Week of 6/27

Summary:
Monday 6/27: REMINDER– upper division practice starts @7am
Wednesday 6/29:
– Pictures & Pancakes- starts at 7:30am
– Water World – opens at 10:00am
Saturday 7/2: Bye weekend- no meet

Details:
– Picture Day: please wear your team suit (if you have one). Our photographer-extraordinaire, Alex Hearn., will take a team photo, age division photos and individual photos (if you want them). You can take friend photos, a group photo of all your kids together, etc. There is no need to order in advance. She will post photos to a link where you can view and purchase from there.
– Water World: This is an official, but informal event. What does that mean exactly? It means that you are responsible for buying tickets (use our discounted ticket link), driving your kids/family to Water World and then generally having a fun day at the park. We will have a meet up spot where all Gators can put down their things, run into each other over lunch and have a home base.  There are no formal activities and you are free to do what/when you want at the park, all while running into Gator swimmers and families.
– Foothills Swim Team: FST is a year-round swim team that many of our Gator-Swimmers are a part of outside of summer club. FST will be at our picture/pancake day to feed us donuts and talk to parents about their club. We will also have other year-round clubs join us later in the season.
– We have a parent that is putting together a fun slide show

Ken Caryl Entries

Ken Caryl entries are posted here – Ken Caryl Entries. They should be final, but please double check and direct any questions or comments to ethan.schick@gmail.com before 2pm today. For the most part the coaches spoke with the swimmers who were already qualified and based entries off of those conversations. There were just a few people who qualified on Saturday and we reached out to them individually, so if you or your swimmer weren’t originally qualified and did not get a message yesterday, then the qualification times were not met. Sometimes we invite additional people to fill relays, but this year we did not get the meet file from Ken Caryl in time to start the process, so the relays were created based on availability of swimmers in that age group. That is to say, some swimmer are in relays and some aren’t based on how many people qualified.

Week of 6/20 Intrasquad + Invitational Weekend

click here for the full blog address: https://gmstgators.wordpress.com/homepage/

Summary of Next 2 Weeks (so you know what’s coming)
Wednesday 6/22: Intrasquad #2
Friday/Saturday 6/24-6/25: Ken Caryl Invitational
Sunday 6/26: AAC Pentathlon Invitational
Monday 6/27: Upper Division practice starts at 7am (due to long coaching weekend)
Wednesday 6/29: Pictures Pancakes and WaterWorld
Saturday 7/2: BYE weekend. No meets

Details:
Intrasquad: all entries are due by Tuesday morning. We will have pizza and hot dogs to sell at the meet, plus Gator Gear. Please note: the pool closes at 5pm and this is also when our warm up starts. Please be respectful of all members who ae packing up their thing (and may want to stay to watch the meet).

Ken Caryl Invitational: Entries will be posted Monday. Please check and make sure you know when/what your swimmer is doing. Coach Ethan will be on deck Friday/ Coaches Emma/Kayli will be on deck Saturday. (Monday’s practice following Ken Caryl will have delayed start for Upper Division – 7am.)

Pentathlon: We just found out the Pentathlon is a go. Swimmers must be qualified in 4 out of 5 events (freestyle, backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly, IM) in order to go to this meet. We only have a select group that meets the criteria. The coaches will reach out directly to anyone who is qualified to gauge interest. We may or may not attend this meet based on swimmer interest.

Pictures/Pancakes/Waterworld: We will not have swim practice on this day. Instead we will have pictures starting at 7:30am. Please wear your team suite (if you have one). We will take a team photo and individual pictures (if you want them of your swimmer). We will then serve the kids Gatorcakes. For those that want to continue the fun (this it 100% optional), we will head to WaterWorld. A team link for discount tickets can be found on the side bar. We will set up an area for the team to gather and then everyone is free to explore the park, high-five their teammates as they pass them on rides and play a game of “find the Coach”.

Blogsite: If you are using our blogsite from your phone, use the full address to avoid errors: https://gmstgators.wordpress.com/homepage/
Go to the MENU tab at the top
click on MOBILE USERS SIDE BAR
This will allow you to easily see all of the side bar information that is on the full website.

Final Note about Meet Sign Ups: If you sign up, please show up. We have encountered a lot of swimmers that are signing up and then not attending the meet. This throws off relays, causes additional work for the Data Dadz and the Shed Boyz, and takes time away from coaching as they are trying to track down swimmers. It’s OK if you can’t make a meet. We get it! Please make sure you are not signing up if you will be out of town or at another event. Thanks.

We Need Timers!

Attention all Gator parents. We need volunteers for tomorrow! 27 people to be exact. We are short on timers for every shift, as well as other volunteer slots. We will not start the meet until we have filled these slots. If we don’t have volunteers, we don’t have a meet. Please sign up ASAP. It does not help us if you wait until the day of the meet and “just see what’s available”. Please pick a volunteer slot and sign up. https://www.signupgenius.com/go/4090d4dabac28a1ff2-gmst6

Let’s Talk About Ken Caryl

We have an invitational meet next weekend. What does that mean for your swimmer? And how do you know if they’re qualified. What if they don’t qualify? Here’s all the details:
Step 1: All entries for KCI (Ken Caryl Invitational) are due this Sunday 6/19. The coaches have been asking the swimmers all week “If you qualify, do you want to swim at the meet?” Please make sure the coaches know if you are in or out for this meet, as it does cost the team a fee for each individual entry. (If your kids haven’t been at practice or won’t be able to tell the coaches in person before Sunday, please email gmstgators@gmail.com)
Step 2: Click on the attached file to see qualification times. Each event has a different qual time, so it is possible to qualify in zero races, 1 race, or more. All meets, including the Saturday 6/18 meet against 5Parks will count towards these qual times.
Step 3: The coaches will work on entries Saturday/Sunday. We may call you if we have questions.
Step 4: Show up to the meet! Especially if your kid is in a relay.

Upper Division is on Friday / Lower Division is on Saturday. Full details are on the website on the meet/practices tab or can be found here.

If your swimmer does not qualify, then you will have a bye on Saturday and will not have a meet. Woohoo! Time to sleep in. — Don’t worry! We are having Intrasquad #2 on Wednesday 6/22, so your swimmer will absolutely have a chance to swim in a meet that week.

As always, send us an email (gmstgators@gmail.com) if you have questions or stop a Board Member at the pool.