Franklin Fish: Week 3
The weather this week has been a doozy! Thanks for being flexible with practice cancellation. We always want to make practices happen but our priority is keeping kids safe. Sometimes we can’t make a call until just before practice time.
There’s a lot to cover this week. Something’s happening almost every day!
Morning Practices Begin
Starting this week, we’ll have practices in the mornings and in the evenings. They’re split up by age group so check our practices page for more details. There is no practice on Monday as it’s Memorial Day.
Volunteer Shifts Available
We dropped our point requirement down to 8 points and our clerks, Glenn & Toni Mahr, were helpful in adjusting families down to this point level by clearing shifts. This made room for other families to sign up. Finding open shifts in SwimTopia is a bit of a pain so I’ve attached an Open Volunteer Shift report to this email.
There’s an immediate need for a few shifts this week:
- Apparel Pick-up (please email me if you want to do this)
- Thursday Evening: 2 timers
- Friday Morning: 1 timer
- Saturday: 2 heating, 1 timer, 1 relay help, & tent haul
If you’re under 8 volunteer points, please sign up for shifts or please let me know if you are opting out of volunteering for the $200 fee.
Tie Dye & Ice Cream Social (Wednesday)
There’s no practice on Wednesday evening. Instead, we’ll be chowing down on ice cream and making tie dye! Show up any time between 5pm & 7pm. You can bring a picnic dinner as well.
We have a short how-to video on tie dying you can watch (or just search YouTube for “how to tie dye”). You can tie-dye t-shirts, towels, anything! Be sure to bring a plastic bag to transport your messy, wet, drippy tie-dye home.
We will also be revealing the pairings of Big Fish & Little Fish this evening as well. If your kid is interested in being a part of this mentoring/mentee program, please sign up using this form by Wednesday.
Time Trials (Thursday Evening & Friday Morning)
We will be running a “mock meet” instead of practice on Thursday evening and Friday morning. This helps kids get a feel for how races work before our first meet on Saturday. We are also using a new timing system this year so we may be working some kinks out.
- Thursday: All kids show up at 5pm. We’re just doing freestyle this evening. Coaches will get kids warmed up and then we’ll race. If we finish early, coaches will have fun activities with the kids.
- Friday: All kids show up at 8am. We’ll get warmed up and then run backstroke events and then relays.
You’re welcome to leave after your kid swims their events or you can stay and help cheer!
We are still in need of volunteers for the time trial events. Please sign up if you need points and are available.
First Meet (Saturday)
Our first meet is already upon us! We’ll be swimming at Hampton Heights. The meet is open for declarations so get your kids signed up. We’ll send more details about the meet on Thursday.
Please download the SwimTopia app. It’s free to download but there’s also a “pro” version for $2.99/month. The app helps get you information about what events your kids are swimming and what shifts you’re signed up for. We’ve attached screenshots so you can see what it looks like.
Starts & Turns Clinic
South Suburban runs a Starts & Turns Clinic on Mondays starting June 5th. It’s a great way to help kids get more comfortable diving off blocks and improving their flip turns. You can sign up on the SSPRD web site:
