Welcome to Week 6 of Poolshark season (two versions below - short & detailed - please read the one you have time/capacity for).  

In Short:

1) thank you families - we are doing a great job volunteering (90% involvement rate)

2) we need 53 more volunteers for this Tuesday night when we host Echo Ridge, sign up HERE.  

3) Supporting Bullpen Volunteers - If you are not a bullpen volunteer - please be mindful to still check on your child throughout the meet (especially if they are 12 or younger) and remembering that bullpen volunteers are not babysitting your child.  

4) Senior Night this week!  5 seniors: Jude, Cole, Maddy, Kathleen and Jackson 

5) Private Lessons - Click HERE.

6) Storm Plan for meets - usually at least 1 meet is effected - have Remind app ready to keep up to date with storm plan on day of & during meet.

7) Team Pictures this Wednesday June 7.  We are asking ALL swimmers to arrive at 8:45 and then get set up for our Team Picture that will take place at 9 am.  

8) Burrito Wednesday!  Our taco tuesday team will return this Wednesday morning 

9) Scoring / A relays at Swim Meets - it is a bit complicated...read below if you'd like to know more.  

10) Timeline for Tuesday: swimmers arrive at 4 pm, meet begins at 5:30, ends at 9:30.

11) We had a great (chilly but fun!) Crack of Dawn practice on Memorial Day.  We had 24 parents participate in our Parent Practice!

In Detail:

1) First, we want to thank all of our families for making this season and team as strong and fun as possible - positive parent involvement leads to success and we are at 90% of our families already stepping up and giving their time and talents.  We are very thankful for each of you - from our mentor families & Age Group captains, to our Tuesday night meet volunteers and Crack of Dawn parents who made the breakfast come together.

2) we need 53 more volunteers for this Tuesday night when we host Echo Ridge, sign up HERE.

3) Supporting Bullpen Volunteers - If you are not a bullpen volunteer - please be mindful to still check on your child throughout the meet (especially if they are 12 or younger) and that these volunteers are not babysitting your child. 

Bullpen info if you are volunteering: Bullpen Top 10 (6U, 8U, 10U)

 1. First relays and freestyle events are the most chaotic but you can do it - you’ll get plenty of steps in 💪🏻 

2. Marking up swimmers is a good way to familiarize yourself with your age groups’ events and to get to know your swimmers’ names. So if they’re already marked when they arrive, ✔️✔️it and add their name on their back. 

3. Be aware of meet progress and listen for event numbers — head over with your swimmers when you hear the announcement; when you see timers are changing back to 25 spots; when you see the age group in front of you go. Ask if you’re unsure! 

4.Free/Medley Relay: 1s and 3s go to the blocks; 2s and 4s go to no-blocks. 

5.Before you head over to the lanes with swimmers do a google/cap check (as in, “do you have your goggles and your cap?”) 

6.Ask parents to come check on their swimmers — bull pen leaders can’t take swimmers to the bathroom (swimmers often have to go at the worst possible times) or get them food. 

7.Parents pack snacks. 

8.Parents pack things to do — uno, cards, etc. Some pools have places to play; some don’t (like Venetian — running around through the tables shouldn’t be an option). 

9.Parents clean up area with their swimmers when they leave. Trash everywhere is a bad look for Venetian home or away. 

10.Encourage positive teammate talk and remember quotes to share — kids say some funny things. ”

4) Senior Night this week! We will be taking time this meet to honor our 5 graduating Poolsharks.

Jude Blackmon (Druid Hills HS) - will be attending Ole Miss in the fall

Maddy McElroy (Decatur HS) - will be attending Yale in the fall

Jackson Pillow (Decatur HS) - will be attending and swimming for Sewanee

Cole Westing (Decatur HS) - will be attending Appalachian State in the fall

Kathleen O'Shea (St Pius) - will be attending and swimming for the United States Coast Guard Academy

5) Private Lessons - if your swimmer would benefit from one on one lessons for help diving, getting breaststroke legal, butterfly timing, side breathing on freestyle better, private lessons with our Poolshark coaches can make a big difference. Click HERE.

6) Storm Plan for meets - June brings storms so we have to plan for them, Tuesdays weather looks 50/50. Please make sure your child knows where to find you at the meet, the storms can get bad quickly with the wind blowing and 700 people on deck. Away team huddles in Dance Hall. Home team huddles in the bathrooms (yep!). If your car or home is close and safe, you are welcome to go there. Have your Remind text alert visible because i'll use that and only that to communicate what is happening. League rules ask us to try and hold the meet and not cancel before 7:30 pm unless it is hurricane type storm. Typically if we cancel, we try to make up the meet the very next evening. If we get some of the meet done, but not finished, we typically call it a tie and move onto the next week. We try to not have meets go past 9:30 and i do think 10 pm is a general Hard Stop time regardless.

7) Team, Group & Individual Pictures this Wednesday June 7. This is normally our Donut Wednesday schedule. We are asking ALL swimmers to arrive at 8:45 and then get set up for our Team Picture that will take place at 9 am. We realize that ~ 25% of our team will be away with camps/travel/ etc so we will do the best we can.  This will feel hectic and take a hot minute...we will do a team photo, age group photos, coaching group photos and candids with siblings etc will also be available. Lisa Hill (mom of longtime Poolshark & retired coach MK) will be our professional photographer leading the effort.  Prices & more info will be shared before Wed AM.

8) Burrito Wednesday! Our taco tuesday team will return this Wednesday morning for Burrito's.  Cash & Venmo.

Menu from Las 3 Salsas:

$12 Breakfast plate: Burrito, mini pancakes, and a small fruit cup

$5 Burritos

*Eggs and cheese

*Beans, eggs, cheese

*Chicken, eggs, cheese, beans

*Bacon, eggs, cheese, beans

*Sausage, eggs, cheese, beans

*Ham, eggs, cheese, beans

$3 Small and $6 Large Fruit Cups

$5 Mini pancakes 10 piece

9) Scoring / A relays at Swim Meets - it is a bit complicated...we try not to focus on score at our swim meets, but if you are curious - you can keep up with the score with the Swimtopia app during meets. Only Heat 1 scores, and only 2 kids per team can score individually (you cannot sweep) and only 1 relay per team can score. Points go 5-3-1 for individuals, and 7-3 for relays. Heat 1 is determined 100% by fastest times in our system.  Swimmers can only score in 2 individual races (there are exceptions for this with smaller teams, they technically could have their fastest kid swim all 5 individual races & score in all 5 - this is what happened last week for Leafmore since they only had 4 13-14 boys).    For relays, we build the A relay (and sometimes the B but not always) by the fastest available times. The exception may be a medley relay where a swimmer may not be legal in breast/fly but have a faster time than a teammate that is legal (we will go with the slower but legal swimmer). If your child is in a B, C, D, E, F relay - this does not mean they are the 5th fastest kid or 20th fastest - we try to build those relays so they finish somewhat evenly - we do not want our E relay to finish 1 minute behind all the other relays, that tends to not be healthy competition or positive experience for anyone. Sometimes this is unavoidable when we only have 8-9 swimmers and our B relay is a good bit slower than the A, but most of our age groups do not have this issue.

10) Timeline for Tuesday June 6 hosting Echo Ridge:

4:00 - 4:10 all swimmers arrive at the pool, check in, and head to their age group bullpens

4:15 - 4:25 warmups for our Starfish/6U/8U kids

4:25 - 4:35 warmups for our 9-12 kids

4:35 - 4:45 warmups for our 13-18 kids

4:45-5:15 LEAFMORE warmups

4:55 team meeting & team cheer on dirt basketball court

5:05 kids head to bullpens

5:05 Timer Meeting with Tom Brinks (Venetian Computer Lead)

5:15 Event #0 goes to xylophone chairs & 6U relays, 7-8 relays get ready

5:17 National Anthem

5:20 Event #0 (for our Starfish & 6U kids not quite ready for official race)

5:30 pm Meet Begins

9:30 pm Meet Ends

11) We had a great (chilly but fun!) Crack of Dawn practice on Memorial Day. Thank you to all of our volunteers and parents for waking up early on a holiday morning to get your kids to practice. We also had 24 parents participate in our Parent Practice!

Have Fun, Race Hard, Do Your Best, Go Poolsharks!

- Beth