West Milford Devil Rays Swim Team

01/09/2025

10/17/2023

This is Coach Matt. I hope the school year is going well for all! The team is sorely missed.

The LLWM High School Swim Team interest meeting is Wednesday, 10/18, at 2:15pm in room 114 at the WM High School.

If you have any further questions, please let me know.
Respectfully,
Matthew Kane
[email protected]

07/27/2023

😢

8 lane swim team dock system with ladders, 16 kick/turn plates and 16 swim team starter blocks. Rotten and bowing planks, swim floats taking on water, rusted and raised screws in the decking. 16 kick/turn plates rusted, brokenwelds, holes and rivets missing. 16 swim team starter blocks rusted, broke...

04/30/2023

Meeting Sunday @ 7pm- link below

Update from our research team and findings:

1. We need parents. Period. We need parents. A functioning, healthy team needs a President, a Vice President, a Treasurer, and a Secretary. It also needs two Reps to the Lakeland League. It needs a statistician, a score keeper, an officials representative and a head timer/organizer. Plus we need 12 times per meet, sometimes runners and ribbons, a back up timer, 3-4 officials and score keeper per meet. At this time we have three parent volunteers out of 10 positions.

2. We need a coach, or more likely coaches. This is a paid position in every other town. If we raise our own funds, pay for a facility, pay for lifeguards, pay for insurance and pay for meet/league fees, we need 60 kids at $200 a swimmer. Less kids will equal higher fees per swimmer.

3. We need a non-profit license to collect fees and pay for things and someone in charge of all those funds coming and going. We need someone to take charge of this immediately or we can not process funds.

4. We need a safe and accessible facility. We have a potential being offered but practice times would be 5:30-7:30 pm for all ages.

5. We need to let the leagues know this weekend if we are a participating team or not. It is not fair to their schedules and the other teams if we make them wait much longer.

6. There will be a Zoom Meeting Sunday night at 7:00.
Meeting link:
https://us04web.zoom.us/j/77825903262?pwd=rE07h9jX9yY9WaJIFMs2bTG4phui8N.1

We have had 25 Families follow and comment on this page. That is a potential for 25-50 swimmers. But we need to a commitment to swimming at Camp Vacamas, 5:30-7:30 pm weeknights, and a fulfillment of all those 10 minimum positions with dedicated parents. Without ALL three items being strongly supported the team can not exist. If we do not host a team, the swimmers' will be welcomed on the Pequannock Swim Team and Coach Rob Wenzel will be your direct contact for details on that situation.

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04/19/2023

We hope to speak after 7!! We really need a big showing here and it’s about 5 families so far. It takes a team to save the team!!

04/02/2023

Help save the team!!

We needed to switch to Zoom; here is the link to join.

[https://us04web.zoom.us/j/77825903262?pwd=rE07h9jX9yY9WaJIFMs2bTG4phui8N.1](https://us04web.zoom.us/j/77825903262?pwd=rE07h9jX9yY9WaJIFMs2bTG4phui8N.1&fbclid=IwAR3XnvVZTFW52mjtDDc0_aZjZkzVDvBAclIY5DsC6tpijkMEbC0b09Qn_T8)

Meeting ID: 778 2590 3262

Passcode: Aq9Upc

Signup for our email list and receive updates related to the team.

[http://subscribe.savethedevilrays.com/](http://subscribe.savethedevilrays.com/?fbclid=IwAR3Vr-zvH2X9j_Um2nA923BSdXdW0ZpoD1NKKv9ESQlHNOIyaZJoxZtcEnw)

03/28/2023

We know that not uses Facebook or visits here frequently, so we set up an email list that you can subscribe to for updates. Please share this with others who may not be members of this group or do not use Facebook.

03/26/2023

Thank you to the families who met at our limited parent meeting in our “Save the Devil Rays” crusade. We want to update everyone concerned with reversing the town’s decision to eliminate this essential program for our town youth. We have come up with steps and a plan see what we can do as residents of this town. We encourage anyone, even those not currently swimming or involved, to be a part of our process so we can make the town understand the damage this decision will do to the youth of this town, their own camp programs, their feed for staff at Bubbling Springs and our own brand new High School swim team.

Our first step is to gather data from the town on how much the swim team runs “in the red” in its recent history. Some parents will be formally asking the town about income verses output for finances. Without this data we can not begin to understand how to work with the town to reduce the financial burden the town carries for this team to exist. After we have that number we also need to evaluate the repairs or replacement that is needed for our dock system and the costs associated with this process. Once we have this information we will be presenting to the appropriate people in town to find a solution to both issues and reverse this decision to keep the team alive. We know there is a lot more people need to discuss, like alternate options, can we keep the team if we don’t have a lake, fundraisers and more. We have also discussed these items but feel the two pieces of information are our priority to see where we stand with the town, how we can help the town, and how we can convince them to let us host our team. We have consulted with other coaches and league personal to help us, thank you Rob Wenzel (Pequannock) and Andrew English (Wayne) for your input.

Our next step as a parent group is to host a Google Meet on Monday April 3rd at 7 pm. The information will be posted here to join the meeting. We hope to have information to present to you so we can move forward. The final step in this part of the process is attending the town hall meeting on April 19th. We ENCOURAGE everyone who wants this team to stay alive to be there in person. This includes our swimmers. We will be asking for single sentence commentary from our current swimmers, past swimmers and parents to put the true focus of this loss in perspective for those who don’t understand why this is so important. For right now hang tight until Monday.

Your homework is to 1) mark your calendar for Monday meeting, 2) get our hearts thinking about what this team means to us and our kids, 3) if you have any way to help us gather the information we are looking for right now, reach out to us directly assist, and 4) SHARE SHARE SHARE this message across the town with friends and family so we can take a TEAM to this meeting!

You will be kept up to date here on our Devil Rays page. We also have opened a Save the Devil Rays page. One of our parents is working on a form to gather email correspondence and that too will be posted. We can not do this for our kids, for our future swimmers, and for our community without everyone helping in any way they can. Help us save this team for what it does for your family and those who have become life long friends because of the Devil Rays connection.

Thank you, Rachel B

03/15/2023

I am not able to attend as I have another meeting but I thought I would share the the WM township meeting is tonight if anyone would like to go to speak out about our team and the current issue at hand - Vickie

03/13/2023

So sad 😢…Vickie

Dear Swim Team Families,

We are writing to inform you that there will be no Swim Team this year at Bubbling Springs. We are in the process of re-evaluating the program, equipment that needs repair, and other activities that can take place at the lake. After reaching out to several local swim teams/lakes in the area, we are excited to announce that anyone wishing to join the Dolphins Swim Team at Lake Stockholm is welcome. Registration for their swim team opens in May. Please find the attached link which provides all the information you may need. Swim Team - LAKE STOCKHOLM

We wish you the best of luck.

Thank you,

Dan Kochakji

Community Services & Recreation Director

10/11/2022

This is Coach Matthew Kane. I hope the school year is going well for all!

The LLWM High School Swim Team interest meeting is tomorrow, Wednesday, 10/12, at 2:15pm in room 114 at the High School.

If you have any further questions, please let me know.

Respectfully,

Matthew Kane
[email protected]