Hi All, 

As we head into our second meet, I wanted to address an issue that we may or may not be able to fix this year but I do want to recognize it exist.
Historically, Greenbriar Dive has had numbers in the 30’s. While we have developed excellent divers (e.g., Samson and Matthew). We have had modest numbers. This year, coming out of COVID, we literally put a budget together estimating what we would do if we only had 20 divers or less. Seems funny now! When we first opened registration numbers were good but it still looked like we would be fortunate to equal 2019 (37 divers) and we felt fortunate as it allowed us to hire assistant coaches. Since then, our pool has truly supported the team and today we are at 56 divers. I haven’t spoken about the numbers lately as it is not our goal to have a certain size team. We are not recruiting but we continue to have pool members want to enroll their children. The dive team is a service to the families of the pool so we would prefer to never say no but we have essentially reached that point this week.
While these numbers are excellent for the popularity and instruction of dive, there is a natural choke point. We only have 5 regular season “A” meets a year and can only dive 32 divers at each of those meets. Obviously the 56 into 32 divided 5 calculation is a tough one to crack. (This week we are diving 7 different divers than in week one.) 

So what can we do? The natural answer is what is called “B” meets. Those who have been on swim are use to this term. Those who don’t make A meets swim each week in B meets. (I was with my son at Brookfield last night for the B meet in swim.) The problem is, referring back to our history, we have never had a B meet for dive as we have never needed one. They take just as much planning (arranging a date to close a large chunk of the pool, have enough volunteers and pre-ordering certain supplies (ribbons).) 

I have spoken to a couple of pools about holding B meets this summer and have received some positive responses. However, to do so would mean double the work each week for volunteers and approval by both Greenbriar and other pools to hold these events.
We want this year to be positive for all of our divers. I am willing to pursue the B meets option for maybe 2 meets plus the Cracker Jack meet. That said, I will need help. I will need someone who would want to be the B meet coordinator. Honestly, I can’t put much more time into this than I am. Next year, assuming we have similar numbers, we can pre-plan. (We will have a end of year survey gauging commitment to next year as there are definitely cost involved and we have to let the pool know about these costs.) 

This is a great problem to have. We have kids active away from screens learning a difficult but fun skill. I couldn’t be happier in some aspects. That said, I want to acknowledge the issue, it is causing a problem. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to predict it but we can (with your help) help it some this year and properly plan for next year.

Happy to discuss and to speak to any volunteers willing to take on a slightly expanded role.

Joel