Good evening, Barracudas!

I intentionally typed "Barracudas" because whether you're a Patriot, Lion, Trident, Flyer, Piranha, Hurricane, Trojan, or whatever during the school year... you're still a Barracuda. Summer is about over, but let me explain what options you have to continue swimming (and what we recommend), because this sport really doesn't have an off season if you don't want it to.

Middle School & High School Swimming
The first recommendation I have for anyone wanting to transition from just doing summer league to a bit more is swimming for a local school. Of course, though, this only applies to kids going into grades 6-12. Private and homeschool families, don't skip this section because KISL (Knox-area Interscholastic Swim League) has ways for y'all to participate as well. The only exception for that is Knox County; they no longer allow homeschool or co-op students to swim. In Knox County, you can only swim for a school if you're literally enrolled in it as of this year.

As for Jefferson County, Morristown-Hamblen, Grainger County, and basically everyone else besides Knox County, that's not the case. There are many ways to swim for a school you don't literally go to. We just have to submit more documentation through KISL to make it fair with the new Knox County policies.

I'm the head coach of the county-wide middle school team in Jefferson County as well as Jefferson County High School. Grace Rathe is my main assistant coach, and Major Treadway is our occasional fill-in rockstar. Anyone attending a Jeff County school or zoned for a Jeff County school but homeschooled may tryout to swim for us. Private school kids in Jeff County that don't have a swim team may also swim with us (just not Lakeway Christian Academy because they have their own team).

Grainger County doesn't have any swim teams, so KISL allows any middle schooler or high schooler there, whether they're public, private, or homeschooled, to co-op with me/Jefferson County since we're the closest school teams geographically. Similarly, any Morristown-Hamblen middle schooler may co-op with us because there are no middle school teams in that school system. However, Morristown-Hamblen high schoolers must swim for West/East.

I'm aware that what I just explained above is not super straightforward. I'm the Coach Representative on the KISL Board, so if you have any questions about where you're eligible to swim, I'm supposed to be able to answer that. Ask away. If you think you can swim for Jeff County, we're having tryouts on Monday, August 31st at 7 PM at Carson-Newman. Please send me an email at [email protected] if you plan on attending (or want to attend and cannot due to other obligations). If you need me to connect you to Lakeway Christian Academy or Morristown West/East's coaches, I can do that as well.

USA Swimming Programs
For elementary school kids who can't swim for a school team yet, there's USA Swimming (USAS). This is also an excellent option for middle school and high school kids who want swimming to be their thing. USAS is the route that takes you to the highest levels of the sport. For the past several years, the coaches at Jefferson County, Lakeway Christian Academy, and Morristown West/East have been very accepting and even encouraging of kids who want to train primarily with a USAS program while still representing and racing with their school teams. In other words, the above section and this section are not mutually exclusive by any means.

The USAS program that JCSC most strongly recommends is now Morristown Flyers coached by Ben Young at Morristown Landing. This team was previously Club Talon housed at Carson-Newman, which was previously Five Rivers Swim Team/FRST. These teams have always been the sister programs of JCSC. There are other USAS programs in our area. Tennessee Aquatics at UT and Red Piranha Swimming also at Morristown Landing—families have expressed interest in these throughout time.

We recommend Morristown Flyers because it's "in the family." All 9 of your JCSC coaches this summer were either coached by Ben when we were younger and/or have learned how to coach by coaching alongside him with various teams. For the most part, we speak the same language when it comes to technique, training, and athlete development. We all frequently discuss the kids we share between our programs (Benaiah at Lakeway also swam for Ben) to ensure we're all working together for their best interest in terms of practices and meet schedules. Ben and I also frequently discuss the organization of our programs to ensure they're complementing rather than competing against each other since we share the same vision for what swimming can/should look like in our region.

OKAY, enough of me blabbing, below is a copy and paste of what Ben wanted me to pass along to y'all!

"There will be a parent meeting @ Morristown Landing on August 17^th @ 6:00 PM. It will be in one of the conference rooms on the opposite side of the pool, but there will also be members present to point people in the right direction just in case there are some who have never been to the facility. We then begin practice on August 24^th for ALL groups. 

Groups, cost and practice times are as follows: 

FLYERS --> Formerly known as WHITE (beginner group)
Cost - $75 
Times - MONDAY/TUESDAY/THURSDAY @ 5:30-6:30 PM 

WHITE --> Formerly known as NAVY 
Cost - $75
Times - MONDAY/TUESDAY/THURSDAY @ 5:30-6:30 PM + FRIDAY @ 5:15-7:00 PM (DRYLAND + SWIM) 

NAVY --> Formerly known as ORANGE
Cost - $125
Times - MONDAY/TUESDAY/THURSDAY/FRIDAY @ 5:15-7:00 PM + SATURDAY 8:00-10:00 AM 

GOLD --> Formerly known as TALON
Cost - $125
Times - MONDAY/WEDNESDAY @ 5:45-7:15 AM         MONDAY/TUESDAY/THURSDAY/FRIDAY @ 5:15-7:00 PM + SATURDAY 8:00-10:00 AM 

Just like we have had in the past, there is a $40 annual team registration fee and the USA Swimming membership fee. I will not be making the USA registration link active until AFTER September 1^st just so that no one accidentally signs up early and has to pay twice. 

All registrations (except for the actual USAS registration) will be done through Morristown Landing's website. For those that are already members at Morristown Landing, there will be an add-on available to their current memberships and will not need to create a new account just because they are joining the swim team. Our website will officially go "live" on August 3^rd and there will also be team members present the first week of practice to help with new registrations in case there is confusion! 

The biggest thing is simply knowing that it is the same team, just a new name and new facility. However, for anyone that wants more information or is confused on groups, feel free to have them reach out. Looking forward to a new season and hope to see some JCSC swimmers there! 

Thank you,
Benjamin Young
Head Coach - Morristown Landing Flyers
Morristown Landing Recreation and Events Center
4355 Durham Landing, Morristown, TN 37814
[email protected]"

Summary & Final Words
That was a lot of information, and I still excluded plenty of details, so please reach out with any questions you have. I will also be more than happy to discuss any of this in person at the banquet on Sunday! We want you to swim in the "off season!" If you look at our kids who made A finals at City, nearly every single one of them swims for a USAS program and a MS/HS team if they're old enough. Wherever you choose to continue swimming when it's not summer, I will gladly support it because swimming anywhere is better than not swimming at all.

Thanks for reading!!!

Josh