Author: greenmountainswimteam

Gator Updates – Week of6/17

Happy Father’s Day to all our great swim dads. We know you’re awesome because you are a Gator Dad!!
This Week Summary:
– SAT 6/22: dual meet @ Wheatridge
– SUN 6/23: optional invitational meets (C/D meet @ Golden, Pentathlon @ AAC)
Coming Up:
– WED 6/26: Intrasquad #3 (final one)
– THU 6/27: Team pictures, pancakes and Water World
– SAT 6/29: dual meet @ Stingrays

Details:
-Dual Meet @ Wheatridge: Warm up @ 6:30am / start @ 7:00am. They have a big, beautiful pool and it is estimated that we will be done by 10:30am. sign up to volunteer here
– C/D Meet @ Golden: warm up and start time TBD (usually around 7am) This is an optional meet for all swimmers that have C or D times. You can check the Top Times report (on the side bar) to see if your swimmer qualifies. This is a super fun meet for all the swimmers that are a little slower and want to swim against kids at a similar level. Please sign up directly with the coaches. We will need timers for the meet, but they generally just ask people to step up once you get there.
– Pentathlon @ Applewood Athletic Club: warm up @ 6:20am / start @ 7am. This is another optional meet that requires your swimmer to have a B time or better in 4 of the 5 disciplines at the event. Each swimmer will swim all 5 events (free, breast, back, fly and IM). Please sign up directly with the coaches. Again, we will need timers. click here to volunteer
– Intrasquad 3: warm up @ 4:30pm / start @ 5:00pm. This is our last Intrasquad and we like to have a parents and coaches relay at the end of the meet. We need 4 to 8 parents that are willing to swim a 50 freestyle to be on a relay team. Our parents beat the coaches last year, so we are excited to see what happens this year. Please email gmstgators@gmail.com (or talk to Danielle) if you are in! sing up here to volunteer for the meet
– Team Pictures / Pancakes / Water World Day: We will not have practice on this day. Swimmers can start arriving at 7:30am. We will have individual pictures (if you want them) and one large team picture taken. Please wear your team suit if you have one. – After the pictures, we will serve Gator pancakes (green of course). Sign up here to help with the breakfast. After breakfast, we will have an optional fun day at Water World. Discount tickets can be found here. More details to follow, but the general idea is that we will stake out some picnic tables so everyone is in the same area. You will need to provide transportation, food and general oversight of the kids that you bring. This is an informal event where the kids do what they want at the park, but run into each other all day long.

Gator Update: Week of 6/10

Summary:
Wednesday 6/12: Intrasquad #2
Thursday 6/13: Night practice cancelled
Friday 6/14: Donut Day
Saturday 6/15: Tri-Meet @ Golden

Details:
– Intrasquad#2: warm up @ 4:30 pm / start @ 5:00 pm
We will have pizza, nachos, snacks and al the Gator Gear for purchase.
Volunteer sign up: click here
– Night practice: We will hold upper division night practice on Tuesday, but not Thursday. The Swim Club is hosting a movie night on Thursday, along with the fact that the coaches will be working hard at the meet on Wednesday night.
– Donut Day: We will have donuts at our Friday practice to pump the kids up for our meet against Golden. We have a friendly rivalry with the Golden Marlins and always like to pretend it’s a bigger deal than it really is. They are an awesome team and we love swimming against them.
– Tri-Meet: warm up @ 6:30am / start at 7:00 am @ The Splash in Golden
Golden has an 8-lane pool and will be hosting 3 teams, instead of our normal 2 teams. Team Candalas will also be at this tri-meet. They have a very small team (less than 30 swimmers), so you may not even notice that a third team is there.
volunteer sign up: click here
– A massive thank you to the parents! This is the first season where we have not been pulling people out of chairs and forcing them to volunteer. We are incredibly grateful that everyone is stepping up this season. THANK YOU!!!

Meet Entries Sat 6/8

Because AK is a large team (larger than us) we need to make sure the meet runs as fast as possible. We have a hard deadline of 12:50 and although we don’t want to cut events, we will if we do not make the deadline. For that reason we are trying to make the meet move quickly by tweaking a few things. We spoke with swimmers at practice today, but I wanted to reiterate some suggestions for this weekend so parents can help reinforce them.


1. We are limiting relay entries. We will have one relay per gender per age group. That means we will have 8 swimmers in relays across the two relays. If your swimmer signs up but does not swim in a relay, it is for that reason. We will get as many kids as possible in relays.
2. If possible we would like kids to swim two individual events instead of three. If your swimmer wants to swim three events, that is ok, but if they are willing to drop one and save it for next week, that would help our timing a lot. Next week we have an intrasquad meet on Wednesday and a dual meet on Saturday.
3. We are working on “fly-over” starts. When a swimmer finishes their race at the starting block end they should stay in the water until the next heat starts (flies-over) them. Once the next heat starts then they can exit the water. If a swimmer starts exiting the water before the next heat starts, the starter has to wait for them to exit before starting the next heat. Fly-over starts make the meet run smoothly and faster. The exceptions to this are 8 & Unders finishing at the turn end of the pool after their 25 and the backstroke events because swimmers start in the water.

Thank you for helping the kids understand the expectations and suggestions for this meet. The entries are being pulled off the wall today, but if you want to make changes we will finish the entries tomorrow, so your kids can talk to the coaches at practice. Please let the coaches know if you have any questions. Thank you!

Gator Updates: Week of 6/3

  • Dual Meet on Saturday 6/8 at GMSC. Warm up @ 6am / start @ 7am. We are swimming against Applewood Knolls and they have a HUGE team. Our last meet ended at 11am (with a small team). Plan for this meet to possibly go until 1:00pm)
  • Quick reminder our parent expectations during the meet: Please help your swimmer get to the heating shed when their event is called. After that, the Shed Boyz will take over and get them situated into their heat and onto the deck for their event. Unless you are a Timer, parents should not be in the heating shed or behind the blocks. It is VERY crowded on deck and we need to keep the kids organized and keep the deck as clear as possible. Thank you for your assistance.
  • Volunteer sign up for the meet: click here (we are currently short 23 people)
  • Iron Gator: We like to encourage swimmers to try every event in their age category and we recognize this achievement at our end of the year banquet. If your swimmer competes in every event in their age division and receives a time (DQ’s do not count), they will be an Iron Gator! The coaches will work with your kids to attempt this, but we understand that all kids are not ready. This could be a right-now goal for your swimmer or a future goal.
  • Upper Division Night Practices start this week: Tuesdays and Thursdays from 8:00pm – 9:00pm. These practice are for 13 and older swimmers only. Your swimmer can speak directly with Coach Ethan at practice for additional information.
  • Photos from our meets: you can find photos from our meets on our Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/greenmountaingators). We will also be printing out some of the photos to hang in our display board throughout the season. Have questions? Talk to Danielle or email us at gmstgators@gmail.com