Good morning Stingray Nation,

We are officially into October and in swimming that means one thing: swim meets! We have our first YMCA "team effort" meet on October 28-29 at Lake Orion High School. The meet packet is out and will be available to you soon.  Coach Rich STRONGLY encourages all swimmers to sign up for this meet!  If you have questions as to what events to put your swimmer in, please talk to the coaches before or after practice, or email Coach Rich at [email protected].

Just a reminder that the Farmington Family YMCA closes at 8:00 pm on Friday evenings.  We are asking that all parents please cooperate with the operating hours of the branch. The Y is asking that all parents wait outside of the building to pick up swimmers from practice. The FFYS coaches will make sure that all swimmers are out of the locker room at the end of the practice session.

Practice updates:

The practice schedule has been changed for Thursday, October 5th due to pool availability:

Location: Beechview Swim and Tennis Club, 27000 Westmeath (behind Beechview Elementary)

Senior: 4:30-6:30 P.M. (no dryland) - BVSC

Gold: 5:00-6:30 P.M. - BVSC 

The Practice Schedule is available here! You can also sync the Practice Schedule to your smart phone by clicking  here and following the instructions!

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Social Event Update:

Coming soon: Fall Social Event at Three Cedars in Northville.  The evening will include a hayride, bonfire, cider, donuts and all of your favorite Stingray family members! This is a great chance to meet other swimmers, parents, and coaches! Practice will be canceled that evening so EVERYONE can attend. Don’t miss it!

MEET UPDATES:

BBD Meet October 28-29: This meet will be at Lake Orion High School.  Coach Rich strongly encourages everyone to sign up for this meet. High School boys - this meet is mandatory! Again, if you have any questions about what events to put your swimmer in, please ask one of their coaches. This is our first YMCA meet so the more swimmers we can get to sign up, the better.

BBA Fall Brawl 2023: The BBA Fall Brawl is open for registration for USA swimmers.  It is recommended that all 13 and over swimmers should attend this meet.  However, 12 and under USA swimmers may attend on Saturday, November 4th. Very soon the FLY Invite sign-up will be open and available for 12 and under swimmers on Sunday, November 5th.

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Stingray Sponsorships

We are asking ALL of our families to please try to get at least one sponsor! Simply take or email this sponsorship form to your…

• Dentist

• Orthodontist

• Massage therapist

• Florist

• Ice cream shop

• Insurance agent

• Favorite restaurant or brewery

• …Or any local business!

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Team updates:

Please share this graphic on your social media platform! We are still accepting new members of the Stingray Family!

There will be training for YMCA Officials on Saturday, October 21. The training will be held at the Farmington YMCA. It is free of cost to us since we are YMCA members!

• Level 1 (new officials): Saturday October 21 8:00 am -12:00 pm, registration link: https://lcdc.yexchange.org/s/c52d49r

• Level 2 (returning officials): Saturday, October 21 12:30 pm -4:30 pm, registration link: https://lcdc.yexchange.org/s/c40w76b 

  • ​Prerequisites for Level 2 clinic: 

    • For new Level II officials, they must have been certified for at least 1 year as a YMCA Level I Official and worked at least 8 sessions on deck as a Level I Certified Official. 

    • For re-certification, they must have worked at least 12 sessions on deck as a Level II Certified Official over the previous three-year certification period

Our YMCA branch will pay for your training, so there is no cost to you.   Registration Deadline for the trainings at our Farmington Hills YMCA is 11:59 pm on Wednesday, 10/18/23.

Please click the registration link above for registering if you already have a YMCA account, or you can create a new YMCA account by following the instructions HERE.

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This week in the pool:

• Miniray/Bronze - we will continue to work on building the freestyle and backstroke components as well as introduce the breast and butterfly stroke drills. Focus this week will be on finishes and we will also spend time learning about how a relay works and beginning the process of teaching relay exchanges.

• Silver - this week Silver group will continue work on reading the pace clock, "know what you go" for times on different sets. The goal here is to get the swimmers comfortable with reading the pace clock so they are able to take more ownership over their practice sessions. Continued work on the breast and butterfly strokes as well as open turns and pull outs will be another focus this week. Silver group will also be completing another test set this week. Just like their Miniray and Bronze teammates, the Silver group will be getting some work in on relay exchanges.

• Gold/Senior - attendance has been lacking a little bit. Make sure that you are making every effort to make it to as many practices as possible. A girls high school swim meet does not trump you coming to practice! The swim meet will be just fine without you! Senior group, a reminder that we will have dryland only on Tuesday this week and the weight room will be open after practice on Sunday for those who want to get a lift in. In the water, week two of test sets will be some 200's and aerobic work will start to ramp up this week as the swimmers are now ready to step it up a bit in their training. If time allows, Gold and Senior will work a bit on relay exchanges at the end of some of the practice sessions.

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Swimmers of the Week: Congratulations to our swimmers of the week!

Senior - RJ Bennetts

Gold - Amaia Brown

Silver - Kimaya Gupta

Bronze - Lucy Matigan

Miniray - Nohealani Cervantes

Have a fantastic week Stingrays! 

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