{"id":431629,"date":"2020-05-12T08:30:50","date_gmt":"2020-05-12T15:30:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=431629"},"modified":"2020-05-12T20:43:03","modified_gmt":"2020-05-13T03:43:03","slug":"tremendously-difficult-decisions-loom-for-summer-swimming-clubs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/tremendously-difficult-decisions-loom-for-summer-swimming-clubs\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Tremendously Difficult\u2019 Decisions Loom for Summer Swimming Clubs"},"content":{"rendered":"

With a wink, the history section<\/a> of the Jefferson Swim League\u2019s website informs you that it is \u201ca not so brief\u201d document. Over the next 57 pages, the lore of the summer swimming league in Central Virginia unfurls in great detail, back to its founding in 1966.<\/p>\n

The 54th season of the league, though, won\u2019t happen in 2020<\/a> thanks to the coronavirus pandemic. It wasn\u2019t a decision taken lightly by the JSL\u2019s board, one that affects 17 clubs and some 2,100 swimmers. It removes from the summer calendar a perennial tent pole, one that generations of swimmers (and likely their parents, maybe even grandparents) once enjoyed.<\/p>\n

\u201cKids grow up expecting this every summer,\u201d JSL president Chuck Fix<\/strong> said in an email to Swimming World<\/em>. \u201cFamilies plan their summer vacations around the schedule. We know the significance that JSL plays in our local community. This was a tremendously difficult decision for our executive committee and the entire JSL board.\u201d<\/p>\n

It’s a battle playing out across the United States, as communities try to stay safe from COVID-19\u2019s spread. While USA Swimming has cleared its calendar months ahead, and the pinnacle of the swimming calendar, the Olympics, was postponed to 2021, few levels of the swimming pyramid hit as close to home as summer clubs. It may not be where you\u2019ll find the Olympians, but it\u2019s where swimming reaches the most amount of people. For those trapped in their homes during lockdowns that have stretched from weeks to months, a day outside at the neighborhood club is the epitome of a normal summer.<\/p>\n

But like much else, coronavirus threats to upend those routines.<\/p>\n

In the land of Jefferson<\/h4>\n

The JSL began prepping for the summer in March with regular board meetings. It\u2019s around the time that coronavirus began wreaking havoc on American communities. The same week as the JSL\u2019s first board meeting of the year on March 8, Virginia Governor Ralph Northam<\/strong> declared a state of emergency<\/a>. Stay-at-home orders have since been extended through at least June 10<\/p>\n

As sports, from professional to scholastic, began postponing and cancelling events, the JSL and other entities that had months until the start of their seasons devised contingencies. It started with a unanimous decision to cancel the league championship<\/a>, a multi-day event scheduled for the end of July at the University of Virginia\u2019s Aquatic and Fitness Center, thinking that would relieve pressure to get back in the water quickly. But as lockdowns persisted and as sponsors, citing the global economic slowdown, cut back their support of the league, adversity began to pile up.<\/p>\n

At the April meeting, Fix said, club representatives were split on a season cancellation, with a 9-8 margin agreeing to leave the season in place. When they reconvened May 3, 15 of 17 clubs voted to cancel.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe began to realize that we would probably run out of time on the season due to social distancing measures that were in place,\u201d Fix said.<\/p>\n

Far from alone<\/h4>\n

Central Virginia isn\u2019t alone in having to wrestle with these issues. Summer swimming clubs all over the U.S. are trying to navigate what they are allowed to do by government and public-health authorities, and what they need to do for their members and bottom lines. The tug-of-war between the demands of public health and financial responsibility to members isn\u2019t easily resolved.<\/p>\n

The Coastal Carolina Aquatic Association in Charleston, South Carolina, has already called off its season<\/a>. Ditto California\u2019s<\/a> Central Valley Recreational Swim League. Just Monday, the Northern Virginia Swim League, with 102 teams across 17 divisions, cancelled its formal schedule<\/a> with the hope that clubs could arrange events on their own terms as conditions allow.<\/p>\n

Many leagues are taking the piecemeal approach that the JSL did. The Montgomery County Swim League in Maryland, a massive league in suburban Washington D.C. with 88 clubs and more than 13,000 swimmers, scrapped its championship meet<\/a> with an eye toward salvaging some part of the season. The Southwestern Illinois Swim Association<\/a> and leagues in suburban Philadelphia (which cover three counties and comprise 38 clubs) have done the same<\/a>. The All-City Swim League in Madison, Wisconsin, is weighing a similar move<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And those are swim clubs, most of whom follow a membership model. The question of retaining normal options gets even thornier around public pools, a less regulated and more crowded space where social-distancing measures would likely be harder to implement. From Idaho<\/a> to Missouri<\/a> to Florida<\/a>, questions abound as to whether those pools will be available to the clientele they usually serve.<\/p>\n

In an era where many people feel powerless in the face of an unseen enemy, the uncertainty over summer swimming adds another layer to the difficulty of the moment.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe would love there to be some kind of a season,\u201d MCSL executive board president Kathy Aitken<\/strong> told Bethesda Magazine.<\/em> \u201cBut it may not ultimately be up to us.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With a wink, the history section of the Jefferson Swim League\u2019s website informs you that it is \u201ca not so brief\u201d document. Over the next 57 pages, the lore of<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8367,"featured_media":205548,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3,122087,7],"tags":[123234,123233,123230,123086,120856,121252,123229,123231,123232,123236,123235,85696,4509,2690],"class_list":["post-431629","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-coronavirus","category-usa","tag-all-city-swim-league","tag-central-valley-recreational-swim-league","tag-chuck-fix","tag-coastal-carolina-aquatic-association","tag-coronavirus","tag-covid-19","tag-jefferson-swim-league","tag-jsl","tag-montgomery-county-swim-league","tag-northern-virginia-swim-league","tag-southwestern-illinois-swim-association","tag-summer-swimming","tag-university-of-virginia","tag-usa-swimming"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\r\n\u2018Tremendously Difficult\u2019 Decisions Loom for Summer Swimming Clubs<\/title>\r\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"With a wink, the history section of the Jefferson Swim League\u2019s website informs you that it's \u201ca not so brief\u201d look at summer swimming in Central Virginia.\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\r\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/tremendously-difficult-decisions-loom-for-summer-swimming-clubs\/\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"\u2018Tremendously Difficult\u2019 Decisions Loom for Summer Swimming Clubs\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"With a wink, the history section of the Jefferson Swim League\u2019s website informs you that it's \u201ca not so brief\u201d look at summer swimming in Central Virginia.\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/tremendously-difficult-decisions-loom-for-summer-swimming-clubs\/\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Swimming World\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/SwimmingWorld\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-05-12T15:30:50+00:00\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-05-13T03:43:03+00:00\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/outside-pool-generic-backstroke-summer-e1489265915983.jpg\" \/>\r\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"815\" \/>\r\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"611\" \/>\r\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Matthew De George - 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