SMAC Weekly Update, February 4, 2013

It’s a great week to be a part of SMAC as we head into the championship portion of our season! We’re very excited to have all of you on board as part of the SMAC family! Congratulations to everybody who competed in their first meet Jan 25-27 down at St. Mary’s. It was very exciting to see so many new swimmers competing for SMAC. Everybody swam very well; we continue to have fewer & fewer disqualifications compared to the first couple years at that meet.

Several schedule reminders, and one schedule change to keep in mind this week…

·         Wednesday Morning, February 6 workout schedule: Gold 8-9:30a; Silver 9:30-11a; Sr. II 11-12:30p- members of Sr. II are encouraged to email me & let me know if you WON’T be coming to the 11 a.m. workout on Wednesday, February 6. This schedule is on the monthly calendar for February.

·         SCHEDULE CHANGE- Friday, February 8: there will be morning workout from 6-7 a.m. (or until whenever your child has to get out for school) for anybody who plans on leaving for the meet right after school on Friday. Anybody swimming in the meet this weekend has to swim on Friday, so if you want to leave Friday after school, plan on swimming Friday Morning before school. There will be regular afternoon workout on Friday as well, although please email me if you plan on NOT coming to workout on Friday Afternoon; if enough people plan on coming to workout Friday Morning, I might alter the Friday Afternoon workout schedule so we all can finish up early and get an early start to our trip to VA. PLEASE NOTE: this workout schedule for Friday, February 8 is NOT on the February calendar, it is a schedule change.

·         Monday, February 11: no workout for any SMAC group. Regular workout schedule resumes on Tuesday, February 12.

There are several other important things to be aware of this week…

·         Mid-term grades have been distributed; make sure your child brings in a copy of their report card so I can see how they’re doing in school. PLEASE NOTE: this is a requirement for every student-athlete member of SMAC, thanks for your attention to this matter!

·         MEET FEES: please be sure to stop by the Front Desk and make sure your family is current on their meet fees. The most recent meet we need to be paid up for is the President’s Day Meet in Warrenton, VA this coming weekend.

·         MEET UPDATE: updates to the schedule & timeline for this weekend’s President’s Day Meet in VA will emailed directly to those families participating in the meet later today.

·         MD STATE CHAMPIONSHIP UPDATE: The SCY State Championships will be March 7-10 up at the USNA. I’ve started reviewing entries with individual qualifiers this week, so that immediately following the President’s Day Meet this weekend I can submit the State Meet entry. For parents with swimmers qualified for the State Meet, please be anticipating these entries on Monday, February 11, so you can pay those fees at the Front Desk on Tuesday, February 12. We need to process that check IMMEDIATELY, so thanks for your attention to this matter.

·         MD Junior Champs @ St. Mary’s, March 15-17 Anybody qualifying for the Junior Champs Meet (minimum BB time standard, but not faster than the MD State Champs qualifying time in any event), should look for the email announcement of that meet next week, probably by Wednesday, February 13 (the latest). Please respond to that email in a timely fashion so I can get that entry submitted. The subject line in that email will read: “MEET ANNOUNCEMENT: Junior Champs.”

Lastly…

     As always, please take a minute to read the articles on the bulletin board, as they’re an excellent source of information on the world of swimming. AND, when entering and exiting the pool, please if at all possible, use the doors on the far left of the facility when entering (or on the far right when exiting); these doors are “manual” and will close quickly behind you. The other sets of doors are “automatic” and stay open for some time, which tends to freeze the Front Desk Staff. If you’re able to use the “manual” doors that would be greatly appreciated by the Front Desk Staff.

Email me with any questions at erikcollins19@gmail.com

Thanks for being a part of SMAC, I’m looking forward to a great week!

EC