Good Afternoon Everyone,

A short week this week with the holiday and no meet on Tuesday. To offer a little mid-season rest we will not have practice tomorrow on the 4th or Tuesday on the 5th. We will be back on our normal schedule starting on Wednesday the 6th. Our meet lineup shifts a bit this week with Thursday and Saturday meets, but these meets are not for everyone, so please make sure to read through the email for all pertinent information. Here's the lay of the land for 4th-Week:

Practice Schedule

The practice schedule will be a bit different this week.

Monday and Tuesday, July 4th and 5th: No Practice (enjoy the fireworks everyone)

Wednesday and Thrusday, July 6th and 7th: Regular practice schedule

Friday, July 8th: Full team practice from 9:00-10:30AM (we will be ending a little short for our Fun Friday Picnic at Annandale Pool).

Divisional Relay Championships

On Thursday we will be at Washington Golf for the Divisional Relay Meet. This meet consists of age group-specific free and medley relays and a boys and girls crescendo relay. We only have one entry in each event with a total of 22 events in the meet. So this is by far the smallest roster we will have for any meet throughout the season. That being said, this meet is open to all swimmers to attend. Whether you are entered to swim or not you are more than welcome, nay encouraged, to join the team and cheer on our relays. This is always a very boisterous and fun meet with a great competitive environment. It also happens to be the shortest meet timeline of the summer. Here's what you need to know:

Where: Washington Golf & CC

When: Warm ups will begin at 5:30PM and the meet will start at 6:30PM

Why: Because relays are fun, duh

Who: The lineup is mostly set in Swimtopia (barring a few final confirmations)

Theme: Given that this will be 4th of July week, the theme for this meet will be USA: Red, White, and Blue. So save all your gear from tomorrow evening to wear on Thursday to Relays. We will be the most patriotic squad on deck.

Fun Friday

As mentioned above in the schedule portion, we will end our Friday full team practice a little early at 10:30AM so that everyone can make their way over to Annandale Swim and Tennis by 11:00AM for our Fun Friday event. 

This week we will be having a full team picnic at Annandale. We will have some fun games to play amongst the team as well as a full on inflatable double water slide so we can still get some racing in. So join us at Annandale Swim & Tennis on Friday from 11AM-1PM for some team bonding!

10&U Squirt Gun Invitational Meet

On Saturday Belle Haven CC will be hosting the annual Squirt G: un Mini Meet. While we have not received specific meet information for this from Belle Haven yet, here is what I can share based on past experience (any new information that comes this week we will be sure to pass along). 

Where: Belle Haven CC

When: The meet will begin at 8:00AM. I would guess that our warm ups will be at 7:00 or 7:30AM. The meet typically lasts less than 3 hours.

Who: All 10&U Swim Team members and Coach Katie-approved Junior Team members.

What/How: This is another meet where you will sign up your swimmers for events. You can do so now in Swimtopia. We ask that you not enter your swimmer in events that they have placed in during a regular dual meet or that they regularly swim in the 1st heat of at our 'A' meets. 

This meet is a great opportunity for our little ones to get to swim some events they may not normally have the opportunity to try at our larger dual meets. The host club routinely provides a brunch or breakfast food service for parents and families and each swimmer will receive a squirt gun to shoot other swimmers (and hopefully not the coaches) with after the meet is over. 

ANCC Club Survey

The club survey is out and all submissions need to be in by Tuesday, July 5th. Please make sure you fill out the survey (both the member and the spouse can submit separately) if you have not done so already. You can find the survey HERE if you cannot find the email. 

It may seem odd to have this included in a swim team email, however it is imperative that swim team families have their voices heard when the club makes it available. The Aquatics bloc is quite large and the Swim Team is a large and vocal part of that crew. Given the issues we are currently experiencing with our schedule and facility it would seem quite important to make sure that Swim Team families are accounted for when going over the state of the club. So, again, if you have not done so, please do fill out the survey. It takes about 30 minutes to complete, but will save and can be done in pieces. The deadline is this Tuesday, July 5th. 

From the Deck,

Coach Ian