Wells Branch Armada

Please take a few moments to read the entire newsletter! There are numerous items below which include: News from the WBA President, Head Coach and Volunteer Coordinator, Weekly Reminders, Meet Information, Red, White & Blue Practice Meet and Team Photo. Thanks. 

by Peter Mielcarek, President

Great first few weeks of practice everyone! Enthusiastic swimmers + competent coaches = outstanding progress. Our eager swimmers hit the water and showed us their passion. The Armada Coaches were able to watch all the swimmers and start placing them in their lanes. Last, but certainly not least, our parents did a great job in stepping back and letting go. I’m sure some of you were wondering what you had gotten yourselves into. As you can now see, the kids quickly pick up the practice routine and parents can chat and get to know each other! Thanks very much to the parents too for their support. 

Our Red White & Blue practice meet will Saturday May 19th at our Willow Bend Pool.  If you won't make the meet, you still need to register and specify that. Please contact our Meet Director, Paul Wadehra, with any questions you may have at [email protected]. Have a great week at practice! 

“The strength of the team is each individual member. The strength of each member is the team.” – Phil Jackson

I was reminded this week of why I love being a part of this team so much. As I watched the anxious and excited faces of swimmers as they came into the pool those first couple days I remembered that we are a team that welcomes everyone no matter experience or skill level. I saw our returning swimmers help lead the lanes, demonstrate new drills and show newer swimmers how to swim sets. We have an amazing group this season and I am beyond excited to see all they are going to accomplish in the coming weeks. In our second week we focused on the fundamentals of all four strokes as well as racing techniques as we prepare for the Red, White and Blue meet. 

Tomorrow, we will have our Red, White, and Blue intra-squad meet. This is a great opportunity to practice what will take place at our meets the rest of the season. Swimmers have the chance to swim more than the usual three individual events so that we are able to get a base time for future meets and time improvement. Also, it will be team policy that each swimmer compete and receive an official time in each of the events offered to them by the fifth dual meet. It is important for swimmers to attend meets for a few reasons:

• Swim team is a team sport that benefits from meet participation from every member. As in other team sports such as soccer and baseball, participation is an understood part of being on a team.
• Swim team has the added benefit of having individual time improvement opportunities.
• The swimmers work hard all week and it is good for them to see the results of their hard work through competition.
• The meets provide an opportunity for swimmers and parents to build friendships.

Thanks to the Armada parents and board members who have been helpful and supportive. We appreciate all you do! Coaches and Junior Coaches, you are amazing! Keep up the good work! 

1. Sat, May 19, Red, White, Blue Meet & Team Photos: We will be hosting our intra-squad meet tomorrow.  Don't forget your team shirt for the pictures.  (Details below)

2. Sat, May 26 (Steiner Ranch) meet open for registration.  Entry Deadline for meeting is NOON on Monday, May 21st.   Online Meet Entry: Tutorial (instructions) for the online meet entry are located under the resources tab or can be found here.

3. Mobile Alerts: If you have not already, you have the option to opt into our mobile messaging service to receive text alerts for cancelled practices and other important information. To join - Text ARMADA to 84483.

Tomorrow, Saturday, May 19, is our intra-squad Red, White, and Blue practice meet.

At all meets, our team count on at least one parent of each swimmer to volunteer one half of the meet. This practice meet stretches our volunteer resources since we have approximately 130 positions to be filled, more than a standard meet. With a standard dual meet, the positions are shared with another team.

When you sign up your swimmers for each meet, you will also need to sign yourself up to volunteer during each meet that your swimmer is participating by choosing a position to work.

NOTE that differently from previous years, when you are signing up for a position to work as a volunteer and if all the positions you wanted for this meet are already taken, you need to sign yourself up as a “Floater” position and the volunteer coordinator will place you in a position where there is no coverage yet.

As a reminder volunteer positions are explained here.

Every week you will receive an email reminding you that it is time to sign your swimmers and yourself for the next meet. Also, in that email will be a deadline when the opportunity will be closed. After the sign up closing time, the volunteer coordinator will be matching swimmers signed up and parents volunteering from the swimmer’ family. If there any discrepancy, the volunteer coordinator will be calling the family to sort things up.

If there are extraneous circunstancies or emergencies that do not allow you to fulfill your commitment to work as a volunteer for a meet that your swimmer is participating and you already sign up to work a position during that meet, please send a email to the volunteer coordinator and we will call you back ASAP in the next 24 hours.

Be aware that some volunteer positions like judges require training and you only can volunteer for those positions if you participated in a training session for that position.

Also, if you know you need a first-shift position, sign-up early so you have the opportunity. Thank you!

Pool Maps are located in the resource tab on our website. The maps notate where swimmers are dropped off, where the kids "pits" are located, the locations of the volunteer table, ready benches, concessions, swim shop, etc. Please take a look to familiarize yourself with the layout prior to Saturday. Click HERE for a shortcut!

This meet will be a shortened version of a regular dual meet. We will start by having the freestyle relays. Following the relays, each swimmer will have the opportunity to swim all four strokes -- freestyle, backstroke, breaststroke, and butterfly. Swimmers who have not learned a stroke yet will not have to swim it. (If you are not sure what to enter your swimmer for, go ahead and enter them in events you’re not sure about, and the coaches will review and pull them out of events they’re not ready for.) This will give all participating swimmers seed times to use the following week when we put together the relays and will also help us get them seeded correctly in events.

Younger swimmers will be allowed to have kickboards and coaches in the water at this meet if needed. We’d like all swimmers to enter this meet regardless of ability!

Key Information:

Meet Set-up: Friday, May 18 at 6:30 pm
If you signed up as part of the setup team for your volunteer assignment, or if you'd like to lend an extra hand, please be at the pool then.

Clean Up: We ask everyone to clean up the pit and pool areas before they leave. We must return the pool area to its original condition. The more people who help, the sooner everyone can leave. Pit parents should not release swimmers until their area is restored.

Parking: At a home meet, Armada families leave the lot adjacent to the pool for our guest team. Since this practice meet involves only Armada families, there is no such restriction. Additional parking will be along Sauls and Crissom next to the pool and elementary school, and on 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, 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.

Concessions Donations: Also, please note that for each home meet, a certain age group (or groups) is asked to bring concessions donations to help our concessions stand provide low-cost, nutritional snacks for the swimmers at a reasonable price. The preferred donation is fruit, since this is something that the concessions volunteers cannot pre-purchase or store easily and is in high demand at meets.

Here are a few important tips to make your swim meet experience successful:

	Be on time. At the beginning of the meet the coaches will make changes to relay events if there are swimmers that are absent or missing. It is important that swimmers check-in with their pit parent to avoid being scratched from any relay event.
	Bring nutritious snacks. The swim meets begin very early in the morning and last until noon or later. Please pack healthy snacks for your swimmers to eat such as fresh fruit, bagels, crackers, water, sports drinks, etc. We make an attempt to offer healthy items at the concession stand.
	Pack appropriate supplies.Towels, sunscreen, goggles, etc - See checklist below...
	Swimmers should stay in their pit areas The Pit Parents are responsible for watching the swimmers in the pit area and getting them to the ready bench when it is time for their event. If your child is going somewhere with you, please let the pit parents know.
	MARK EVERYTHING! Please write your child's name on ALL belongings. At the meet, there will be dozens of identical t-shirts, caps, goggles - plus similar towels, flip flips, sunscreen. Don't forget to mark any electronic games - they get mixed up!

Checklist:

	2 towels		Water or sport's drinks
	Blanket to sit on in pit area		Nutritious snacks
	Warm clothes for after warm-up in early a.m.		Quiet activities to keep them occupied in the pit area between races
	Swim cap		Sunblock
	Goggles		Parents: Bring a chair, wear a hat, apply sunblock!

Parents / Swimmers with Smart Phones! There are a couple of apps that you can utilize to keep track event times and event results. SwimTopia and Meet Mobile for the 2019 season.

SwimTopia: Available via the App Store.  MORE INFO TO WRITE (app is crashing on my right now - so will write more once it works)   It is free to download, however not all of the features are available at this time.  For LIVE updates, you will need to subscribe to Meet Mobile.  

Meet Mobile: This app allows you to view heat sheets, heat and lane assignments, estimated start times and real time results both individual and team. You can also flag your “favorite swimmers”. Please note that some of the features requires a “subscription fee” to utilize. The requested fee is a Meet Mobile requirement and the Wells Branch Armada swim team does not benefit from the fee in any way, nor can we waive it.

Meet results are always posted on the wall behind the lifeguard stand at every meet, and also on the website once the meet is completed. If you have questions, please contact one of the board members. 

Wells Branch Armada offers college scholarships to up to three swimmers each year that swim in their age-out year. To be eligible, swimmers must have swum on the team for the last 3 consecutive years, including their “age-out” season.

More details will be sent in upcoming communications.

Our annual Swim-a-thon will be held on Tuesday, June 19^th. This is our primary fundraiser for the year and the funds raised help us keep our registration fees low and help us purchase needed equipment.

We are asking for donations of goods or services or gift certificates that can be used for our raffle prizes. Raffles winners will be announced at Awards Night in July. We are a registered 501c3 non-profit organization and all donations are tax deductible.

Communications will be done several ways:

1. Email: We will send emails to the addresses that you specified when you registered. You may go back online and change or add addresses if you wish.

2. Newsletters / Facebook: We will send weekly newsletters via email, which contain important information concerning meets, practices, and other events.

3. Family folders: There are three file folder boxes at the pool containing folders for each family. Files are set up according to last name. Check your folder at the pool daily. It will have meet ribbons, and forms or other information for you that can't be done via email. PLEASE dry your hands and take your ribbons and awards home with you each week!

4. Website: Our web site is wellsbranch.swimtopia.com and has a great deal of useful information on it. Spend some time going through it and you will have a great overview of the team and the season.

5. Mobile Alerts: You have the option to opt into our mobile messaging service to receive text alerts for cancelled practices and other important information. To join - Text ARMADA to 84483.