Hello Gator Families!

We had an incredible meet Saturday at home! We won our meet, beating Platte Canyon and Bear Creek GVR:1101/PC:978/BC:727. Once again we had swimmers earning PR's and State and KCI qualifying times! Many of our 12 and under swimmers earned times that qualify for the Gold League Championship meet! Thank you so much to all of you who volunteered, we cannot run a meet like that without you!

Our next meet is this Saturday, June 15th. We will be swimming a dual meet at Platte Canyon. The meet sign up is open, please make sure you submit the races your swimmer will be competing in by 7 am on Thursday in order to participate.

Upcoming Events:

Our team Movie Night is next Wednesday, June 19th at Grant (Ladybug) Park. We will meet at 7:30pm, please bring movie snacks and blankets or chairs. We will be watching Moana as soon as it's dark enough. This is a really fun night to hang out with friends on the team outside of practice time, and we really hope that the weather will cooperate!

Team day at Water World is on Tuesday, July 8th. We will send out more information when it gets closer, but please add it to your calendar! There will not be practice this morning for our Green or Purple groups. Water World tickets can be purchased through our Calypso Club membership, which means you can get discounted tickets for your family anytime this summer. You can find this information under the "Resources" tab on our website. You can order and use these any time on your own and on the team day.

Swim Across America Endurance Challenge on June 25th. Please find additional information on Swim Across America here. It is also on our website. This is an event that is very important to our team and we love to have everyone participate. Please know that there is no requirement to participate in the fund raising portion. Only do so if you have the ability and a desire to do so.

Iron Man and Swim Goals: It can be important to set swim goals with your child. These goals vary by each swimmer and their ability. For some it might be to qualify for KCI or State, for some it could be to complete a particular stroke without disqualifying, or for our younger swimmers it might be just to participate in a meet! Talk to your kids about what their swim goals are this season, and help them set some realistic goals for themselves and work towards them. They can also tell their coaches at practice what their goals are so they can help them as well. We wanted to mention our Iron Man Award, which they can earn by completing legally (not disqualifying) every stroke available for their age group at some point during the season. This is a great way to try new events, and challenge themselves!

Coaches Corner:

Relationships

This week our focus is on relationships. As people, we naturally desire to be connected to other people. In terms of our swim team this includes relationships between teammates, coaches, parents, and other teams. The stronger and more positive our relationships, the better our team becomes. Some things to consider with your athletes:

What does it look like to build positive relationships with your teammates? With your coaches? (Answers might include cheering on others, encouraging teammates during practice, greeting others before practice, saying thank you, asking questions, using words that uplift, not bring down...)

What does it look like to build positive relationships with our competitors? What do you think might happen when we do so? (Answers might be along the lines of showing hospitality when teams come to our pool, being respectful when we visit other pools, shaking hands, smiling, introducing ourselves...)

When we are relational we strengthen the bonds of our team. When our team is strong we all become better athletes and competitors. And, as we say on the Gators, "We always compete to win, but winning isn't the most important thing."

Ongoing reminders:

• Sign up for volunteer shifts if you haven't yet, every family must choose 4.
• Each week we will set out a box of folders at practice where you will find the ribbons your swimmer earned at the meet as well as anything else we need to get to you.

Please reach out if you have any questions!