Welcome to the 2025-2026 Season!
| RAC Families,
Hello and welcome to the start of the 2025-2026 Fall/Winter Session at Radnor Aquatic Club! Whether you are a returning family or new to our community, we are thrilled that you have chosen RAC as your swimming home. Below is some general information about our Fall/Winter Session. Season Overview At RAC we strive to build a community of athletes that exhibits a positive attitude towards the sport of swimming and demonstrates team spirit, camaraderie, and sportsmanship. The focus of practices will vary greatly depending on the group and the time of year, but here is an overview of what to expect:
Our Mini group will place an emphasis on teaching correct stroke technique and efficiency in the water. Swimmers will also focus on learning starts for all 4 strokes as well as an introduction to flip turns. This group will also focus on team building and preparing swimmers to compete in SAL and USA Mini Meets.
In our Red and White Groups we will begin the season with a heavy emphasis on stroke technique, starts, turns, and team-building. These skills will be reinforced throughout the year as we continue to build speed and endurance during our competition season.
Blue and Bronze groups will spend the first few weeks developing strong practice habits and technical foundations for long-term training cycles. Technique refinement and race strategy will be incorporated into the training plan for these groups throughout the season.
Our philosophy is to train our athletes to be well rounded swimmers by implementing a combination of technical instruction and endurance and speed training in all strokes and distances.
Meets & Volunteer Policy- Varsity Only All Varsity swimmers will have the opportunity to compete in both SAL & USA Meets. More information about these meets, the differences between them, and sign up procedures will be communicated in the coming weeks. You can view the USA/SAL schedule thru December on our events page . We have also updated our volunteer policy this season, which applies to all Varsity families. You can review the policy here .
Development Groups The primary focus of our Development Groups (Barracuda/Piranha) is to teach proper stroke technique & racing skills while building a love for swimming. Practices are designed to teach swimmers the necessary skills to be legal in all 4 strokes and to develop their speed to eventually prepare them for our Varsity program. The first Development session is 12 weeks and ends in mid-December, as opposed to the Varsity schedule of September-March. Development Swimmers DO NOT compete in USA or SAL Meets.
Lead Coaches By Group Below are the lead/co-lead coaches for each group. You can read more about them and the rest of our coaching staff on our website here .
Blue- Katie Pulos/ Brendan Jones Bronze Chase Gibson/ Liz Olszewski Red- Siobhan McDonough/ Dominic Coletti White- Jake Leddy/ Katie De La Rosa Mini- Margaret Wilman Barracuda/Piranha- Margaret Wilman
Practice Schedule You can view our practice schedules on our website here . The first practice for each of our groups is listed below:
Important Facility Notes As community members and guests at all of our pools, it is essential that our members adhere to the rules and restrictions for each of our facilities. At all of our pools, swimmers and families must remain in the pool/balcony area and not other areas of the school. While swimmers are permitted to use the locker rooms at all of our pools, we ask that they spend minimal time here and leave the spaces in the condition they are found in. There are also parking/dropoff guidelines for each of the facilities we use. These parking guidelines with maps can all be found on our website HERE . Below are some additional notes about each pool:
Villanova A waiver is required each season. Please bring the attached waiver to your child’s first practice. All groups (except Piranha) will use this location at some point this season and therefore need to complete this waiver.
For most practices, families are permitted to park/drop off in the back of the building directly at the pool entrance. When there is a university conflict, usually a basketball game, we must drop off at the Nevin entrance or park at the parking garage on Lancaster avenue. We will communicate in advance when it is a conflict night.
Radnor For all of our practices, families MAY NOT drive down to the lower lot at the pool entrance to park and/or drop off. Swimmers must be dropped off in the designated overhang area at the top of the stair case as shown HERE .
For the early season fall practices (through October 2025) we must also adhere to the pre 6:00 parking guidelines outlined HERE , which requires families to drop off and/or park in the front of the school and walk around back to the pool entrance.
Haverford Parking at Haverford can be limited, so if the smaller lot by the pool is filled we encourage you to park in the larger lot off Railroad Ave as shown HERE . Swimmers should enter the pool via the hallway doors inside the building.
Our ability to practice at these facilities is dependent on our families adhering to these guidelines, we thank you in advance for your compliance.
Equipment All swimmers should arrive to practice wearing their suit and bring a cap, goggles, and water bottle if desired. ALL GROUPS have a training bag requirement. Please ensure your swimmers bring their equipment bag to practice every day. In order to cut down on transition time, please have your swimmers arrive & leave in their suits. Communication You should expect to receive weekly or bi-weekly emails from me with information and updates throughout the season. This is our primary method of communication about season updates, meet deadlines, sign up processes, team events, and more. I typically send team-wide informational emails on Mondays or Tuesdays. Lead Group Coaches will communicate information on an as-needed basis throughout the season. You can expect to hear from your child’s group lead prior to their first practice.
Masters We are excited to continue our Masters program this fall! Practices will begin the week of 9/2 and more information can be found on our Masters page . Please feel free to spread the word to anyone who may be interested- adults only please!
Coming Soon: Team Snap & USA Swimming Information We plan on using TeamSnap again to share practice schedules and send last minute reminders/updates. We are in the process of finalizing rosters and schedules on TeamSnap. Families should expect to receive an invite to their child’s group and an updated schedule in the coming days.
Like in 2024 all families wishing to swim in USA meets will need to register for USA swimming. This is the case for both new and returning RAC swimmers. All returning swimmers are in good standing until the end of 2025, but new families will need to register after 9/1. This will ensure your registration is good for 2026 as well. We will send more information about registering for USA Swimming and meet sign up procedures in early September. We can’t wait to get started! -Coach Katie
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