Howdy Tsunamis!

All I can say is WOW! We already have 125 Athletes signed up for Tsunamis this summer! That is a lot more than we had this time last year! It is great to get our team signed up & set up early! It really helps us to start the season off on the right foot; we get our time trials done on time, we have our coaching staff in place and it helps us plan for practices & meets! So if you have already signed up THANK YOU! If you haven't signed up don't worry - there's still time, but remember the sooner the better! We want to be ready for this amazing (and possibly pretty big) team we are going to have this year!

Now for the actual updates (it's a long one, so please read on):

Meet the Coach

Meet the Coach week is going great! We have our last 2 evenings of this tonight & tomorrow. This is an opportunity to do a few things;

- Meet your coaching staff. Talk to us, ask questions, have your kids meet us & get comfortable with us. We have 3 new coaches this year & they would love to meet some of you before practice starts!

- Sign up. If you have questions about signing up or are having trouble signing up we will have someone here each night to help you with that. We DO have the on-line sign up fixed so that you CAN sign up siblings and get the discount now. But we also understand & are here to help if you would rather sign up in person.

- Pick up your shirt & swim cap. If you have already signed up you can come by to pick up your Tsunami shirt & swim cap. Each Athlete receives these with their Tsunami sign up.

- Try on a swim suit from the sizing kit. This will help you know which size to order when you go on-line to the team store to order your swimmer's suit.

We have noticed some of the suits from our sizing kit "walking away". If you have inadvertently taken one of these suits home please return it to the pool. We really need to keep these sizing suits here so that everyone has a chance to try on a suit before they order. Remember, the suits you try on here are NOT the suits you will actually wear. Some of them are several seasons old. 

- Get your general questions answered. If you've heard about Tsunamis or have friends who've done Tsunamis & just want to know more then these evenings are just for you!

We have our final 2 Meet the Coach events tonight (Wednesday) and tomorrow (Thursday) night from 5pm-6:30pm. Remember these are come & go; you do not have to be here right at 5pm and you will not need to stay the whole time. We do not get in the water on these nights either, we have no Lifeguards scheduled for these evenings. 

Swim Team Evaluations

Swim team evaluations will be NEXT WEEK. 

Adamson Lagoon

Monday - Thursday from 5pm - 7pm

We do have these arranged by age groups; Monday & Tuesday for 9 & under and Wednesday & Thursday for our 10 & up. Please know that if your assigned day does not work for you then we would like for you to come on the day you can. These are also come & go; you do not have to be here right at 5pm and many of you will not be here the whole time. Please keep an eye on the weather, if the weather becomes inclement we will not be able to get into the pool. 

Swimmers MUST be able to complete 1 length of the pool (25 meters) unassisted in order to be on the Tsunami Swim Team. If you are unsure if your swimmer is able to do this please be sure to attend one of the Swim Team Evaluation evenings. You CAN wait to sign up until after your swimmer has completed evaluations. IF you have already signed up & your swimmer cannot complete 25 meters unassisted we can refund your sign up fee or your swimmer might be interested in swim lessons that can help them prepare for this requirement. Tsunamis is set up & operates as a Swim Team; our coaches are on deck, we have volunteer swimmers who help with demonstrations when needed, and we often have a lot of swimmers in each lane. It is just not a safe environment for us to allow swimmers who are unable to achieve 1 length of the pool on their own. If you have any questions about this requirement please reach out to me. 

If you already know you are unable to attend our May 4th Time Trials meet please send me and email letting me know that your athlete(s) will NOT be able to attach this meet AND plan on attending Swim Team Evaluations as we will use that time to try to get ahead on establishing those times. I do know there is a LOT going on May 4th so we understand if your swimmer cannot make it that day. But, we do have to get these times established before your swimmer can register for a Dual Meet. Our Dual Meets begin on May 11th - ONE WEEK after Time Trials. 

Singing Up/Swimtopia

If you have not yet signed up for Tsunamis via RecTrac you will not be moved over to the current season in Swimtopia. Once you have signed up in RecTrac (or in person) you DO NOT need to set up your Swimtopia account; that will happen automatically. I am usually able to transfer the athletes over to Swimtopia within a few days - this does not happen automatically. You will not be able to register your Athlete for events or RSVP until your account is active in Swimtopia. If you have not received an activation email or if you have lost your login information please send me an email & I can reset it for you. Please be sure to check your Junk/Spam Mail as messaged come from a mailer and can often be filtered. 

If more than one parent/guardian would like to be able to Volunteer or receive email notifications I need email addresses for EACH person. I can add multiple emails but they need to be assigned to separate individuals. Our system will not let 1 individual sign up for multiple volunteer shifts at the same time. 

The link to sign up on RecTrac is here: 

https://rectrac.cstx.gov/wbwsc/webtrac.wsc/SPLASH....

Time Trial Meet May 4th

Sign ups are OPEN on the website for both Athletes & Volunteer positions! If you are coming to this meet please head over to the website & sign up! Please remember that some of the volunteer positions are for certified individuals only. We have plenty of volunteer positions to be filled though - so please sign up! 

We expect Time Trials to go pretty quickly. It is only our team which cuts our swimmer volume down quite a bit. 

Time Trials are very important though. Swimmers are unable to compete in an event in a Dual Meet that they do not have a Time Trial Time for. We encourage ALL athletes to Time Trial in ALL events they are eligible. Parents & Swimmers often feel that they just "aren't ready" to swim a certain event. At Time Trials our Officials will also be training. They will be calling disqualifications and Coaches will be able to use this information in coaching the swimmers, BUT every swimmer will leave with a registered time in every event they swim - regardless of if it was legal or not. 

Officials

If you are a Certified Official; Stroke & Turn, Starter, Referee PLEASE email me. I am working on getting the roles cleaned up in advance of our season to make signing up for Volunteer positions a little more transparent. Thanks!

I think that is all for today! I know there is a lot of information here - please let me know if you have any questions! 

Looking forward to an AMAZING season!

Swim Fast Tsunamis!

Coach Michelle