Check out the swim schedule for the Obama High School swimmers: High School Swim Team Schedule
- M: 6-7:20; 3:30-5:00 (morning and afternoon)
- T: 3:30 - 5:00 (afternoon only)
- W: 6:00-7:20 (morning only)
- R: 3:30 - 5:00 (afternoon only)
- F: 6:00-7:20 (morning only)
​​The schedule is significant for a few reason.
​First of all, there is now a return to AM Swim Practices. In my final year at Obama, the rookie principal outlawed the AM practices. Go figure. This year the kids get to swim at 6 am on M-W-F. Wonderful news. The stupid policy of no AM Swim Practices has been changed.
Secondly, there is now AFTER SCHOOL varsity practices at 3:30. That is HUGE.
Sadly, after-school swimming for high school athletes is only being held on Tuesdays and Thursdays. But, this was a pressing issue that needed attention for the final years of my tenure as a varsity coach because the HS swim team was not granted any space in the swim pool after school -- until 6 pm. That was crazy bad. And, the principals were nearly criminal in their closed-mindedness in even talking about solutions to this issue.
The issue is that the middle-school swim team at Obama, for grades 6, 7 and 8, had the pool from 4 to 5 pm. Plus there was the other little issue of physical education classes getting the pool or booking the pool and not really using it.
When Schenley Spartan were around and the new 6-12 format was in practice at Reizenstein, the level-headed building principal had it figured out and we resolved the issue so kids could swim in a reasonable way after school.
Things are easier when there are fewer and fewer kids on the team too. The 60 kids on the middle school swimming team were driven off by poor coaching for years and the MS team was but a handful of kids, as was the HS squad. All in all, looks like they are not trying to wipe out the team as two policies have changed -- slightly.
Wondering now about AM swimming at Sci-Tech?
I was wondering about the PIAA enrollment numbers for 2020-21 for swimming for boys and girls too, given the co-op. That answer is posted at PIAA and is the subject of another blog post. Another bad policy there -- did not change.
Obama's girls are in Class AAA again in 2020, for the second year. Plus, years three and four are happening as well. Meanwhile, the boys stay in Class AA. See that other post for the details.