Manor Monsters Update for the Week of 6/6/2021

Good evening, Manor Monster Swim families!

 

It was great to see so many of our swimmers on deck this past Thursday and Friday!  It was a bummer to have to cancel the second practice on Thursday due to the weather, but that's the nature of the beast with Summer swim.  We hope everyone who was able to attend had a great time getting re-acclimated with practices, and we are looking forward to a productive week ahead!  Okay, several items to get to ahead of the week, so without further ado... 

 

1.  IMPORTANT PRACTICE SCHEDULE ADJUSTMENT

 

After reviewing our roster, the Swim coaches have concluded that we need to tweak our practice schedule a bit in order to best meet the needs of all swimmers.  Currently, we have an abundance of 8U's and 9-10's, but our team's depth beyond these age groups is a bit more spread out.  Therefore, they have asked that we have the 8U's practice during their own time slot.  Moving the 9-10's to the other practice will allow the coaches to better differentiate the practice lanes, dedicate more time to both large age groups, decrease the ratio of swimmers to coaches, and help them to capitalize on their time with our kids. We understand that a change may be difficult for some families.  I f it will create too much of a scheduling inconvenience for your 9-10 swimmer to make the switch, let us know via email - the coaches plan to be accommodating and will make it work either way.  

 

Also, for kids who swim and dive, this will not affect your schedule - the Dive coaches are in agreement that this change is necessary, and our kids will then just flip-flop the practice they are attending.  New practice times are here:

 

BIG TEAM PRACTICE

 

June 7 - June 16 - AFTERNOON PRACTICES (M-F)

 

8 & UNDER   4:30-5:30 p.m.

9 & UP   5:30-6:30 p.m.

 

June 17 - End of Season

 

9 & UP.  8:30 a.m. – 9:30 a.m.

8 & UNDER.  9:30 a.m. – 10:30 a.m.

OPTIONAL PM PRACTICE (all ages) - 4:30-5:30 p.m. (M/W only)

 

MINI MONSTERS

 

June 17 - End of Season

 

Tu/W/Th - 10:30 a.m. - 11:00 a.m.

 

2.  MEET SCHEDULE

 

4.  WEATHER-RELATED COMMUNICATIONS

 

Sometimes a weather call will be made abruptly - some Summer storms can sometimes blow up out of nowhere, while others don't come to fruition despite forecasts.   If practice needs to be postponed or canceled due to weather, every effort will be made to communicate this to you ASAP.  Right now, this will occur via email, so if inclement weather is predicted,  watch your emails for messages for us.  Common sense is key here - if you hear the siren go off at Manor or get an alert from a weather app on your phone that a big storm is rolling through, that's a good indication that we are either delayed for the next little while or canceled all together.  We generally do practice in the rain as long as it isn't torrential, there isn't lightning or it isn't too cold.  The Summer swim season is short and fast, so every attempt will be made to get practice in!

 

5.  PRACTICE AND MEET ATTENDANCE

 

We completely understand if you need to occasionally miss a practice or a meet.  For now, if you know about a conflict in advance, please have your child let Coach Todd know directly, and feel free to email us here directly.  Rosters for meets are made based on availability, so it is very helpful for us to know in advance rather than having to make last-minute revisions on deck.  In the event of a last-minute change and you cannot let Todd know in person, for example due to illness, please email us here.

 

6.  VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES & THANK YOU FOR TRAINING

 

Wow, were we excited to see so many parents attend Officials Trainings last week!  Manor tied with Army-Navy for having the most parents trained at TWELVE participants, which is impressive considering our team is only 90-ish strong and Army-Navy is in the hundreds in terms of the number of swimmers on their team.  Way to represent, Manor parents!!!  This truly will make both home and away meets much easier for us to facilitate.  THANK YOU to all of you who attended.   A special shout-out goes to Mel Blackwell, father of one of our incredible 2020 Seniors and now Assistant Coach Rachel, for participating even though his daughter has graduated.  You can't get rid of us, even if you tried, Mel!  Now THAT is dedication to our amazing Swim team!!!

 

Plenty of other important opportunities to volunteer will be available at meets by way of timers and Clerks of Course.  These are great jobs for any parent, regardless of experience.  A Sign-Up Genius will go out ahead of every meet with slots to fill, and we thank everyone in advance for helping out.  We can't do any of this without our awesome parents!

 

7.  SAVE THE DATE!!!

 

The Manor Monster Swim & Dive Banquet will be held in the evening on Thursday, July 29, at Manor.  All Swimmers and their families are invited.  More information to follow soon, but in the meantime, get the date on your calendar for one of our favorite team traditions.  Special thanks to Colleen Schrier, mom to Jack and Gracie, for once again spearheading this event - with her at the helm, we know it will be spectacular!

 

8.  CHECK OUT OUR NEW BULLETIN BOARDS!

 

We wanted to take a moment to thank Manor members and Swim team family, the Goehrungs of Signs By Tomorrow - Rockville, for their generous donation of the banners for both the Swim and Dive teams this year.  Our boards look terrific and are ready for us Reps to add the finishing touches!  We are grateful to Megan and Glenn (and the rest of their family, Manor members Gene, Mary Lou, Scott, and Kelley) for their support of our Swim program ever since they joined, and to their adorable installation team, Manor Monsters Summer and Zoe, for getting our boards spruced up for Summer! The umbrellas made the perfect CPS (Cicada Protection Systems) while they worked... ;) 

 

That's all for now!  As always, if you have any questions, feel free to reach out.  We are off to a great start.  See everyone on deck this week!