Good morning Gators!

Another week of practice and swim meets in the books - hard to believe June is almost over!  This week we had a great swim meet on the surface of the sun, also known as Salem Glen.  Despite their small roster, the parents and member of Salem Glen showed up to host a fun meet and volunteered to help run the meet, even if they didn't have a child swimming. Our kids swam well as evidenced by the lower number of DQ slips. If we had to swim a meet on one of the hottest days ever, at least we weren't out there very long!

Here is what we have coming in the week ahead!

1.  Home Swim Meet on Tuesday July 1st.  This will be our LAST home meet this season.  Please declare your swimmer by 5pm on Sunday June 29th and sign up for a volunteer job.  Right now we have 43 swimmers declared as attending but only 12 jobs filled.  The scariest parent job (clerk of course) has been removed from the list.  Since coaches Jenna and Addison have the kid wrangling skills of a Texas rancher, they will be filling this position.  

We need a parent to be willing to learn how to fill the role of scorekeeper.  I had to fill this position at the last meet because we didn't have a volunteer.  You get to sit in front of a fan in the shade and enter times and DQ slips into the computer with the assistance of the scorekeeper from the other team.  Hospitality will bring you a cold drink and the runners will collect and organize timer sheets for you.  It's almost like being at a resort.  

If being fanned in the shade isn't your jam, feel free to work on your tan as a timer or a stroke and turn judge.  Want to get your steps in?  Sign up to be a runner, hospitality or to pass out heat winner prizes.  Yearning to spend more time with your kids?  Being a parent helper is a great way to spend every moment of the meet with your precious little one and their friends.  There is a fabulous job for everyone.

2.  Tyde clinic at Glenridge on July 3rd for all 7 and older swimmers.  Practice for all 7 and older swimmers will start at 5:30pm on Thursday July 3rd. Tyde coaches will be visiting the Glenridge pool at our evening practice on Thursday July 3rd to put on a clinic for our 7 and older swimmers.  They will be giving our swimmers extra help on underwaters, butterfly, flip turns and open turns.  I have been a Tyde parent since 2019 and a Tyde coach since 2021.  I can't say enough good things about this program.  Sandy Thomerson (Tyde Associate Head Coach, Jerry Long Lead Site Coach and former West Forsyth HS head coach) will be leading the clinic.  

TYDE is coming to our pool and doing this clinic for free.  They are accepting donations to help support their annual impact fund.  If you would like to join me in making a donation on behalf of the Glenridge Gators, please venmo me your donation to @Karen-Cuda (last 4 numbers are 4658).

3.  No practice on July 4th.  Happy Birthday America!!

4.  GFSL Finals on July 13th.  The league finals will be here before you know it.  In order to swim in finals, you have to have swam in 2 dual meets this season.  If you can swim in finals, please declare your availability for the meet.  We do have entry restrictions.  Each team can only enter 3 swimmers per gender, per event.  The meet will be at the GAC in Greensboro with a morning session for 10 and under swimmers and an afternoon session for 11 and older swimmers.  If you have problems declaring for this meet, please let me know.

5.  FREE Tyde start clinic for GFSL Finals.  If your child plans on swimming at GFSL finals and would like to learn how to start off a starting block, TYDE is offering another free starting clinic!  Here is the link to sign up- slots are filling up fast!  https://www.signupgenius.com/go/8050E4BACAF2EABFB6...

6.  Missing anything?  We had a problem with printing ribbon labels from the last meet - some swimmers were missing labels and some got duplicate ribbons.  If your child is missing ribbons from the Salem Glen meet and you haven't told me about it yet, please let me know and I'll get those made.

If you are missing anything else from the season, just ask.  A lot of balls are being juggled right now so, inevitably, something will fall.

7.  End of the Season Party.  We are starting to plan for our end of the season party on Monday, July 14 from 5pm-8pm.  Right now the "we" that is doing the planning is Jayme and I.  If you would like to join us in the party planning fun, please come to the pool on Monday, June 30th at 5:45pm for a meet up.  We'll keep it short and sweet because we have a very important adult relay practice starting at 6:15pm.  I've created an event on our team calendar for the end of the year party.  Please RSVP for everyone in your family so that we know how many people we need to plan for to have enough food.

That was a lot of information and my coffee needs a refill, so I'll wrap this up.  Only 2 weeks left in our season!  The days are long but the weeks are short - take time to soak it all in!

Go Gators!

Karen