Hello Woodfield families! Big week … our first meet is here, this Thursday! This one’s a long email, but hopefully it all makes sense. Please reply with questions if not!

-Meets are chaos. Seriously. They’re madness. Organized madness, but still … madness. If you have ANY concerns, reach out to me (Jay) before or during the meet. Happy to help you through it all. It’ll be fun! Promise!

-IMPORTANT: Coach Logan is creating the final roster. If your swimmer is NOT available, make sure to let Coach Logan know immediately at [email protected]. Go ahead and RSVP for the entire season if you can at woodfieldwaves.swimtopia.com .

-We are swimming against the DUNMOOR DIAMONDBACKS. Sounds scary, but a snake is no match for a wave. They’re located at 10600 Centennial Drive, Alpharetta, GA 30022, about an 11-minute drive from our pool. They will have food trucks for dinner/snacks.

-Plan to arrive by 4:30. It will take a bit of time to park and get into the pool area. Dunmoor will practice first, and then we’ll have 20 minutes to practice. The meet will officially begin at 5:30 p.m.

-General meet format is this: 86 events, with 6-under events happening in the first half of the meet. Coaches and parents will write the numbers of each event, as well as the heat and lane, on your swimmer’s arm on Thursday. Events will go quickly, so be sure to know when your swimmer is up soon.

-All parents are required to volunteer; if you haven’t already volunteered yet, sign up at woodfieldwaves.swimtopia.com . See Stacey Bosch’s email from earlier today with more details.

-Bring camp chairs, coolers, drinks, sunscreen, etc etc. I’m not sure yet where we’ll be setting up, but often it’s in a parking lot, which can be rather warm. Knock on all the wood you can find, there don't appear to be any storms in the forecast. 

-Dunmoor is a smaller pool than ours, both in width and depth. All swimmers will start in the pool, rather than diving off blocks. Dunmoor also has only five lanes, which means there will likely be more heats (races of a single event, for example 25-meter freestyle), which in turn means the meet might last a touch longer than usual. Expect the meet to go to at least 8:00 p.m., though if your swimmer is done AND you’re not on active volunteer duty, you’re free to leave. (Please help clean up before you go.)

-Strategy note: We get points for every race in which we enter a swimmer. In some circumstances – usually relays – we may have races where we could enter a young swimmer to fill out a four-person team and swim alongside older swimmers. This can be fun for the little ones! Coach Logan swam with 18-year-olds when he was 6 and had the time of his life. He got destroyed by about two full laps, but we still got the points! If you have ANY concerns about your child swimming up, please let Coach Logan know – we won’t enter any swimmer in an event they don’t want to do.

-T-shirts for most swimmers are already in. Those who registered after the start of the season, yours are on the way! See Melissa Holman at practice (afternoon swimmers, see me) to get your t-shirts. Everyone wear yours on Thursday!

-Fridays are FUN FRIDAYS, which means we celebrate our big win with donuts! ALL SWIMMERS meet at the pool at 9am. Lessons swimmers will go on as normal with lessons, while others can collect their ribbons – and find out who our WAVES OF THE WEEK are – while snacking on some donuts and playing in the pool. (If for any reason you can’t make a 9am Friday time, let us know. We’ll get you covered.)

Questions? Ask away. Looking forward to it. Go Waves!

-Jay