Green Mountain Swim Team

I would like to take a minute and thank all the Gator families who showed up last night to attend the parent meeting, purchase Gator gear, tie-dye items to wear all summer long and also eat some ice cream.  It was a great night and I can’t wait to see the tie-dye items around the pool.

Our upper division (13-18 year olds) night practice will begin next week.  This practice will be held on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 8:00-9:00pm.  These night practices are to be used for swimmers who are looking for an additional workout.  This practice is not to be used in lieu of attending morning practice.  A coach will be willing to hold these practices as long as this practice is well attended.  Please text Porter (720-999-6725) if you intend on coming to practice as if no one is planning on swimming Porter (or another coach) will take this opportunity to go to bed early 🙂  Parents are also invited to attend this practice.

Please ask if you have any questions about this

We are excited to be able to provide stroke clinics to assist swimmers with specific stroke technique.  Our coaches will hold stoke clinics on Tuesday and Wednesdays for kids (that have signed up) needing additional stroke work.  Each week will offer a different stroke.  These clinics will be held from 9:45-10:15am.  You may sign your child(ren) up for 2 of these stroke clinics as we would like to make this opportunity available to as many swimmers as possible.  You can see the stroke clinic sign-up here and it will show the dates and the stroke that will be worked on.

Also the coaches are available for private lessons if needed.  You can talk to a coach to discuss scheduling this lesson outside of swim team practice.  These lessons are $35.00 per half an hour ($25.00 will be paid to the coach and $10.00 will be paid to the swim club).

Please discuss any questions you may have about this with a coach or board member

We are excited to host a new meet called the Gator Freestyle Frenzy.  This meet will be held at Green Mountain Swim Club on Sunday, June 11th.  This meet is used as a fundraiser for our team and swim club.

The format of this meet will be each swimmer swimming 3 distances of freestyle, with the longest distance being swam first. The times from this meet will be used to help swimmers qualify for the Ken Caryl Invitational as well as League and State.  This meet will finish with a fun freestyle swim and some mini plastic gators swimming across the pool.

A swimmer is eligible to participate in this meet if they have swam any distance of freestyle and has a “B” Qualifying time or better.  If you would like to participate in the event and haven’t already qualified, please plan on swimming some freestyle in the swim meet this Saturday.  If you have already qualified, we will send an email asking if you can participate on Sunday.

Go Gators!!!!!!!!

For the last few years our Gator swimmers have participated in the swim buddy program (Big Buddy/Little Buddy).  This program was created by a previous swim coach in an effort to help the Junior Gators transition into becoming the sport of swimming and to help them navigate swim meets.  This also provides our older Gators some responsibility by helping assist and support the younger swimmers. The program also fosters team spirit, family and camaraderie by connecting the older swimmers with the younger ones.  Big buddies are generally 13&older while Little buddies are 12&under.  This partnership should focus on team unity, spirit and sportsmanship.  The buddy program is not about elaborate gifts-it is about being a supportive teammate! 

Last year we implemented the swimmer of the week.  This was started to recognize swimmers for their hard work in and out of the water.  We are going to start this again as we feel it is important to show the swimmers we appreciate their effort and team work.  Below are the factors that are included when considering at swimmer of the week.  The coaches will be watching swimmers throughout the week (starting this Monday) and the swimmer of the week will be announced on Monday mornings.

• Behavior and Attitude:  highest standards for behavior and manners at all swim team functions; positive attitude in regards to all swimming related programs
• Effort:  demonstrate a resilient, consistent, hard-work ethic both in and out of the pool
• Attendance:  attends practice regularly; participates in meets consistently
• Learning:  demonstrates excellent listening skills; responsiveness to instruction; improve skill development
• Organization:  demonstrates independence; self motivator; arrives on time; has all “equipment”
• Performance:  applies skills and techniques acquired/developed during practice in meets; demonstrates proper form; drops time in events
• Team Work:  demonstrates excellent team work helping all team mates; cheers for other swimmers during events; participates in buddy program
• Gator Factor:  All the above and a little something extra!!!!!!!!!!!

On Wednesday, June 7th we will have our annual tie-dye and ice cream social.  This is a tradition of  tie-dying apparel with the Gator team colors that had been carried on for years .  We are going to incorporate a mandatory parent meeting into this event.

This event will be from 6:00-8:00pm

• Mandatory Parent meeting will begin at 6:00pm.  Please plan on having one parent attend this meeting.  We will discuss some summer season information and introduce all of the coaches and board members.
• Tie-Dye can be completed anytime between 6:00-7:30pm (this will allow them to finish by 8:00pm when the pool closes).  Each person is responsible for bringing an item if they would like to tie-dye.  The swim team will supply the dye (and the fun).  It would be helpful if the item you were going to tie-dye was already prepared with rubber bands.
• Ice Cream will be served around 6:30pm and will be available until this is all eaten.
• We will also have our Gator apparel (shirts, sweatshirts, hats and swim caps) available for purchase.  These items can be purchase with cash, check or credit card.  We will have white tank tops available for purchase as an option of something Gator to tie-dye.