Pleasant Hill Aquatics

PHAST is a summer recreational swim team program where young swimmers improve their skills, learn sportsmanship as they compete against other swimmers, and have fun-filled, enjoyable summers. Swimmers participate in weekly competitive dual meets and have the opportunity to swim at a variety of Invitational Meets. PHAST also participates in the annual Diablo Community Swim League Championship Meet. These swim meets promote integrity and high ethical standards for all participating athletes, coaches, and parents, and ensure fairness through rules and regulations. The goal of PHAST is to use the sports experience to help our swimmers develop positive character traits and values that will help them succeed in all future endeavors.

Pleasant Hill Aquatics, a non profit club, is run by its elected Board of Directors which meets each month. All members are welcome at each meeting and encouraged to be involved in team activities and fundraisers. We are constantly growing and training young swimmers to maintain a well rounded competitive swim team. Thank you for joining us. We are looking forward to meeting you. Please feel free to ask another member or coach any question you may have.

Pleasant Hill Aquatics Swim Team (PHAST) offers instruction, technique improvement and a competitive arena in the four competitive stokes: freestyle, backstroke, breaststroke and butterfly. Swim Team consists of both boys and girls up to 18 years of age. Swimmers compete by gender in the following age groups:

6 & Under	25 yd/Individual Event
7-8	25 yd/Individual Event & 100 yd/Individual Medley
9-10	50 yd/Individual Event & 100 yd/Individual Medley
11-12	50 yd/Individual Event & 100 yd/Individual Medley
13-14	50 yd/Individual Event & 100 yd/Individual Medley
15-18	100 yd/Individual Event & 100 yd/Individual Medley

The official "swimming age" is determined by the swimmer’s age as of June 15th. A child should be able to swim one length of a 25-yard pool without using the lane ropes for support before considering swim team membership.

PHAST is a member of the Diablo Community Swim League (DCSL). Throughout the season our team is scheduled to participate in a "dual meet" with each of the other DCSL teams. PHAST also participates in meets with teams outside DCSL. Swim meets are held each Wednesday evening and Saturday morning. Participation in Invitational Meets is optional, and they, typically, are all day events, including some Sundays. Swim meets are held under USS sanction. The competitive strokes are governed in accordance with USS rules. These rules are designed to provide fair and equitable conditions of competition and promote uniformity in the sport so that no swimmer shall obtain unfair advantage over another.

The Emperor Penguin Program is designed to help prepare swimmers for the Penguin Swim Team and offers instruction in the four competitive stokes: freestyle, backstroke, breaststroke and butterfly. This pre-swim team program is supervised by the Head Coach and is intended for swimmers age 8 and under. Swimmers must be water-safe with the ability to swim the freestyle stroke for a distance equal to at least the width of the PHA pool. Emperors may swim a special Emperor Penguin Only lap at an end of season PHAST swim meet.

Regular attendance at practice enables swimmers to build conditioning, learn stroke and turn techniques and improve swim speed. In addition, this time together develops sportsmanship and team spirit. Therefore, practice time is highly valued. The coaches will also take attendance at practice into account when preparing meet assignments. Refer to the Family Handbook for complete information on practice days and times and daily practice work out plan.

Swim team fees are subject to change each year and cover such costs as league fees, which are set annually, ribbons & awards, equipment (lane ropes, boards, timing watches, clocks, repairs), administrative costs, supplies and salaries. No swimmer may swim in a meet until all swim team fees are paid and registrant families must be members in good standing (see Standing Rules 1.06).

A participation fee offsets the cost of awards including ribbons and patches (Stars and Penguins). The participation fee also partially offsets the cost of social functions including parties, sleepovers, awards banquet, and coaches’ gifts. However, failure to fulfill work obligations will result in your swimmers losing their opportunity to swim at upcoming meets and a missed obligation fee will be assessed.