I understand what you mean. A team can get better thru good coaching and just being lucky when some new kids move into the area and help make the team better. Thats when a team can start that rise up. Sometimes a team being down low isn't always a sign they have been bad for years. It could have been a sudden loss of one age group or people moving and so on. We have gone from D17 to where we are now thru great coaching and just a good group of kids that listen and swim hard. We have some kids that swim year round but a lot don't. Mine don't. What I've noticed is how many kids from D8 up DO swim year round. Thats what happens with the rise up. These teams and kids and parents are ALL about swimming. I'll take wherever we get put but the NVSL should warn the pools we will face that we are a janky pool with janky facilities and one janky ass chief timer as well.
A story i heard from my pool's coach that happened at this years all star relays. For warm ups the rule is that kids dive in, swim down, get out, and walk around and repeat. You aren't allowed to practice starts and all that. They are just trying to let kids get in to warm up. There was one D1 team that rhymes with Buckatoe that their kids started to work on starts and turns and all that. Our coach saw it cause we were next to them and said to the coach they weren't allowed to do it. Their coach's response? "Oh I don't care. We will do it the way we want." The kids for that team were told not to do it. Their response? "Coach said we could so we will." A formal protest was filed against them because of it. I'm sure nothing happened. But thats the shit that happens at all stars. The D1s just act like they own the place because they have over half the kids swimming.
I have a loud voice. I have made it a point to go to all stars to root four our kids and make sure these parents and coaches HEAR the name of our pool. Just so they know.