Hi Team-

We survived our first week of summer swim with our mock meet/Fun-day finale! As many of you witnessed there is a lot of work that goes into these meets. There are many details and roles that we need help with. There is a lot of hard work, on our part as parents and coaches, and on the part of the swimmers. We are all part of a team working together! Through the efforts of all of us we can create this positive experience for our children. Thank you to all of you who helped with the mock meet, I am indebted to you and incredibly grateful that you were brave enough to try out a new role, like bullpen, lane shepherd, timer, sheet runner, rubber duck prize giver, etc. Our work together allows our little and big swimmers to gain skills and confidence as they learn through competition. I have attached the results for you to browse. There were some mistakes (missing times, swimmers in the wrong lane, etc.), do not worry about this as it was a practice meet and cannot count for official times. We got our practice out of the way and now we are ready to run a smooth and efficient meet this Tuesday and Thursday this week. 

How can we do that? 

1) Declare whether your swimmer will be attending or not 

2) Sign-up for jobs

3) Ask questions about roles! Send me an email or text 612-222-4526

4) If you have a last minute illness or can't make it, please let me know by text or email

5) Familiarize yourself with what your swimmer is swimming. I will publish heat sheets and athlete check in sheets by 3pm on the day of the meet in the Swimtopia app (which I recommend that you download!). You could help our coaches a ton by writing events with heats and lanes on the hand of your swimmer before hand.

On the athlete check in-sheet, swimmers events are listed with heat and lane. For example: #23 Boys 8&Under 25 Back 1/5

What I would write on their hand is:

#23 Bk Heat 1/Lane 5 

6) Park at Gutterson as parking is limited at BTC. It's a short 3 minute walk.

Alright, back to my favorite topic volunteering. I have some great news about Officials training. Now it is easier than ever, you can take a Stroke and Turn Clinic and open book test through USA swimming and be ready to apprentice at meets at your convenience. They are available on-demand. You register through USA swimming unattached to a team (summer teams are not USA swim affiliated). Once you have completed the course send your certificate of completion to me and I can get you set up to apprentice at a meet with some of our experienced officials. 

Here is the information you will need:

You can take this module and be done with the clinic & testing requirement. That leaves 3 apprenticeships for new Stroke and Turn officials for the CVSL.
Start here: https://www.usaswimming.org/

Create or login to your account [question about team affiliation for those without USA home club]

To access the course you must be logged into your account, and you’ll find it under Education/Course catalog: https://university.usaswimming.org/landing

Click on the Officials icon to filter the courses, or just scroll (pretty far—almost to the bottom) to find this course :

When officials have finished the module and passed the test (included at the end of the module—it’s not a separate thing) Send the certificate of completion to the head coach at your pool. 

Please consider doing this training, it will ensure that we can continue to provide meets for our children. You do not need any prior swim knowledge, just attention to detail and a willingness to learn. Thank you and please reach out to me with any questions. 

Another area we need help with are all the special events and add on things associated with team building like Friday Fun, Family Fun Night, Team dinner at States, Banquet etc. These all require parent helpers to organize, run, and facilitate. With the size of our team this is a lot of work and our few dedicated parent helpers are stretched thin. More people helping equals less work for each person. So please remember why we are all doing this, creating this experience for our kids and it is often not about what is offered for food or how much or when but what the event symbolizes and provides, an opportunity for us to come together as a team and share in this experience. If you feel strongly about how an event should be run please step up and help. If you don't feel strongly about an event but just want to help then great. My key parent helpers have created a sign-up spreadsheet with details on how you can help. It is organized by project and you can put your name beside one or more than one and reach out to the organizers listed on the spreadsheet to get involved. Teamwork makes the dream-work, go team go!

Thank you for reading through another long Sunday update from me. I hope you had a chance to get out in between breaks in the rain. As you all know I have been watching the Olympic Swim Trials, what strikes me is when they do the interviews or human interest stories they talk about how these athletes started and they show pictures of tiny swimmers in wild animal print goggles in swimsuits with ruffles or baggy swim trunks and they all started in the same place. They talk about their love of the sport starting with their summer team or their rec League. I don't know if it is because I am a parent or a coach but it gets me every time I see these pictures or hear these stories. I am not saying we are all going to be Olympians but we all can dream and learn to love the sport. The fun is in the dreaming! It is our job to foster that dream and protect that love of the sport. It is what sustains us throughout and keeps us participating in something for our entire lives. Thanks everyone for listening as I wax poetic, maybe I have been spending too much time watching the trials and standing on a pool deck? No such thing right? Anyway, have a great day everyone! I am looking forward to a great week of summer swim!

Coach Hilary