Piranha Families —

Happy 2021! I hope this e-mail finds everyone healthy. We just had our first swim league meeting past Thursday.  Given the current state of things, there was a lot discussed, and a lot to consider so I wanted to be sure to keep the team aware. This is a long and important email, so I have bolded and italicized any upcoming actions that will be requested from parents.


Overview The Montgomery County Swim League (MCSL), of which Plantations is a member, is committed to conducting a summer swim season this year. However, like last season we are at the mercy of forces over which we have no control. First, there is no way to predict what progress we will make on the virus even with the administration of the vaccines. Second, we will need to follow the rules of the State of Maryland, Montgomery County, and the department of Health. We don’t know what direction any of that will go, but to give you an idea of the challenges that face us, the Team Representatives are not even allowed to have an in-person meeting until at least May.

Goal The goal of MCSL is to have typical practices and meets like we have in years past, but they recognize this may not be possible. At a minimum, they want to pursue in-person practices and virtual meets.

Virtual Meet: The details of what a “virtual meet” would look like are currently being worked out by the MCSL board. In general this means we would be swimming at home by ourselves each week.

Practices: MCSL is working with the Montgomery County officials to approve the 4-swimmer per lane policy that is in place for the year round swim teams in the event we aren’t back to full practices.

Ongoing Actions All of this will create uncertainty as we move forward and we will need to be flexible. In the near term, I have taken the following actions:

1. I have contacted the Plantations Community Board and Swimming Pool committee to determine if:
a) They will be opening the pool this year
b) If they do open, will they allow swim team practices, and can we get extended practice time in the morning since it will take longer to get through all swimmers at 4-swimmers per lane. That means there may be early practices. Also realize afternoon practices may be impossible depending on the format the pool is operating on during the day for their community members.
c) They are Ok with us having meets at home for 6 consecutive weeks which impacts the pool neighbors.

2. There will be additional changes to schedule and other details as things evolve. I pledged to keep the board and committee informed and offered to attend the board meetings to provide first-hand updates.

3. I will be sending a survey out to the team to gage everyone’s interest in participating this year. You should see that in the next week. Based on pool availability and participant commitment, I need to provide MCSL with an idea if we will be able to participate this season so they can reconfigure divisions if necessary. All teams need to answer this question by 11 March. If we answer YES, they recognize that is subject to change.

4. I will be hosting a virtual swim team parent meeting in the next month. Items to discuss include:

- I need to confirm if volunteers will be continuing in the positions they offered to do last year, and we need to identify new officials and representatives. All official training and retraining will be online this year, and if we are doing virtual meets this will be a great year to train on the job. 

- Also, Monica Celada moved to Florida this past year, so that leaves just Nikki Rossignol (maybe) and I as team reps. We will need help and trainees. I will be changing jobs in the next year and I am going backpacking for two weeks with Keegan this summer, so I need to be training someone who can substitute and then take over for me. If you have young swimmers who are going to be at this for a while please consider becoming an official or a Rep. We cannot have a swim team without these key positions being filled.😊

Next Steps

I will continue to update the team after each meeting (Next League meeting is March 11th) to let you know what the latest plan is for the upcoming season. I look forward to getting everyone back in the pool safely and talking with all of you very soon!

Piranha Power!!!

Mike