In this email: 1) RSVP by Wednesday, 2) Saturday’s Championship Meet, 3) Parent Relay, 4) Saturday’s Awards Party & Fun Meet, 5) Volunteers, 6) Team Pictures-Last Call, 7) Disqualification Questions, 8) HASS 2023 Shirts

1) RSVP by WEDNESDAY
In order to have your swimmer signed up for Saturday, you must click on the links below to RSVP by Wednesday night. We will always try to help your swimmer participate, but if there is no RSVP by Wednesday night, we cannot put them in a relay!
https://forms.gle/xGDH2yPQJUPKVqgGA
https://forms.gle/2B1VTjwtPYuoM4D79

2) SATURDAY’S CHAMPIONSHIP MEET
Saturday morning, July 29, 2023, we will be meeting at the Halfway Pool for the 2023 HASS Championship Meet! Set-up Crew should meet at 7AM, and swimmers should be ready to stretch at 7:15AM. We will have programs available for sale at the Concession Stand for $3 each which will tell you the events/lane/heat for each of your swimmers. The Championship Meet must be done by 11:30AM in order to honor our host pool. Everyone did a great job this past Saturday at clearing out of the pool deck quickly!

If your swimmer would like to request their events, have them GIVE A PIECE OF PAPER to their coaches with their name and the requested events! Please do not just tell your coaches…they have too many swimmers to remember each spoken request. If you will not be at practices this week to give a paper to your coaches, please email me at aprilandcoachneil@hagerstownareasummerswimming.org.

I need a swimmer (or two) to either sing or play the National Anthem for our Championship Meet, so please contact me if your swimmer might like to do that!

Every swimmer who is not disqualified will receive a medal (1st, 2nd, 3rd place) or a fancy ribbon (4th-19th place) for each event that they swim! We plan to have enough time to push our coaches into the pool at the end of the meet!

3) PARENT RELAY
Many parents signed up for the Parent Relays, and we have enough adult swimmers to make four relays of 6 people each! (One Blue Team, One Orange Team, Two Red Teams, in addition to One Coach Relay!) Each parent-swimmer will swim one length of the pool.

We will hold the parent relay at the end of the Backstroke events, before Breaststroke, during Saturday morning’s meet. We will give the parents 5 minutes to get in the pool to warm-up, then the relays will commence! Don’t forget your suit! I had a question about wearing a T shirt, and of course that is allowed, as are mom-suits with skirts!

If you would still like to participate, we have room! Please email me!

4) SATURDAY’S AWARDS PARTY & FUN MEET
Saturday night, July 29, from 6:15-9pm, we will host our Awards Party at Halfway Pool to distribute the medals and ribbons from the morning Championship Meet! We will also be awarding several special awards for Most Improved from each age group, Best Attendance per team, High Points for each age group, and a Coach Award from each team!

When swimmers enter, they will be assigned to either to the “Waves” or the “Bubbles” team through a wave or bubble being drawn on their hand. After the awards, we will break the swimmers into the two teams where two older swimmers will coach the teams! (If you have an older swimmer who would like to be a coach for the Waves or the Bubbles, let me know!) The events will be: 1) Doggie Paddle with Barking, 2) Either 2-Person Butterfly or 2-Person Wheelbarrow Freestyle, and 3) Underwater Distance. Winners get lollipops! After the Fun Meet, we will allow general swim for all swimmers! Unfortunately, only those swimmers who are insured by us are able to swim (i.e. no non-swimming siblings or adults).

5) VOLUNTEERS
We cannot run the meets without you! Thank you!! I would love for every family to be involved for the Championship Meet! We need 22 timers! Can you time, help with Clerk of Course, help with Concessions, help with Stroke & Turn Judging, help with Meet Set-up and Tear-Down, or bring waters to timers twice during the meet? We hope that your swimmers have had a great team experience this summer, and we are thankful for your involvement!

6) TEAM PICTURES – LAST CALL!
I will be ordering the 2nd round of team pictures this Thursday, so please order by using Venmo, if you still would like them! $5 for a 5×7 and $7 for an 8×10. Find us on Venmo at HASS-swim. Last Call Wednesday Night by midnight!

7) DISQUALIFICATION QUESTIONS
If your swimmer got disqualified after a swim, please talk to your coaches to figure out why! They should be able to tell you the trouble and to figure out a way to help you work on the problem at practices this week! Swimming has many rules for each stroke that must be followed to be “legal.” We try to be disqualify only “lightly,” in our league, but we do want to keep the integrity of the sport! If your swimmer got a disqualification, encourage them for their hard work, and help them get motivated to learn the stroke well this week with their coaches! It may take some practice, but they can do it!

8) HASS 2023 SHIRTS
We should have more “delivery” details later in the week – stay tuned!