League Entries – Please Read

The preliminary League entries are posted here – Entries. If your swimmer is swimming at League please check their entries and let me know if there are any changes or errors (email ethan.schick@gmail.com or text/call 7203354894). Entries are due by 5pm today. Because of the lottery system (explained below) they need to be final (i.e. no changes after 5pm).

Important** This year the league is trying to fill 3 heats of every event. Because certain events will not have enough swimmers, the meet coordinators decided to open up entries to swimmers with B times as well. This will work like a top times lotto system. Teams can enter their swimmers who have B times into the pool and if the event is not filled by swimmers with league times, the remaining spots will be filled by the fastest B time swimmers. For example: There are only 20 9-10 boys swimming the 50 butterfly. Because there are 24 spots available (3 heats of 8 lanes) the next 4 fastest 9-10 boys who entered the lotto for the 50 fly will fill the heat. We entered your swimmer into the lotto for certain events if they already had at least 1 league time. The decisions were made mainly based on where your swimmer had the best chance to make it in. These entries are not a guarantee that they will swim that event because they are contingent upon the lottery. We wanted to give kids a chance to swim more if they didn’t qualify for three events. If you do not want your swimmer entered in the lottery please contact me and we will remove them to give another swimmer that spot.

League Week (7/18)

League practices start this week. If your swimmer did not qualify, then they will not swim at practice this week. Practice times remain the same.

Team Movie Night: We will have an after-hours movie night at the pool on Wednesday 7/20. You can arrive between 8:15-8:30pm. This is a non-swimming event. Blankets, pillows and pajamas are encouraged. This is a team event and siblings are welcome, but we do ask swimmers to not bring friends that are not on the swim team. Kids are expected to watch the movie and not be in the volleyball pit, on the play structure or roaming the grounds of the pool. Parents are welcome to stay or drop kids off. We plan to play Despicable Me and have popcorn and lemonade. The movie will start at 8:30pm and has a running time of 90 minutes. Please be back at the pool by 10 pm to pick up your swimmer.

State Week (7/25): If your child qualifies for State, practices will be at the following times:
Monday – Thursday only (No Friday practice)
7:00-8:00 am: all upper division (13 and older)
8:00-9:00 am: all lower division (12 and younger)

Swimmer of the Week – Week of 7/4

Upper Division – Everett
Last week Everett came back from a vacation, but didn’t let that affect his swimming at all. He threw himself back into practice with gusto, giving his all on sets and challenging himself to get better. At the AK meet he continued his goal to swim all the events with a bunch of freestyle, including the 200 (which I think is the hardest event).
Excellent work Everett!

Middle Division – Ayla
Ayla is a new addition to our team and swimming this year and she is crushing it! She continually pushes herself at practice and leads her lane in the freestyle workouts. We know we can count on Ayla to show up and swim fast making her an asset to the team in individuals and relays.
Well done Ayla!

Lower Division – Carter H
Carter is one of our top 8 & Under swimmers and he shows it every day in practice and meets. He worked particularly hard last week, between the sassy comments, and pushed his lane to be better with each 25. As we were filling many 8 & Under relays, we knew we could count on Carter to show up and swim fast for his team.
Keep it up Carter!

Week of 7/11 (Big Week!!)

It’s a 3-Meet kind of week! Please read through so you know what’s going on. This is our last week of regular practices unless you qualify for League or State.
Summary:
Monday 7/11 : Start of Gator Week
Wednesday 7/13: Intrasquad #3 (plus parent/coaches relay)
Saturday 7/16: Dual Meet at Golden
Sunday 7/17: Last Chance Meet!
Future Planning:
Wednesday 7/20: Team Movie Night @ GMSC @ 8:30pm-10:00pm
Friday 7/22: League 400’s @ Stingrays (see Meet/Practice page for details)
Saturday 7/23: League hosted by GMST @ Splash Golden
Wednesday 7/27: Team Banquet @ GMSC @ 5:30pm
Friday-Sunday 7/29-7/31: State @ Splash (event timeline TBD)

Details:
– Gator Week is a team tradition that involves harder than normal practices in order to push the kids to better times for League and State qualifying. Your kids do NOT have to go hard. If it’s not their thing, that’s OK.
– Intrasquad #3: This is our final Intrasquad of the season. We will have 5280 Swim Team joining us to talk about their year-round swim program, fun coaches/parents swim relays, pizza , hot dogs and gear for purchase and a general frenzy of activity. Please sign up to help.
– Meet at Golden: This is our last dual meet of the season. Have your swimmers sign up for events they haven’t done yet if they are trying to receive the Iron Gator Award (a qualifying time in all individual events in their age group). If your swimmer has a B time in an event after this meet, they can continue on to the Last Chance Meet.
– Last Chanced Meet: This is it. The very, very last meet to qualify for League. If your swimmer has a B time in an individual event and would like to try one last time to make League, they need to let the coaches know at the end of the Saturday meet. The coaches will then sign them up for this Sunday meet. They must have a B time (you cannot use this meet to improve your current League or State time) and they can only swim up to 3 events at the Last Chance Meet. There are no relays. This is a “I’m trying to qualify for League” meet. Also please know that if you go to this meet, you will need to help with timing.
– What do you mean it’s the final week of regular practices? If your swimmer qualifies for League, then they will have practice the week of 7/18. If your swimmer then qualifies for State, they will have practice the week of 7/25. If your child is not qualified in either and has not been pulled into a relay team, then their last practice will be on Friday 7/15. (Don’t worry, we still have 2 fun events planned, so it’s not totally over: Team Movie night on 7/20 and the Team Banquet on 7/27).
– League Qualifications: Your swimmer will have until Monday morning 7/18 to let the coaches know that they can swim at League (earlier is better though). This event is an additional cost to our team (not to the swimmer) and we want to make sure that your swimmer will be available to swim before we sign them up.
– Check out our Facebook page for lots of pictures from this season! Also, just a reminder to upload small video clips or photos to the Photo Circle App (details on sidebar) for our end of year banquet.