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 tomorrow at practice 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. At practice tomorrow, we will be having a custom hat bar by Rose to the Occasion Creations. She will have LFL patches and other jewelry as well. Come join us during practice to build your own hat (More info. attached). She accepts cash, credit card, and venmo. If you can't make it to practice, we will post a video of 

Now for meet information:

1. 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 have a golf cart, please be sure to park in golf cart parking, and don't take up a regular space. Golf cart parking will be in the mulch area near the clubhouse. 

We are trying something new this year, where we will have 3 parents directing traffic on where to park. If you arrive after the pool parking lot is full, please make sure you follow the instructions of our parking committee and go and park off Atwater Trail. Please see map with instructions attached. To get to Atwater trail, you will go straight instead of turning into the pool parking lot. Once you get to the second stop sign in the neighborhood, you will turn right onto Broadwater Trail, and then you will take an immediate right onto Atwater.

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

3.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.

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

5.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 are a new family, a coach or bullpen parent will mark your swimmer's arm. If you have swimmers that are 6 and under, 7-8, or 9-10, please also write their name on their upper left shoulder.  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.

Also, it would be a good idea to bring some entertainment for your child in their bullpen. Some good ideas would be: games, Legos, balls, anything you would be okay if you lost it. Don't forget goggles and towels as well. Make sure to put your swimmers name on everything!

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

1. We have 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 remind your swimmer to make sure they touch the wall of the pool before their feet touch the bottom, or they 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.

7.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.) Once your spark swims their lap, you are welcome to leave or hang out and cheer on our Lightning team!

8. 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! (Future themes for meets: Hawaiian/Beach, Disney, Western, Jersey Out/Favorite team)

9.Don’t forget to bring cash for the concession stand. (Venmo charges us an extra fee.) We will have barbecue sandwiches from a Lake Forest family for sale. We will also have Pizzeria Azzurri 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. All volunteers must check-in the lower level of the clubhouse.

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

Looking forward to tomorrow! Go Lightning!!

Heather Otwell