See below for Board Member contact info. and photos

Aquaknights Swim Team has a NEW PERMANENT HOME and we officially partnered with Diamond Hills Sports Club, the newest of twelve Spare Time Clubs. After thorough research and careful consideration of our team's long term stability, the Aquaknights Parent Board unanimously determined that partnering with Diamond Hills reinforces our team mission of providing a positive family-oriented environment, building children's self-esteem, and ensuring each swimmer is motivated and challenged to achieve his or her potential. Diamond Hill's 10-acre site offers the following:  

-          8-lane 25-yard outdoor competitive pool with backstroke flags and starting blocks

-          4-lane 25-yard covered pool for lessons

-          Large family pool for swimming and lessons

-          Colorado starting system on order

-          Large deck space and grass area

-          Large side entry for meet access

 

In an effort to best represent our team members and ensure due diligence, the Aquaknights board considered the following:       

 

- Consistent pool space. With the City of Brentwood changing to the draft system to assign pool time, the schedules for all teams (Aquaknights, Dolphins, Terrapins, and SeaWolves) would be inconsistent week-to-week and may change between Heritage and Liberty pools.  This draft between four teams would consist of choosing one hour time slots (i.e. 6-7pm on Monday nights) for four lanes per round, making it very difficult for any team to piece together a consistent program.  This inconsistency would be very confusing and disruptive for our members. At Diamond Hills we would not compete to secure pool space every season.

 

- Open to all community members. Last season, 55% of our team members reside in Brentwood, 25% in Oakley, 15% in Discovery Bay and 5% in other nearby cities including Antioch, Knightsen, Bethel Island, and Byron. With the new sports philosophy, the City of Brentwood is enforcing a minimum 75% Brentwood residency rate; this means that Aquaknights and other teams would likely have to turn away team members that live outside of Brentwood. If teams do not meet the residency restriction, they are in jeopardy of picking "lower" in the lottery and getting the less desirable pool times at the less desirable pools. 

 

- Exclusive rights. Diamond Hills will NOT lease out its pool space and only wants ONE recreational team using its pool. This means that we will not have to compete for pool time for practices and meets. This will be particularly beneficial from mid-April to mid-May when we typically must run practices from 6:00 – 9:00pm, because the high school swim team is using the pool.

 

- Strong coaching staff. Diamond Hills has already started receiving coaching applications. High quality coaches are more likely to apply for a position at an established organization than a seemingly less-stable volunteer-run program. Coaches would be employees of Diamond Hills which has more benefits to offer and might have more leverage on performance-based issues. These coaches could also teach stroke clinics and swim lessons at the pool which would provide them a more stable and potentially long-term income. The director assured us that Aquaknights has the primary input into the hiring of coaches and we have started reviewing applications. (All interested Aquaknights coaches from the 2008 season will be invited and encouraged to apply and additional information will follow.)

 

- Opportunities for families. Parents might welcome the opportunity to also work out while their child is at practice to better maximize their time (especially for those families with children in more than one age group practice). The club also offers many other attractive sports/health activities and amenities.

 

- Fundraising potential. While we would lose our hard-fought non-profit status, donors would be attracted to the advertising potential of our team.  Not only will donors advertise to team members, but Diamond Hills Club members as well, which would likely be viewed as much more lucrative.

 

- Membership fees. The director made a commitment that the membership fees for 2009 would stay the same for our returning members. (More detailed information on discounts, benefits, and the phased transition to club membership will follow soon.)  While fees with Diamond Hills will likely increase over the long term, these increases will be offset and augmented by additional club services and family benefits.  Whereas, City of Brentwood fees are steadily rising with no added benefit or services to its constituents—pool and lifeguard fees increased 15% last year and are projected by the city to be over 20% higher for the 2009 season. (We paid approximately $14,000 in pool and lifeguard fees to the city last year and this is projected to increase to over $17,000 for 2009.)

 

- Strategic growth. Diamond Hills will have a recreational swim team, period. The club will either form one from scratch or adopt a team, but it would rather partner with a strong, well-established team instead. If Aquaknights decided not to partner with Diamond Hills, the future club team could draw our membership away. The club appreciates the assets and philosophy of our team and has agreed to exclusively partner with Aquaknights.

 

Overall, we as a board unanimously determined that this partnership is the best route for the long-term future of our team. We believe that this transition represents the best available opportunity ensure our future stability, as the club will not allow an associated team to fail and Spare Time has a long history of success. We weighed the risks versus gains of partnering with Diamond Hills and strongly judge that Aquaknights has much to gain and our future is very promising!