Marlins,

The Practice Meet sign ups will close automatically at 5 PM today, so please sign up or double check if you have signed up. If you originally signed up for No Meets and would like to switch so that you can participate in the Practice Meet or any other meets, please let me know and I'll make the switch today so that you can sign up.

Even if you are not swimming in the meet, please come by to pick up your T-Shirts, get them tie dyed, and enjoy some ice cream.  More info below.....

MAY 20 PRACTICE MEET/ICE CREAM SOCIAL/TEAM SHIRT TIE DYE @ 8:30 AM - 12:00 (Sign up by May 17th @ 5 PM swimmers here and volunteers here)

Sign ups for our Practice Meet, which will be on May 20th, are now open! Swimmers and parent volunteers arrive at 8:30 AM for a 9 AM meet start. It will probably end around 11:30 AM and will be immediately followed by an ice cream social. We will be handing out the free team shirts, which the kids will be able to tie dye during the meet. This is a great opportunity for kids and parents to get a preview of meets and meet jobs before our dual meets begin.

WHO SWIMS: The practice meet, and all of our meets (including Champs), are open to Marlins and Jr. Marlins who signed up for the Meets option during registration. If you signed up for No Meets, please still stop by to get your team shirt and ice cream. We also welcome you to watch the meet and if you change your mind and want to join us later, I can change your registration.

WHAT TO SWIM: At the practice meet you can sign up to swim all strokes and there will also be relays. At dual meets, swimmers are limited to 3 individual events plus a relay. You and your swimmers (not the coaches) decide what to swim for the individual events. There is no requirement that swimmers sign up for all strokes, but we encourage as many as possible since this will give them baseline times for the dual meets, but just signing up try one event is also fine. The coaches will determine who is on the relays. Please indicate during sign ups if your child is not available for the relay for any reason.

T-SHIRT TIE DYE DURING MEET: We will be handing out the free team shirts during the meet and kids will have an opportunity to tie dye them for some extra team spirit. Even if you signed up for No Meets, please stop by to get your t-shirt and make them colorful! If our personalized caps arrive in time we will be handing those out too, but they may be delayed until prior to our first dual meet.

HOW TO SIGN UP: When meets open, you can sign up on the upper right side of our website (and please go there if the link in the email accidently goes to the wrong meet). For this meet you can sign up here and there are more detailed instructions below. Please do not forget to hit “save” on your entries. Meets automatically close the Weds. prior to the meet at 5:00 PM, so it will be May 17th for the Practice Meet.

VOLUNTEERS (Sign Up here): If you have swimmers in the meet, you are expected to volunteer, which is a great way to meet parents and swimmers. If you have 1 swimmer you sign up for 1 job and 2 or more swimmers please sign up for 2 jobs. If you only have Jr. Marlins, you are exempt, but if you have a mix of Jr. Marlins and Marlins, you are expected to volunteer. Most of the jobs do not require any training and we will provide whatever instructions you need at the meet. This meet is just as much for the parents to practice as it is for the swimmers. If a job does need special training (e.g. stroke & turn) that will be indicated in the job sign ups. There are some jobs that are good for first time families with younger marlins like donating baked goods, meet set up, and meet tear down since these allow you to focus on your swimmers during the meet. If you are a seasoned parent, please leave the more "beginner" jobs for our newer families. You can find descriptions of the jobs here and you can email Christine Hodson ([email protected]) with any questions about the jobs or what will work best for your family.

ICE CREAM SOCIAL: Don't leave before a chance to make an ice cream sundae to celebrate the start of our summer season. The ice cream social will start immediately after the last relay of the practice meet.

MORE INFO ON WEBSITE: Our website is full of other meet related information under the meet tab, where you can always find: sign up instructions, Meet FAQs, Meet job descriptions, What to Bring to Meets, and much more!

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Thanks,

Donna