Hi Again-

I have submitted UVAC Winter Classic entries, but if you somehow missed all my communication on this and missed sign-ups, I can likely get you in a few events if you let me know before this Sunday 11/30. The reason why I am going on and on about this meet sign-up is that if I don’t get the December home meet sanctioned (so times count for cut times) we only have the Winter Classic Dec. 5th-7th, the one day CVI Invitational Jan. 4th, and the Norwich University Pentathlon Jan 11th to make Bronze Champs time standards and go to the meet on Jan. 16th-18th at UVAC. So if your swimmer is close to cut times but has not yet made it, please sign up for 1 or all of these meets to give them a better chance at making the times and going to the meet.

Here is the information sheet for Bronze Championships. A cool thing about Bronze is that if you make it in 1 event you can swim up to 3 more events as bonus with no time standards for the bonus events. If you make it in 9 events you can swim up to 9 events over the course of the weekend. Also another fun thing about Bronze is that they offer relays, so I would love to get at least 4 people in each age group and gender to go so we can put together some relays!

Please ask me if you have any questions. A lot of kids have already made it and many are really close in a few events. So if you want recommendations on events to sign up for let me know. I have been studying the results for a while and love answering questions about meet entries and times. It is one of my favorite parts of coaching.

Ok I am getting really excited about all these details in the upcoming weeks and months, we are just getting to the most fun part of the season.

A few details to update you on:

Here is the team t-shirt size request form please fill this out by this coming Monday Dec. 1st at 9pm.

Here is the Thanksgiving break practice schedule and RSVP form. Please let me know if you are planning on attending. There is no practice Thursday or Friday but we have practice offerings on every other day over break, see the form for details.

I have a lot of the meet sign-ups open for the rest of the season. Please take this time to think about your schedule and commit to some of these opportunities. These kids all have so much potential, I just want the world for them. Meets are more fun when we have a bunch of friends there to share in the experience. So please sign-up for some, it is one of the fun parts about being on a competitive swimming team rather than just doing swim lessons or playing in the pool.

I have a new meet on the calendar, a one session 14&Under Pentathlon (5 events all 4 strokes and IM) at UVAC on Sunday March 1st. It looks like a ton of fun. I love pentathlons, being a former IMer and current age group developmental coach. These events are so valuable because all swimmers do all events regardless of their skill level in each event. They get a good workout and get good at doing things they may not be the best at. But they learn to put their best effort forth regardless.

Oh one more thing, the women’s locker room renovation project is apparently underway (yesterday surprise!) so women need to enter and exit from the pool deck and not the lobby. This is going to be a pain for the next couple weeks (I hope only weeks) so please bear with me. Thanks for your flexibility and understanding.

Alright I think that is it for my updates. I will see some of you at the pool shortly and others I will see in a few days after break. Have a fun and relaxing week. If you have some down time, have your swimmers show you some of our core work or ankle stretches (maybe before turkey, not after).

Thanks everyone,

Coach Hilary