Wells Branch Armada

As we close our 2024 season, there are several events you won't want to miss!

MARK YOUR CALENDARS FOR:

Week of June 24: Our Coaches Appreciation Day, the ever-popular Adult Meat Raffle benefitting the Wells Branch Armada, Final Fun Friday, Divisionals, and Invitationals.

Week of July 1:  The FINALE: our Award Ceremony.

All the details you need are in the newsletter below.

DO YOU KNOW ABOUT DIVISIONALS / INVITATIONALS / HIGH POINT AWARDS
You will if you take a moment to review Catherine's recent emails containing important details. We get many questions on these topics and Catherine did a great job explaining them in her emails. 

PICTURES & MORE PICTURES - We'd love to include your snapshots in our Award Ceremony slideshow, showcasing the wonderful memories we've created together this year. Please add your photos to our 2024 Wells Branch Armada Photo Album. While you are there, check out the stunning pictures our team photographers Meg Stephenson, Diamond Thompson, and Francisco Chairez have taken. You will likely want to print a few for your memories. Their efforts have captured countless special moments throughout the season.

Thank you all for your ongoing support and enthusiasm. Let's make the most of our final week!

Congratulations to all Armada swimmers who competed in this past weekend's meet @BCC Sharks, it was a great meet!

The coaching staff can't believe we are already down to the last week of the season, a bittersweet feeling! It has been so awesome watching our swimmers' growth this year through their hard work and dedication to themselves and this team. We want to take a second also to acknowledge the parents, your dedication to this team and the community doesn't go unnoticed, without y'all there is no Armada, so THANK YOU! Now as mentioned above we still have one more week, so don't shed those tears just yet!

This week other than our "Final Fun Friday" we coaches will be trying to up the intensity at all practices as much as we can to help swimmers make any final pushes to any goals they may have set for themselves for this season, so buckle up, it's going to be a great week of practice!

Focuses for this week...

- Proper finishing 

- Endurance/Strength

- Starts/Turns

Meet Theme: USA/Armada pride

Luckily our team colors (Red and Blue) are close enough to USA colors we can celebrate our team AND the 4th of July in one meet!

by: Catherine Kamenicky, Meet Director

Congratulations to those swimmers who qualified for the NWSC Invitational Meet. This meet will be held at Round Rock Aquatic Center on the Cedar Ridge High School Campus. For those attending, please check your email regarding additional important meet information.

Key Information:

Parking: Parking is available on site and at the adjacent High School. Please do not park in reserved spots with cones unless you have been assigned one of these spots due to your volunteer position.

Seating: Swimmers will be in their pits outside the natatorium except when swimming. Family members may observe the meet from the side of the pool closest to the main entrance of the facility. There will be no reserved seating

The Meet: Your swimmer can leave after they swim their event(s), unless they are in a relay. Parents/guardians who want to pick up their young swimmers after they swim, but BEFORE the meet ends, will need to exit the natatorium and come around to the swimmer tent city. At the end of the meet, parents need to connect with their swimmers at the swimmers tent city.

Snacks and Drinks: Please pack snacks and drinks for your swimmer to have during the meet.

Awards: Medals will be awarded for 1st, 2nd, 3rd places. Nice participation ribbons are awarded to every swimmer in every event. Awards will be given to the Armada board at the end of the meet and we will distribute them via the file folders. Emails will be sent when they are ready for pick up.

We are in the homestretch for our summer swim season! can you believe we have just one more Meet left? Saturday 6/29 is Divisionals- open to all! Our parent and grandparent volunteers have been amazing support for our team. The swim meets are not possible without our parents and adults fulfilling the required volunteer roles.
Special thanks to our families who filled more than one need this weekend! 

What’s next? I am so glad you asked! We finish the summer swim season strong. Check your SwimTopia app and sign up today. We definitely have a role for you! 

• 6/28- Final Fun Friday
• 6/29- Divisionals 
• 7/1- Awards Banquet
• 7/4- Parade & Activity for Wells Branch Fourthfest
• FC Volunteer Coordinator for upcoming games 

Happy to help you find a way to support Wells Branch Armada! 

Swim-a-thon 

• If you still have any cash or checks, please put them in your envelope and place them in the folder at the pool under the tab Swim-a-thon. You can find the Swim-a-thon folder in the last file box with the final letters of the alphabet.
• If you want to Venmo your donation money, use the Business Venmo @wbaswim: please remember to put your swimmer's name and age in the Venmo text box so we know which swimmers get the credit. 

Online Auction

• It's LIVE!!!  Our auction is LIVE at https://givebutter.com/c/WBArmada
• You may begin bidding on all items.
• Tell your friends and family and post this link on social media! 
• At our banquet on Monday July 1, we will have our auction items on the table for display.  AUCTION closes at 7:45PM during the banquet.  
• HOW DO I GET TO THE AUCTION? 
  • At the top of the webpage make sure you clicked on "AUCTION" and not Overview
  • Register and begin bidding 

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We will be celebrating and thanking our coaching staff for their hard work this season during practices this Tuesday, June 25! The Armada Board will provide breakfast items and snacks for the Coaches and Junior Coaches. Please feel free to add any food items you’d like to donate. Fresh fruit is always appreciated.

We have compiled a list of “Favorite Things” from the Coaches and Junior Coaches. This is helpful if you are looking for gift ideas for your child's coach. There is also a binder with the printed forms at practices near the family file boxes. Each Coach and junior coach will have a "goody bag" that will be set out for your convenience on Coach Appreciation Day!

*Homemade thank you cards are always enjoyed and appreciated*

Coaches: Maddie, Jake, Fox, Ephraim, Frank, Lisa, Rebecca, Reese & Emily

Junior Coaches: Abigail, Caden, Cailyn, Carra, Connie, Hallie, Jack, Jonathan, Luke, Parker, Richard, Sarah, and Sloan

Junior Coaches in Training: Caleb, Greyson, Levi, Olivia, Simon

2nd Annual Armada Meat Raffle Benefitting Wells Branch Armada

Hanover's Draught Haus-108 E Mail St, Pflugerville TX 78660
Start: 6:00 PM - End: 9:00 PM

Adults, join us and bring your friends, Thursday, June 27th, for our incredibly popular Meat Raffle!

How does it work? $2 raffle tickets can be purchased and used across multiple drawings for meat! If you are a winner of a drawing, you get to take your pick from the remaining items in that drawing. Each drawing will have multiple pieces of meat, including ground beef, steaks, pork ribs, chicken drumsticks, etc. We will cap the night with our epic, super-deluxe drawing ($5 tickets), including premium cuts of meat, bacon-wrapped filets, and a full brisket!

Bring your friends, this fun event is open to the public. Note, this is an adults only event. If you have any questions, please get in touch with our "Meat Director" Aaron Bartlett at [email protected].

Howdy everyone!!! Are you ready for the last week of swim for the 2024 season? I have to admit, I am, BUT I am super excited about my favorite tradition on our team: FINAL FUN FRIDAY! Hopefully, everyone has received my 2 emails explaining each relay and the general flow of the day. I do need a couple things from y'all. PLEASE sign up to help either pick up ice, or run the sno cone machine, or set up or tear down. It will really help me out a lot in keeping things moving that day. If you look at the different relays and can help supply some of the items, please let me know. (Particularly big floats for the floatie relay.)

Also, I need all my parent relay participants to let me know if they will be there. We need to defend our title against those coaches! Plus, I bought a cool new trophy to covet! 

Remember this day is for EVERY family member, bring your suits and goggles, and get ready to swim! If you have ANY questions, please reach out. See you at the pool!

Catherine

Please join us Monday, July 1 at 6:30 pm for our Annual Awards Night. This year's Awards Ceremony will be held at the Wells Branch Community Church located at 2113 Wells Branch Pkwy, Austin, TX 78728. Each swimmer on the team will be recognized for being a part of the 2024 Wells Branch Armada Swim Team. Additionally, swimmers will be recognized for perfect attendance, age group high-point winners, record breakers, scholarship winners and more! The auction will conclude this evening and winners will be announced following the ceremony! Swim-a-thon prize winners will also be announced.

Happy Birthday, America!

Fourth of July festivities are quickly approaching. Join us in celebrating at the Wells Branch FourthFest.

Parade Information:

The WB Armada SwimTeam will have a team float in the parade. If you want to participate, please be at the KF park by 9:00 am to help decorate the float. Line up begins at 9:30 am and the parade will begin promptly at 10:00 am. Swimmers - come dressed in your most spirited 4th of July attire and/or wear your Armada t-shirts! There is limited seating on the float. Swimmers are welcome to bike, scooter or walk behind the float as float participants. If participating, please do not forget to bring candy to toss to the crowd.

Volunteers needed: To give back to the WB community, the Armada Swim Team will assist in one of the many activities planned for this day. We need volunteers to work shifts in the morning and afternoon. If you plan to enjoy the day's festivities, please consider picking up a shift. We will send out additional information when we know more about our assigned activity.

For a complete description of the WB FourthFest, parade route, list of activities/entertainment and pool hours please follow the link below. Wells Branch is famous for its Fourth of July celebrations and this year should be no different. The traditional parade begins at the Katherine Fleischer Park at 10 a.m. on July 4th. When the parade returns, there will be an afternoon of music, food, and games in Katherine Fleischer Park, and a Concert at the Shoreline Soccer Complex that culminates with fireworks above the Willow Bend Pool and Recreation Center. 2024 Wells Branch Fourth Fest Parade and Activities

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!

We are working on gathering this information. We should have the names of all swimmers earning these accomplishments soon. We will either send an amended newsletter later this week or provide updates in the next newsletter.  Fast fishy caps and triple drop ribbons will be awarded as quickly as possible.

This past week we had three new swimmers qualify for Invitationals and two swimmers who had previously posted Invitational times, qualify in an additional two events.  (noted below in bold-italic)