First Swim Meet - Time Trials!
Waverunners!
With our first swim meet a week away, I wanted to reach out regarding each of your RSVPs to the meet, signing up to volunteer, and other meet logistics.
Please note that next week on Thursday, we will have our first morning practice due to the meet being that night, I will send out an email next week with the full schedule but I wanted to make sure you all could put that on your calendar for next week.
RSVP and Volunteering
I have opened up the meet for next week for each of you to RSVP your swimmers and sign up for a volunteer spot. Each of these will close on Tuesday night in order to give our coaches enough time to properly seed the meet and our volunteer coordinators to organize the meet itself.
How to RSVP: In order to RSVP and sign up to volunteer, please click on the green buttons that say "Meet Entry: Open" and "Job Signup: Open" on our website's "Calendar" tab to do so. You need to be signed in to do this, it is the login you created when you registered your swimmer. If you have the mobile app, click on the swim meet under "Events", then click on "Meet Signup" and "Job Signup".
When you RSVP, you are simply letting us know if your swimmer will be there or not. Our coaches will place swimmers in the events they need to based on ability level and direct communication at practice with your swimmers by the coaches. For this first meet, since it is a time trial, swimmers will be swimming in all or any of the four strokes (freestyle, backstroke, breaststroke, and butterfly) based on their ability level and the coach's discretion. We are encouraging our beginner swimmers to RSVP and join us so you can experience a swim meet and give your swimmers a chance to swim in a controlled heat to get the experience of swimming in front of a crowd.
There are 51 volunteer positions opened for this meet, so we need all hands on deck! Please sign up to volunteer in any of the openings available, it is recommended that you sign up opposite of where in the meet your swimmer swims. A younger swimmer tends to swim more at the beginning of the meet while our older swimmers swim throughout the meet. Unless you are timing you can easily step away to watch and cheer on your swimmer from your volunteer spot, but our organization relies on volunteers and we want Thursday to go smoothly.
***Please note: If you are our computer person, head official, activities and events coordinator, head official, stroke & turn judge assigned by Jamie Sanford for this meet, volunteer coordinator, or team photographer you are already volunteering and are in the system already as doing so***
Concessions
We will have concessions this year! With that being said, we need volunteers to help run the concession stand as well as a few donations. We will send out a full menu next week, but we offer a variety of drinks, hot dogs, sandwiches, pizza, baked potatoes, and other treats and candy.
Concession Stand Donations: We are asking families to please donate drinks for our concession stand. This is 1 major way we have kept registration prices down. Please bring your assigned drink to the shed by Tuesday of next week so we can organize it all prior to our first home meet. Please bring the name-brand product requested as it makes life much easier for our concession stand workers. Donation requests are per family, not per swimmer.
Last Name beginning with:
- A-G: 1 case (or 2 12 pks) Coca Cola cans
- H-Q: Gatorade multipack bottles (any flavor) (20 oz bottles preferred)
- R: 1 case (or 2 12 pks) Diet Coke
- S: 1 case or (2 12 pks) Coke Zero
- T-Z: 1 case (or 2 12 pks) Sprite
Swim Meet Logistics
With this being a time trial, we will not have all of the regular events. We will not have any relays or long-distance events, as this meet is meant to help us seed our relays based on the swimmers' times d be a warm-up for our first real meet in two weeks.
Parking: In order to allow our HOA members to still access their homes and drive through the neighborhood and because we have a very limited number of spots in our parking lot, we are to only park on one side of the street facing the direction of traffic and we are not to block any driveways. There will be signs put out on the day of the meet throughout the neighborhood on where not to park. If you or one of your swimmers would like to volunteer to place these, please let me know and I will get with you the day of the meet.
Arrival Time and Warm-Ups: In a regular meet, the arrival times will change but we will always begin meets at 6:00 PM. For this week since it is just us, we are asking for:
- 8 & Under Swimmers: Arrive @ 5:45 PM to get set up for the meet (no warm-up)
- 9-12 Year Older Swimmers: Arrive by 5:05 for 5:10 warm-ups
- 13 & Up Swimmers: Arrive by 5:25 for 5:30 warm-ups
Make sure to check in with the coaches when you arrive so we can make sure everyone is there.
Parent Sitting Area & Bullpen/Staging:
On meet day, all pool furniture is put aside and parents/families bring their own chairs, umbrellas, and tents to set up on the "home" side of the pool deck where the round tables usually are. We ask that all swimmers stay in our bullpen area (the wooded, covered deck inside of the pool fence) to make staging easier for coaches and volunteers to find swimmers as they are being called to get in line (staged). You must stay at least for as long as you have to volunteer in your assigned shift and/or until your swimmer is done swimming. PLEASE do not leave without checking with a coach to make sure you are not needed in another event (especially at meets where we have relays).
What to Bring on Meet Day:
- Swimmers:
- Swim Suit (already on)
- Team Shirt
- Hoodie/Sweater in case it gets chilly
- Goggles
- Towel
- Team Swim Cap
- Hydration
- Snacks/money for concessions
- Possible entertainment items for younger swimmers while they wait
- Parents:
- Folding chair(s)
- Umbrella/Tent
- Money for concessions
- Own snacks/cooler if wanted
- Sunscreen
- Heat Sheet (I will send it out prior to the meet for you to print or have on your phone, but your child's events will be available for you to see on the SwimTopia App)
- Sharpie markers (we recommend writing your swimmer's events, heats, and lanes on their arm/back to help with staging and to remind them of what they are swimming. If you are new, we veterans will help out with this)
Helpful Links and Tips:
I know that this can seem overwhelming, but please know that the kids have a great time and we are well known for having amazing parental involvement here at Waterton so we can all share the load and have fun encouraging our swimmers! On that note, please remember that this is a recreational league and meant to be fun and a safe place for swimmers to grow, develop and make friends. We like competition but we are a swim family first and foremost, so please let's keep it clean and civil as always.
If you need assistance in understanding what each of the volunteer positions entails, or you want more details on our procedures and advice for swim meets, please visit our Links section of our website found below:
SwimTopia: I would highly recommend downloading, signing in, and using the SwimTopia app. It allows you to track your swimmer's events, receive push notifications, see your swimmer's times, RSVP, and sign up to volunteer all from the app. We are not utilizing Remind this year, so please make sure to download this app to stay up to date!
Fun Friday:
On Friday mornings from 10 AM - 12 PM, we host our Fun Friday celebrations. Swimmers get to pick up their ribbons (on typical meet weeks, there will be no ribbons this week), play with their friends, and have the chance to buy some Kona Ice from 10:30-12:30 in our parking lot. This event is completely voluntary each week but encouraged since the kids have so much fun there.
Thank you for your patience with this email, your time, and your commitment to your swimmers as they get better and prepare to compete & have fun this coming week! Go Waverunners!
Gio De La Pena
(770) 710-1641
