As we steamroll into our 3rd meet of the season (Thursday July 6th at Hard'ack), it's time to touch base on a few items...

Sharks of the Week for week #1 are Aubree Bohannon (9) and Levi Walters (14).  Look for their feature in yesterday's St. Albans Messenger, and congratulate them when you see them!!

Swimmer behavior did not meet expectations last Thursday.  While this certainly does not include all or even most swimmers, we are a team and it does include at least several of our swimmers.  With an individual sport like swimming, both coaches and parents need to share the responsibility of looking after the swimmers throughout the meet.  Swimmers who cannot behave appropriately will simply be asked not to attend meets and/or dismissed from the team.  Neither are options we'd like to exercise, but they are there if needed.

Parent volunteers are in high demand every meet.  This important caveat may have been accidentally dropped as we shifted some processes around to begin this season, so whether we missed it or not, here it is: Each family is expected to provide an adult volunteer for a minimum of 4 dual meet shifts.  It's important to note that many parents on the team assume full meet roles (officiating, scoring, etc) every single meet.  If the remaining families can cover the rest, which we should be able to do comfortably, we would not only be better at performing in these roles, we'd streamline the entire meet process, thereby enhancing our kids' experience. 

• The number of times you've volunteered for dual meets does not carry over to championship meets.  We are assigned parent jobs at those meets based on swimmer entries.  Sign-ups for these meets (League Champs, VSA Champs) will be available sometime during the week leading up to them.
• Do you enjoy putting kids in their place?!?! Telling them what to do, where to go, and when??  Then have we got the job for you.  The bullpen is an oft intimidating position that really shouldn't be.  Swimmers are pre-assigned to specific heats and lanes, meaning all you need to do, along with the help of two or three other adults, is locate the kid and put them in their place as dictated by the heat sheet.  New to swimming and not sure you'd be a good fit?  There are only 2 obstacles to being a master of the bullpen: basic reading and basic counting skills.  Behavior an issue?  Grab a coach or the specific swimmer(s) parent(s) and let them deal with it.
• Looking for a parent who would like to assume the role of "parent job coordinator."  Filling this role would satisfy your volunteer obligations for the entire season.  Your job is to get the sign-up sheet from one of the coaches and simply check in with each person to ensure they are present and remember they've signed-up!  This is particularly important for relief jobs (i.e. helping to connect our relief timers to our starting timers so they know who to replace).  Because we've got such an amazing group of parents/volunteers, you should ever have to worry about finding someone to fill in a blank spot!!

Officials please try to sign-up for the Starter or S&T jobs so the coaching staff has an accurate count.  If we surprise the team with fewer than 3 officials, then we forfeit and the other team has the option of not even swimming the meet.  If we know ahead of time we may still need to forfeit, but can usually at least make arrangements so the meet runs with official swimmer times.

Swimmer sign-ups now close at midnight the day of the meet (e.g. STA vs WIN sign-ups close at 12AM tonight 6/6).  We would also ask everyone at this point in the season to at least designate your swimmer(s) as "attending" or "not attending" by that deadline.  Even better, select events.  We will still be checking with swimmers on the morning of the meet, but this helps streamline the process, particularly relative to who's coming.  Often times our younger swimmers are inaccurate in this regard!  If something should change after the deadline, please reach out to the coaching staff at [email protected] or by using the "contact us" page on the website.

Practice attendance is important.  We understand that swimmers aren't just swimming, that people take vacations, and that things come up that prevent swimmers from making it to practice.  Therefore, we don't have a policy that requires a certain level of attendance in order to participate in meets and/or remain in good standing on the team.  All that said...practice attendance is important.  It enables the coaching staff to predictably prepare for and efficiently run practice, and for swimmers to settle into the appropriate lane assignments in order to challenge and push one another.  Thank you for getting your swimmer(s) to the pool as frequently as possible!

Thank you all.  This has been a great start to the season, and we look forward to continuing to work with both you and your swimmer(s).

-The Coaches