Barracuda Families! 

It's finally here! Summer swim is upon us, and we are excited to dive back into the pool. Lots of updates this week, so bear with me on the length of this email.

Practice Week 1 

After school practices begin this week and will happen Wednesday through Friday. For anyone new to the team who is not a year-round swimmer this week is important so our coaches can evaluate where our team is at and how to structure the rest of the season. Also, while I know the pool is tempting, we ask that only the assigned age group be in the pool during practice. Once lifeguards are present, residents are welcome to enjoy the pool during practice. 

Practice Times: 6 & Under - 4:30-5; 7 & 8 - 5-5:30; 9 & 10 - 5:30-6:10; 11 to 18 - 6:10-7:10 

Practice Essentials 

Summer swim practices are easy on gear! All swimmers should come with a pair of goggles. We recommend not using goggles that cover the nose as it hinders learning correct breathing. For this week bring an extra towel to bundle after practice, the pool will be a little chilly with the recent rain. 

Weather 

In the event of inclement weather (it's May in the Carolinas so it's going to happen) we will do our best to make decisions on any practice cancellations as early as possible. We will send an email communication as well as a notification through the SwimTopia app. If you haven't downloaded the app already, I highly recommend it, it is the easiest way for us to communicate quickly with our families. 

Registration Payment 

If you have not yet paid registration fees no worries! Please bring a check to practice this week, I will be on deck for most of our practices 

Caps and T-shirts 

T-shirts are on order and will be in by next week. As soon as they arrive, we will sort and get them out to swimmers. We have a smaller supply of caps, with more on order. Those should be in hopefully by the end of next week. If you custom ordered caps, those should also hopefully be in by the end of next week.

Meet Concessions 

Every year we ask our families to help start off our concession stand with donations. Our head of concessions Christy Cichon has put together a sign-up genius of what we could use. There is a lot of sugar on this list, but in our experience these are our best sellers. This year we will also be selling hot items (pizza, hot dogs, and pork sandwiches) similar to last season. 

 https://www.signupgenius.com/go/30E044AAFAC2AAAFC1...

Meet Declarations 

The season is just starting but our meets begin in just a couple weeks! Please take the time to declare in SwimTopia if your swimmers will be able to attend a meet or not. Declaring for a meet is the ONLY way your child will be entered into events. If you do not declare we cannot guarantee we will be able to add swimmers day of. Clear instructions on how to declare for meets can be found here. 

Relay Carnival - NEW for 2025! 

We've added another meet to the schedule! This season the Greater Charlotte Swim League is trying out relay carnivals. For Division 4 our Relay Carnival is scheduled for Saturday 6/14. This meet is a little different but should be a lot of fun! We will send a varying mix of relay teams to compete against our division. One relay team per event and events include our normal age group freestyle and medley relays, as well as mixed relays (both age and gender). This meet is purely for fun, and does not replace All-Stars at the end of the season.

Clinics with Coach Meredith

Coach Meredith will be holding stroke and dive clinics this summer! Coach Meredith is a former Barracuda and former competitive swimmer. Spots are limited per session, see the attached flyer for details and sign-up here! 

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C0D4FA5AB2AAAF8C...

Stroke and Turn Judge Clinic

If anyone has signed up as a stroke and turn judge this season and has not volunteered for this role before or would like to learn more, Mecklenberg Swim Association (MSA) is holding a clinic this weekend on Sunday 5/18. If you would like to attend please let me know and I will send you the information.

That's all for now, if there are any questions please reach out. Let's have a great first week of the season! 

Amanda