Hey Barracudas!

Wow! We successfully completed our first tri-meet of the season with 786 event “splashes” and even a new BCW record for Emma Zhang in the 9-10 girls Individual Medley. Congratulations Emma! Barracudas also posted 145 personal best times! Collect your ribbons Monday after practice. All meet results are posted on our website under Swim Meets and Events → Past Events. Live and final results are also available in the SwimTopia app.

Lost and Found is overflowing from the meet and practices! Please label your gear and check the bin! THERE ARE SO MANY TOWELS.

Our 2nd Individual Photo Day is this Wednesday, 5/14. Come in your team suit and get your picture taken. A memory mate photo is included with registration, sample here.

Our next meet is Lake Pointe @ BCW. It will be this Saturday, May 17th at 8:00 am, with warm-up starting at 7:00am. It should finish around 11:30 am.. 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 early 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”. May have other conflicts? Select “No relays” just in case.

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 at practice 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

Parking / Where to Set up and Watch.

Parking at the pool is limited, and we reserve certain spots with cones or small signs for loading unloading / set up, etc. The remainder of the paved parking lot is reserved for BCW residents. Most of the parking will be along Creeks Edge Parkway. Please respect traffic cones that are blocking off areas (like the grass by the park) that are not suitable for parking to avoid breaking sprinkler heads. Please also be aware of many young children and pedestrians and mindful of traffic flow when parking and traveling to/from the meet.

We ask all Barracuda families to set up chairs, tents, towels, 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.

Spotlight on Ready Bench. A big Barracuda thank you to Julienne Thorp and the other volunteers who help organize the kids on the ready benches and get them to their lanes on time in and in order. It’s a big job! Here’s how to make their lives easier:

• Parents: Write your swimmers’ name in sharpie on his/her back/shoulder and remind them to stay with their age group and designated AGP’s so they can line up for their races on time.
• Age Group Parent Volunteers: Use the heat sheet to call out the events and line up the swimmers in heat/lane order so they are already organized when they get to the back of the ready bench.

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.

If you’re interested in learning more about a specific role, we’re happy to teach you! We’d love to have people learn more about the following areas and take on a bigger role in the future:

• Computers - keep the meet running on time and with accurate results, best seat in the house to watch your kids swim!
• Starter/Announcer - anyone with public speaking experience? Learn how to keep the meet flowing and start all our races on time.
• Ready bench - want to learn how to organize the kids loading onto the ready benches, headed to their swim lanes or be the runner who brings them from their AGP group to the ready bench, sign up!

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