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About the teams:
Stars Red and Blue are competitive swim teams for swimmers ages 5 - 17 (age as of May 1, 2012). The teams begin practices after school in early May, and the season runs through the end of the first week in July this year. Both teams are operated by the same board of directors and are designed to be as identical as possible. Both teams swim in meets against other swim clubs in the Austin area as members of the Northwest Swim Circuit. The Red team practices on summer mornings, and the Blue team practices in the afternoons. Much more detail regarding practice and meet schedules may be found by exploring this web site. The Stars require that swim team parents complete volunteer shifts during the season in order to retain returning family status.
Residents of Steiner Ranch have primary access to spots on the Red and Blue teams and must be in good standing with the HOA. Non-residents attending New Family registration on March 31 will be wait-listed and will have access to any remaining open spots in the order they appear on the list after residents have had a chance to register. The Stars will hold open online registration for any remaining open spots from April 1 - 14.
Registration for the 2012 Season:
Returning Family Registration: Online registration from 3/18 - 3/24
New Family Registration: Saturday, March 31st at 10 a.m.
The location for New Family Registration will be posted on the Steiner Stars' website homepage (steinerstars.org) by 6:00 AM on March 31, 2012. At 10:00 AM on March 31, the registration line will be processed in a first-come, first-served order. All Steiner residents attending registration will have first priority access to available spots on either the Red or the Blue team. Non-residents will be placed on a waitlist in the order they are processed in the line and will receive any remaining available spots at 12:00 PM that day. If spots remain at the end of New Family registration, the Stars will hold open online registration to fill those spots through April 14th. If an age group fills up during the new family registration event, we will create a waitlist and will notify you if a spot should become available by May 25. There will be no further waitlist pulls after May 25.
Refund Policy:
After March 31st, a partial refund of $120 per swimmer will be available until May 6. No refunds will be available after practice begins on May 7.
Exceptions:
- For families with returning family status adding a new 5/6 swimmer, a full refund (for the new swimmer) will be available through March 26.
- For new 5/6 year old swimmers who do not meet the minimum swimming ability requirement as of May 24 (end of 3rd week of practice), a refund of $100 will be available.
Refunds must be requested via an email to Stars Treasurer Lynn Cronin at cronintx@sbcglobal.net.
New Swimmer Evaluations (NEW!)
For the first time, the Stars are offering new swimmer evaluations. Coach Kay Gerken or Coach Lisa Denison will watch your child swim in the pool and offer her opinion of whether the swimmer appears ready to participate in swim team this summer. Returning families who have registered a new, younger sibling this season or new families determining if they want to attend New Family Registration are encouraged to attend.
Once a child joins the team, they have six practices before they will be expected to swim the length of the pool in one minute. Supplementing practices with private lessons with assistant coaches can help tremendously toward meeting that goal (contact information is under "Coaches" on this site). Swimmers who are over one minute who are actively and positively participating may remain on the swim team, but may not be entered into swim team meets until their times improve. Usually, swimmers who continue practicing and have some private lessons are able to break the minute barrier and participate in most of the meets. Attitude is also important; children must be willing to come through the pavilion gate without a parent and attend practices, and they must be willing to swim in their events at swim meets. We find that swimmers who have completed kindergarten are much better prepared for the swim team experience. Success in the evaluation is a great start but please be aware that some kids who do fine in a small group setting may struggle a bit more in the full team practice setting.
Any new swimmer may attend either one of these free sessions. Just show up at the Bella Mar Pavillion on one of these dates:
Wednesday, March 21st 3:30 - 4:30 PM
Sunday, March 25th 3 - 4pm:
Expectations entering the evaluation:
- Swimmers must be willing to go without a parent onto the lap pool deck for the evaluation. A coach or a board member will be directing the swimmers to and from the pool deck.
- The swimmer must be able to propel himself through the water in some fashion and float unassisted.
- The swimmers do not have to demonstrate proper stroke technique or swim the length of the pool for the evaluation.
- The pool is heated, but it is not warm like a bath.
- The evaluation will take about 10 minutes per swimmer.
Important Dates
New Parent Orientation: Sunday, April 22
All new families will be requested to attend this orientation session at Towne Square Community Center.
Swim Season Kick-Off Party: Friday, May 4th
Swim Practice and Meet Overview:
Red: Begins May 7. Red will practice after school on Monday and Wednesday afternoons by age group from 3:30 - 7:30 PM. Each age group practices for about one hour per practice day. Summer practices are held Tuesday - Friday mornings and run from June 5 - July 6.
Blue: Begins May 8. Blue will practice after school on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons by age group from 3:30 p.m - 7:30 p.m. Each age group practices for about one hour per practice day. Summer practices are held Tuesday - Friday mornings and run from June 4 - July 5.
A detailed practice schedule will be posted at a later date.
Both the teams swim an average of 6 swim meets per season. Meets are held on Saturday mornings, with the exception of the Red vs Blue meet which will be held on a Thursday evening. Meets are early morning events, with swimmers needing to report to the meet at an early hour, i.e. around 6:00 AM. Meets are held so early because most teams must vacate their pools for public use by the early afternoon. A detailed meet schedule will be available soon.
New Internship Program for Stars' Coaches
Steiner Stars Families:
We are incorporating a new program to benefit our assistant coaches this year. Any returning and new coaches that are in college can offer their college resumes to be posted on our website in the hopes of connecting our coaches with a local business needing an intern for the summer. It will be strictly up to the business to contact the individual coach directly as this is merely a way to connect people. As we all know, college students need to gain work experience in their respective fields and local businesses are looking for productive ways to help while keeping their overhead costs down. This ensures that Steiner Stars can retain the wonderful, knowledgeable assistant coaches as they continue working toward their college education. Please get the word out to your neighbors, friends and family that live and work here in Austin that there are coaches looking for internships for the summer months.
Note: the coaches that are participating in this program will have a notation under their name on the coach's page of our website.
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