Hi Poolsharks -

Welcome to Week #3!  I am a little late getting this out as Saturday was our Decatur HS graduation, and my son Isaiah graduated.  As a teacher - our district gives us the opportunity to hand our children their diploma - it was one of my favorite moments of being a mom so far!

1) Big & Little Buddies - matchups are HERE (6U & 7-8 on the first tab, Starfish on the second tab).  

My goal is to send buddy parents a mutual text this week to get the connections going.  Please do NOT plan to give any buddy treats/notes for tomorrow's meet as my communication regarding this is so last minute.  Starting next week, little & big buddies can write each other good luck notes, cheer for each other at meets, and maybe a little treat bag once in a while (stickers, goldfish, etc).  

2) Time Trials & Team Pic - Coaches Jayla, Claire and Emily are our coaches who make time to create lineups for each swim meet.  Thank you also to Coach Emily who leads our social media page on Instagram - the last few posts are featuring each of our coaches.  Last minute meet changes due to sickness / unexpected circumstances, should be emailed to Coach Jayla.  There are typically hundreds of lineup entries per meet, and we try to be 100% accurate, but there are sometimes a few errors.  When you find/notice these, please politely let us know, and we will try to fix any mistakes as best possible.  We will email heat sheets / handwriters tomorrow (Tues) around lunchtime.  

We will have our amazing concessions tomorrow, led by Poolshark parent volunteer Sybil McCullar (mom of Rutland & Campany).  On the menu for purchase will be pizza, CFA sandwiches, hamburgers, hot dogs, pulled pork sandwiches, brisket, and Asian noodles.  Payment is cash & venmo (and maybe more but I cannot remember).  

We will also have photographer Troy Earnest take pics tomorrow at Time Trials including our team pic - he will post all pictures for free download on his site.  Thank you to our sponsors HERE for making it possible to bring Troy to our pool and get great pics for our team.

TIMELINE for Time Trials:

4:00 - 4:15 all swimmers arrive at the pool in this window and ages 4-14 go to sit with their age group bullpens

4:30 - 4:40 warmups for our Starfish/6U/8U kids

4:40 - 4:50 warmups for our 9-12’s

4:50 - 5:00 warmups for our 13-18 kids

5:05 TEAM PICTURE w/ Troy Earnest & team meeting between basketball / volleyball court & TEAM CHEER from wooden deck (P-O-O-L-S-H-A-R-K-S)

5:15 (timer & volunteer meeting)

5:20 send kids back to their bullpens (bullpen volunteer parents will help kids get into relay positions - blocks end vs shallow end)

***All Event #0 kids will go straight to the blocks (do not go to bullpens)

5:23 National Anthem

5:25 Meet Begins - ALL Starfish & their helpers compete in Event #0

5:25 6U & 7-8 are in relay positions

5:30 pm official order of events 6U free relay (girls only, not enough boy 6U’s), all medley relays, individual free

~ 7:30 pm Meet Ends 

3) The Fancy Sparkly V Black Swim Cap!  Swimmers need to 'bat 700' in attendance to earn our newest incentive swim cap.  Swim practices = 1 point.  Swim meets (time trials, 5 dual meets, Divisionals) = 2 points.  There are 47 total points avaialble that swimmers can earn this season.  Once a swimmer has earned 33 points, they will have earned this special cap.  Coaches take attendance daily - please take a look HERE to see if your childs attendance the first 2 weeks is accurate.  There will be a few errors here and there - if you notice, please send Coach Beth an email with specifics, and i will update the attendance sheet as accurately as possible.  

4) private lessons with Poolshark coaches - private lessons are an excellent way for swimmers to get one on one attention with their coach (or another coach) and work on specific skills they are working towards during their group practice (diving, swimming the whole 25, flip turns, legal breaststroke, side breathing, etc). HERE is our private lesson contact info. if you are wondering which coach may be a good fit for your child's needs (personality, skill set), please feel free to reach out to me and I can share a few suggestions and/or connect you directly with a coach. These lessons typically get more popular as the season moves along and our coaches get busy so if you can start setting up lessons now, that is ideal to have the most availability from coaches.

Please continue to reach out with questions/concerns and we look forward to Week 3!

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

- Coach Beth

404.630.1440