My child has been part of the Nadadores swim team for a number of years now and I myself have been…read morepart of the Masters program on and off for the same number of years and even before we started my child on the junior team. The experience up until about a year ago had been generally good but given some recent experiences and some of the other comments posted here, I felt compelled to also share so folks interested in joining know what they are singing up for. Volunteering - I don't have a general issue with the idea of volunteering. My issue is with how it's all managed and what is expected because in many cases, it isn't clear and the staff provides little help. Parent volunteers for example have to organize timing events during away meets (BTW - mandatory timing at away events is required above and beyond the hours that all families are also required to already give) and there are no tools or any digital way of managing so it's a literal mess at every meet. If you don't at least check in, even if there are 2-3X the number of parents actually needed, you will get charged - even if you wouldn't have had to time to begin with. I also have an issue with what's expected while timing as the officials are constantly pushing on the timers to manage the swimmers, which is not our jobs as volunteer timers. I can't recall a single scenario where at least one coach from the staff was behind the timers with their teams assisting and managing. I had a scenario at a meet back in December last year where I asked a group of older kids to stop cursing during a meet and on my way out one of their parents confronted me about yelling at their kid. Not cool to put us in a position to have to police other peoples kids. I have raised this numerous times with nothing done about it and you can't just skip timing at away meets or you will get charged. Mandatory Donations - This used to be an annual thing that has now turned into a twice a year thing. I assume this is because there are "seasons" and maybe not everyone swims year-round but for those that do, you are required to donate something like $400 twice a year now. Here's the thing about donating though - when it's mandatory it's no longer called a donation. It's a way to either keep the monthly dues lower on paper than they really are or it's a way to take in revenue with additional tax advantages. Either way, it's a forced $800 a year extra in money you have to come up with and the incentive plans they used to have for the swimmers to raise money continues to be limited in what type of "donation" is counted towards this goal. Parking - There is simply not enough parking for as many swimmers that come in and out every day and especially not when they are hosting an event. As others have commented, forced volunteering puts people in the middle of policing things like the parking lot which isn't fair to those volunteers on really busy meet days. For some reason they also like to maintain regular practice schedules for the non competing teams while hosting major events which is just insanity. We no longer go anywhere near the facility during hosted events as it's not worth the headache. Pool Temp - There has been a lot of talk about the city no longer paying for the heating of the pool so its now being maintained at 73 degrees per USA Swimming regs. This is not what they advertise and certainly not what it has been for the past 5 years. This has become a common complaint now, especially for the more junior swimmers. Practice Schedules - Due to the number of swimmers and teams, the practice schedules are all over the place on a daily basis. Two nights at X time to Y time, one night at X time to Y time, two other nights at some other start and end time. It also changes by season so it becomes an exercise every few months to have to reset our family schedule around swim schedules which we have now stopped doing. We just don't swim as much now as we used to if swimming doesn't fit our schedule - which adds to the annoyance of paying much more now than we used to as we cant really get our moneys worth without having to adjust our schedules all the time. I'm sure there is some attempt at being equitable so that no one team/age group is stuck too early or too late, but this may also be a sign that there are simply too many swimmers - running practices 5 nights a week isn't needed for everyone BTW. Coaching - Some else posted previously about their experience, confidence issues, etc. and I can say for certainty that mine feels the same. 0 confidence right now in the ability to move forward. This is a team that now favors the top 1%. It was a wonderful place for a number of years and even the thought of leaving brings some heartache as the Nadadores has been part of our family on and off for 2 generations now, but this is not the place it used to be. I can only hope that the leadership and board take some time to better understand how many folks really feel and take some action.

I think overall this was a good experience most of the time but there are elements which bring it…read moredown to a 2 or 3 star that I hope you'll consider and I do hope they revise on the business side in the future. Like the other review said, there is an issue with community and team here and it's difficult to fix unless you coach the coaches on pedagogy. The positives: Our daughter enjoyed her time at the school and the team. She competed. She improved her time. She got good exercise. She made friends. This part is a 4 star experience with only a notch taken out for some of the turnover and inconsistency along the way as well as some of the reactions to injuries (see below) and communication. Communication could be better and it's not uncommon to feel left out even if you just want to know the people on a safety level and get to know one another. I am confident the coach would not know me if we met at a grocery store and when I was a coach and responsible for young people, I made it a point to learn every name of the child and the parent and their faces. Build the community. The cons (business side): The pricing model has a volunteer component for service hours and they penalize charge you if you don't complete them. Here is where it gets dicey. Some jobs are easier than others. Some jobs can be "bought" by simply dropping off Gatorade and items in exchange for hours. All job assignments are done in an archaic way of free for all spreadsheets and even that is overseen by a senior volunteer where issues arise as you can imagine. You rarely feel this is a fair system and it is in need of attention and could be solved with some efficiency improvements and tech solutions. There are many database systems that allocate these things in a fair manner and they are worth the cost premium since we all are already paying. Consider revising what jobs are "worth" and "no shows" and late arrivals create some interesting results. It was common for many families to recruit grandparents and other family members to fill in. Out of the purpose of the greater good of the team, our family did extra hours in good faith many quarters even filling in for no shows and doing a double shift. No big deal, right? But when it came time to ask for a little grace and courtesy the other way, there is a surprisingly strict enforcement of a policy to keep a few extra meaningless dollars instead of putting people before policy. When our daughter got injured (twice, once a concussion by another swimmer where my daughter said swimmers were grouped too too tightly by the coaches), we had to pry for details because one coach would say the other coaches saw it and then that coach would point the finger back. It was a very awkward situation where safety was our primary concern and our daughter lacked the memory having been hit in the head. Not to mention not feeling comfortable continuing and having to vocally advocate for herself and remembered not all kids have that capacity. When the second incident happened, it was harder to determine what happened. We were advised she had to go on medical leave. We notified the team and they we were advised that our account would receive a credit. But then that credit was used to charge us for volunteer hours while our account was suspended and our daughter was on medical leave. Think about how terrible a policy that is? I don't care what an agreement says, that is a really poor policy that deserves revision. If you have a medical suspension by doctors orders from injuries that occur as a result of being on the swim team, show some decency and don't nickel and dime the families in the name of policy. That's bad business and questionable ethics. They eventually provided 50% back and billed the remaining 50% to our suspended account. Again, for hours we didn't complete while our daughter was on medical leave. When we had produced over 40 extra hours of service during our time there filling in for others? Bad form and it tells me that a review is needed to help them see the light on their practices. I truly hope they change this policy for the future Nadadores. It is the right thing to do. This is a solid 2 or 3 star type review when it should be 4/4.5. How to improve: 1. Revise ticky tack volunteer hours penalties and polices. 2. Communicate and build rapport with parents beyond the swimmers. Make it a family and community, not just a business. 3. Be flexible. Life and people over policy. I have no ill will or bad terms. Does it leave a slight bad taste? Yes. But I cherish the experiences and memories. I appreciate so many of the individuals that are amazing at what they do and care deeply about their work even when they disagree with the business side. Our exit should have been handled better and I hope one day they consider making things right.