Good Evening Purveyors of the Pool,

I come to you from the pool deck at University of Maryland where the Army Navy swimmers are currently leading the point totals if we were to split teams up by their country club (yes, I scored it out. I had some extra time on deck). It was another successful week for the swim team. We crushed at Edgemoor and didn’t have to drive out to Manor. Then we capped it off with a Squirt Gun meet that had decent weather (I truly cannot remember the last time it wasn’t blazing hot or raining). We are rounding into form and almost ready for Championship SZN™.

We, again, have a full week ahead of us with Divisional Relays on Tuesday, a home B meet on Thursday, and a 10&U Duckies and Donuts on Saturday. In addition, we have some meets that require a little earlier sign up coming up in the next two weeks (make sure you have marked your availability for Divisionals and Champs please!) So, let’s get down to business (🎵To defeat the Huns…🎵).

A Division Relay Championships

Tuesday, July 14th – @ Army Navy – 5:15PM Warm Up – 6:30PM Start – Theme: 80s/Neon

Relays is one of my favorite meets. It’s exciting, full of fast swims, and is over quite early! You will find the relay entries attached to this email. With only a free and medley relay for each age group, there are only a small number of swimmers entered in the meet. That also means that the meet while starting at 6:30PM will still be over before 8:00PM. Leaving plenty of time for food, fun, and hanging out afterward.

While this is the smallest roster of swimmers we will have competing at any meet all summer, that doesn’t mean it doesn’t involve everyone. This is a home meet for us and I want the pool to be absolutely ROCKIN! We are the defending champions and I don’t plan on letting this one go easily. Since there is no trophy for this title (an absolute crime, honestly) I told Wendy I wanted to make a Relay Champs title belt to be handed down through the CCSDA. She said I could make and order one if we backed it up with a win this year. So there’s your motivation everyone.

Throw some legwarmers on, grab your loudest outfit (don’t mind The Clash), so we can look like a Motley Crue ready to enter Depeche Mode having an A-Ha! Moment all while finding The Cure for our all our Tears for Fears. It’s going to be a great night.

Tech Suit Fitting and Sale at Relays

In addition to all the fun above (I know, it might be too much), Sport Fair will be at the meet with a tech suit fitting event with all the latest and greatest Arena tech suits. Whether it’s your first or twenty-first, you will be able to try on and purchase all the Arena offerings without having to visit the store.

See the attached flyer for more details.

B Meet vs. Ft. Myer

Thursday, July 16th @ Army Navy – 5:00PM Warm Up – 6:00PM Start – Theme: Jersey

Thursday brings us another B meet. Let’s just pretend this is the makeup for this past Thursday except we don’t have to drive to Rockville to do so. All the same rules apply as last week. Swimmers should not enter events that they have scored in (placed in the top 3) and are restricted to 3 events. While we open up the entries so you can sign up for events, we may have to change those depending on the number of entries. We will try to get everyone the most opportunities to swim without keeping us at the club well into the night.

Please make sure all entries are in by Tuesday evening. If you are unsure of what to sign up for you can always just mark your swimmer as Attending and the coaches will make sure to get them entered in whatever we think will be best for them.

Fun Friday

10-11AM - Poster Making

After Friday’s fun practice from 8:45-10AM we will have another Fun Friday Activity. We will get together to make posters for the upcoming, and aforementioned, Championships SZN™. All posters and writing materials will be provided to make a poster for your favorite swimmer or maybe your favorite age group. We will plaster the team area with our posters throughout the next two weeks to bring the hype train into the station. As always, there will be a little treat provided by the club (Jack’s favorite).

But wait, that’s not all! Within our Army Navy Aquatics family we have a board member of the USA Swimming Foundation. She would like to have our swimmers put together some cards and videos to send off our USA Swimming Pan-Pacific Championship Team with when they head out to Long Beach in August for the meet. It will be a great way for our swimmers to interact with our national team members and give them a little boost before a big championship meet. Then the swimmers can watch team USA compete on USA Swimming Network Aug 12-15.

Duckies & Donuts 10&U Mini-Meet

Saturday, July 18th @ Army Navy FFX – 8:15AM Warm Up – 8:45AM Start

Please make sure to get your entries in on Swimtopia for another 10&U mini-meet we will be running at Army Navy Fairfax. All entries must be designated by Friday morning at 10AM. Also, since this meet is just Army Navy swimmers, please make sure to fill up the volunteer positions designated as well. It takes just as many volunteers to run a meet whether we have another team there or not!

All heat winners will receive a winner’s ducky and each competing swimmer in the meet will get a fresh, house-made, donut at the conclusion of the meet. This is a great opportunity for our little ones to get in some swims without waiting around past sunset at our dual meets. The meet will likely finish up around 10:30AM

Let’s keep this massive boulder rolling downhill!

From the Deck,

Coach Ian