Good afternoon Lightning families!

There is lots of information regarding our first HOME meet in this email, so please make sure to read the entire email. But before I give you all the details of our first meet, I wanted to share a couple of things for Friday and next week:

1. If you have a swimmer that will be attending a VBS next week, you can bring your swimmer to practice early if you still want them to practice. VBS practice will be with one coach from 8:15-8:45.
2. We are hosting a free diving clinic on Friday, immediately following Fun Friday. A former swim coach and competitive swimmer has agreed to join us. If your child needs some extra help on diving, please join us on Friday!

Now for meet information:

1.We do still have practice tomorrow morning at the normal time. We will see you all then.

2.Coaches are still actively working on the lineup for tomorrow’s meet. They are checking and rechecking to ensure there aren’t any errors. Please remember that based on the number of swimmers we have compete tomorrow night, your child may only have 3 events total. If your child is a 6 and under swimmer, they may only have 2 events. If they only have 3 events this meet, the coaches will make sure they have more the next meet. If your child is a new swimmer with us this year, they may not have learned all strokes yet. Our coaches are placing swimmers in the races they feel will be best for each swimmer.

3.Once coaches have lineups complete, you can see your child’s events in the swimtopia App. Please make sure you download the app! This probably won’t be available until tomorrow after practice.

4.Swimmers need to arrive at 3:45 to begin the markup process. All swimmers need to have their arms marked with the Event, Heat, Lane, and Stroke. If you have swimmers that are 6 and under, 7-8, or 9-10, please also write their name on their upper left shoulder. See attached pictures as an example. If you need help with this, please make sure to arrive early so a coach or bullpen parent can help mark your child's arm.

5. A couple of notes (especially for new swimmers) about the meet that you may want to talk to your swimmer about:

1. Coach Bella talked to our league official, and one of the things he mentioned is that he will disqualify swimmers if their feet touch the bottom of the pool. This is especially important for our newer swimmers to remember. Please make sure you touch the wall of the pool before your feet touch the bottom, or you will be disqualified.
2. Goggles - Please remind your swimmer that if their goggles fall off to continue swimming. We can get the goggles after the heat is complete.

6.Warm-ups will start promptly at 4:15. Our team will warm-up for 30 minutes, and then Aberdeen will start their warmup at 4:45. The Sparks meet will begin at 5:15 sharp. (Sparks families – you do not need to arrive with your swimmer until 5:00.)

7. Each week we will have a theme for our meets to make it fun for the kids. This week’s meet theme is selected by the coaches, and they have chosen a USA theme night. Parents, feel free to wear USA themed gear. We will pass out tattoos for our swimmers, one per swimmer please!

8.Please remember parking will be a challenge tomorrow. Make sure you follow all parking signs in the neighborhood. Car pool, walk, golf cart if you can. If you arrive and our parking lot is full, you can park on Cascade Trail (across from the pool parking lot) or on another street.

9.Don’t forget to bring cash for the concession stand. (Venmo charges us an extra fee.) New this year, we will have barbecue sandwiches from a Lake Forest family for sale. We will also have pizza, burgers, hot dogs, chips, drinks, candy.

10.If you have signed up to volunteer as meet set-up, you need to arrive by 3:00 PM. If you signed up as a bullpen parent, you need to arrive by 3:45 to help with marking arms. Timers need to arrive before 5:00, as we will have a timer meeting in the lower level of the clubhouse at 5:00, when our league official arrives.

I think that’s all for now. Please let us know if you have any questions!

Looking forward to tomorrow! Go Lightning!!

Heather Otwell