Hello Gators,

With the first week of practices under our belt, and Mother Nature finally cooperating, it looks like we’re off to a successful 2026 summer season! Thank you so much to everyone who has either come to me for questions or waited to speak to a coach until practice is over and thank you to everyone who is making sure to keep the grass between the pools and the concrete pool deck empty of parents. Your cooperation allows the coaches and guards to remain fully engaged with the kids.

This email is full of information, and includes a link to a Google Form for everyone to fill out. The form includes lots of information for the beginning of the season and will take a few minutes to complete, but it will give me the information I need to not need to send everyone multiple different emails.

• Gear that was ordered pre-season is IN! I will be at Red and White (and thus the beginning of Blue) practices this week to distribute it if I haven’t already found you. I will also have it available if you’re coming to the Food Truck Festival tomorrow!! If you didn’t get a chance to order, there is a question in the Google Form to let me know if you’d be interested in participating in a second sale.
• Swimsuits are available for purchase at the following website https://www.swimoutlet.com/collections/umsc Instructions for measuring to get the right size are included on the pages for each suit. Suits will be shipped as they are ordered and typically take about two weeks to come in. We are hoping that everyone will have team suits or plain navy suits for the picture to show uniformity.
• Swim Caps With so many new swimmers, we are going to be placing an order for new team caps. Caps can be personalized but you would have to commit to buying two of them if that was an option you wanted. There is a question about this in the Google Form so that I can share that information with the company.
• Swim Blast Upper Moreland is hosting Swim Blast this year! It’s shaping up to be a super fun day where we get to show off our skills and our club to the rest of the league.
  • Swim Blast is a fun whole league optional meet. It runs similar to Champs so it is a great opportunity for your swimmer to try out a big meet without a lot of competitive pressure.
  • Swim Blast counts toward the three meets each swimmer must participate in to be able to qualify for A Champs at the end of the season, so if you know that your swimmer will need to miss a meet or you want to be sure they don’t miss out due to emergencies, this is a great opportunity.
  • We will need volunteers to help run the meet, the more we have the less any of us have to work, so please sign up when the form comes out.
• PM Practice Swimmers: If your swimmer is a PM swimmer, there are a few particular questions in the attached Google Form for you. Each week I will email a similar (but far shorter) form that will be due by Friday so that Coach Meaghan can plan practices specific to the group that will be there. If you do not return a form, your swimmer may not be able to attend PM practice the following week.
• Team Picture Day and Team Breakfast will be on Wednesday, June 17 in the morning. There will be a link to order pictures and another link to sign up for something to bring for the breakfast. Please wear your team suit or a plain navy suit for the pictures. No patterned suits or bikinis please.
• Time Trials will be Thursday evening, June 18th 5-7PM.
  • There will be (yet another) form to fill out to volunteer for Time Trials. This is a great place to learn how to do a new job and ask lots of questions!
  • If your swimmer can not make Time Trials, please email Katie, if you haven’t already. The times from time trials are used by the coaches to make decisions about how to set up meets, so it is important for swimmers to be there. If a swimmer can not be there, the coaches will use their judgement for the first meet.
  • Time Trials can help build confidence for new swimmers since they may not know what to expect of a meet. It is a shorter meet with just our team which makes it a great introduction to competitive swimming.
• Stroke and Turn Clinics The league will be hosting two Stroke and Turn Clinics this season to prepare volunteers to take on the position of Stroke and Turn Judge. This is one of the most important positions at a meet as you help to ensure that everyone is completing their strokes and turns legally. Dates and locations are listed below, please email Katie if you plan to attend. Please only sign up for this role if you are comfortable disqualifying swimmers who do not have legal strokes and turns. It helps them grow, even if it is uncomfortable to be the one to do it.
  • Thursday, June 11 7:00PM at Maplewood
  • Saturday, June 14 12:00PM at Maple Manor
• Swim Clinic with Abbey Weitzeil Maple Manor is hosting a Swim Clinic with Olympic Medalist Abbey Weitzeil. See the attached flyer for details. 
• *13-14 swimmers/divers and 15 and up swimmers/divers* who have an interest in being a leader within the team are invited to meet with Coach Meaghan after Red Practice this Wednesday, June 10 to hear about a season-long opportunity to make our team the best it can be. Even if you are doing other practices or commitments and won’t be swimming Red Practice this Wednesday, Coach Meaghan promises not to pick on you too much if you show up to this meeting at 5:00.

As always, if there is anything you need please email me,

Katie

[email protected]