Hello Marlins!

Well, the season has started and we’re off and rolling.  Welcome to all the new swimmers, and welcome back to all those returning.  We’ve already got a few events coming up that I wanted to bring everybody up to speed.

Rookie swim meet walk through – Tuesday, June 4

This is an optional event for our new swim team members.  Swim meets can be a bit intimidating for our newest swimmers, so we piloted a walk-through last season which received a lot of positive feedback.  If you sign your child up, they should attend practice that evening as usual.  I will have the blocks, the announcer podium, and paperwork all set up on lane 6 (far side of pool as you walk in).  Parents can meet me over by the podium once practice gets started.  I’ll first talk to the parents (while the kids are practicing) walking you through the swim meet process, what to expect, parent volunteer jobs, and field any questions.  Then I’ll pass out stopwatches to parents, so each parent will time your child in their first ‘event’.  We’ll call the kids over at this point, and I’ll explain to them a couple things they should know and walk them through their part of the process & answer their questions.  Then, I will start their ‘race’ (they will be swimming by themselves since I only have one lane!) and the parents will time and write out their results on a form.  I will use this data later to help seed your child in actual upcoming swim meets, so this is important for parents to time this as a live event!  I will run two swim meet walk through sessions (one at 5 PM and the other at 6 PM) so swimmers from both practices can participate.  This is of course optional, and this walk through isn’t necessary for swimmers that have competitive swimming experience.  If you haven’t signed up, please do so here because I will close the swim meet at the end of the day on Sunday to ‘build’ the mechanized swim meet.

Swim Team Pictures – Thursday, June 6

Things happen fast in a summer swim league; swim team picture night is next week!  All swimmers are requested to attend regardless as to if you plan on purchasing a picture package.  While pictures aren’t mandatory of course, but we like to have as many in the swim team group picture as possible!  The photographer will begin taking individual pictures at about 5 PM for those in the first practice, and she will keep taking them until we’re done with both practices.  Since swimmers from both practices will be at the pool at 6 PM, we will target our overall swim team group picture then.  If our swim team shirts are in by then, please plan on having your swimmer wear them for the group pictures.  If not, we may just take them in our team suits or a previous year’s team shirt – stay tuned for more on this.  Also note that pictures will be going on during practice, so plan accordingly!  There will be another email coming out soon with the package options and pricing, so again – stay tuned!

Dave Bostelmann