Dear Parents,
Welcome to the Breton Bay Sea Devils team and lessons program! We look forward to working with your children throughout the 2008 lessons & swim team season. The pool committee has worked to present a well-qualified roster of coaches with a strong support system of parent volunteers to help run the meets, and an instructor has been hired for the lessons program.
We encourage all swimmers to be a part of the Breton Bay swim program, either through lessons or the swim team which will be offered simultaneously. For the safety of all swimmers during swim team practices and meets, those who cannot yet swim the length of the pool are strongly encouraged to enroll in the swim lesson program. If your child is very close to being able to swim the length of the pool at the start of the season, they are welcome to join the swim team, and they will be entered in meets when they can swim the length of the pool unaided.
The swim team coaching staff will conduct practices on M, W, F. Separate, stroke & turn clinics will be held at no additional charge on T, Th for all who desire additional stroke instruction. The swim lessons instructors will provide lessons for all six weeks of the swim season in the shallow end all five mornings of the week during swim team practices. Swimmers in the lessons program will be enrolled in either the M,W,F class or the T, Th class depending on age. All swimmers participating in the lessons or swim team program will be invited to the swim banquet at the end of the season and will receive an awards bag.
Parents’ Meeting: We will host a parents’ meeting at the pool on Sunday, June 15th, at 6:00 p.m. for about half an hour to discuss the swim team and lessons program and to answer any questions parents may have. All new and former swim team families are welcome and encouraged to attend! Immediately following the parent meeting a 45-minute clinic will be held to train parent volunteers to be Stroke & Turn judges on duty for each meet. Judges do not have to be swim stroke experts to be trained as judges, but they do have to be certified each year to remain qualified. Please consider volunteering to learn the necessary skills to perform this important role!
Costs: The cost for either the swim team or the lessons program for the 2008 season will be $50 per child and $40 for additional children from the same family. Swimmers moving from the lesson program to the swim team during the season are covered by the $50 fee already paid. We will also collect $15 per family for concession stand offerings. Families voted overwhelmingly in the club survey to donate money at the beginning of the season instead of having to bring food to donate at each home meet. The Health Department also encourages this approach. Families only participating in the lessons program will not pay the $15 per family concession stand fee for the swim meets. Swimmers who move from the lessons program to the swim team mid-season will need to pay the $15 concession stand fee.
Meets: The league offers six home and six away meets on Tuesday and Thursday evenings plus four Saturday meets: the Coaches’ Age Group (designed for beginning to moderate level swimmers), the Relay Carnival (a small meet for approximately 50 swimmers from our team), a tri-team meet at the newest team's home, Cove Point in Calvert County, and the end-of-season Invitational at Wildewood (for swimmers who have competed twice during the regular season in specific strokes without being DQ’d). The league changed the rules this year to have 8 & Unders (but not 6 & Under) be able to be DQ'd during the regular season. This is actually an improvement because in the past some swimmers didn't realize until the Invitational at the end of the season that they were using improper strokes.
Volunteers: It takes 48 – 50 volunteers to run a home meet and 32 for us to participate in an away meet. Breton Bay therefore requires that each family with a child swimming in a meet have a parent or other-designated volunteer work for one half of the meet. This is the only fair way to ensure we have adequate staffing to run the meets. If you cannot meet this volunteer requirement due to family circumstances, please work with the volunteer coordinator (whose name will be posted in the volunteer book and will be posted on the web site), and he or she will help you find a substitute worker so your child can participate in the meet.
Not Attending Meets: Swimmers/parents should sign the “No Show” book when it is known the swimmer will not be able to participate in a certain meet. It was a great help last year having parents notify the coaching staff well in advance of their children’s absences. When coaches have to scratch swimmers from heats due to no-shows the whole meet lasts longer. Each no show child adds about one minute to the overall meet time. When we have 20 – 30 no shows, it adds significant time to our meets! Swimmers are seeded according to best time so when there are no shows gaps occur in heats. Knowing the correct swimmers ahead of time allows for fewer heats to be scheduled which means less overall meet time. It also improves meet flow because swimmers sometimes mistakenly step up into the gaps and occasionally even swim in the wrong heat. Last year we saw a tremendous improvement in meet flow and length due to the parents’ cooperation in the successful implementation of the No Show book. Thank you in advance for using the No-Show book or website link this year! A Volunteer book as well as a No Show book will be available in the guard shack and on the web at www.bretonbayswim.com.
Parents are encouraged to sign up for volunteer slots for the meets as early as possible. Please also remember to remove your name from the volunteer book if circumstances change and you can't attend a meet for which you have signed up to volunteer. The master copy will be at the pool. Volunteers may be asked to move sessions as the hard copy book and website entries are reconciled.
Swim Suits: Team suits are available from our vendor, Metro SwimShop. Swimmers do not have have to wear the new suit to participate in swim meets, but they cannot wear swim suits that have other organizations' team names (such as CBAC, GMAC, or LHS) on them . Swimmers can use their Breton Bay team suits from previous years. Families who want to purchase the new suit but who cannot attend the sign-ups on May 17th can contact Metro Swimshop directly in their Glen Burnie, MD location at 443-891-0800 to purchase the suit chosen by Breton Bay and to have it shipped directly to their home . The Breton Bay swim suit ordering chairperson from the Breton Bay Pool Committee is Sandy Haverkamp (301.475.2267). Please call her with any questions regarding swimsuit ordering.
Communications: The swim team practice, meet schedule, directions to away meets and other useful information is posted on our website at www.bretonbayswim.com We have a suggestion box at the pool and on the website. We welcome your input throughout the season on how we can improve any aspect of the lesson program and swim team. We have worked throughout the fall, winter and spring to prepare for a successful season for all of the swimmers. We look forward to working with you.
The Breton Pay Pool Committee Members
Linda Davis, Sandy Haverkamp, Kelly Kibler, Sabrina Lackey, Charlene Mallory, Susan Shannon, Sue Simmerman, Margie Williams, Sally Wise, and Stephanie Wood
To get up to date and last minute swim team news please subscribe to the Breton Bay Swim team yahoo email service through the web site at www.bretonbayswim.com swim team page.
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