After much contemplation and hearing many MANY opinions from parents over the course of the summer, I believe that CSA is where we need to stay. Anyone who says it is not the place for us to be based on our competition level wasn't paying attention at city meet . Yes we did not win any of our dual meets, but this is simply because we were swimming the hardest teams in the league. We came in 6th at the city meet and this was wonderful.
Also, the meets in this league are more exciting. The kids never know if we are going to win or not, and they have to work harder in order to win. The excitement levels at the meets now are about 100 times higher than they were in the high point league when we always knew we were going to win. I went to a High Point league meet last night and honestly it felt boring, compared to the meets we have now. If we moved back to the HP league, I'm not sure I would want to coach again. I have heard that from multiple others as well.
I honestly believe it would look like we are leaving simply because we aren't winning, and how does that look to the community and what is that teaching our kids? Some of the complaints I have heard is that kids aren't able to win in this league. "Well my kid used to get medals and now they won't" I believe that swimming is becoming more and more popular, and therefore more and more kids are swimming year round. You have to remember there are year round kids swimming in the HP league too. If you watched the meet I saw last night at Sports Center, the year round kids were the ones winning there as well. It's a fact of life. Year round kids are going to swim faster than non-year round kids.
Another thing I hear is that the kids don't see their friends at meets. Okay this one is maybe the most valid thing I hear, but in my opinion, why can't the kids hang out with the kids on their team? We have close to 150 swimmers on our team for the kids to have fun with at the meets.
Believe me when I say that I don't want to down play anyone's concerns. Everyone's opinions are valid, and deserve a chance to be heard. I honestly think people have found reasons to be upset, as they were unhappy not to be included in the decision to change leagues. I hear these people loud and clear and understand why they are upset that they were not consulted. I do strongly believe though that the ones who made the decision had the best interest of the team at the core of the decision. Their intent was not to stir things up and make people angry.
Change is always going to be hard, and often met with resistance, but I don't think that going back is the right decision for our team. Do we really want to go back to a league where we dominate all of the time? Always win? I personally don't. As hard as it was for me as a coach to loose so many meets, I would seriously take that over winning all of them by a huge margin.
I don't know how this decision is going to be made, but I do know that it should be focused on the kids, NOT the parents. I would love to get all the kids in a room together, and ask them THEIR opinions. Please believe me when I say that the kids have been having fun this summer. ASK THEM! Swimming, bowling, Putt Putt, Swim for Cancer, Skating, and meets = Fun. Were there problems? Absolutely. No team/coaching staff/leadership is perfect and I look forward to some constructive feed back on how to make things better next season if I return. However, I do think the kids had a great summer, and THEY are the reason we do this.
Please keep them in mind amidst the drama which this has become.
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