April 3 Update: Spring Break and upcoming dates
Good morning team,
I hope you are all having a good start to the month! We have some upcoming dates and events to keep a look out for, and a potential volunteer opportunity for our high school age swimmers.
First off, I wanted to introduce Kiril Leckrone who is joining us as a volunteer coach! Most of our swimmers have seen him on deck Monday/Wednesday this week, but for those who haven't met him yet, Coach Kiril is joining us from the Bay area where he was a swimmer and assistant coach for his local team. He is based nearby as part of the Navy, and plans to help out when his schedule permits.
Here's a quick look at our upcoming events:
- Spring Break (no practice): April 7th-April 11th
- Registration for the Starlight open in Wenatchee is April 17th at 11:59pm
- Hanging Basket Fundraiser due date: April 18th at the end of practice
- Please see me if you need help printing the form!
- We also have a link to our seller page here: https://vwfundraiser.com/org/skagitvalleyymcaswim
For our swimmers during spring break - please do not force yourself to swim during that week. If you WANT to swim, then definitely go for it, but do not feel obligated to continue to practice at that time. All athletes need rest/reset periods woven into their seasons, and our team has been due one with all the hard work and effort that they have given these past several months.
The Starlight Open will be a perfect opportunity for our swimmers to have a travel meet for the summer and to get Long Course swimming experience without minimum entry requirements. Many USA Swimming teams in our area put silver minimum entry times into their LCM meets (and KCAC is the only consistently available pool in our Western Washington area), and the Wenatchee meet is the only one in the state that does not have that barrier to entry.
Volunteer opportunity for high school age swimmers [Monthly Challenge alternative]:
Our Skagit Valley Special Olympics program has started up again! They are in the water on Thursdays from 7:00pm-8:00pm right after our Tsunami group practices, and are in need of volunteers to help keep the program afloat. The Special Olympics program serves a very underserved community of people with intellectual disabilities and has a very diverse range of ability levels. There are athletes that compete in anything from a 15 meter assisted water walk to the 400 meter Freestyle. This is a great opportunity for our swimmers to get some volunteer experience for their resumes, and a good way to give back to the community!
For anyone interested, simply be on deck and ready to jump in lanes 1-4 on Thursdays at 7:00pm. If a swimmer helps for at least 3 Thursdays in a month, they will be awarded the monthly challenge point for April/May in the month that they helped. No experience is required, and I will be there helping facilitate the program. Thank you in advance!
Please let me know if you have any questions!
