Hi Winter Sturgeons-

Many of you know who I am, at this point I feel like my reputation precedes me. But in case you don’t know, I am Hilary Stanton-Geddes, your head coach and fearless leader of this team. I grew up swimming for Lake Champlain Waves in Plattsburgh, NY. I set a few records in the Adirondack District mainly in Breastroke, IM, and Butterfly. I went on to swim for Amherst College in Amherst, MA, where I set the college record for 200 yard breaststroke, my specialty. Although at this point none of this really matters, what matters is I have a bunch of experience as a swimmer, a swim parent (Maddie (15), Gabe (13), and Dylan (10)) and as a swim coach. I am going on my 3rd year here with the CVSA Sturgeons, this wonderful team we have created together. Being your coach is one of the greatest honors of my life. Thank you for trusting me with your swimmers. You all are a valuable part of this team and I strive to make everyone feel that way. Anyway, I am getting sidetracked already. Let’s get back to the point.

I am getting so excited for our main season of swimming to start on the 26th, in less than 2 weeks! We have had a pretty awesome fall training session with some of your fellow Sturgeons. But we are ready to welcome all returning Sturgeons and new Sturgeons back in the pool. We have had some pretty exciting developments with dryland training for the Big Sturgeons and the Teal Group. They are no longer in the hallway, we secured space in the dance studio near the gym at St. Mike's! Also we have a fun mix of meets, both home and away, feel free to check out the schedule I have attached below.

Practice Schedule:

Big Sturgeons (11 and Over)

(5 days of swim practice and 2-3 dryland opportunities per week)

Swim Practice- Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday 5:30-7pm.

Swim Practice- Tuesday 6:30-8:30pm and Friday 6-8pm.

Drylands-Monday and Wednesday 4:30-5:15pm

Teal (9-10-11-12)

(5 days of swim practice and 2 dryland opportunities per week)

Swim Practice- Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday 6-7pm.

Swim Practice- Tuesday 6:30-8pm and Friday 6-7:30pm.

Drylands- Monday and Wednesday 5:20-5:50pm.

Crimson (7-8-9-10 year olds)

(4 days of swim practice per week)

Swim Practice- Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday 5-6pm.

Swim Practice- Tuesday 6:30-7:30pm

Little Frys (6-8 year olds)

(3 days of swim practice per week)

Swim Practice- Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday 5-5:45pm.

Practices are subject to change due to conflicts with the college swimmers schedule. I will try to give you all enough notice of those changes so we can all be prepared.

Equipment/Gear:

We are a pack in/pack out facility so we have virtually no storage space on the deck for extra gear therefore we all need to bring our own. Here is a list of what you need:

Swim Outlet is the best/cheapest source for a lot of this gear:

For the littlest group we like these:

Long Sporti Fins on SwimOutlet

For the older groups we like these:

TYR HydroBlade Short Fin

Also it would be nice if you could bring a kick board:

Sporti Kick Board on Swim Outlet.

And a Pullbouy for the older groups:

Sporti Pullbouy on Swim Outlet

We (my coaches, me and my kids) love these mesh bags for carrying this wet gear in:

Sporti Mesh Gear Bags on Swim Outlet

Team Gear Store for team merch, name caps, suits, etc. will be opening soon I will post a link and send one out via email as well. Stay tuned.

Practice Philosophy: Many of you know me by now, not much has changed, for better or worse. I do not have a practice requirement for participation in any team event. I am not the type of person that does well with mandates and I never want to make practice a punishment. I also want to keep kids swimming throughout their whole lives. I am playing the long game here. That said, I think kids get a lot more out of their time here when they attend as many practices as they can for their practice group. They become better swimmers and more engaged with their team and the sport. All good things happen when you swim more!

Meets: Learning how to compete and how to manage wins and losses is one of the biggest skills we get from being on a competitive swimming team. I think it is very important. One of my favorite jobs as a coach is helping swimmers manage their pre-race nerves and re-framing negative emotions before and after the event. Meets are also great for team bonding and for learning how to navigate big emotions and big moments. They are also fun and like a big party. Anyway we have lots of opportunities on the meet schedule, both home and away, check it out on our sign-up calendar and sign up today (a lot of them are open).

For away meets. I will send out an email with deadlines for entries, please get your entries in. It will all be on swimtopia but please reach out to me with any questions.

We will have some jobs required to be filled by our team every meet. It is proportional to the number of entries or swimmers attending. When I have the job list from the meet director I will post them. If we can’t fill them, we won’t be allowed to swim at these meets. So it’s really important to do what we can to fill these roles. There are also fees for away meets. I will invoice families ideally a week before the meet happens. You can pay through the payment link sent to your email. Thanks for your prompt payment. It really helps us pay our bills. If you need assistance with meet fees or US Swim Membership, US Swimming offers outreach assistance, ask me for details on how to get connected with this offering if you need it.

For the home meets, you see them on the schedule, you will also notice there are no details with them. We are still formulating what we want our home meet schedule to look like and what is ideal for our team. We are also one of the only teams in the area that can host meets at our facility, so that is both exciting and a big responsibility that requires lots of help. One of the ways you can help is by signing up to become an official. No prior swim experience or knowledge is necessary, just a willingness to learn and donate your time. I do offer a discount on registration fees if you sign up to officiate. We need Administrative Officials and Stroke and Turn Officials. I have included a checklist attachment for the steps to becoming a US Swim Official with nice interactive links, for you to check out, easy peasy. Thank you for considering. It is a huge undertaking running meets. But it is so important for getting local kids engaged in the sport.

I am so excited to get this season started. Thank you all for being part of this journey with me, it will be an adventure with real life experiences in the real world. Let me know if you have any ideas for events you would like to see this season, special clinics, or anything you want to see offered. We don’t have many traditions being a new team, so it is time to create our own. I love ideas so send them my way. Also if you know of any local businesses that would like to sponsor our team for any amount send them my way. We can put them on our website or on our yearly team t-shirt (all swimmers get included with registration fees). We are also looking for slogans for this years’ team t-shirt, if you have a good one send them my way. Alright I think I have reached my word count limit. I cut myself off at 1,381 and I am just about there. Let me know if you have any questions. Thanks for reading this monster of an email. Take care everyone and I look forward to seeing you at the pool.

Coach Hilary