Eligibility & Participation
Minimum Skills Requirements
The BCW Barracudas is a competitive swim team and not a “learn to swim” program. In order to join the team, we expect our swimmers to be able to safely swim the length of the pool (25 yd) unassisted within 1 min and 30 seconds. If a swimmer can't do that, there is too much risk from a safety perspective for them to join the team, as we are not staffed to provide that level of attention.
Swimmers are not expected to be aware of any particular strokes though, and if a swimmer needs to doggie-paddle across at first or even occasionally grab the lane line or wall at the start of the season, that's fine, as long as they are open to being coached in the coming weeks. See policy page regarding complete skills information.
Age Group Determination
AHSL determines the age groups by taking each swimmer's age as of May 1st. This is the age group they will be required to compete in for swim meets, however, if your athlete's birthdate puts them in a different age group than their friends, please let us know. We can typically accommodate kids swimming in a different practice group with the majority of the school friends.
Meet Participation
This is a swim team. We ask that everyone registering plans on attending as many meets as possible. To qualify to participate in this season's Championship meet, swimmers must have participated in 2 regular season meets and have valid times in the individual events they enter. Additionally, since most volunteer opportunities are associated with meets, at least one parent should plan on volunteering for each meet their swimmer participates in.
Volunteer Requirements
We are a volunteer-run organization and our parent volunteers are the heart and soul of the entire operation of the BCW Barracudas Swim Team. In order for us to run safe, timely, and fun meets, each family is required to earn FOUR (4) volunteer points during the season. A $150 credit card hold will be placed at the time of registration and processed as a penalty if a family does not meet the volunteer minimum by the end of the season. Non-compliant families will also have to register after all other registrations are complete, pending space the following season. For more about Volunteer Policy Agreements, see details on our Policies page.
For additional information on volunteer expectations and opportunities, please visit the Volunteer Information page linked under the Registration Quick Links at the right.
