/athlete) as some have a team entry fee to cover the cost of renting the pool space for the meet.  We are offering a couple fundraisers to hopefully avoid charging additional fees but that will be dictated by funding raised.