Hey Barracudas!

The Intrasquad meet concluded with a splendid splash on Sunday afternoon, even after several delays and a reschedule. Thank you all for being flexible! A total of 124 swimmers participated, earning over 335 ribbons in the process! These will be distributed Monday after practice. Results are available on the Swim Meets & Events tab, you may have to click “past events”. Live and final results are also available in the SwimTopia app.

Lost and Found is overflowing! Please label your gear and check the bin!

Individual Photo Days are this afternoon (5/5) and tomorrow. Wear your team suit and get your picture taken. A memory mate photo is included with registration, sample here.

Our next meet is Lakeway and Riverplace @ BCW. It will be this Saturday, May 10th with warm-up at 7:00am and meet start at 8:00am and should finish around noon. This meet is a tri meet, so it will be bigger and have both early (6 & Under Freestyle, 7 & over Medleys) & late relays (7 & over Freestyle). Be sure to register whether you are attending or not (see below) and select your swimmer’s availability for relays! The check in deadline for early relays is 7:45 am on meet day! If your swimmer(s) have not checked in by this time, they will be scratched from their relays and the Relay Coordinator will scramble to find a replacement or have to scratch that entire relay. If you think you might be late, just select “No Early Relays”.

Meet entry is now open: Meet entries due Thursday @ noon. Timeline is on our website. Click here to sign your swimmer up for events. If you have questions about if your swimmer is ready to try IM, butterfly or breaststroke, please have your swimmer check with the coaches or email Coach Ryan at [email protected].

If you are not attending, please be sure to mark your swimmer(s) as “Not Attending” in bcwbarracudas.com or SwimTopia mobile app. Meet information is on the Swim Meets & Events calendar @ www.bcwbarracudas.com/swim_meets

Where to Set up and Watch. With two other teams joining us, the pool deck will be CROWDED. We ask all Barracuda families to set up their chairs, tents, etc. OUTSIDE the pool deck and leave the area under the blue tents for swimmers and age group parent volunteers. We also need the timer tents clear for swimmers and timers and the area between the ready benches and the bathrooms and blue tents clear for kids to make their way to/from their groups to the ready benches. Parents may come into the pool deck to watch their child’s race, share a quick hug/ high five/ picture, then we ask you to head back outside the fence to make room for other parents to watch the next race. Please do not stay inside the pool fence unless you are volunteering.

What the Heck is an AGP? Speaking of volunteers, we will have 1-3 age group parents (AGP) per age group (depending on the group size and age) who will help line the group up for their relays and races and generally help keep the group organized so they can get to the ready benches and keep the meet moving on time. If you’re looking to volunteer, this is a great way to get to know the other kids in your child’s age group. Please remind your swimmer(s) to stay with his/her group (other than quick trips to the bathrooms or concessions) as AGP’s do not have the bandwidth to chase down wandering swimmers from the park, etc. The AGP will call each swimmer in the group when it is time to line up, but if your swimmer isn’t there, he/she may miss the race if s/he doesn’t make it to the ready benches in time. Some kids bring bracelet kits or card games (Uno Splash is always a hit) and they enjoy playing with their teammates in the group while waiting for their races.

Volunteer slots are open for the rest of the season, also on the calendar and events page. Because we are completely volunteer run, please look at the expectations, including arrival times, and only sign up for jobs that you can make on-time! Click here and select Job Signup or you can add/remove shifts by selecting the green Job Signup buttons next to each event. Our entire team structure is set up assuming parents fill their fair share of volunteer shifts in some manner during the season; each family is expected to earn 4 points during the season (most shifts are worth 1 point each). You can see ALL of your job shifts here.

Swimtopia App: Make sure you have installed and are logged in to the Swimtopia Mobile App (iPhone) or (Android) to get text-style push notification alerts when we have to cancel. This app is great because it is tied to our website and can send out push notifications on practice cancellations.

New Families: Check out our website for information on the volunteer roles, for a “Swim Meets 101” overview and other helpful information. Any questions, reach out to a board member on the pool deck or email [email protected].

Kiddie Pool: We will leave the splash pool open during practices for little siblings (under 4) who are not yet ready to join the team, as long as a parent is supervising their splashing. Please tell your big Barracudas this is not a good place for them to play while waiting for practice and if it gets too loud or disruptive, we will need to close the splash area during practice. No fountains during this time (it is too loud).

The Kiddie Pool and steps to the Big Pool are CLOSED during all swim meets.

Any questions about anything swim related, please reach out to a board member or email [email protected]

See you in the Pool!

BCW Barracudas Volunteer Board