Welcome to the 52nd year of the Hanarry West Swim Team!

We hope this email and the links in it will provide you with a lot of what you need to know for the coming season. PLEASE read it thoroughly. PLEASE check our team website for additional information. And PLEASE make sure to regularly check your email (the email linked to your SwimTopia account) during the season because that is the primary way leadership and coaches will communicate.

And FINALLY, remember that while our coaches are paid, the team is led and run by parent volunteers – all who spend countless hours behind the scenes before the season begins and once it begins. Your leadership team is fellow parents who understand the positive experience summer swim team can be for children – and have taken on the responsibility of helping to create a safe, fun and encouraging learning space for the more than 170 Hanarry West Dolphins and Dolphin Pups. Feel free to ask us questions! But also feel free to jump in when you see a need (stock bathrooms, pick up trash, problem solve, fix swimmers' goggles, etc.).

Before you finish reading this email, we recommend doing the following:
Download the SwimTopia App (using the email you used to register)
Join our team Hanarry West Dolphins Facebook Group

Before the season starts

Fill out swimmer & parent goal sheets! NEW this season, we have goal sheets for each swimmer to complete before practice begins. We hope these goal sheets will help swimmers and parents set practical and fun goals for the season, but also help our coaches encourage and work with swimmers on specific goals. If you haven’t turned in your goal sheet, please email to Coach Brown or bring it to the first day of practice.

Order spiritwear! Our meets are awash in royal blue because our team parents wear team shirts too! We got such positive feedback about our NEW (softer and lighter) shirts and sweatshirts that we reopened our Shuma Spiritwear Store. The deadline to order is this WEDNESDAY, MAY 6. Check out the NEW Swim Mom and Swim Dad shirts and tanks!

Order swimsuits. We have no official team suit, but we do encourage you to purchase suits in solid royal blue or a royal blue pattern. Girls should wear one piece swimsuits and boys jammers. Our SwimOutlet Store, where we receive a portion of the sales, features several of these royal blue suits in a variety of price points. Each swimmer will receive one team swim cap (and a team shirt) with registration. If your swimmer tends to lose or break caps each season, consider purchasing extra swim caps to wear during practice. During meets, we ask swimmers to wear only our team cap or a solid cap to help build team spirit and make our Dolphins easier to identify.

Bring old suits and spiritwear to the first week of practice. And as you are getting ready for the season, pull out the swimsuits and HW shirts your kids have outgrown and bring them to the first week of practice. We’ll have a “Swimsuit Exchange” table set up near the entrance. You can also list swimsuits or request swimsuits on the team’s Facebook Group.

Join the Hanarry West Swim & Tennis Club! Club members have the privilege of hanging out at the pool all the time! (Only paid Club members can remain at the pool after practices end.) Plus, you’ll have year-round access to the tennis courts, can attend special Club socials and events and build a summer community at the pool.

Throughout the season, please remember that our team itself is a guest of the Club. The Dolphins pay an annual fee to use the pool for practices, meets and swim team events. Please pick up trash and other items as you leave each day. Ask your kids to do so as well. Put umbrellas, chairs, tables or pool toys back in their set spots. Help our coaches maintain the cleanliness of the pool during practice. As part of our commitment to good sportsmanship as a team, we want to be part of leaving the spaces we use better than we found them. 

The first week of practice

The schedule is posted on our website, along with a list of things to bring to practice. For these after-school practices, the water is usually cold and practices happen in the evenings, so along with goggles, your kids may need extra towels and warm layers. Also, evening practices tend to have more mosquitos than morning practices, so for parents and waiting swimmers, bug spray, fans or long sleeves might be helpful.

Label ALL your swimmer’s items! Sharpies or waterproof labels are great for labeling gear with names. Not only do team caps and shirts look alike, but also shoes, goggles and water bottles. We’ll have a swim team-specific “Lost & Found”, but labeling makes it all easier!

Be patient during the first few days. The first two weeks of practice may feel a little chaotic – as with most sports. It takes time for coaches to learn all the swimmers’ names, skill sets and find the lane that works best for the swimmer. Your swimmers may be in different lanes each day of after-school practices and they may have a different coach each day. Please encourage your swimmers to be patient and flexible these first two weeks (parents too!). Our Dolphins always find their flow after the first week or so!

Learn the names of our coaches! (PDF attached) To prepare for practices, encourage your swimmers to learn the names and faces of coaches. Coaches will be wearing light blue polos or gray team shirts to make them easy to identify. Led by head coach Eric Brown, who is also the head coach of the Parkview High School Swim & Dive Team, and Assistant Head Coach Ethan Kruger, most of our coaches are high school students who have grown up swimming at Hanarry West. If you’d like to speak to coaches, please try to find a time before or after practice so they can devote their full attention to the swimmers in the water during practices.

Familiarize yourself with our team’s volunteer leaders (see attached PDF). These parent volunteer are essential to our team – the way it functions throughout the season and how these leaders work to create community. At meets, you can easily identify our leadership team by their turquoise shirts.

Introduce yourself to other parents! For many, our team is a summer community – and the community that exists and continues to grow is one of the best parts. If you are a veteran swim parent, please walk around and introduce yourself to newcomers or invite them to sit with you at practice. If you are new to the team, welcome! This is truly a family sport, where we all work and cheer alongside each other. Just as we hope your swimmers make new friends, we hope new parents do so as well. 

Review our team policies. It’s especially important as practices begin to remember that coaches only watch swimmers actively practicing. Parents are responsible for watching their children before and after practice – this includes keeping them out of the baby pool and out of the way of active practices. If you are new to summer swim or our team, read over the terms and FAQs on our website.

Preparing for meets

The meet schedule is posted on our website and on the team calendar. RSVP your swimmers for each meet on our team calendar page (RSVP option will be available next week; we are waiting on the League). If you don’t RSVP by 11 a.m. the Friday prior to the meet, coaches will assume your swimmer isn’t available to swim, and they will not be entered to compete.

Parents, know when you are scheduled to volunteer (see more info below). You’ll receive an email (or two) the week of the meet with information about that specific meet and a heat sheet (list of your swimmer’s events). But LOTS of basic information about swim meets is available on our website, including:

• Where to park (our lot is closed and parents park on the street)
• What swimmers should bring
• What parents should bring
• Layout of the pool deck during a meet
• How to label your swimmer
• What time to arrive
• Weather delay procedures
• Schedule of events
• Team Cheer
• Rules & disqualifications
• Strokes
• Volunteer roles

Make plans to eat dinner at our amazing Concession Stand! Our concessions is truly the best in the league, featuring not only burgers and grilled sandwiches but also specialty items. Proceeds from sales go directly to the team – this is our primary fundraiser each season. We’ll post the menu the week of the meet.

Volunteering

Swim team is truly a family sport – we need EVERYONE to volunteer in order for swim meets to function. Swim meets rely on parent volunteers from start to finish (it takes approximately 80 adult volunteers to run one swim meet).

This season, each Hanarry West family is required to work FOUR shifts. Volunteers are essential not only to the function of the team and meets but the overall positive experience of the swim team for our kids. Please take requests for your time seriously and respond promptly.

Volunteer sign-ups for meets will open Wednesday, May 13 at 8 p.m. on SwimTopia. Log in to your SwimTopia account, go to the Calendar page and look for the green “Job Signup” button. Your swimmer(s) will not be entered in a meet until your family has signed up for 4 volunteer shifts. Signing up for meet shifts will be first-come, first serve. We have five meets this season (three at home).

For our families brand new to summer swim league, our Volunteer Coordinators Laura Holder or Maggie Hammond will reach out to you this week or next to help orient you to volunteer roles and help you sign up for 4 shifts (please respond to their emails or texts promptly!). In the meantime, if you’d like to learn more about the different roles at meets, read through the volunteer section of our website. When possible, we ask that families with older swimmers or those that swim butterfly (the last event of the meet) to sign up for the second half shifts.

It is crucial at the end of every meet that swimmers clean up all their personal items and trash from the bullpen. And as your family leaves the meet, please be sure to look around and make sure you have your personal items and collect any trash or recycling in your area. At the conclusion of the meet, our coaches will move furniture, lane ropes and dive blocks, but our team relies on parents and swimmers to help clean up at the conclusion of the meet – and get the pool ready for Friday morning. This involves not only picking up trash and recycling, but returning pool deck tables and chairs to their regular location.

On Friday mornings

Things look a little different than the rest of the week on Fridays after a meet. It’s many kids’ favorite part of the season – Fun Friday! NEW this season we’ll start a little bit later in the morning: 10:30AM. The morning after a meet, swim team members get to celebrate accomplishments from the previous night’s meet, play games, free swim and enjoy a treat. Coaches recognize “swimmers of the week” with a yard sign that can be displayed in the swimmer’s yard for the week (and then they bring it back the next Fun Friday) and any team record breakers. There are photo ops signs for swimmers who swam personal bests that week.

There are 5 Fun Fridays this season, and so we can plan for games and treats – please RSVP for each one on the Calendar page of our website. We are grateful to this year’s Fun Friday sponsors: Dewald Family, Nelson-Valera Family, Mayhew Family, McWilliams Family, Schoen Family. See the (tentative) schedule of activities below:
May 29: Kickoff to Summer (book exchange)
June 5: Say Cheese (team photo)
June 12: Just Keep Swimming! (water fun led by coaches)
June 19: Thank you! (recognizing leadership team)
June 26: Float Away

NEW this season we have Coach Kudos Cards for parents to write notes on during the week. Team Managers will collect these, and the coaches will be given their cards during their Friday morning Coaches Meeting (before Fun Friday). As our swimmers are learning to improve their strokes, our teenage coaches are learning to become better coaches and stronger leaders. We are inviting parents (and swimmers) to write short notes of encouragement, kudos and thanks to our coaches throughout the season. Stay tuned for more info…

On Saturday mornings

NEW Instead of regular practices, Saturday mornings will have clinics (free) that focus on different aspects of swimming. Please RSVP to these clinics by EOD Monday of that week so that we have an adequate number of coaches. Clinics will be held on the following Saturdays: May 30 (Dives), June 6 (Turns), June 13 (Breaststroke), June 20 (Butterfly).
9-9AM 6-10 year olds
9:45-10:30AM 11-18 year olds

To celebrate the season

The team’s end of season awards will be given out on Tuesday, July 7 from 6-9 PM at our Last Splash Bash! NEW day from the last few years. Listening to feedback from our families and volunteers, we’ve moved this annual celebration so it is not immediately following our last meet. Coaches will present high point awards and recognize each swimmer with a medal. Stay tuned for more details… Please RSVP for this event as well!

The last event of the season

The Gwinnett County Championships are the last event of the season – for swimmers who qualify for the event. They will be held this year July 10-12 at Georgia Tech. Swimmers can qualify for the county meet by being a part of their team’s “A” relay or having a time in the top 50 in the county in an individual event. During the season, the county updates a list of the top 100 times – so you can find your swimmer on this list and keep track of their ranking.

Swimmers are required to RSVP for this meet through their team. The League will fine swimmers a penalty of $100 for no-shows. The County Meet, like our regular season meet, is staffed by parent volunteers. The League will assign Hanarry West specific volunteer roles for each age group session. So if your swimmer participates in the County Meet, please be prepared to volunteer at the meet as well.

Thank you for being a part of our summer swim family!
We are looking forward to a great season! 
Go Dolphins!