Hi Glider Families!!!

YAYY!! Can’t believe we are going to be able to get our first “meet” of the season in on Monday! What a crazy summer it has been, and one that none of us anticipated but we can’t thank you all enough for being patient with us as we navigate this season and our first upcoming “meet”!! :-) Monday night will definitely be a test run for sure, so bear  with us, but we are EXCITED and are hopeful that we will be able to make it work!! :-) We will try and run the “meet” as close to a normal meet as possible. And hopefully, by our second “meet” on July 6th, we will have a little more flexibility and will be able to get more people on deck!! Please be on the lookout for a sign-up email following this email with a list of volunteers needed! We don't need many but we DO still need volunteers:-) 2nd half volunteers will switch at the half way point which will be after Event 27-Boys 11-12- 50 back. I know this is ALOT of information but PLEASE read through this whole e-mail so you know what's happening on Monday night:-)

For Monday night’s “meet”, think “parking lot tailgate” style! :-) Because we can’t have everyone on deck, like all the previous seasons, we thought families can plan to park and hang out in the parking lot (all while trying to maintain social distance as much as possible). Bring chairs and hang outside of your car:-) Meet will start at 6:30p! While we will not be having the glider grill this year, the snack bar will be open with their full menu, so please feel free to order online or at the snack bar just as you do at the pool:) YOU WILL NEED TO WEAR YOUR MASK when coming in to order and pick up food. Please come in the gate closest to the snack bar.

If volunteers could get there at 6p and check in with Mark, that would be great! Families will be able to watch their kids swim and we will be filtering that out just as we have been for practices in the morning. Parents will come in the gate on the side of the building (on the side with bathrooms) for their child’s heat and exit out the gate near the snack bar. If you have a mite, they can come to you directly from the pool and you all can walk out together. All other swimmers will exit by the back gate near the volleyball court, and you can meet them out the gate when you exit or have them meet you at your car. 

Mite families specifically, you will need to stay 10 feet behind the timers but we will have cones so you know where to stand. We will also have cones for timers on both ends but to make it easy, if you can try to stand at the end of your child’s lane, that will make it easier for everyone so you can see your child swim and maintain the required distance per the CDC.

Coach Kelly will be e-mailing the heat sheet on Monday so feel free to print that out so you know your child’s heat and lane number:-) We are going to try and have someone outside the front gate office that will be announcing what heat we are on so that you can be ready to enter when your child swims. There may be a little more time in-between heats than normal (until we find the new normal) but we are going to try our best to make sure families can see their swimmers so just be on the lookout for that person announcing the heats so you don’t miss it:-) We will also try to update periodically on the Remind app (text @gliders to 81010 to join) of what heat we are on.

As for swimmers, we will have age groups meet outside the pool fence (near the shed) and they will be placed in their heat. We will have one heat on deck at a time and swimmers will enter through the gate closest to the diving board/shed. An assistant coach will help them (if needed) when they are on deck to be in the appropriate lane. We are hoping to have one volunteer on that side of the building calling for swimmers, so just make sure your swimmers are paying attention. 

We will also be having relays, which include more than one swimmer in a lane. In addition to the already marked cones for the lanes, families watching relays just need to distance yourselves out around the sides of the pool. We will try and have these marked as well. Just think of the cone being your families place:-))

Timers -  Due to social distancing, we will only have 1 timer per lane and we are only using 6 lanes. We will still have first half and second half timers. You are more than welcome to do both shifts if you would like as we are anticipating that the meet may be done by 8:30p. Just sign up for both slots. Again, we have no idea how this is going to go so it could be shorter or longer…but don’t think we’ll have late nights like we have in the past;-) We will need 6 timers per half and are going to go old school.  You will have all of your heats on a clipboard and you will just hand over each sheet once it is completed. 

Again, this is ALL new to all of us and we can’t thank you enough for your patience and for allowing your children to swim this season in this crazy world of COVID-19! We will work through any kinks and try to adjust for the following week! :-) In the meantime, GO TEAM 70’s + GO TEAM 80’s! We are excited for our first EVER intrasquad meet and see these kids have fun! THANK YOU ALL AGAIN!!!

Hope this all makes and as always, if you have any questions at all, please ask myself, Mark, or Kelly and we can try to answer them as best as possible! :-)  We'll send another email out on Monday with answers to questions. Thank you all SO much again!!

Kristi, Mark, and Coach Kelly