Susan Ekart will be coordinating the NETHEA Middle and High School Swimming and Diving Team again this year. The only requirement to join is to be a member of NETHEA. We do not have a pool or coach, so we swim where ever is close to home.

(NETHEA is the Northeast Tennessee regional branch of THEA (Tennessee Home Education Association).  We serve homeschoolers in Washington, Greene, Sullivan, Johnson, Hawkins, Hancock, Unicoi, and Carter Counties.)

There are a few choices where you can swim. My daughter swims with the Aqua Jets Aquatics Club which uses Sullivan South high school (www.ajac.us).
There are two homeschool sessions a week along with evening swims.

Kingsport (DB) and Johnson City (Science Hill) have the Barracuda Swim Club
( <http://www.barracudaswimclub.org/> www.barracudaswimclub.org), and there
is also the Bristol Area Swim Association (BASA) which swims at Tennessee
High school (www.eteamz.com/basasharks)

NETHEA's area is larger than the Tri-Cities. If anyone lives farther away,
you can swim where it is convenient for you. Some high school coaches may
let you swim with their team. If you are a diver, most swim clubs do not
dive. Your best bet is to talk with the local High School and see if you can
practice with them.

The swim season starts in October.  There is a planning meeting in a few weeks.  If we have enough high school swimmers, we can compete as a team against the other schools, if there are only a few swimmers, we just swim 'exhibition'.  This will allow the swimmers to qualify for the state meet in February.  You can find out more about the state times and meet at www.tisca.net

Middle school swimmers can swim 'exhibition' at high school meets. This is a
good way to get experience. If there are enough middle school swimmers, we
can compete against other middle schools in the area.

Please forward this to other homeschoolers.

If you are interested or have question, please contact me.  I need to have a feel for how many swimmers we will have before the planning meeting so I know  whether we can compete as a school or just a few extra swimmers at an existing meet.

Susan Ekart
423 246-8870

smekart@charter.net