Hi Sharks Families, 

We’re heading into our last week of evening practices—great job so far, everyone! 

🏊♂️🏊♀️ Please refer to the Practice Schedule for times and locations. 

🏁 First Away Meet: Saturday at Lovettsville 

📍 Location: 57 E. Broad Way, Lovettsville, VA 20180 

🕒 Approx. Drive Time: 45 minutes 

This is one of the YARDS pools in our league. That means your swimmer’s times will appear faster than usual. Don’t worry—SwimTopia will automatically convert them to meters for consistency across the league. 

⏳ Meet Entry Deadline: All entries are due Wednesday at 11:59 PM. No deck entries allowed (unlike Time Trials). 

From dual meets, swimmers will compete in a maximum of 3 individual strokes per meet.

🤝 Relays:  

• Relays are selected by the computer based on the fastest swimmer combinations. If your swimmer cannot participate in a relay, you must mark them as unavailable by Wednesday at 11:59 PM. 
• If you no-show for a relay once, your swimmer will not be placed in relays for the rest of the season—no exceptions. 
• Everything is volunteer-driven, and chasing down swimmers adds time and stress to our volunteer work. 
• It also takes away opportunities from swimmers who are ready and eager to participate. 

📸 See the attached picture for how to mark relay availability in SwimTopia. If you’re unsure whether you can stay until the end of the meet, please mark your swimmer as unavailable. You must be 100% sure to mark them as available.

💬 A Note About Time Trials: Despite the rain, time trials were a wet but fun success! We’re incredibly proud of the great behavior in the team area and the positive encouragement swimmers showed each other. The handshakes after races were a highlight! 

That said, we did see some swimmers entered in races they weren’t quite ready for. 

To help meets run smoothly: Please get coach approval before signing up for butterfly, breaststroke, or IM (Individual Medley) if your swimmer was not successful in those strokes at Time Trials.

     Swimmers who are not ready for a stroke will be removed from that event. We say this with kindness—it’s all about keeping the meet fun and fair for everyone! 

⏱ Timer Reminders: Thank you to all who timed at Time Trials! 

A few important reminders: 

• No phones allowed while timing. If you need to be reachable by phone, please choose a different volunteer role. 
• Volunteers using phones while timing will be removed and will not receive volunteer points. 
• If an emergency arises, ask the head timer to briefly replace you—do not walk away without coverage. 
• We’ll be adding a few helpful reminders to your clipboards before out first home meet.

👕 Spirit Wear & Team Shirts:

We know many of you are excited to receive your remaining spirit wear and team shirts! These will be distributed mid-week during morning practices, after the school year ends. 

Please note: our volunteers on the board are teachers and will still be working during the first few days of morning practice due to post-school-year workdays. We appreciate your patience and will make sure everyone receives their gear as soon as possible!

Let’s make this a great week! 

Go Sharks! 🦈