Welcome to this edition of MARLINS Weekly.  No meet this week – but there is a LOT of news, so please read carefully all the way through!

Practices remain the same through Thursday, 12/22.  Starting Friday, 12/23, through the Holiday break the schedule is as follows:

THIS FRIDAY (12/23):

Bronze and Silver will be at the HIGH SCHOOL, from 5:30 – 7 PM.

Gold and Senior will be at the MIDDLE SCHOOL, from 5:30- 8 PM.

NEXT WEEK - WEDNESDAY, THURSDAY, FRIDAY, and SATURDAY (12/28 – 12/31):

Bronze and Silver: 11 AM – Noon, at the HIGH SCHOOL.

Gold and Senior: Noon – 1:30 PM at the HIGH SCHOOL.

MONDAY, 1/2:

No practices.

TUESDAY, 1/3:

Regular practice schedule resumes.

Yes, swim practice goes on over the winter break! Swimming is a conditioning sport, and it is critical that our swimmers stay in the pool so they don’t lose ground over the holidays. Note the extra long Gold/Senior practice this Friday – a good opportunity for last minute shopping, parents! (And don’t let your children be intimidated by the length of the practice; there will be a lot of technique work. And they’ll get five days off to recover!)

Swimmers - we need to keep working hard at practice; there is another half a season after the new year. So we look forward to working with you at practice this week and next. See you at the pool!

We’ve swum five meets, but our season is far from over! January is a very busy month for the Marlins, as we move into the last part of our season. Our January and February meets have some distinctive features; here’s a recap:

DUAL MEETS on 1/14 and 1/21:

We swim two dual meets in January, on the 14^th and 21^st. These meets are part of the league championship series, and as such only swimmers who have participated in at least two dual meets in November and December are eligible. The coaches will notify any swimmers who are NOT eligible for these next two meets; everyone else, we hope to see you on pool deck for what should be two very competitive meets. Our opponents will be teams from other divisions of SAL who have records very similar to ours; most likely, our boys and girls will have different opponents. The results of the first set of meets will determine who we swim for the 2^nd set of meets.

LAST CHANCE MEET on 1/28:

The following Saturday, January 28, we will be hosting the league’s final Invitational of the season – our own Last Chance Meet. All swimmers are eligible for this meet, and we expect that all will be swimming, but because it is an invitational, you need to sign up! See details below, under Last Chance Meet. Note that all families will be working this meet, our one and only fundraiser; see below.

INDIVIDUAL CHAMPIONSHIPS:

SAL has two individual championship meets; swimmers attend one or the other:

*Divisional Champs will be held on Saturday, February 4th – location and time TBA, but it will be nearby. All swimmers are eligible for this meet unless they have qualified for League Champs.

*League Champs will be held on Saturday. February 11^th (Girls) and Sunday, February 12^th (Boys), both in the morning. Swimmers qualify for this meet by being in the top 18 swimmers in an event across the entire league; additionally, they must have competed in 2 meets in November and December. Coaches will notify swimmers who qualify in the week after the Last Chance Meet.

The Last Chance Meet is our team’s one and only fundraiser – a successful LCM is the key to keeping our costs low and keeping us in touch pads and lane lines for another season. For those of you who are new: the Last Chance Meet is held each season at the end of January, and is the “last chance” for swimmers to make times for the end-of-season championships. It is an Invitational meet, so you need to sign your swimmer up to swim (see below). Hundreds of swimmers and their families from around the league come to our pool to swim in two sessions: Morning (8’s and 10’s) and Afternoon (12’s, 14’s, and Unlimiteds). It’s a lot of work, but also a lot of fun; the Marlins are proud of our reputation as running the best Invitational in the league!

To make this meet a success, all families are required to provide a worker for at least one session (usually, the one your child is swimming). Our meet directors Amy Vallette and Melissa Faw will shortly get to work assigning jobs; if you have any preferences, please email them ASAP. We need workers at all positions - runners, timers, officials, deck parents (LOTS of deck parents!), admissions, snack bar, table workers….

AND, since all of our parents will be working, be sure to sign your swimmer up to swim! See Invitationals, below.

January is EXACTLY the time you want Marlins texting alerts! While we always hope to have a season free from weather complications, Mother Nature rarely obliges. We are now offering a text alert service to keep you abreast of last minute changes. Please note that these texts will NOT replace the emails; they will be used only for last minute issues and emergencies. In order to receive texts, you must sign up; instructions are on the website.