Good Job at Champs & Potluck Banquet

You guys did great at Champs!  We came in 8th overall, solidly in Division II (woo-hoo!!) and are the Division II runners up for the season!  Awesome!

At the end of each session, swimmers are awarded a "Highpoint Award" for winning the most points in the session. Bracken Eddy and Ashley Huang each won for their session.  Good work! 

Our End-of-Season Potluck Banquet Dinner is at the Key Center on 800 E. Market Street at 6 PM (map). We ask that each family bring a side dish AND a dessert to serve 8 people.  Please don't arrive early - the space will be in use until just before 6.

See everyone tomorrow ready to celebrate our success and thank our AMAZING coaches.

Banquet Dinner & Family Fun Swim

On Tuesday, July 31st, the City swim team will hold its  End-of-Season Potluck Banquet Dinner at the Key Center on 800 E. Market Street in Charlottesville (map). We ask that each family bring a side dish AND a dessert to serve 8 people. To help Linda Austin with planning, please sign up your family here. This is where swimmers get their trophies, any stray ribbons, and awards.  Families get to thank the coaches for their hard work this season.  Parents get to be grateful we made it through another season! We hope to see everyone there.

On Wednesday, August 1st, the City holds a Swordfish Team Family Fun Swim at the Onesty Family Aquatic Center (map).This is a free, fun, purely social event. Please sign-up at the front desk of Washington Park pool to secure your choice of either a 4:00–6:00PM or 6:30–8:30PM fun swim. This fun event is for City Swordfish swimmers and their immediate families only, and space is limited, so you do need to sign up at the pool.

Go Swordfish!

CHAMPS info and more

CHAMPS FAMILIES: It is very important that at least one parent of all Champs swimmers attend the Pancake Supper starting at 6:15 on Wednesday at Washington Park pool. Champs packets and other information will be given out and the swimmers will make spirit banners.

Just a note - a few families have been sad that swimmers who aren't going to Champs aren't invited to the pancake supper. This is a non-swimming event intended primarily to provide information and distribute required materials to Champs families. The social aspect is secondary to the business aspect at this event. 

We do not yet have the warmup times for the Champs sessions. That information will be distributed when we have it.

ALL FAMILIES: We will have a parent's committee meeting later in the summer/early fall to assess the season and make plans for next year. Over the past few years, we've improved the organization of the team, but still have plenty of issues to work on.  If you have ideas and would like to participate, look for that email. Meanwhile, make notes of what you wish we'd change (or the things we really need to keep doing!) 

Thanks for everyone's hard work. We'll see many of you at Champs practice this week, and everyone at the Banquet and Fun Swim! 

WEEK 6 RESULTS

What a great end to our season! We won the meet 434.5 to 350.5. (See the meet results, and all the other teams results) It was a great competition against Glenmore. They hosted a well-run meet, and our swimmers and coaches worked hard. Thanks to all!

Reminder:  If your kids are not swimming at Champs, swim practice is now over. The next all-team events will be the Banquet and Family Fun Swims. 

Important:  the coaches will begin working at 1 pm TODAY to enter swimmers into the Champs meet next Friday and Saturday.  You MUST CONFIRM THAT YOU ARE SWIMMING AT CHAMPS.  If you haven't, quick, sign up here: We ARE swimming at CHAMPS!

There are two of the coveted Champs volunteer positions left (they get you inside to the a/c and action!)   We still need a table awards assistant for the 8 & unders (Friday afternoon) and a table awards assistant for the 11 & 12 year olds (Saturday morning).  These jobs will give you a comfy seat inside and you'll be able to take a break to watch your swimmer.  Go here to sign up: Champs Jobs

Finally, (any coaches reading, please look away) we are collecting money for the coaches' gifts - please give donations to Leah, Amy, Kathryn, Claude or anyone you think won't pocket and buy a coffee... We'll be around at most practices, at the Pancake Supper next Wednesday (mandatory for all Champs families) and at the Champs meets. Also, look for the coaches' cards to have your kids sign them.

GO SWORDFISH!

WEEK 6 MEET: Wed. July 18; Away vs. Glenmore

This Wednesday, we have our final dual meet of the season against Glenmore AT Glenmore Country Club.  (directions)(map) Note: the Shadwell Bridge IS OPEN so you can ignore the detour instructions.

Swimmers should be at Glenmore at 4:45, caps and goggles on, hands marked with events, ready to SWIM!  By now, we all know the drill... Note that the Glenmore team is very small this year. We may need more City parents to step up to volunteer once we're at the meet. We have a few open spots, so check out the regular sign up if you haven't worked yet.  

About half our team has confirmed that they are swimming at Champs.  We need ALL our swimmers!! Please confirm your swimmers' attendance at Champs here. 

We still have a few volunteer spots open at Champs. Providing these parent volunteers is a JSL requirement.  If the jobs are not filled, our team will be penalized points. That means if you've signed up, you REALLY need to show up to work, as someone is keeping track. Names of volunteers have to be submitted ahead of time so that you can have an official name tag that allows admittance to the pool areas. You can check out the Champs sign up here.

GO SWORDFISH!! 

Week 5 Results & CHAMPS info

NOTE: Important information about Champs -- read through to the end please!

Wow!  What a close meet.  We finished ONE POINT behind Hollymead - 548 to 549!  Think of this - out of almost 1100 points, the scores differed by one point.  Amazing swimming by both teams. Thanks to Andrea and the coaches, the swimmers, and all the hard work of the parent volunteers. Meet result (PDF) and all JSL results.

A few notes: We've had some issues with the timing. We know it's hard -- the events move fast, it can be hard to hear, and there is often a fair amount of chaos around the timers.  We ask for our last meet of the year that parents and swimmers be aware of how they may be crowding the workers and that those doing the timing do their best to ignore distractions.  (That includes our own kids and spouses trying to talk to us while we're timing.)  It's important to keep your eye on the strobe light (faster than the horn) for the start of the race, and watch the swimmer's hand (not body) as they touch the wall at the finish. Finally, and we know it's TOUGH with everything else, make your best efforts to write clear, legible numbers on the cards.  We know we ask a lot of our volunteers, but in close meets, handwriting (is that a 6 or 0? 7 or 1?) and careless timing can literally change the outcome of the meet. 

Also, please tell your swimmers NOT to be in the clerk area when they are not getting ready to swim! Our poor clerks are working hard, and extra kids make the job a lot more stressful. 

CHAMPS is coming!  We've proven that we are competitive in Divison II but we will be dropped back to Division III if we can't hold on to our place in the Champs meet.  Seriously - it's not how we finish during the season, but how we place at Champs that determines our division rank.  We need all our swimmers to be there!  The schedule is as follows:

Friday MORNING 7/27 :  All 9 – 10s (8a.m. - 1p.m.)

Friday AFTERNOON 7/27:  All 6 – 8 year olds (1 - 7:30 p.m.)

Saturday MORNING 7/28:  All 11 – 12 year olds (8 a.m. - 12:30p.m. )

Saturday AFTERNOON 7/28:  All 13 & Ups (12:30 - 6:30p.m.)

We need you to please confirm that your swimmer will be at  Champs.  Please use this link: WE ARE GOING TO CHAMPS  Anyone not  confirmed will NOT be entered into the meet. Lots more information will be coming about Champs so you know exactly what to expect. 

Also, the parents committee is considering renting a school bus for one or both days to provide transportation. Any child 12 or younger would need to be with an adult. Older kids will not have supervision. In order for us to gauge interest, please use this link. We want to ride the bus! We'll decide whether or not to move forward with the bus based on your responses.

Please take time to look at the information about volunteering at the Champs meet on July 27th and 28th at Fork Union Military Acadamy. We need all positions filled by next week to give the names to the JSL. More information can be found at the jsl.org website. Thanks to those who have already offered to volunteer (you will see you are already signed up on the form). This is a new venue this year, but as in past years, only those volunteering with name badges will be allowed on the pool deck. What an incentive to volunteer!

Thanks everyone! GO SWORDFISH!!

WEEK 5 MEET: Wed. July 11; Home vs. Hollymead

The meet this week is on Wednesday at home, against the Hollymead Hammerheads. THIS IS OUR BIG MEET! We need everyone to come ready to SWIM!

As with previous home meets, please try to park at Burley Middle School (map), leaving the Washington Park upper and lower parking for our guests. In the interest of community relations, refrain from parking on the residential streets, even in legal spots. Please have your swimmers at the pool by 4:30 for warm ups, with goggles and caps on, and events sharpied on hands (it's helpful to add the heat as well as the event number if you can).

 Please note that we'll be swimming a little out of order - the long free events will happen right after the relays this week. The coaches want to be sure the kids get another chance to swim long free and this will help ensure that we get that event in (in case of inclement weather or a meet that runs long). We still have some jobs open for this weeks meet (unusually, some first half jobs are still open) - please sign up here.

Thanks for everyone's help with getting these meets to run smoothly. We have more team t-shirts, and plenty of youth smalls. See Leah at practices (thank you Leah!) or look for them at the meet.

Fingers crossed for fair weather Wednesday!  GO SWORDFISH!!

WEEK 4 MEET RESULTS: Wed. July 3, vs. Greene Hills

Thanks again to Andrea and all the great coaches, who lead us to another win in truncated, but very successful, swim meet!  The final score was City 293, Greene Hills Gators 233.  Thanks to all the parents who jumped in and worked. Everything ran smoothly thanks to your hard work, and give your swimmers a big high-five for their hard work and good swimming. See our results here and the other JSL results here.

Remember to opt-out of the meet if your swimmers will not be here next week and please sign up for jobs for next week's meet.

Our weather issues on Tuesday brought up several questions:

When are swimmers called out of the water and for how long?
The JSL bylaws say: The Host Team Meet Director shall be responsible for making and implementing all decisions regarding weather issues. In the event of thunder or lightning or rain hard enough to obscure the bottom of the pool, the Meet Director shall stop the meet and clear the pool of all swimmers. In the case of thunder or lightning, the meet shall not resume until at least 15 minutes have passed since thunder or lightning were last observed. Each team shall have a plan for clearing its pool area which fits its structure and safe shelter availability. The host's team's policy will prevail if more strict than League policy.

When is the meet called for weather?
That is up to the meet director. if it looks like the weather may pass quickly enough to allow the meet to resume, we'll wait.  If it looks like the weather will last a while or we're fairly close to the end, the meet may be called, especially if we're through the half-way point. 

When is a meet 'complete?'
According the JSL bylaws:  The Home Meet Director in conference with the visiting Team Meet Director(s) will decide when a meet shall be suspended due to inclement weather or other circumstances. After the completion of one-half of the scheduled events a meet will be considered complete. Tuesday or Wednesday suspended meets will be swum on Thursday of the same week except any meet at the Louisa Pool will be swum on Friday night and any meet involving Greene Hills will be swum on Monday of the following week. By mutual agreement of the Home and Visiting Meet Directors, a meet not completing the half-way event may be considered complete or another completion date may be agreed upon.

What is the mysterious "half-way event"?
It depends  on the meet format, but is about the conclusion of the breaststroke events (just before the backstroke begins). 

See everyone Monday at 6 for the Team Photo - have your swimmers in their team swimsuit. 

GO SWORDFISH!!

MEET: Tue. July 3; Home vs. Greene Hills

We hope everyone weathered the storm ok!  Remember, the meet this week is on TUESDAY at home, against Greene Hills.  As last time, please try to park at Burley Middle School (map), leaving the Washington Park upper and lower parking for our guests. In the interest of community relations, refrain from parking on the residential streets, even in legal spots. 

Please have your swimmers at the pool by 4:30 for warm ups, with goggles and caps on, and events sharpied on hands (it's helpful to add the heat as well as the event number if you can). 

Thanks for the additional job sign ups. Amy is sleeping better. We still have a few spots open so take a look if you're not signed up already. Remember that we will be doing an orientation for TIMERS, RUNNERS, and CLERKS before the meet. Remember, too, that if you are a second half worker, you need to listen for the change over. It's usually around the beginning of backstroke events. We'll send someone around with the megaphone warning you, but you'll have to pay attention as well, as it's easy to miss announcements in the chaos of meets. First half workers, man/woman your stations until your second half relief arrives!  Send word if you are not relieved, and we'll figure it out for you as quickly as we can.  

Team Picture Day is next Monday, July 9 at Washington Park Pool, 6 PM.  Please try to arrive as early as possible wearing your team suit (or a plain black suit). 

Speaking of suits, several parents have contacted the Parents Committee seeking to buy or sell used suits.  Rather than handle this through emails, we are going to ask parents to post a small notice on the team bulletin board at the pool. 

GO SWORDFISH!