2021 Tidal Waves Swim Team

Registration is now open for the 2021 Kings Charter Tidal Waves swim team! You can register online at by clicking ‘REGISTER HERE’ on the left. Please download the attached instructions! We are thrilled to be back to competition this summer and are looking forward to the season! Register early – before May 10 – to receive a discounted rate. We are not having an in-person registration event this year because of continued gathering restrictions, but we will be offering an on-line orientation for folks new to the Tidal Waves in the near future. We plan to offer preteam again this summer as well, but registration for that will take place at a later time.

As previously shared, we are thrilled to welcome back Coach Logan as our 2021 Head Coach. He will be joined by Coach Wendy and Coach Andrew.

Since last year we did not have a season, GRAL has welcomed any 2020 Seniors to return for their final season. We would love to see some of the 2020 graduates come back and swim with us and be recognized for their years as a Tidal Wave!

As we all know, COVID continues to impact our lives and we remain under continued restrictions for gatherings. Because of this, swim team will look different from pre-pandemic years. We are making efforts to return to as normal an experience as possible. Swim Club was very limited with last year’s restrictions, which made it especially hard to support our younger swimmers. With the outdoor pool, we are comfortable that our coaches can safely be in the water as needed for coaching. We also are preparing to return to the normal practice schedules, although some continued health screenings are likely to be utilized.

Where the biggest changes are likely to occur are with swim meets, and we don’t yet have all the answers of what will change. At this time, GRAL is planning for either in-person meets or virtual meets (meaning, our kids would swim at Kings Charter, our opponent would swim at their facility, and the scores would be tallied afterwards). If the current gathering restrictions are loosened by June 1, GRAL will move ahead with the option of in-person meets. We believe we can safely hold in-person meets using some of the procedures that the local year round teams have put in place for several months. Some of the other teams in the league have already made the decision that they will only do virtual meets this year, so it is likely that at least some of our meets will end up being virtual (I don’t know if the teams we will swim against have made a decision on this).

Whether meets are in-person or just us, examples of changes we are likely to see include:
A minimized number of volunteers staffing the meet (timers, etc.), to allow distancing around the pool
Limited or eliminated poolside seating. It is likely that swimmers and their families will need to set chairs in the parking lot or elsewhere outside the pool deck and enter for their events. The plan for this will be more specifically laid out as we get more information on crowd limitations.
Utilizing additional volunteer positions to manage the transition in and out of the pool deck and making sure swimmers off the deck are aware of when their events are called.

Of course, we are also looking at changes we need to make so we can still offer many of the fun social activities we are used to having as a part of the swim season! This is an ongoing process and we ask for your patience as we continue to look at ways to have a fun filled season while continuing to prioritize the safety of our coaches, swimmers, and families.

More updates on the season will be coming in the near future. In the meantime, feel free to reach out to us with any questions you have at kctidalwaves@gmail.com.

Calling all Tidal Waves! We are excited to share that planning for the 2021 swim season has
begun. Many details remain to be finalized, but we believe that our team will be able to safely
conduct practices and meets as part of GRAL (Greater Richmond Aquatic League). Coaches
Logan, Andrew and Wendy will be on deck this summer. We hope to see many returning families
and we are looking forward to welcoming new swimmers in our community.

Updates to the Tidal Waves website are underway. Please visit kcswimteam.com for information
about the team. Practice times, meet and event schedules, volunteer information, pre-team
information and more will be added in the coming weeks. Registration through the website will
be available soon. We will send a registration invitation to families from 2019 & 2020 and post
announcements to the various neighborhood social media platforms. Please spread the word to
your neighbors!

As always, we welcome our families to get involved to help make our summer season a great
experience for our kids. If you are interested in learning more about the available volunteer
positions, please let us know – send an email to kctidalwaves@gmail.com

Tidal Waves Family,

This week the Tidal Waves board met and made the extremely difficult decision to cancel the 2020 summer swim team. This was not a decision any of us wanted to make, but with the continued uncertainty we determined that we could no longer offer an effective summer swim season that was safe for our swimmers, coaches, and community. More on the steps we took in making this determination is included at the end of this message.

While we will not be having the summer season, we acknowledge that as things open up outdoor swimming may present an opportunity for our kids to be active over the summer while maintaining appropriate social distancing. For this reason, we are looking at the option of hiring some of our coaches to lead a swim club. Details are still to come, but we are envisioning a program that:

• Will allow swimmers to practice and improve their skills through experienced coaching.
• Will provide a safe opportunity for outdoor activity that will be implemented in accordance with the Governor’s restrictions on social distancing and best practices for opening outdoor pools.
• Will not include competitions with other teams, and will not be a part of GRAL.
• May be limited based on numbers and age of participants.
• Will be offered at a modest cost to Kings Charter families without the volunteer commitment associated with the swim season.

We plan to provide more information on this and put out an interest survey in the near future.

In making the determination for the season:

• We gathered information on other swim clubs, including other GRAL teams, and looked at the steps year round teams were using to resume practice.
• We also looked at the impact of the social distance mandates. In Phase 1, pools are limited to one swimmer per lane. While we expect this to open up somewhat in future phases, we still expect the social distancing requirements would limit us to a couple swimmers in each lane. Additionally, the reported limit on Phase 2 would require no more than 50 people at the pool, including coaches, life guards, and parents if they needed to accompany their kids to practice. These things combined would make it extremely difficult to coordinate a practice schedule.
• Meets would not begin prior to Phase 3, and as of this date we still do not know when we will transition into Phase 2. There is a good chance the GRAL season may not happen, and we do not have a way to fairly register and charge families not knowing what will be included in the season.
• Our team has a history of building up young swimmers through the exceptional hands on work of our coaching staff. The current environment will not allow them to safely assume this role in a way that supports our younger athletes.

The Tidal Waves will resume our place swimming in GRAL for the 2021 season, and any of this year’s High School Graduates have received a waiver and are welcome to join us next summer.

Again, this has been an extremely difficult decision for us to make. I am thankful for the continued support of the Kings Charter Board and our own Board Members and Coaches who have supported us in the uncertainty of the last few months. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to me at ksherrill123@gmail.com.

Keith Sherrill
Board President

We are continuing to plan for a great 2020 summer swim season! Given the Governor’s announcement on COVID-19, we clearly cannot hold our registration nights as planned and have decided to delay opening online registration until we have better information.

The GRAL Board is meeting over the next several days to discuss options to stay nimble and prepare to make adjustments, if needed, to the summer swim season. We will work with them and the neighborhood to pursue the best opportunity for a successful season, and will provide updates as soon as we know more. We will continue to update our website at www.kcswimteam.com with the latest!

Please feel free to contact us at kctidalwaves@gmail.com if you have specific questions pertaining to the swim team.

Thank you,

Kings Charter Tidal Waves

Questions? Contact us at kctidalwaves@gmail.com