Good evening Sharks!

I hope everyone had a lovely weekend. There is quite a bit of information in this email since our first meet is this week so please read it thoroughly.

PRACTICE SCHEDULE: June 8th - June 12th

I want to give a huge shoutout to everyone, parents and swimmers for a smooth first week of practice last week among the chaos. We have a few more days of separate locations before we all return together on Friday. I know it is inconvenient for those with multiple swimmers on the team but please send your children to the correct practice time slot unless you have gotten permission from myself. There is no dryland, only pool practices. Please bring your fins and have them at the side of the pool during practice.

Guppies (6U/new 8U) = Southdown Pool -- Mon-Fri 6:30-7:00

Blacktips (Returning 8U) = Southdown Pool -- Mon-Fri 7:00-7:30

Makos (9-12yo) = Riva Pool -- Mon + Tues 8:00-8:45, Weds + Thurs 8:30-9:00

Great Whites (13+) = Riva Pool -- Mon + Tues 8:45-9:30, Weds + Thurs 9:00-9:30

Everyone will be at Southdown on Friday June 12th at normal time for Fun Friday!!

Guppies 6:30-7:00pm

Blacktips 7:00-7:30pm

Makos 7:30-8:15pm

Great Whites 8:15-9:00pm

MEET INFORMATION

This upcoming Saturday June 13th will be our first meet! We will be swimming away against the Olde Mill Torpedoes. The meet will begin at 8am, our warm-up will be from 7:30-8:00am. The address is 490 Chalet Dr W, Millersville, MD 21108. Please arrive no later than 7:15am.

Please log-in to Swimtopia BEFORE WEDNESDAY AT NOON to declare your swimmer’s availability and to sign up for a meet job. As you know, we cannot participate in meets if we do not have enough parent volunteers.

Once the meet line-up is compiled, it is unable to be edited, so please do not miss the Wednesday 12pm deadline. Detailed instructions are below.

New Sharks: If you aren’t sure if your child is ready for a live-action swim meet, please send me an email or have a conversation with me. If you’re thinking that your child may not swim in any meets at all, please email me directly. (There is no requirement to swim in meets. You can still practice as your heart desires, but it helps us to ensure the Big Shark/Little Shark list is accurate and helps to estimate the size of the volunteer pool.)

Returning Sharks: If you already know what meets you are/aren’t available for, you may click through the entire list at one time.

→ To perform your Swimtopia tasks, go to: https://southdown.swimtopia.com/swim_meets. Click on the ‘Meets & Events’ tab. Click on ‘Signup Calendar’ then click on the green ‘Meet Entry’ button to declare yes/no availability for each swimmer. Following that, click on the ‘Job Signup’ tab and select a job AND (ideally) a Shark Shack donation. Most jobs are divided into two halves. You can pick a half or opt to work the entire meet. You can bring your Shark Shack donation to practice on Friday, or to the meet Saturday morning.

FUN STUFF & OTHER SCHEDULE UPDATES:

Fun Friday: Our Fun Friday activity will be decorating our Shark Sheet (to display at meets), team T-shirts will be handed out, and there will be ice cream sundaes or a hot chocolate bar (we’ll see how chilly everyone is before we decide).

Big Shark Little Shark: Later this week, a list will be posted at the pool and sent out that pairs up a younger Little Shark with an older Big Shark. This is a team building, mentorship, cheerleader hype person, role model type of relationship. If your child will not be swimming in swim meets then please let me know ASAP so we can pair up accordingly. For each meet, you will make a little encouragement bag or card to gift your Shark, and you will receive one in return. It does not need to break the bank. A drink and a snack/candy with a nice hand-written message will suffice! The goal is building a team culture of spirit and encouragement.

Swimathon Update: We are going to reclaim our practice on Wednesday June 24th and move the Swimathon to Saturday June 27th (replacing movie night). Many more details to follow, but it is safe to update your calendars.

It’s going to be a great week to get back to our home pool. Please reach out to me or Tess if you have any questions or concerns. Go Sharks! :-)

--Coach Nastya