hi Poolsharks - welcome to Week 5!

Thank you to all of our Crack of Dawn participants, and especially to Meghan Welch and Lindsay Duvall for helping make it all come together.  We often discuss with our teenage coaches the importance of being able to adjust as things change, especially with things like weather that we cannot control, and I really appreciated how everyone was able to roll with the delayed start and combining practices. 

Reminder that tomorrow (Tues May 27th) begins our morning practices - schedule HERE on team website.  

Buddy List has been updated - HERE - goal is for parents of the Big Buddy to connect with parents of the Little Buddy this week, and if you have time before 530 pm tomorrow, for buddies (both big & little) to write each other a 'good luck' note for our meet.  Some buddies like to include a small non meltable treat, but this is not expected or required.

Thomas Bennefield - Thomas was the longtime coach of the Barracudas, the team we are hosting tomorrow.  Thomas passed away last week, and 2 of his young adult daughters are coaches for the team.  League wide, teams are encouraged to wear something superhero related, in honor of Thomas, as he always was dressing up for meets and leading by example to have fun, and 'Go Do Good,' his quote.  More info on Thomas is below.  

Timeline for Meet #1 tomorrow linked HERE.  All Poolshark swimmers should arrive between 4:00-4:10 pm (our warmups begin at 4:15 for Starfish/6U/7-8).

Heat sheets & Handwriters are HERE on our website & also updated in real time in the Swimtopia app (some heats/lanes may change but it is 90% accurate.  

Bad weather plan - most likely we will hit some bad weather at the meet.  We can swim in rain (as long as guards can see the black line on bottom of pool) but not in thunder.  The league asks teams to NOT cancel unless we are in the middle of a hurricane.  What this means:

• please arrive to the pool as planned
• have a plan with your children of where to meet if bad weather hits   
• make sure you are signed up for our Remind text alerts: 
• Remind swimmer last name A - L remind.com/join/2025vpca
• Remind swimmer last name M - Z remind.com/join/2025vpca00
• we will NOT make the meet up if delayed (usually we try to do makeups the same week, but with everything going on, and Dekalb/APS/private schools still being in school this week, we will not make this meet up)

Things to be aware of at the meet:

Heat 1 is considered the 'scoring LIVE' heat.  This means swimmers that are illegal in something, can be DQ's.  Heat 2 and beyond is not a scoring heat, and there will not be DQ's.  All swimmers that successfully complete their race will earn a ribbon.  Swimming is quantitative - so the fastest available 4 times, are what compose the A relay for each group along with the scoring heat 1 LIVE swimmers.  These top 4 times for almost all age groups, is fluid, as kids get better at different rates throughout the season and those 4 spots can rotate through numerous kids.  

Good sportsmanship / Being a a Great Teammate - this is the #1 goal for our team, and for every single summer league team in our ASA league.  This is emphasized by our league director Franke, and all coaching staffs.  It is most important, that we cheer all swimmers on, listen to parent volunteers in bullpen, race hard, do our best, stay in the water to high five swimmers to our right & left after each race, thank our timers and represent Venetian in all these ways.  These things are MORE important than winning a race or winning the whole meet and we love watching our Poolsharks as they embody each of these values & characteristics.  

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

- Beth

Thomas Bennefield info from the league: