Hello Dolphins!

We know summer planning is already underway for families and kids, and the Hanarry West Club board of volunteers and your Hanarry West Swim Team managers are several meetings and lots of hours into planning for the summer swim season. This email has information about the Club, team, lifeguard training opportunities, spring swim clinic opportunities and more. Please read to the end!

Join the Hanarry West Swim & Tennis Club
Don’t forget to join the Club BEFORE you register for the swim team or Dolphin Pups. If you are already a Club member at registration, you’ll receive a per swimmer discount. Also, the Club is currently offering an early bird discount of $50 on registration until March 1.

Hanarry West Club Board Positions
The volunteer board for the HW Club is currently seeking members to serve in several roles: Pool Chair, Social Chair, Grounds Chair. If you have time, interest and skills in serving in one of these positions for the coming year, the board would love to hear from you! Work alongside other volunteers who are creating a wonderful summer experience for our community. Several neighborhood pools in our area have closed in recent years, if you can find ways to support this Club and its volunteer leaders, please do!

Swim Team Leadership Needs
We are so grateful for all our amazing volunteers during the summer swim season (and in the months leading up to it)! For the coming season, we have several positions open on our leadership team that we would like to fill sooner rather than later. If you have any interest in these positions, please reach out to Team Managers Christina van Maanen and Patricia Heys – ask us questions, find out how fun we are to work with :), let us know how best you’d like to help. If you are interested in teaming up with another volunteer to take on a leadership role or assisting one of our leadership team members throughout the season, please talk to us about that as well.

Concessions (Co) Coordinator – Work alongside the amazing and long-serving Trisha Atkins to run the team’s concessions stand at home meets this season. Trisha is looking to work with someone this season who can then take over this role in future seasons. If you like to cook for many, buy in bulk, plan menus, this might be a great role to take on and a very important contribution to the team (hungry kids don’t swim as fast! AND proceeds from sales benefit the team).

Volunteer Coordinator – Our awesome Volunteer Coordinator from last season has a summer packed full of travel this year, so their family won’t be part of the Dolphins in 2025 (but hopefully in summers to come!). We are looking for someone (or two people to work together as co-coordinators) to take on the role of coordinating volunteers for swim meets. Parents will sign up for their swim meets online, and the Volunteer Coordinator will answer questions, confirm all shifts are filled, obligations are filled. At meets, the Volunteer Coordinator will check in volunteers, troubleshoot absences, answer questions, and provide training as needed. They work with our Timers Coordinator, Bullpen Coordinator, Officials Coordinator and Concessions Coordinator to make sure those leaders have the volunteers they need.

Timers Coordinator – Our Timers Coordinator from last year also has a full summer of camps and travel ahead and sadly their family will not be Dolphins this year (hopefully next!). We are looking for someone to be responsible for all the supplies for Timers at each meet (pens, stopwatches, etc), distribute these, collect them at the end. The Timers Coordinator leads the two timers meetings at home meets and works with new timers at all meets to make sure they understand the role and are able to perform it well.

County Coordinator – Once the regular season concludes, there’s a checklist of items for the County Meet that your Team Managers (who are very tired by the end of June) would like to hand off to this new leadership position. The County Coordinator would coordinate volunteer shifts for the meet, help distribute meet information, pick up and distribute county spiritwear and distribute county awards after the meet.

Starter & Officials
Our team is looking for a volunteer to train as a Starter this season and work alongside our two veteran (and very friendly & helpful) starters. Starter training is free and can be done online at your convenience. We also need additional parents to train as Stroke & Turn Officials this season. This training is also free and done online. You can learn more about these positions on our website. Please send us an email if you are interested.

Spring Swim Clinics
If your swimmer is interested in honing their stroke techniques and/or starting training for the summer season early, register for one of the Spring Clinics offered at year-round clubs.

Gwinnett Aquatics Spring Tune-up - “Gaga” has a spring clinic, which focuses on a different stroke every week. You are not required to attend all four days each week, but they set up the clinic expecting people to pick 2-3 days each week to attend. They also offer swim clinics for middle school kids throughout the school year.

GAC & Spartans - The Spartan Aquatic Club also offers swim lessons, and we’ve heard they may be offering a clinic as well this spring.

Lifeguard Training
Our team is lucky to have so many teenagers who register for the team each season – and many who are interested in coaching, offering lessons and working as lifeguards. Gwinnett County offers lifeguard training throughout the year, with several opportunities coming up in the next few months. Go to the Catalog and search for “lifeguard”.

Team Shirt Design
We love seeing Hanarry West swim team shirts all over Lilburn! We plan to offer the popular stripe design again this year in shirts, hats, visors, tanks and sweatshirts. But we are also working on a design for our 2025 team shirt and would love to get input from our Dolphin parents and kids. Please vote in this survey for your favorite design for the coming season! And, let us know if there are additional spiritwear items you’d like to see offered. Voting ends on February 14!

Thank you!
Patricia Heys & Christina van Maanen
Team Managers