Current State of athletics and activities in District 279 – from Supt. Cory McIntyre’s email 10/30/2020

For now, activities and sports will not be affected. New guidance received just this week from the Minnesota Dept. of Education allows school districts to conduct full distance learning and maintain activities/athletics as long as district leaders determine that there is no substantial, uncontrolled community spread among activities participants and athletes. Therefore, at this time, we are continuing with high school activities and athletics. However, if we find substantial transmission within these programs, we will pause them for at least two weeks, following state guidance.

Message from Coach Caron: “it's important that everyone knows that nothing is set in stone and there may have to be some adjustments made along the way. My overall goal is to be fair to the athletes that have been committed to the program, but provide for future growth if space (safety) allows.”

Registration Information:

• 7-12 grade athletes should register for swim/dive now.
  • Registration is done through SmartSchoolK12 Sports & Activities
• Swimmers:  the number is capped at 36 but there will be a waiting list. 
  • Coach Caron will make team decisions after he sees the roster. Returning athletes will be given priority but there is not a way of executing that in our registration system. He strongly recommends that returning athletes register ASAP. With that said, team membership will not be based on first come first serve. In the meantime, we are accepting new member registration including 7th graders just to see how things roll out. 
• Divers:  There is a cap of 6 divers for competition. 
  • Decisions will be made after seeing what happens with registration. 
• Athletes should contact Coach Caron if they are wait listed at [email protected].
• Coach Caron will hold a Google coaches parent meeting the third week of November. 
• Booster’s parent meeting will be held once we know who will be on the team in order to order uniforms, etc.

Season Starts November 30

• Captains practices are NOT allowed per MSHSL guidelines
• There will be regular dual meets but no spectators (10 dual meets scheduled, listed on website)
• Championship season (sections and state meet) TBD

Last day of season is February 27
 

Practice schedule

• We will be holding 2 swim practices a day with 2 squads of 18 swimmers.
  • A Squad (mostly varsity) 2:45-4:15
  • B Squad 4:30-6:00
• Diving is TBD but likely around a 6:30 start time
• Saturday practices -A squad only 7:30-9:30