Hi Sturgeons!

Well it certainly is winter out there. We have had our fair share of winter weather these past few days. I just want to remind everyone that I pretty much never cancel practice due to weather (unless blizzards and road closed- even I am not that crazy). If I do cancel, I will make the call at 4pm before the afternoon practices. But again, this pretty much never happens. I expect everyone to make the decision that feels right for them. If you are coming from farther afield, your car is not great in the snow, you really do not like winter driving (who does?), etc, and you say not going tonight, I understand and support your decision.

That said here is what we have on the docket coming up:

Holiday Relay Carnival (like a glorified practice) this Saturday December 13th at 10:30am ~ 12:15/12:30pm. Each child will participate in up to 5 relays and even us coaches may participate. Please sign-up by tomorrow night @ 9pm, so I can save some time standing around and set-up the relays beforehand.

Check out our meet schedule in January and sign up for the Jan. 4th meet by this Sunday the 14th at 9pm.

Bronze Championships are coming up the weekend of January 16th-18th. The January 4th meet at UVAC and the Norwich Pentathlon on January 11th and the last two meets left to qualify. Here are the qualification standards. You can look up your swimmer’s times in the SWIMS database. The qualifying period is from June 1st 2024 to January 11th 2026, so you can check out past season’s times as well. All your swimmer needs is 1 qualifying time and they can swim 3 bonus swims, all on 1 day or over the course of the weekend. If your swimmer qualifies in more than 1 swim they can swim in up to 9 individual events over the course of the weekend by no more than 6 individual swims per day (I wouldn’t recommend more than 3-4 especially if they are in relays as well). Here is the meet invite for Bronze and it outlines all these entry policies and limits. Here is the list of swimmers that have made it to Bronze Championships in 1 or more swims, so far. Many swimmers that have not made it yet are very close. If they want to go or want to swim in more events, please make attending the January 4th meet at UVAC a top priority. If you have any questions, reach out to me, I am happy to help.

I am working on compiling a wish list or potential gifting list for your swimmers. This will mainly be geared for older swimmers 13 and up. But I will include a section for 11-12 and 10 &Under. I will send it out in a separate email this weekend, so as not to overwhelm everyone. If you want my input or suggestion for your individual swimmer feel free to reach out.

This is a good time of year to maybe talk about goals, especially with your older swimmers, 10 & up. We don’t spend a lot of time in practice talking about individual goals but it might be a good idea to spend some time at home discussing and making goals that are SMART, Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. The goal could be as simple as I want to do 3 practices a week, for say 12 weeks, that would go a long way in helping swimmers achieve progress and success. Not that progress and success are everything but I think there is something to be said for setting a goal, tracking your progress, and evaluating after. I know I have a few of my own personal goals. I think goals help keep us on a path and help to re-focus us when we stray off that path. Like I am doing with this email right now…

Alright, I am cut-off. Sign-up for the Holiday Relay Carnival if you can make it, sign-up for the Jan. 4th meet, if your swimmer has made Bronze Champs please indicate which days (maybe all of them) you are interested in going, and see you at the pool!

Coach Hilary