Swim Teams

[FamilyGal]

My daughter (13) is interested in joining a swim team. This would be her first time and our first experience, as a family, with a swim team. What teams are around here and who would I contact? Is she too old to "begin" a team? Should she have already made this career decision when she was three? :p

[Wilson]

I only know of the Shendoah Sharks (http://www.ci.shenandoah.tx.us/swim_programs.html) and TW rec center has 2 teams (I think?), then there is the WAC. I don't know if The Woodlands Swimming (http://www.woodlandsswimming.org/) is through the rec center, WAC, or what?

[cgwoolf]

Our experience (when our kids were little) is that swim teams are developed in sub-divisions so you have to live in a sub-division that has a swim team in order to be a part of it. Maybe that has all changed but that is the way it was in the 80's/early 90's. The exception would be the WAC - but with it closing down, I'm not sure they are even together now.

Neighborhood swim teams accept all ages from 5 thru high school. Most kids start very young. But if a kid moves in when she happens to be older and is a good swimmer - no reason not to join. Every team needs good swimmers.

From a paren't perspective - we were involved with swim team for a little > than 15 years (because our 2 kids were born 8 years apart). All in all, it was a good experience. DH and I worked very hard for that team and held many positions - all of which involved being out in the sun for long periods of time. So that did not fare well with me and my health issues. For the most part though, it was fun and we met a lot of very nice people...and like Little League baseball, there were a lot of very not-so-nice people. Parents sometimes have a way of ruining good things ya know, LOL.

[FamilyGal]

So that did not fare well with me and my health issues.

I hadn't even considered that. Lately, I have been feeling GREAT and not thinking about the MS as much, but most times, the heat REALLY zaps me, if not puts me in bed a few days. That is something I will bring up to dh. I'm sure that IF we find something for her, dh will take over at times I'm not feeling well. He is good about that.

Our subdivision doesn't have a swim team. I did hear about the Oak Ridge Otters and I am trying to find out information about them. They are very close to us, as is Shenandoah Sharks.

Thanks for the names Crunchy and the your experience CG. I appreciate it.

[LarkinJoanna]

Hi Family, I saw your post last week and talked to my daughter-in-law this past weekend who was a swim coach for several years. She coached a high school team in Katy and also one of the aquatics teams from down there before she decided to start law school. She was an all-state swimmer in high school (and an all-state basket ball player). She went to college on a swim scholarship while she was at A&M. I asked her about your daughter starting swimming at age 12 and she said that wasn't a problem at all. She said some people think the kids in TW start on teams when they are too young and get burned out by the time they are 17 and 18 when it really matters.

[FamilyGal]

Thanks for asking her this. It is encouraging to know that she hasn't decided to start "too late". I'm not one of those who has their kids playing sports from age 3. I want them to try everything if until they find something they like. Sometimes I feel like if they haven't made a choice which one to stick with by age four, they won't be competitive enough to play come junior high.