Welcome!

On behalf of the coaches and team representatives, we would like to welcome you to the 2025 season! Though a bit of a bumpy start weather wise, I predict a great season ahead.

Each week I will try to send out an email highlighting what we’ve done and what is yet to come as well as things I may need you to do for your swimmer. If you are like me and absolutely hate reading long newsletters…well, I’ll apologize now. However, please at least skim the highlights because I will be asking you to do some tasks and stating deadlines for said tasks. I don’t like to brag but I think I can be a little humorous and we could all use a laugh from time to time. At the very least you can laugh at my grammar and typos. This will be my longest email of the season as it is action packed with information.

First Week

Our main goal this week was to get everyone in the water. The mission wasn’t quite accomplished thanks to mother nature forgetting what time of year it is. However, I was very proud of the brave souls who came jumping in under less than desirable circumstances.

Our younger swimmers worked on lane etiquette and streamlines while focusing on the basics of freestyle. Our older swimmers were simply trying to get back in the rhythm of swim practices.

Yes, the water is on the cooler side right now. The coaches and I all watch very closely for signs that the swimmers are just too cold and when we see those, we stop practices early and get them out of the water. I’m hoping by next week we can begin full practices. I think I saw a 90 degree day in our future. What??!!

Next Week

Next week we will continue focusing on basics for all strokes. Weather permitting, we will also work on our starts with all swimmers in anticipation of time trials. I will begin badgering the swimmers to get their parents to declare for all A meets and Time Trials. Which brings me to…..

Time Trials—notice a bigger font here means very important!

Our first swim event of the season will be our Time Trials which will be held on Saturday 6/7 from 8:30 AM until approximately 11:30 AM. It is expected that all swim team members participate in time trials. This event is not for Pre Team members. In order to participate, you need to sign up on our website. Under “Schedule” you can scroll down and find Time Trials and sign your swimmer up. You should sign your swimmer up for every stroke they are legal to swim in. If terms like “time trials” and “legal” do not make sense to you, I’ll direct you to read the document titled FAQ’s also on our website. Lots of questions can be answered by reading that document.

The deadline to sign up for Time Trials is Wednesday, 6/4.

If you already have something scheduled on 6/7 between 8 and 11, I will try to schedule a make up date during practice on Monday 6/9. The make up is not for those swimmers who “don’t do mornings” or “would rather sleep”. Instead they are for “we have a wedding to attend that starts at 10AM” or “I have a baseball champion of the universe game” or even maybe “Aliens are planning an attack at noon” just as examples. However, I would think that the smell of chlorine would scare away all aliens and even so I would demand proof of said attack potential.

Declare your eligibility for A meets now - even bigger and more important!

While you are signing up for Time Trials, you should also take a look at the list of meets labeled A meets. I need every swim team member (excluding pre team) to declare if they are available or not available to swim in A meets. As a review, each week I take a look at the swimmers times and select the top 3 (top 6 in freestyle) to swim at the A meet on Saturdays. I will only select swimmers whose parents have said they are available to swim. Now I promise you, some of you read that paragraph and thought to yourself “oh she doesn’t mean me, my swimmer isn’t fast enough for A meets” I MEAN YOU!! EVERYONE means absolutely every swimmer on the team needs to do this. Guys it’s really simple, look at your calendar and if you are around on a Saturday click Yes I will attend. If you are on vacation one particular week then click No I will not attend. By clicking I will attend, it does not mean that your swimmer will be selected but it does mean they will be considered. The line up showing who is selected will be sent out on Wednesday evenings or Thursday mornings. On Friday, the line up is final and I can not make changes. I can not stress enough how important this is. It should be considered an honor to be selected to represent the team at an A meet and every year I have a handful of swimmers who I would love to reward by putting them in an A meet lineup but I can’t because their parents didn’t click a button on their computer.

This needs to be done now! Skipping this step tells me 1) you aren’t reading my emails and 2) my mental health isn’t important. Ok, #2 was a jump but I can say with absolute honesty that I spend hours emailing and tracking down people each week who haven’t said yes or no to a particular A meet. These are hours I’d rather spend planning fun practices, developing a great meet strategy or spending time with my husband and children who I already don’t see too much of until August. My time is very important to me as I’m sure yours is to you. You can make changes up until the Tuesday before the A meet but doing it all at once makes my life a little calmer. And a calm Jenni is a good thing.

General Housekeeping items

• For my 4:00 practice swimmers- if you arrive a few minutes early you can come through the gate. The gate will be closed and locked at 4:00 and you must then enter through the front door. Everyone should exit through the front door (not the gate).

• Yes, we do swim in the rain as long as the guards deem it safe to do so. If it’s raining heavily and the guard can not clearly see the drain on the bottom of the pool, they may close us down. In the event of thunder, we follow the same rules as everyone else at an outdoor pool. We must leave the deck for 30 minutes after the last thunderclap is heard. I know a lot of you drop your swimmers off at the pool so please have a conversation with them about what they are to do should the pool close for thunderstorms. And hanging out in the showers is never a good idea.

• Please sign up to help out at meets. The swim team is run completely by parents and needs everyone to chip in. If you’ve never volunteered at a swim event before, no worries! We have on the job training and you certainly do not need a PHD to run a stop watch or hand out snacks and make change. Just like I get stressed out when I don’t have enough swimmers eligible to swim an A meet, the team reps get stressed out when we don’t have enough volunteers to run a meet.

Parent To Do’s like right now…DO NOT WAIT!

• Read FAQ’s on the website
• Sign up for Time Trials
• Declare your eligibility for every A meet including Divisionals and A relay carnival
• Sign up to help!!!! Seriously, one person can not do everything. Every single swim team member is expected to help. Your swimmers will appreciate seeing you pitch in. Simply put, if we don’t have enough volunteers, we won’t have a meet. I’ve seen this happen and it’s not pretty. Lots of tears and fair warning, I'm an ugly crier.

I think that’s all for now. As always if you have any questions please feel free to reach out.

Once again, I'm grateful for the opportunity to work with your swimmers this summer and can't wait to get the season going!

Have a great weekend!

Coach Jenni

[email protected]