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, and Meet Information. Thank you.

by Deanna Johnson, President

As we move into our third week of practice, we are doing the final preparations for our Red, White, and Blue Practice Meet on Saturday, May 20th. I encourage ALL swimmers to participate in this Meet.  This is the only meet where your child can use a kickboard if needed to get to the other side of the pool, or even have coach assistance. It's a great way for your kids to see what a swim meet is about, so when they are ready, they will know what to expect. If you are unsure, just talk to your coach. If they don't think your swimmer is ready, they will let you know, or "scratch' the swimmer (remove them from the list). 

The online Meet Entry is due by noon tomorrow, May 15th. If you haven’t already, please register your swimmer(s) and select your volunteer position. If you can’t make the Meet, we ask that you please still log in and specify that (you can select Not Attending as one of your options). 

If you have any questions regarding the swim meet, please contact our Meet Director, Catherine Kamenicky, or one of our head coaches, Maddie Wright or Jake Tolfa.

And if you haven't already, PLEASE download SwimTopia mobile app to receive moible alerts, such as canceled practices/meets, rain delays, meet registration sign-ups, etc. Ensure the option to receive alerts is turned ON under settings; otherwise, notifications will be sent to your registered email.

See you at the pool! 
Deanna

by Jake Tolfa and Maddie Wright, Head Coaches

THIS WEEK WILL BE FABULOUS!

As we begin week three of our season we can say with complete confidence that our swimmers will be ready to try out their swim skills in our first meet this upcoming Saturday.

We know that swim meets can create nervous anticipation among some, but this is completely normal even for those who have been swimming for a few seasons. That nervous, anxious feeling is just a good sign that you want to do your best. Swimmers and parents, please feel free to ask any of the coaches questions about strokes, starts, meets, etc. If you're confused about what events your swimmer should sign up for, that is okay! This is the meet where you should sign them up for everything and see how they do. We are here to help and are more than willing to do what we can for you, please ask questions!

This week our coaching staff will be preparing the swimmers for the strokes they will be swimming, how to start and finish a race, relay races, and doing a dry run of what happens before a meet begins. Swim meets are one of the best parts of the swim season and the practice meet is one of my favorites for a few reasons:

• Swimmers are able to get the feel of a swim meet without the pressure of an opposing team.
• The practice meet is for everybody. Even those who are not ready to swim a full 25 independently can participate with coach assistance.
• Swimmers really start to bond as they hang out with their friends in between races.
• Our team really starts to become a team!

This is going to be a great week!! See you at the pool and again feel free to ask us about anything at the pool or via email!

Coaches Jake and Maddie

by Justin Anderson, Volunteer Coordinator

First I'd like to say thank you to everyone who has already signed up to volunteer for our Red, White, & Blue meet! It's always a ton of fun and we cannot make it happen for our swimmers without support from each and every one of you.

If both parents are available to volunteer or if you do not mind working a double shift, please let me know, it would be greatly appreciated. You may text me at (512) 705-0091. It is unavoidable given that we have no visiting team to supply volunteers, but fortunately, this will be our shortest meet of the season.

Also, if you were a former swimmer, PLEASE consider getting trained as a starter or a stroke judge or both if you're an overachiever! We wouldn't be able to run our swim meets without these crucial positions, so even if it is a teeny tiny interest please reach out this week and we can discuss it further.

One more reminder: Please leave your child in their pit until after they have competed in ALL of their events. When you do pick up your child from their pit, you MUST inform the pit parents. We want to make sure everyone is safe and able to enjoy the meet, so we appreciate everyone's cooperation.

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 next week when we put together the relays and will also help us get them seeded correctly in individual events.

Login to https://wellsbranch.swimtopia.com/swim_meets and register your swimmer(s) for events, and a parent for a volunteer job.

Entry deadline is 12:00 pm on Monday, May 15

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:

Team Photo: Please have your swimmer wear their team shirt for the pictures. If you registered late and didn't receive a shirt that's ok! The team picture will be posted to our website, we would like as many swimmers as possible in it. 

Meet Set-up: Friday, May 19 at 6:30 pm
If you sign 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, in the elementary school parking lot, 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 to provide low-cost, nutritional snacks for the swimmers at a reasonable price. The preferred donation is individual bags of cut fruit since this is something that the concessions volunteers cannot pre-purchase or store easily and is in high demand at meets.

Shirts
Team shirts are in. If you entered your swimmer’s size during registration, you can pick up their shirt from board members at practices this week. If you did not enter your swimmer’s shirt size during registration, or if you registered after April 1st, we may not have a shirt for your swimmer yet. Please check with a board member during practice.

Team Photo
The 2023 Armada team photo will be taken Saturday, May 20, at 6:15 am, before the Red, White, and Blue meet. If your swimmer has a new team shirt, please have them wear it for the photo. Not to worry if your swimmer doesn’t have the team shirt yet; most important is that we have all the swimmers’ smiling faces in the team picture.

As you may have seen, we are looking for a small group of people to assist with preparing for the Swimathon on May 30th. In particular, we are looking for help planning and coordinating food and donations, including sourcing gifts and items for the silent auction. This is a big event for us as we have to raise quite a bit of funds to accommodate the new rules for lifeguards. If this sounds like something you can help with, please email Aaron Bartlett at [email protected]. You can also send any additional event/fundraising ideas his way. Lastly, if you have a business who can donate, or would like to donate a gift or item for the auction, please reach out to Aaron as well. Thanks team!

Pool Maps are located in the resource tab on our website. The maps notate where swimmers are dropped off, where the kid's "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!

Additionally, there are are suggestions for a succesful swim meet and a checklist of items to bring for parents and swimmers!