Wells Branch Armada

Swim-A-Thon is this Tuesday from 6:00-8:30 pm. We encourage all swimmers and their families to come out to the Willow Bend pool for free pizza and snow cones. Please read the Fundraising & Swim-A-Thon section below for more information. Even though Swim-A-Thon is Tuesday evening, we will have all practices this week as scheduled (weather permitting).

by Deanna Johnson, President

Thank you, parents and swimmers, for your dedication to practices and commitment to the swim meets thus far. As we approach mid-season, we would like to see all Armada swimmers (capable of competing) sign up to compete at our swim meets. We CAN BE a force in numbers!

Thank you, Armada's parents, who jumped up and helped me reconfigure the play pit area at the Balcones meet.  The play pit has been a great success, and I appreciate you helping us keep this so our swimmers can get out their wiggles. 

SWIMATHON - TUESDAY JUNE 4th 6 - 8:30 PM

I look forward to seeing everyone Tuesday at our annual Swim-a-thon. Volunteer sign-ups are open; if you have a swimmer, please go to https://wellsbranch.swimtopia.com/ and select the Swim-A-Thon job sign-up.. This is a limited event, and the roles are quite easy, so sign up early to get your preferred role! Note, that we will still have practice on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings. 

We need some quick setup/teardown items at the pool, and the work should be extremely easy (and fun, if you like doing snow cones). If you have any questions, please email me at [email protected]. Let's have a great Swim-A-Thon!More details are below, but it will this event is always a favorite of our swimmers and parents each year. Let's have a great week. 

by: Jake Tolfa and Maddie Wright, Head Coaches

Amazing performance Armada swimmers! We hope you are all very proud of yourselves and the successful swims you had this past weekend! We had a great turnout for our first away meet with lots of time improvements and a few records broken! We’re also so proud to have seen so many swimmers pushing themselves with new events. We’re looking forward to seeing everyone at our meet against the Round Rock Dolphins this Saturday.

Now that we are on summer break I know many of you have had questions regarding swim meet elgibility as it is stated in the handbook:

Wells Branch Armada expects all swimmers to attend Armada practice a minimum of 3 days per week to participate in meets on Saturdays. If a swimmer has a conflict with practice (camp, VBS, illness) please communicate with the head coach so arrangements can be made to accommodate your family. We believe that attending practice is integral to being part of the team and it will add to your family’s enjoyment and overall experience with Wells Branch Armada.

Please note that camp, illness, vacation, etc. are exceptions to this and will not disqualify your child from participating in the meet. If you have any questions please talk with us at the pool or email us.

Another thing to cover real quick is check in times again for the meets. These times are EXTREMELY important. Coaches must have changes and relays in by a certain time and that is why it is important to check in on time. If you don't, and we think you aren’t present at the meet at that time, we have to scratch you from your events, which we never want to do. If anything comes up, you MUST contact someone and let them know. We have decided it might be easier for parents to text us coaches directly…

Coach Jake: 512-999-6976/Coach Maddie: 512-934-2777, we ask that you only use these numbers for IMPORTANT updates about the meet, if you can’t make a meet the morning of…text this number, if you are going to miss the first relay but make the rest…text this number, etc.

This week’s practices will cover the following skills:

1. Breaststroke Technique (Not pulling arms to hips)
2. Butterfly Technique
3. Turns (Flip turns as well as open turns)
4. Backstroke (Stroke Counts and finishing on their backs)
5. Relay exchanges
    
   Spirit Theme for 6/8: Disney

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Our next dual meet is this Saturday against the Round Rock Dolphins. Each swimmer is allowed to enter up to three (3) individual events. Please arrive on time. Late arrival will result in your swimmer being scratched from their relay & individual events. If you are running late, YOU MUST TEXT ME, otherwise your swimmer could be scratched from the entire meet. Once a swimmer is scratched I will NOT add them back to events.

Scratch: Once we close the meet online, email [email protected], or text to 956-802-2253 if you have to scratch.

Meet Set-up: Friday, June 7th at 8:00 pm & Saturday, June 8th 5:30 am (more details on website)

Parking

Friendly reminder for our new families: For home meets, the parking lot adjacent to our pool is for our guest team. Additional parking will be along Sauls and Crissom next to the pool, the elementary school, and the street on Long Vista. Please DO NOT PARK along Bratton or in any of the parking lots for businesses you see along Bratton and Long Vista or the fire lanes, as you will risk being towed. There will be overflow parking at the Rec Center on Shoreline Dr., but it is a small hike from there to the pool.

Please allow extra time to find a place to park and potentially walk a fair distance to the pool. You may also wish to drop swimmers off and then go find parking.

This is our last home meet of the season! Let's make it great!

By Tricia Hughes- Sponsorships Coordinator

As of 5/31/24 there are 15 families participating on the Raise365 App and they have raised $960. Our goal is $10,000 so we have a ways to go.  All families are welcome to join- just download the app and the automatic messages will help alleviate any work on your part.  Whether or not your swimmer is participating in raising money- we encourage all swimmers to attend the swim-a-thon event.  

Swim-a-thon Event: Tuesday June 4 from 6:00-8:30 pm @ Willow Bend Pool

End of Fundraiser thru Raise365: June 10

Turn in Money: Give to a Board Member or Venmo Business: @wbaswim

More Swim-a-thon Details:

Your swimmers will have fun setting goals, swimming laps, eating pizza and snow cones, and more. You may be surprised at how much your swimmer has improved since opening practices.

• Swimmers can swim with and without kickboards.
• Swimmers can bring fins to use if they have them.
• They can also take as many breaks as they want.
• Parents - you will be counting laps and crossing them off on your paper as your swimmer completes them.
• You, too, can grab some pizza and treats!
• Follow these instructions so your family is ready for our kickoff. We encourage each family to use one member's cell phone to download the app and select contacts to receive texts. If you have any questions- contact Tricia Hughes at 512-947-8247 (call or text anytime).

Download your Raise365 App and follow these instructions. (Delete the app once our fundraiser is over June 10)

Please be sure to check your swim folders this week for a paper copy of these instructions, your carabiner to clip on a bag or backpack with your ribbons for the swim, and a money envelope for any family that collected cash donations.

Please turn in all cash/checks using the envelope found in your box and hand it to any board member (the folks who wear the pink shirts at the meets) or Venmo BUSINESS:@wbaswim. Reminder: it’s not under people; it’s under business Venmo. 

Donations from the Calendar -

As you finish up your calendars- remember to turn in your money to 

Venmo BUSINESS: @wbaswim or you can give it to a board member in an envelope. 

We had an FINTASTIC meet on Saturday at Balcones! These meets rely heavily on our parent volunteers, so a huge thank you to everyone who supported our swimmers. Your enthusiasm makes all the difference in making it a positive experience.

This week features we have our swimathon, followed by a home Saturday. Volunteers, we need your help to make these events successful!  If your kids are registered to swim Saturday, but you haven't signed up for a volunteer shift yet, please do so. 

I'll be sending out emails this week to update you on the positions we still need to fill. If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to reach out to me. See you on the pool deck! 

This week we would like to spotlight 3 of our 11-12 year old swimmers who took on new events and now hold the records! Ayme Leos Trevino, Ellie Auger, and Greyson Malone each swam a new event for their age range and have done absolutely wonderful! They each set new records at our first swim meet on 5/18:

The next week, 5/25, Amy Leos Trevino improved her backstroke time and broke her previous record:

Congrats swimmers on the new records and good luck the rest of the year!

As a reminder, if you have a fun story or a particular accomplishment you want to call out in our spotlight, please email [email protected]. Thanks!

The following new record(s) were set this weekend. Congratulations!

These WB Armada swimmers excelled by placing first in one, two, or three events this past Saturday. Congratulations!

These WB Armada swimmers and their teammates excelled by placing first in the Medley and/or Freestyle Relays this past Saturday. Congratulations swimmers!

Medley Relay

Freestyle Relay

This past week we had two new swimmers qualify for Invitationals and six swimmers who had previously posted Invitational times, qualify in an additional eight events which are noted below in bold-italic. (alpha order by last name)

We are working on gathering this information. We should have the names of all swimmers earning these accomplishments soon. We will provide updates in the next newsletter and award fast fishy caps and triple drop ribbons as quickly as we can.