Swim Team FAQ

Swim Team FAQ

If you have questions that are not covered by this FAQ, do not hesitate to shoot an email to [email protected].

What is the team philosophy?

At the Eno Valley Orcas, our focus is on the following:

  1. Fun - this should be where kids grow to love the sport of swimming. We play games, they develop friendships, we cheer and support each other, and have an all around good time.
  2. Learning the sport - summer league is also where kids can develop and improve their swimming skills through coaching and lots of practice time in the water. Practices will be focused on short distance swimming since that is what is needed for meets. Please note that swim team is NOT the same as group swim lessons.
  3. Competition - summer swim team provides opportunities for both individual and team competition during weekly swim meets against other teams within their division of the Durham Summer Swim League (DSSL).

When does the season start and stop?

The season starts in mid-May and usually ends the first weekend after July 4th. The actual dates should be updated on the pool’s website as soon as they are available.

How do I sign my children up for the team?

Check the website (https://enovalley.club/pool/team/) for a registration button. Once you decide to join the team, you will want to immediately get on the mailing list by sending an email to [email protected] and requesting to be added to the list and you will want to add yourself to our text remind list by sending this text: @enoorc to this number: 81010

What do my dues go toward?

Your dues goes toward swim practice and meet equipment, the cost of our meet timing/scoring system and subscription to that service, trophies, t-shirts, swim caps, coaches’ salaries, DSSL dues, DSSL Champs splash fees, and other odds and ends that need to be purchased from year to year to run the team.

What is the commitment level?

Morning and afternoon practices are held during the week with the idea that swimmers can come to one practice. Morning practices tend to be more productive since there are less people and more space. Swimmers are encouraged to be on time for at least 3 practices a week. Obviously, the more practices swimmers attend, the more improvement there will be and also more opportunities for team-building.

Who can be a part of the swim team?

Kids, aged 5 to 18, are eligible to be a part of the team.
To be on the Big Orcas they need to be able to swim safely across the pool (25 yards), unassisted. Little Orcas is the place to be for swimmers who are still trying to make it across. See LIttle Orcas FAQ’s for more info https://enovalley.club/pool/team/little-orcas/

Year-round swimmers are welcome to be a part of the team.

The age group that swimmers will be competing in is determined by the swimmer’s age on June 1st. They are divided into the following groups:

What are practice times?

Check the website for exact times, as they may vary from year to year, but typically it is this:

Mornings Monday-Friday (these practices start after public schools are out for the summer)

Afternoons Monday-Friday

Saturday Mornings

When and how long are swim meets?

Swim meets are against other teams in the Durham Summer Swim League. They are usually on Saturday mornings in June and typically last about four hours. Here is a ROUGH break down:

Saturday meet -

Wednesday Meet -

Of course, several things can alter this timeline - meet delays, a slow starter, larger teams, etc.

What do all these ribbons mean?

Why?

There are a couple of reasons why the ribbons and heat placement might not add up.

  1. It could be that while your child placed higher in his/her heat, someone in a different heat swam faster. For example, Johnny places second in his heat (heat #1) with a time of 44.56 seconds, but Frank in heat #3 swam with a time fo 43.29 seconds, so gets the second place ribbon.
  2. If your child wins a heat ribbon, that means they won that heat, but it has no bearing on what event place they got since multiple heats have to be compiled to figure that out.
  3. Two kids come in very close for first place. Johnny has a time of 23.56 seconds and Frank has a time of 23.98 seconds. However, the place judges (there are three of them) put Frank as coming in faster. Even though Johnny has the faster official time, Frank gets the first place ribbon. Place judges trump timers every time.

What happens when my child DQs?

When a child disqualifies (DQ), then he/she is not eligible for a ribbon in that event (with the exception of a heat winner ribbon) and will score no points in that event. That time is not eligible to be entered for Champs.

The child will not know that he or she DQ’d unless the child is aware of what they did ( for example, dove in for breaststroke and swam freestyle halfway instead). The coaches will get a printout of the DQs and will attempt to correct that problem in practice. Please be aware that this is a goal and not a promise. Once the season gets going, it is a whirlwind and not always feasible to get to everyone individually.

However, the coaches also know the primary reasons that kids DQ and will keep working on those.

Here are the most common reasons swimmers DQ in each stroke:

Freestyle

Breast

Back

Butterfly

It is very common for beginning swimmers to DQ in breast and butterfly. The coaches will work to help fix this.

Are Volunteers Needed?

Swim meets are impossible to run without parent volunteers! Most positions do not require prior swimming knowledge or training. Timer, place judge, runner, heat winner ribbon, sign flipper, and others do not need any knowledge of swimming.
Each family is asked to volunteer at at least two meets.
Here is a list of volunteer positions.

How do I become a meet official?

There is always a need for meet officials (stroke and turn judge, starter, meet director)
There are training courses offered each year before the season starts (usually in April and May). Check the team calendar and emails. The course lasts for about two hours and you only have to attend one of them. Judges are always paired with another judge, so you don’t have to worry about going it alone. Starters and Meet Directors are also official positions.

Don’t worry about a lack of experience. This is summer! We are all learning and developing as we go!

What should we bring to a meet?

How are relays decided?

Each meet, coaches take the top performing Eno swimmer in the freestyle event and put that swimmer in the A relay for that age slot. The second fastest Eno swimmer for that age group at that meet goes in the B relay. The third will be in the C relay and if we are able, the fourth will go into the D relay.

There may be circumstances that change this, such as a swimmer is not swimming freestyle at that meet, but has demonstrated relay-worthy times or if a swimmer is in a lower age group, but is swimming up for the relay. Coaches will make those calls on what they feel is best for the team.

Championship relays are a coach’s call, usually based on which swimmer was consistently faster during the year. There can only be A relays for champs.

The relay has age groups that are usually in this order:

It is important to note that relays do NOT have to swim in that order. It is possible for a coach to have a 15-18 to swim the first 25 yard leg and move the 8 & under to a different position. Swimmers cannot swim down and age, but can swim up (a relay could consist of all 6 years olds if the coach deemed it faster).

When are ribbons handed out?

This is a coach’s call and can vary from year to year. Usually, in a practice in a day or so after (largely depending on when the ribbons are completed). The Swimmingly software we use does not, at this time, allow us to print ribbons as the meet in progress, so ribbons cannot be completed until after the meet is over. Usually you can find a parent rep sticking ribbon labels on ribbons in a practice the day after a meet and would love to have some help!

What is Swimmingly?

Swimmingly is a software system that uses phones in conjunction with a central iPad station to run the meet. Timers use their phone and plug in the swimmer’s number. Their phone timers are started by the starter’s phone. All times and information go to the iPad which correlates it and scores the meet.

There are a few problems and we are always looking for ways around those. One is that the phones get hot or the batteries run down. All in all it is fairly simple and is faster than the old way of timers using stopwatches and writing down the times on a card. Plus, DSSL requires us to use it in our division.

What is the Swimmingly Fan App?

This is a mobile app that allows you access (in theory) to real-time results and swimmer times for your swimmer. You’ll get about one or two meets free before being required to pay to continue using the app.

What are the end-of-year awards?

Any given year, this can change due to coach’s discretion, but typically at the end of the season get together, we handout trophies for being on the most awesomest team ever, medals for improved times, medals for dedicated swimmers, trophies for most dedicated, trophies for most improved, trophies for most valuable, and then we have two major awards:

Cheermaster -

This award is in honor of Scott Lambeth, the first recipient. Scott was the loudest cheerer in the history of cheering and he bled Eno Valley blue. This award goes to the swimmer with the most team spirit.

Golden Orca -

This started sometime in the ‘80s. This is the be-all end-all award for an Eno Valley Swimmer. It is the whole package - dedicated to the team, leadership, spirit, hard work, supporting others - everything. Here is a partial list of who has won this award in years past (and we would love your help in helping us identify missing ones and correcting years):
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1l-fATAZskMnNphjfFV_OL71dmbufkr3lZtsSfoTx0ME/edit

Why Orcas?

Back in the late 1970s, Coach Brad Carle (who was later succeeded by his sister Meredith Carle) came up with the idea for our mascot being the orcas. It was almost assuredly because he had seen this horrible movie: Orca: The Killer Whale

However, his rationale was that Orcas are the premiere predators of the sea. They work together and can overcome any obstacle in their way. Orcas are fast. Orcas are smart. Orcas are loyal to each other. Plus, at the time, most people did not know a lot about orcas, so there was a mysterious factor involved.

Orcas vs. Seals | BBC Earth