As many of you know, the DV Water Moccasins have played a tremendous role in our community for many years. Since our start in 1997, we have maintained an inclusive, positive, and encouraging environment for swimmers of all ages, and offered our programs at a cost significantly lower than comparable teams.
This season, as many have noticed, there have been many drastic changes at the DV pool. A new pool manager has been hired, one who is a coach for another USA Team. While we have done our best to work with the policy and procedural changes, the most recent change has blindsided us.
We have been informed by the Delaware Valley Athletic Office that we will be losing our Wednesday evening practice session, beginning in January. This decision has been made in order to allow another team, the NY Sharks, to hold practice at the DVHS pool. The Sharks are a for-profit team, charging from $800 to $2,300 per swimmer in their winter season, compared to our $180 to $300 for USA swimmers. The vast majority of swimmers on the Sharks team are not the residents or taxpayers of our community. Furthermore, this team currently hosts their practices at four pool locations, making Delaware Valley their fifth location. The Moccasins have a single pool.
While we have been offered a Sunday practice session in order to maintain our four-day practice schedule; the Moccasins board and coaches do not feel this change would be easily manageable for our families, coaches, or board. We have meets this season on both Saturdays and Sundays. Many families have relied upon our consistent practice schedule, established over decades, in order to plan their winter activities.
The Moccasins board has made many, many attempts to fight this decision via emails, multiple meetings, and a 12-page letter to the school board. We do not feel that our swimmers deserve to have a day taken from them, and we do not feel that our team should be displaced due to an outside team who already has four pools. We have expressed our concerns regarding the conflict of interest in having their coach hired as a school employee and subsequently disrupting our program, and our immense disappointment at the lack of consideration shown to our team and its members. The Moccasins have also reached out to the NY Sharks administration, who initially denied any intentions of moving into Delaware Valley and expressed that they wished to preserve their positive relationship with the Moccasins. This made it even more shocking to be informed of the DV administration’s choice to allow the Sharks to take our practice time, and to then see it posted on the DV Athletic calendar. To us, this represents not only a moral and ethical failure on the part of the Sharks, but a clear violation of the USA Swim Code of Conduct.
The changes at the DV pool have been increasingly detrimental to the Moccasins, and to our ability to provide the environment and atmosphere our swimmers deserve. We ask that parents please understand that this was not our choice, nor were we allowed a voice in making this decision. Please direct any concerns regarding this decision to the administrators responsible for it, or to the DV School Board. Contact information may be found below. Thank you all for your understanding, and most of all for your continued support.
Delaware Valley Water Moccasins Board of Directors
Milford