Develop confident swimmers who strive together to excel.

Mailing Address:  

• Northern Sierra Swimming
• 12034 Lakeshore N. 
• Auburn, CA 95602​

Email:       [email protected]

• Practice Groups: a description of each of the practice groups and dues amount.
• Facilities: Northern Sierra practices at Bear River High School in Grass Valley 
• Fundraising Opportunities: Northern Sierra uses eScrip as well as several other fundraising organizations. There are many ways to meet your fundraising commitment.
• Volunteer Positions:  There are many ways to participate. Your help is always welcome and needed.
• Parent Guide: a PDF version of the Parent Handbook.
• Tryouts:  Northern Sierra, a USA Swimming Team offers prospective members the opportunity to swim with the team for a practice with no obligation.  This should be adequate to allow the swimmer and their family to evaluate our program and for the coaching staff of Northern Sierra to evaluate the swimmer.  Both evaluations are critical to ensure that a potential union is in both parties best interest.  Once the tryout is complete and the swimmer is approved by the coaching staff for the team, the swimmer must be registered with Northern Sierra and USA Swimming.  They will pay the annual fee and their 1st month's fee during registration.  After approval, new swimmers will get a pro-rated credit toward their second month.
• Equipment and Apparel:  When joining Northern Sierra, each swimmer will receive a Team Suit, Team Cap and Team Shirt.  Swimmers are responsible for purchasing the appropriate gear for their practice group.
• Registration:  All swimmers must do a tryout and be approved prior to registering for the team.
• Time Standards 

How we achieve our mission:

• Provide stability and cohesiveness throughout the program with a staff of professional coaches who manage the team.
• Provide a safe, healthy, positive environment for all of our swimmers
• Promote the ideal of athletic and academic achievement. Prepare our swimmers to excel in the collegiate ranks both academically and athletically.
• Instill in our swimmers a "work-ethic." Teach them that success is the result of hard work and to take pride in working hard.
• Provide opportunities in and out of the pool for social interaction.
• Reward behavior that demonstrates commitment to the daily process of striving to one’s best.

DARE to Succeed!

Diligence - Persevering determination to perform a task.

Attitude – Positive mental state involving beliefs and feelings and values.

Respect – Courteous expression of esteem or regard.

Enthusiasm – feeling of excitement, to be inspired, love what you do.

Training Philosophy

1. Long-term developmental plan for each swimmer taking into account their physiological and emotional development.
2. The primary focus is on teaching proper stroke technique and efficiency.
3. Maintaining the quality of work while increasing the quantity.
4. Develop educated swimmers who are students of the sport.

The Team Parent Role - Overview

As with all youth sports organizations, Northern Sierra Swimming depends on the support of its parent group in order to remain solvent. We know there are vastly different intentions and commitment levels from the parent’s perspective.  Our view is first, that a swimmer’s decision to swim year-round is really a family decision, and a swimmer’s commitment is really a family’s commitment.  As such, we feel an obligation to the swimmer and the family and we ask for the families support in helping us pursue our long-term objectives for every swimmer and the team as a whole.  Our philosophy is that this experience is far more than simply a sport or an activity, but more an endeavor that helps develop the person through the extraordinary lessons offered through the sport of swimming.  Through this we hope to develop great athletes who place a premium on virtues like discipline, work ethic, leadership, team commitment, perseverance, and character, and who will develop skills that will be applied in college, careers, and life in general.

In developing Northern Sierra, we wanted to create a program that was founded on character and commitment, that simply put, would be the premier youth sports organization in the area, and a model for all swim programs. This can only be done with an extraordinary commitment by coaches, swimmers, and parents. With regard to the Northern Sierra parent commitment, it is primarily three-fold; Host Meet, Team Experience, and Financial

Host Meet

As a United States Swimming team and a member of Sierra Nevada Swimming, we are obligated to host meets and provide competitive opportunities for local simmers.  Hosting a meet is significant in that it is;

1) A fundraising opportunity for Northern Sierra Swimming

2) It brings our parents into the competitive process, and,

3) It offers our swimmers competition in their own pool with no travel. 

We ask that parents not only attend the meets and fulfill their shift commitments, but that they embrace the competitive process and the high standards that Northern Sierra hopes to maintain when hosting meets or team function.  Families may sign-up for their choice of work assignments.  Meet jobs will be assigned to those who do not sign-up on their own.  NOTE:  When the team attends meets hosted by other teams we are required to provide a certain number of officials and timers.  Officials need to be confirmed ahead of time.  All other families are expected to help time during the meet.

 Experiential

As a part of our big picture philosophy, we want to create the best experience possible.  We realize that the great majority of the experience will come from daily training, swimmer development, friends, and the coach/swimmer relationship, but there are external areas that we feel can make this challenging pursuit more enjoyable and fulfilling.  This support will come in the form of Social or Team Support functions.  

 Financial

Families are expected to pay monthly fees, as well as the annual family fee.  Family fees (monthly and annual) cover pool costs, coach’s salaries, and team administrative expenses.  The other financial component revolves around fundraising.  Our fundraising efforts are kept to a minimum and are primarily hosted swim meets and eScrip, which each family is required to support.   

Monthly Fees

Swim fees are billed monthly and are payable the 1st of each month. Around the first of each month you will receive a notice via email of balance due. Fees are due whether or not you receive an invoice.  Monthly Fees are automatically billed. New swimmers are to pay the current month's fees when registering.  New swimmers are given a 50% credit toward the second months dues.  There is no pro-ration of the monthly dues.  Coaches make the final decisions about training group assignments.  

The dues schedule for 2022-2023 is below: