Hi all,

Happy Mother's Day to all Wavemaker moms!

We had so much fun during our first week of practice, even with the colder temps! I know I'm sending longer emails, but there is important info to share. I'll do my best to keep them as short as possible! Please let me know if you have any questions!  

In this email:

• Schedule
• Bathrooms
• 6&under vs. Junior
• Swim suit ordering update
• Meet RSVP info
• Big/little buddies
• Volunteers for meets
• Notes from parent meeting

SCHEDULE NEXT 2 WEEKS

THIS WEEK, WEEK OF 5/11

We have practice Monday-Thursday at the Mark Trail pool (210 Seville Chase).

*if you haven't been to a practice yet, please try to attend this week at some point so I can lay my eyes on the swimmer!

• Ages 6&under: Mon - Thurs from 5:00 pm – 5:30 pm
• Ages 7 to 10: Mon - Thurs from 5:30 pm – 6:15 pm
• Ages 11 & older: Mon – Thurs from 6:15 pm – 7:00 pm

NEXT WEEK, WEEK OF 5/18

Practice Monday-Wednesday at Mark Trail. Tuesday, 5/19 will be our practice meet, everyone is asked to be there at 5. We will NOT have practice on Thursday, 5/21, due to the last day of public school. 

For Tuesday, 5/19: all swimmers arrive at 5 for the practice meet.

BATHROOMS

Thanks to Calley Stuenkel and Nora Robb for doing bathrooms last week!  I'll send an email separately to those that signed up this week with the details.  I really appreciate you all!

6&UNDER VS. JUNIOR

We have a large group of swimmers that are 6&younger this year, which we are so excited about! The juniors program is for kids not ready for swim meets, which can get confusing since they practice at the same time as the 6&unders who are doing meets. All kids who have been in lane 1, will for sure be in the junior program for now. For all others, I would like to try them at the practice meet Tuesday, 5/19, to see what happens. Swimmers can stop on lane ropes in meets (of course it's faster not to), but it doesn't disqualify them.

SWIM SUIT ORDERING UPDATE

I know many of you ordered suits and are still waiting for them. The deadline to order to get it by the first meet was the end of last week, and now he is working on the orders and will get all suits to us ASAP.  You can still order, you will just have to pay your own shipping.

Click here to order suit. Click on “team login”. Username is MTPS and password is 1234.

MEET RSVP

If you will miss a meet, you will declare this on the website. Click on the "calendar" tab on the website. For the meet you will miss, click on “meet entry” and it will ask you to declare if you’re swimmer will be there or not. YOU ONLY HAVE TO DO THIS IF THEY WILL NOT BE THERE. This process is just for those that know in advance. If your child gets sick the day of, please email/text/call me as soon as possible to let me know.

BIG KID/LITTLE KID BUDDIES

We are continuing our buddy program where all 6&u kids get a big kid buddy. We are looking for any swimmers 9 and older that would be interested in having a buddy this season. Responsibilities include cheering on their buddy, helping them at meets so they know where to go, and occasionally bringing a small treat (candy usually). Please let me know if your swimmer is interested.

VOLUNTEERS FOR MEETS

The sign-ups are now open for all meets. Please go to the website, mtps.swimtopia.com, click on "calendar", and then "job entry" to sign up for jobs. Each family is asked to work a minimum of 5 shifts (there are 2 shifts per meet).

Thanks, and have a great weekend!

Coach Julie

770-289-6626

NOTES FROM PARENT MEETING

Practice

After Memorial Day we switch to morning practice at Mark Trail and evening practice at Princeton Square. If you can attend mornings, please do. At Princeton Square we only get 2 lanes and don’t have flags, kickboards, or blocks. It’s a better option than no practice at all, but mornings are really the time to come if at all possible. We do have babysitters bring swimmers often, so if that is an option for you, know that it is totally fine to do.

Meet Information

Swimmers need to arrive at 4:30 for warm-ups when we’re home team and 4:45 when we’re the away team. If you are unable to attend a meet, please let Coach Julie know by RSVPing on the website at least a week in advance. She needs to know as soon as possible because it will affect relays and other swimmers’ opportunity to swim. If your child wakes up sick, please email or text Julie immediately. She needs to have her line up ready. (770-289-6626)

If you have any questions during practice or a meet, please ask me (Nora Robb)

Kids are NOT allowed in pool or baby pools during meet- safety concern - no dangling feet in lanes, no sitting on stairs, NO PLAYING IN BABY POOL

Our concession stand can provide dinner for you and your family – we typically have barbeque, pizza or hot dogs for sale.

Volunteering

Swim meets take a lot of volunteers to run smoothly. Each family is asked to volunteer for 5 shifts during the season. Here is a little run down on the jobs:

Timer – we have 2 timers per lane. 1 uses a stopwatch to time the race and the other writes down the time

Place judge – sit at the end of the pool and record the order the kids finish each race

Runner – record times from each lane after each race on a slip of paper and bring the paper to the computer

Concessions – help with selling food and drinks

Computer person – enter times throughout the meet

Bullpen – help organize the kids in a certain age group for their races

A day in the life of a swim meet:

• When your child arrives, please send them to the bullpen. This is where kids get ready to swim and are informed of which events they will be participating in. At home, our bullpen is on the covered side of the pool.
• After an event, the child should go back to the bullpen with their teammates to wait for the next event. The volunteers are not responsible for hunting down your children. Please encourage your child to go back to the bullpen to wait for the next event. If they need to eat or something, please bring it to them in the area.
• Each team is required to have a deck manager who will work in a ready area near the starting end of the pool and make sure the kids are lined up according to event/heat/lane. So, the bull pens will be primarily needed for marking up the kids and helping with the little kids relays.
• There is an announcer, so kids & parents need to be listening for their events.
• Meets start at 5:30, and typically last from 5:30-9:00pm depending on amount of swimmers. 6&unders are done halfway through the meet, around 7PM.
• Usually after the meet, we will designate a place to grab dinner, an ice cream or milkshake. We went to Sonic last year but are open to suggestions if there is a better place that can accommodate us!