To Swim Team Families
Are you ready for the new season?
The PGP Swim team season starts on Tuesday, June 1st with our first practice. This season promises to be a lot of fun and this letter tells you much that you need to know about the upcoming season. Keep reading to find out if your questions are answered.
Eligibility
Any child up to age 18 (or 19 depending on the birthday) able to swim 25 meters can be on the swim team, and we would love to have your child join us. What you most often hear from swim team members is how much fun they have. Our swim team is low-key, with the emphasis on teamwork, good sportsmanship, improved swimming, and fun. We swim in the Prince-Mont Summer Swim League.
Renowned for the quality of our Friday night potlucks, we also host gourmet night dinners for the entire pool community.
Swim Team Fees
Swim team fees are $60 for one child, $100 for two children in the same family, and $120 for 3 or more children in the same family. These fees cover our league membership, insurance, trophies and awards for the end of the season banquet, and the coach’s salary. In addition, the team swimsuit costs about $50 for girls and $25 for boys. We will discuss new suit designs at the first meeting. If your child is uncertain whether to join the team, he or she is welcome to come to a practice and try us out before committing.
Our Coaches
Samantha Williams will be the head coach this year. She is well-known to current swim team members. She swam on the Prince George's Pool Swim Team for 13 years, and was assistant coach last year. She will be ably assisted this year by Maya Oliver.
Our Division
We are top seed in Division F this year. Because there are only five teams in the division (instead of the normal six) we will have four meets against Division F teams and one against College Park Woods who are in Division E. We will have three home meets and two away meets. This year we will also host divisionals.
Schedule
Officials Clinic (June 12 at 5 p.m. see below)
June 12 (8:00 a.m.) Time Trials at PGP
June 19 at home vs. College Park Woods
June 26 at home vs. Suburban Aquatic Club
July 3 at home vs. Accokeek Swim Team
July 11 at Brandywine Blue Wave
July 17 at Hawthorne Country Club
July 24 Divisionals at home
July 31 All Stars at Whitehall
The full schedule can be found here.
Team Officials
As many of you know this is Joe Bellino’s last season with the team. He has been our fabulous League Rep/Team manager/Treasurer/Starter/Referee/Newsletter writer for many years. This summer will be the last season that his kids swim on the team. To ease the transition Joe will be play a more behind-the-scene role this summer as he trains others to take over his many roles. Marvin Russell is the new team treasurer and Helen Searls becomes the League Rep/Team Manager.
Joe’s shoes will be hard to fill so we will be looking to other swim team parents to assist in the day-to-day management of the team. Additionally our swim league – the Prince Mont Swim League – is also instituting some changes for team officials. From this season all deck officials like starters, referees, stroke and turn judges etc have to attend a league clinic every 15 months in order to officiate at meets. This year’s clinic is on June 12th. We are going to need quite a few parents to take on some of these tasks. If you would like to volunteer please email Helen Searls helensearls(at)gmail(dot)com.
Registration Form
Click here for a Registration Form. Please note that no swimmer can participate in practice unless a registration form is turned in. Payment does not need to accompany a registration form. Helen Searls will be at most of the practices, but you can also give forms to Marvin Russell or Pat Houston. Helen will also collect registrations at the Countdown to Splashdown event on May 22nd. Please note that there's a section on the form that asks if a swimmer will be available to swim at specific meets. You only need to fill that in if you know specific dates now that a swimmer will not be available. We will still have our weekly email surveys that WILL REQUIRE a response from EACH SWIMMER. Also if children will be participating, but will not be at the first few practices for whatever reason, it would be nice to know that so we can get an early idea of the number of swimmers to expect in each age group.
Our Practice Schedule
We will begin our season on Tuesday June 1st
Our regular practice schedule will be
5:30 to 6:15 - 8 and unders
6:00 to 6:45 - 9/10s
6:30 to 7:45 - all others
We will normally not have required practices on Fridays.
Note that there is some overlap of age groups to allow time for stretching and conditioning before entering the water. This practice schedule will be changed if needed as the team builds and additional needs are determined.
Please note on June 1st – the first practice of the season- we will begin with team tryouts for new swimmers. These will start at 5pm and run through until 6:15pm. Returning swimmers should arrive at 6:15 pm for practice. Additional team try out times will be scheduled during the first few days.
Swim Suits
We would like each swimmer to have a team swim suit. Besides adding to team spirit, it helps swimmers swim faster when they are wearing tight fitting, good quality suits.
We will be using the same solid royal blue suit that we have used the past few years. New suits will be group ordered on June 8. If you participate in the group ordering we can offer a $10 discount on team suits. There will be a sizing kit at practices in the first week. Look for Helen Searls or Marvin Russell who will direct you to the yet to be named keeper of the sizing kit who will take your orders. We'll be on the deck by the diving board. Checks for suits should be made out to Aardvark Swim and Sport, Inc.
We will also have some other swim apparel from Action Accents on sale until time trials as a fund raiser for the team.
If you have any questions or concerns please contact me directly.
Helen Searls
PGP Team Manager
helensearls(at)gmail(dot)com
