Welcome to summer, Swim Team Parents!  (Well...almost!)

The Hammerhead coaches are ready to start practice next week! Our first practice will be Tuesday, May 15 at the Hampton Woods pool. Here is the address in case you need it:

892 Chestnut Lake Drive NE, Marietta, GA 30068

Swimmers ages 5-8 will practice from 4:30-5:15pm. Swimmers ages 9 & up will practice from 5:15-6:00pm.

Our afternoon practices will be on Tuesday through Friday of next week (May 15-18) as well as Monday, May 21.

On Tuesday, May 22, we will have a dive clinic for all ages (except the Junior Hammerheads) at Atlanta Swim Academy from 2:30-3:00pm. The purpose of this clinic is to familiarize our swimmers with starting off the blocks, which we do not have at our pool. Our team will encounter blocks at some of our away swim meets.

Junior Hammerheads (ages 4-5 who are not competing in meets) will not meet until school is out for the summer. The first practice for the Junior Hammerheads is May 29.

You can find a full calendar on our website at: https://hamptonwoods.swimtopia.com/team-calendar

Unfortunately, our first practice conflicts with the Kickball Game at Mt. Bethel Elementary. If your child wants to go to the kickball game, that is totally fine! We want to fully support the teachers as they play kickball to raise money for The Rally Foundation for Childhood Cancer Research. We will have practice as scheduled on May 15, but we plan to hand out swim bags and all the loot that goes inside them on the SECOND day of practice, which is Wednesday, May 16.

PLEASE note that your child cannot participate in swim practice until we have a concussion form signed by a parent! You can find the concussion form here: https://swimtopia.s3.amazonaws.com/3180/files/Concussion_Form.PDF?1520444382

You can print this form at home, sign it, and drop it off in my mailbox at:

740 Butlers Gate, Marietta, GA 30068

OR you can come a few minutes early to practice and sign the form there. We will have plenty of copies available. We cannot accept forms signed by nannies, babysitters, grandparents, etc. A parent must sign this form.

Next on your to-do list is to RSVP your child for meets! This is very important. Our meets are on May 31, June 4, June 11, June 18, and June 25 beginning at 4:45pm. You probably know now if you will be in town on those dates, so please let us know by following this link: https://hamptonwoods.swimtopia.com/swim_meets

Click on the green buttons that say "Meet Entry" and let us know if your child(ren) will be attending that meet. You will be able to change your response at a later date if your plans change. 

For each meet in which you have a child participating, a volunteer must help for half of the meet. This volunteer can be a parent, a teenager, a grandparent, or any responsible person who can do critical but simple jobs such as operating a stopwatch, delivering time sheets from one person to another on the pool deck, writing down times, etc. Swim meets have many moving parts, and we need your helping hands to make this happen! When you RSVP your child for meets, please also sign up for a volunteer position. You do not need to be familiar with the responsibilities associated with the volunteer positions because we will tell you what you need to do. However, if you'd like to know exactly what you're signing up for, a description of the volunteer positions is available here:

https://swimtopia.s3.amazonaws.com/3180/uploaded_files//files/20952.pdf?1518479951

Brittany and I along with our Hammerheads coaching staff are committed to making this swim season safe and fun for all 70 of our swimmers! This year, the coaches will give out awards at the end of practices that swimmers can exchange for a snack at the next meet! Some of the awards will be based on performance and work ethic during practice, such as the 110% award or best backstroke, and others will be just for fun, like best dance move or funniest joke! We hope your kids improve their swimming technique while having a good time in a welcoming environment. If you have any concerns, please don't hesitate to get in touch by emailing me at [email protected]. If you'd rather have a phone conversation, email me your phone number, and I'll call you back as soon as I can. Brittany is also avaiable at [email protected].

OUR COACH OF THE WEEK is... Head Coach Olivia McEvilly!