Hello Gator Families!

First of all, happy Father's Day to all of our amazing Gator Dads! We hope you enjoy your day!

We had another great meet yesterday! This week our team won, with a team score of GVR:712/PC:689 and once again our swimmers set PR's, and earned State and KCI qualifying times. You can see the meet results on the website!

Next Meets: Our next meets are broken into two parts, and are Wednesday June 19th (Gator Open) and Friday and Saturday June 21-22 (KCI)

Race entries are due today at 2pm in order to participate in the Gator Open and the KCI meet. If you will not be attending, please make sure to mark that. Swimmers are only able to attend one of these two meets. If your child qualified for the KCI (even if they won't be attending), please do not sign them up for the Gator Open.

The Gator Open is this Wednesday, June 19th at 7am at our Governor's Ranch pool. It will be a virtual meet, meaning that all swimmers will participate at their home pool, and then times from all teams will be combined for scoring. We will not have practice on Wednesday for swimmers not participating in the Gator Open, however we encourage everyone to come cheer on their teammates!

The KCI will be held this Friday and Saturday at Ken Caryl. Swimmers 13 and older will swim Friday morning. Swimmers 12 and under will swim Saturday morning. Here is the KCI meet schedule. It will also be on our website. You received an email yesterday if your swimmers qualified for this. We will not have practice on Friday, however we encourage everyone to come cheer on their teammates!

Reminder: we are not allowed to have anyone on the pool deck during practice who is not a swimmer, coach, or board member. We have this agreement with the HOA, due to our insurance coverage, and the fact that it allows us to keep our focus on the safety of our swimmers in the water. If you have other people bringing your children to practice, please pass this information on to them.

Upcoming Events:

Our team Movie Night is 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. We hope to see you there!

Team day at Water World is on Tuesday, July 8th. There will not be practice this morning for our Green or Purple groups.

Swim Across America/ Endurance Challenge: You received an email from Coach Meagan this past week about our participation in fundraising for Swim Across America. Our actual Endurance Challenge event will be on June 25th, but you can start now by setting up an account and sending it out to friends and family, or bringing change to practice for the coin jar! If the swimmers fill the jar, then the coaches will.....? Fundraising is totally optional, but if you want to participate, it gives our kids another purpose for swimming and provides service to others, which is one of our team values.

This is a really fun day and parents are welcome to come watch! After they swim, we have a team breakfast. Please sign up HERE to bring something to feed our hungry swimmers!

If your child participated last year, their total lap count is posted on our website under the Endurance Challenge tab. You can use this to set new goals for this year!

To learn more about SAA and our team’s participation in the fight against pediatric cancer you can go to the Gator’s SAA website.

If you would like to participate you have two options. You can either choose to make a donation to our team, or you can create your own page to send out to friends and family so they may donate under your swimmer’s name. To create your own page click the “Register” button and then “Join a Team” and type Governor’s Ranch Gators

Our schedule on June 25th will be:

7 - 8 am Senior and Silver swim

8-9 am Green swim, upper division breakfast

9-9:30 am Purple swim

9-10 am green and purple breakfast

10-10:15 am clean up

Swim History in SwimTopia app: In the SwimTopia app there is a section where you can view all of your swimmer(s) prior swim times. However, the default is for the times to be for 25 yard pools, not 25 meter pools. All the pools we swim in are meters, not yards. So the times look faster than what they actually are. To change to the correct size of pools just follow these steps:

Click on your swimmer's name > "Swim History" > "Converted" > "Course" > Select "Short Course Meters (SCM)" > "Done" > "Done"

Coaches Corner: Reaching Out

This is the third core value of our team. It's about having a purpose and impact beyond ourselves. Reaching out is closely tied to relationships and there are many ways that we can reach out to others every day. It can be a simple as asking if someone needs help, offering to carry a heavy load for someone, or doing a job that isn't yours just to be helpful. Reaching out can also have a wider impact. Swim Across America (SAA) is a great opportunity to live out this value. Our partnership with SAA links us with Olympians and swim teams across the country to help fight cancer. All money raised stays local. Money raised in the Denver area is donated to Children's Hospital of Colorado to fund three cancer research projects. I love that our participation in a sport can open opportunities for us to love and serve others.

Ongoing reminders:

• No practice this Wednesday or Friday! Good luck at your meets!
• Our Water World Day is July 8th. Only the senior and silver groups will have practice that morning.
• You can get discounted tickets to Water World anytime this summer. You can find this information under the "Resources" tab on our website.
• 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.