Year 5 of me at Woodlands has begun and in a lot of ways it the easiest year yet. When you take over a new team, you patiently chip away at one thing at a time until it finally feels like the team you envisioned and worked so hard to create.
This journey was a little different due to COVID. Year 1 was COVID camps. Countless hours on zoom meetings with the county and adjusting just to function. We split everyone into groups of 12 with different instructors. Parents were heightened and everyone had different comfort levels. I tried to remind people that if it wasn't time for them to come back, that was ok. Easier said than done since everyone wanted their children to participate but many were filled with so much anxiety. It was interesting to hear from coaches in other parts of the country whose states responded differently to COVID. At the end of the day, grateful we got to do something since we were in one of the most restricted areas in the country.
Year 2 was also modified due to COVID. I think we ran meets with little kids in the morning and bigger kids at night to make it less kids. I don't remember how many meets we even had but it was very different. We didn't have any socials but at least the kids could participate in swim.
Year 3 we were pretty much back to normal. I took over a team in which I was the 4th coach in 4 years. As a result, almost all the 15-18s left for other teams. By the time you are a 15-18 you want consistency and want to go where all your friends are. I knew that in time, it would organically grow but there wasn't much I could do to fix that problem but knew it time people would come. The first year was just observing how everything ran and trying to make things better. That is also hard for your coaches because they are used to listening to 4 different ways of doing things. It takes patience on all ends and treading lightly.
Rec swim is an interesting culture because you have parents dedicating so much of their time to making the season run, have their own kids who are involved and set on the traditions of the head coach they were closest to. Over the last 20 years, I have learned that you tread lightly. Some boards are easier to do that than others.
You always build a team from the bottom up. The bottom is your feeder program. For us that was our kermits or pre-team. Kermits was full of older kids, like 8+, and 3 and 4 year old weren't allowed to participate. We were cheap and allowed anyone, members or not, to participate. Being affordable is fine but sometimes it just attracts people who are looking for the cheapest program and not the best.
A key to a little kid program is knowing when to let kids be independent. It is a balance between making kids feel comfortable and at the same time uncomfortable to progress. That is something that most new 13-14s coaches don't have the skills yet to know. I would go back and forth between my 6&Unders and kermits to try to teach them how to do that but it split my time and was hard but I understood what was working and what wasn't. The following year, I put the program 30 minutes before my 6&Unders so I could help train our instructors. I made it so they had to be cabana members so that we were teaching kids who wanted to be on team. I also made it for mostly 6&Unders. It took more time and effort in the beginning on my end for year 4 and 5 but I feel like next year I will have enough returning instructors that I will be able to delegate it more and have fed them to my 6&Under program which made my little kids stronger.
That program is doing great. My little kids are doing great. We have a super fun culture and I am working on encouraging 15-18s to come and be a part of it. Kids know my routine, coaches know my routine. I have a board that is super supportive. I am really excited for the best season yet.
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