Hello Gators Families!

We had an incredible meet yesterday at Bear Creek! We won our meet 786 to 402. We had several of our swimmers qualify for State, the Gold League Championship, and the Ken Caryl Invitational (KCI). Some of our new swimmers competed in their first race ever and many of our teammates tried events they have never done before. Great job to all of our Gators!

Next Meet: Our second meet is this Saturday, June 7th. We will be hosting Woodbourne and Grant Ranch at home! The meet sign up is open, please make sure you submit the races your swimmer will be competing in by noon on Wednesday in order to participate. To sign up: Go to "Schedule/Signup" tab and click on "Meet Sign-up Instructions" and follow the directions. If you will not be attending, please make sure to mark that.

Water Polo: we are so excited that Coach Ralph will be coaching water polo again this year! This is something we offer to all of our swimmers who practice with our White Group. Practice will be Tuesdays and Thursdays at 8:15. We will start practice next week, June 10th! We will get more information out soon about signing up!

Meet Results: Once the meet results are official after each meet, results for individual swimmers will be posted on our SwimTopia website under the "Meets" tab. Results for the whole meet may be found on the homepage of the website on the bottom left. You can check under KCI/State Qualifiers tab to see if your child qualified for either of these meets.

Folders: Each week at practice we will set out a box of folders and every family has one. This is where you will find the ribbons your swimmer earned at the meets. Anything else we need to get to you, will be in the folders. It does usually take us a couple of days to get the ribbons, so they may not be available until Thursday or Friday following a meet.

Warmups: The warm-up schedule for meets will be 6:00-6:20 for the white group, 6:20-6:30 for the green group, and 6:30-6:40 for the purple group. Warm-up sessions are short but very important. They help familiarize the swimmers with the pool, allow them to check their backstroke count so they don't hit the wall, and get their bodies ready to race. Thank you for helping your athlete get to warm-up on time!

Volunteering: We have a large number of volunteers this weekend since it's a home meet. It is critical that you check in on time so we can run our meet efficiently. Make sure you find our volunteer coordinator in the green vest near the concession stand to check in so we can give you credit for your shift. If you are on the second shift, please listen for the announcement for volunteers to meet before the break, which happens after event number 48, the backstroke events. If you are still looking for shifts, please check the signups regularly as people may drop shifts if they can't do them. 

Relay Entries Explained: There are many elements that go into the building of relay teams for the meets. It’s not always a simple process. Some of the considerations include:

• A swimmers ability to complete a particular stroke legally
• How many swimmers are available to swim from that age group
• Practice attendance, particularly if there are more swimmers than there are relay spots

We are a competitive, recreational team. This sounds contradictory, but we work to balance competition with learning and fun. We believe everyone who wishes to swim in relays should have the opportunity to do so. That does not necessarily mean an athlete will swim in a relay at every meet, but we do strive to enter as many relays as possible to allow the most athletes to participate. It is also important to understand that choosing not to swim in relays or backing out of relays in which you are already entered has an impact on your teammates. Relays can be one of the most enjoyable parts of swim team. They provide the chance to compete together toward one goal.

Swimtopia: As the season gets going, we suggest you download the Swimtopia App on your phone. This will keep you updated on urgent announcements like practice cancellations, as well as keeping you updated during meets. You will need to turn your notifications on to get immediate alerts (otherwise it will come as an email). I have outlined the features for the free and upgraded versions here:

Free features

• Team alerts for urgent issues
• Sign up for meets and/or jobs Swimmer’s race results - current and past seasons
• Calendar of upcoming meets & events
• Family's meet overview [swimmer's events & parent's volunteer jobs]
• Post meet swimmer results Live Event/Heat Bar during meet.

SwimTopia Pro

Upgraded features Free 7 day trial, then $5.99/mo or $14.99/yr (you can cancel when the trial ends)

• Heat Sheets Heat/lane assignments & start times for favorite swimmers
• Estimated start times that update as meet progresses
• Upcoming swim reminders for favorite swimmers
• Swimmer results during the meet (as soon as entered in computer)
• Live results for all swimmers Team scores

You can find more detailed info by clicking on this link: https://help.swimtopia.com/hc/en-us/articles/3600...

We are excited for another great week of swimming! All practice times will be normal this week.