Dear Parents and Swimmers,

Thank you all for your trust and patience this week as we all began learning our new operating system. Although we will undoubtedly have some kinks to work out, we truly believe that Swimmingly is going to make volunteering and running meets much easier and more time efficient. We thank you in advance for your continued patience as we host our first meet with the new system this week.

We have a busy weekend/week coming up, so please make sure you read all sections that are relevant to your family (regular vs speedy meet swimmers), as there is important information about both upcoming meets in this week's email.

Saturday, 6/5: Speedy Meet @ Wynfield vs. Northstone

• Address: Our Wyfield pool!
• Arrive by 8:30 so that we can make sure all swimmers are labeled, warmed-up, and ready to go for our 9:00am meet start time.
• Make sure your kids eat breakfast. Fresh fruit, yogurt, bagels, etc. are all good choices. Try to avoid anything too heavy on the tummy!
• Before arriving at the pool, please try to mark your child by writing their first name, last name, and age on their back/shoulder. We will NOT use swimmingly for speedy meets, so swimmers DO NOT need to have a swimmer ID #.
• Don't forget to bring the following:
  • team suit (already on)
  • cap and goggles
  • water bottle
  • 2 towels
  • sunscreen
  • optional: deck chairs for parents
• Upon arrival parent volunteers will check in with Heather in the morning. Swimmers will gather with the coaches.
• Speedy meets do not require us to register swimmers ahead of time, so we will line swimmers up to swim in the morning. The events will run in the following order: 25 Freestyle, 25 backstroke, 25 breaststroke, 25 butterfly. Swimmers may swim in all 4 events, or they may choose to swim only the events they feel comfortable with.If you have any questions please feel free to email me at [email protected].

Monday, 6/7:

Practice schedule:

• Morning Practice
  • 8:15-8:45: Speedy meet practice
  • 8:45-9:30: Regular 10 & Under practice
  • 9:15-10:15: Regular 11 & Up practice
• NO AFTERNOON PRACTICE TODAY

Swim Meet: Regular Meet @ Wynfield vs. Northstone (Monday, 6/7)

Address: Our Wynfield Pool

• SESSION 1: 10 & Under Swimmers
  • Arrive by 4:30: Arrive and check-in with coaches. Each swimmer will always check in with the same coach, split alphabetically by last name as follows:
  • Coach Jonah: A - D
  • Coach Sarah: E - H
  • Coach Dylan: I (i) -M
  • Coach Riley: N - Z

PLEASE help us by knowing and reminding your child which coach to check in with. As the home team we will warm-up from 4:45-5:00. The meet will begin promptly at 5:30pm.

• Session 2: 11 & Up Swimmers
  • Arrive by 6:30. 11 & up swimmers and families will not be allowed on deck until the first session has finished. Please wait outside of the pool area until the deck has been cleared. We hope that this will be close to 6:30, but please be patient with us if the wait time is longer.

• Once 11 & up swimmers are invited onto the deck, please quickly check in with your coaches and get ready for warm-ups. Each swimmer will always check in with the same coach, split alphabetically by last name as follows:
  • Coach Jonah: A - D
  • Coach Sarah: E - H
  • Coach Dylan: I (i) -M
  • Coach Riley: N - Z

PLEASE help us by knowing and reminding your child which coach to check in with. As the home team we will warm-up 10 minutes after the conclusion of the first session, but no earlier than 6:40. We will have a 15 minutes warm-up, followed by the visiting team’s warm-up, and then a prompt start to the 2nd part of the meet.

FOR ALL SWIMMERS:

• Before you arrive (or, if you need assistance, when you arrive) be sure to “mark up” your swimmer(s):
  • Write their Swimmer ID# on their upper arm. This is the same number they used at time trials, but we are going to mark it on their arm instead of their back/shoulder.

• Mark their forearm with their events, heats, and lanes. This helps the swimmers, the child gatherers, and the coaches make sure we get the right kids in the right place. It is also helpful for younger children to have their name and age marked on their right shoulder. Instructions for how to mark your child's arm are in the "FAQ" section of the "about" tab on the team website.

***The event numbers, heats, and lanes will all be on the heat-sheet, which will not be available until early Monday afternoon.

• Heat Sheets will be available on the swimmingly fan app. This meet will be paperless. All heat-sheets and meet results will be exclusively through the Swimmingly Fan App (the black swimmingly app).

• Please help your child set up a space in our team area. We really need parental support for this. It is very important that swimmers sit together to support each other and to make sure they don't miss an event.

• Swimmers will need to wear their team suit (any previous team suit or a royal blue suit). Don't forget to bring team caps, goggles, several towels, and healthy snacks--and water! If you don’t have a cap yet, we will have them at the meet. Parents and other visitors might want to bring extra chairs as well! See the FAQ section of the team website (under the "about" tab) for ideas for snacks.

• Parents who are volunteers--thank you for making these meets possible! Please do your best to be on time, as the first meet is always a bit tricky as people figure out their roles! Also, make sure you have the BLUE swimmingly app downloaded if you are going to be timing or are a stroke/turn judge.

• RELAYS: In an effort to maximize the number of relays we have and to give all swimmers a chance to swim in a relay, I may sometimes opt to "swim up" some of our swimmers. Thus, an 8 year old might find themselves on a relay with 9/10 year olds, or a 12 year old might be swimming with 13/14 or even 15/18 year old swimmers. Please know that when I make these decisions I do my best to respect the level that each swimmer is at. I hope these relays offer a chance for swimmers to get to know each other a bit better. Please know that I will not swim a 9/10 swimmer up since they will not be participating in the 2nd session of the meet.
• *Meet Sign-outs: If your child will NOT be swimming on Monday, please sign them out no later than Saturday, 6/5, at 12:00 noon. I will be finalizing meet entries on Sunday evening, and it is important that I have the correct swimmers marked to put together relays. SIGN OUT SWIMMERS HERE.

Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday (6/8-6/10)

• Normal practices times

Friday, 6/11

• Our first Fun Friday event from 9:00-10:15 for all ages. No afternoon practice.

A few more items to keep on your radar:

1. Severe weather: If we are at the pool and have to stop practice or a meet, we need to clear the pool AND the deck. Please help us with this by gathering your belongings and children as quickly as possible.

2. During meets, please make sure that your child stays in or near the team area.This helps child gatherers and coaches! Sometimes swimmers get sick and we have to make a last minute change to a relay, and we need to be able to go to the swimmer area and quickly locate whoever we might be looking for!

3. During meets (and practices) we kindly request that parents cheer, motivate, double check that their child is drinking plenty of water, etc. However, please try to refrain from coming behind the blocks or coaching from the side. I know this can be hard, especially if your volunteer job puts you behind the blocks, but we ask that you do your best to honor this request. Sometimes there are lane and heat changes that only coaches and meet officials are aware of, and once swimmers are behind the blocks, they need to be listening to the coaches. Thanks in advance for your help with this.

I hope you all have had a great weekend, and I look forward to a successful week of first meets!

~Coach Tiffany