hi Poolsharks - welcome to Week 4!

Reminder that we begin our morning practice this week (& we practice on Fridays in summer!) - schedule HERE on team website.  We will miss our Dekalb County & Paideia kids at AM practice this week on Tues-Wed-Thurs as their last day is a bit later than City of Decatur schools (that is the system we typically follow for when we shift to AM practices).  

The weather this week looks...like it hit the fan!  We will plan to continue with practice each day, and shift to dance hall as needed if it storms.  We can swim in rain if its not thundering, as long as guards can safely see the lines on the bottom of the pool.  

Tomorrow (Monday) special practice times - we usually have ~ 50% attendance at this Crack of Dawn practice and it is usually one of my favorites of the year with parents practicing, families potlucking, and the day before our first official meet (yes we will have practice Tues AM before the meet also).  

8 - 9 am: Starfish, 6U, 7-8, 9-12

9 - 10 am: 13-18 + parents

Crack of Dawn Memorial Day - potluck food (we are about 75% all slot volunteered for) & parent practice signups HERE (potluck) and HERE (parent practice - we have 23 parents signed up so far, of all levels - plenty of room to join for any more of our parents!).

One summer practice time change from last year - Donut Wednesdays will start at the same time as the days the rest of the week (no 30 min delay, as we've done in the past).  

Buddies - list is HERE - hopefully if you have a Starfish, 6U, or 7-8 swimmer OR if you are the parent of a Big Buddy - you received a mutual text connecting the parents from me.  If not - please let me know and I will try to figure it out.  If you & your swimmer have time before 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.

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

We are co-theming with Leafmore with ATL spirit (Hawks, Braves, GT, Dream, UGA, etc)

Heat sheets & Handwriters will be sent out in the next ~ 24 hours, and will be updated in real time in the Swimtopia app (some heats/lanes may change but it is 90% accurate).  Reminder that if your child has an unexpected change in availability, please email Coach Jayla as soon as possible.

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 https://www.remind.com/join/2026vpca
• Remind swimmer last name M - Z https://www.remind.com/join/2026vpca00
• we will try to make the meet up if we do not complete more than 50% of the meet (usually we try to do makeups the same week on Thursday and understand this may affect swimmers / parent volunteers availability)

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'd. 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.

Please note - we will 'load' our A relay with our top 4 swimmers, and B relay with our next fastest 4 swimmers.  For any C-D-E etc relays - our lineup coaches Jayla, Emily, Claire try to make these all as even as possible (so an E relay is just as competitive as the C relay).  I will send out 'top 10 times' throughout the season, for our kids that are really motivated to earn an A relay spot, sometimes this is helpful for them to see where they are.  Parents please use your discretion, knowing what is best for your child, if you choose to show them these top ten times (or not).  

We will try to get all of our swimmers into 1 or 2 relays, and individual event requests.  Sometimes we will not be able to honor these, as we may really need your child to swim in an event that is most competitive for our team.  We are also limited to one heat of IM's each meet, so we will usually only be able to have 3 (maybe 4 if its an 8 lane pool) kids in the IM each week.  

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