Wulf Side Door, Locker Rooms, Captains, No Saturday Practice

Brian Pursley

Hello Hurricane Families,

We have a very important week and a half of training ahead of Thanksgiving break. We'll be working hard over the coming days, so please support your athletes as they come home a little worn out!

Please read on for some important updates and information about our privileges at Wulf. Thanks for helping us take our privileges at Wulf seriously.

Have a great week. Go Hurricanes!

Coach Brian 

 

No Practice Saturday, November 18th

All Practices are cancelled on Saturday, November 18 for the Turkey Trot Meet.

 

Captain Elections this Week

Our senior group will be electing team captains today through Wednesday. Our team is full of great leaders. In fact, In a discussion about captains last week, I took a good look around and noted that almost athlete everyone present would likely be a captain of almost any other activity. We will be picking one girl and one boy nonetheless, and these are some of the highlights of their role:

  • Team captains should have passion for the sport, for competing, and for their teammates.
  • Treat all teammates with respect and recognize the contributions made by all team members.
  • Be a role model - attention to detail, patience, persistence, gratitude, work ethic, peer support, resilience, self determination, time management, prioritization, receiving feedback.
  • Initiate cheering for team members at meets.
  • If you or someone else has a problem with a teammate, they should approach that teammate in private and in a positive way to address the situation and find a solution. The captain should be the one to stop rumor spreading and gossiping. These kinds of behaviors destroy team chemistry.
  •  Come to the coaches or the Board with any issues or concerns.

Senior swimmers, please cast your vote by Wednesday.

 

Side Door Use at Wulf is No Longer Allowed

EPRD has asked us not to use the side door directly entering the pool during the winter. Please enter and exit through the main lobby, and please don't prop open the side doors during practice.

 

Locker Room Conduct and Privileges

It's time again to revisit the way our team is handling privileges in the locker rooms. 

I have mentioned before and feel it is always important to mention that, as a group, we often live up to the ideals we talk about when it comes to being good guests and representatives of the Hurricanes. I regularly find myself proud of the way individual athletes engage with one another, and with others we come into contact with. I often notice our athletes tidying up after our group unprovoked, and acting generally helpful and engaged in making sure we are a good guest as a group. I continue to get this feedback from other teams at swim meets, meet hosts in particular.

As a group, however, we are once again falling short of our specific goal of being a positive presence in the primary facility we use, Wulf. Despite a number of individual and group conversations, we are at the end of a multi-week long string of reports of loud and rowdy behavior, untidiness, and messes left behind. Our welcome with EPRD patrons and employees is wearing thin. As a result, the boys will be suspended from the locker room indefinitely. 

The individual changing rooms are still available to use, quickly, one swimmer at a time.

To return to normal use of the locker rooms in the future, this is a reiteration of the minimum standard we all have to meet: 

Horseplay in the locker room is never allowed. Put yourself in the shoes of the other rec center guests. After practice adrenaline is pumping and energy is high. Behavior that seems like innocent fun with friends to you can seem unnerving and disruptive to others. Be aware of your surroundings. Loud and chaotic behavior is disrespectful and not representative of Hurricane's conduct. Soap, toilet paper, paper towels, and your swimming gear are not toys in the locker room. 

Leaving bags and other gear laying about in the locker during practice is also not allowed. You may use a locker or bring your bag to the pool deck during practice, but always keep the locker room at least as orderly as you found it.
The minimum standard isn't where we should stop. We should also aspire to much more:

  • Take personal responsibility to look for ways to leave our spaces cleaner than we found them. These include the pool deck, gym space, locker rooms, and team areas at meets. 
  • Take personal responsibility to recognize and acknowledge the people who make your activities possible. These include the rec center staff, lifeguards, judges and timers at meets, your teammates, your competitors, your parents, your coaches. You should thank at least a few of these people every day.
  • Always pay attention to the other patrons at Wulf. We aren't the only ones using the building, and we should always be respectful of others. Holding doors, being gracious in the waiting room and hallways, noting and addressing any circumstances where Hurricanes may be disrupting the general flow of activity in the building (even if wholly innocently, because of the sheer size of our group).

Thank you for taking seriously the challenge to grow into these standards. We have been through both periods of progress and periods of regression over time. Let's continue to make progress our primary path!

Thanks and Go Hurricanes!

Coach Brian