We have some extremely brave CUDAS this season!  Thanks to all the parents for helping with time trials and to the swimmers for swimming so hard this morning.  I think it was a successful adventure overall and gave everyone a little taste of the excitement to come next Saturday!  I wanted to mention a few things:

1.  At an actual meet, a swimmer will not swim more than 3 individual events and 2 relays.  So they will not be swimming as many events as some of them swam today.  

2. At an actual meet, the pool deck will be roped off.  Parents and swimmers will have to stay behind the rope at all times.  The best places to view the meet are either as a timer/scribe, official, or on the bleachers.  

3. At an actual meet, we will need even more parental help than we needed today but it will be divided up into shifts.  I mentioned at the parent meeting that we were one of the few teams that did not have a volunteer deposit or required hours.  We do this because we really strive to build the team on the premise of community.  It starts with the parents being willing to invest their time for the team.  Please look over the volunteer roles from the parent meeting and find a place that fits you.

4.  Starting this week, I will have a signup for our Swim Buddies Program.  We pair our younger swimmers with someone a little older to be an encouragement, cheerleader, and a true buddy for the season.  I would encourage you to sign up.  This program allows our swimmers to get to know each other across the age groups and again fosters the spirit of community.  More specifics will be discussed on Monday at pictures but basically the swimmers get to know each other, try to keep track of when each other is swimming to cheer for them, and often they trade a good luck snack (powerade and granola bar or some other inexpensive item) or handmade card.  

5. Team Caps are in and are for sale.  They are silicone caps so they should last for a while and are $10.  These are optional.

6.  Don't forget pictures are Monday.  Individual pictures start at 4:15 and the team picture is at 5:30.  We will not have practice Monday.

As usual, let me know if you have any questions!  Email works best this week as my phone is trying to recover from its drowning in the pool this morning :(

Thanks again for all your help today.  It was fun seeing so many of you this afternoon as well.  Looking forward to another great week!

Katie