Rudgear Rats: Week of June 9th
Upcoming Dates
June 10 - Picture Day & Buddy Day (No Practice)
June 11 - Rugrats Begins
June 12 - REST @ YWST
June 14 – Last Day to Declare and Make Stroke Requests for City Meet
June 15 - REST vs. Larkey Declare by 6/12
June 17 – 6U and 7/8 Social
June 19 – Green vs White
June 21 – RATS Beach Day! (No Practice)
June 22 – REST @ Woodlands Declare by 6/19
June 22 – Adult Social
June 23 – Team Natalie Challenge
TL;DR:
-reminder that practice times have adjusted
-declare for City & select strokes by Wednesday
-opt in for picture day (text "2024RATS to 90738)
-leave stroke requests via the website/app only
-at meets: stay away from the timing area and be cool
-declare for Larkey and Woodlands
-RSVP for the Adult Social
-lessons are available
Coach’s Message
Fellow Rats,
I would first like to thank all of you, both swimmers and parents. It certainly takes a village to put on a swim meet, and as coaches we appreciate the support! Swimmers are learning how to race and be competitive with their peers. Swimmers are also building social skills everyday both in and out of the water. At Rudgear, our first priority is to make sure that every kid is having fun. It’s a special community. We are blessed to be a part of it! Please, start talking to your kids about goals. We will be introducing the idea of conference goals next week at practice. As it is our biggest competition of the season, we encourage every swimmer to walk into conference meet with a goal of some kind. Special shoutout to the Rat Pack for helping out our little kiddos at practice. Looking forward to continuing the good vibes. Also, please participate in the Team Natalie Challenge. It’s a great experience! Please consider it. GoOoOoOoOoOo RATS!!
-Coach Nick
Practice Schedule Change
Reminder that we have slightly adjusted practice times. Click here for updated practice times.
City Meet Declaration & Stroke Selections
June 14th is the final day to declare your swimmer in for City Meet. We pay per entry and we aren’t allowed to add in late entries, so please double-check and make sure that your declaration for City Meet is accurate. If you swimmer is participating, please read the instructions below as declaring for City Meet is a bit different to dual meets:
Please commit your swimmer(s) AND let us know the events that they would like to swim. Each swimmer can participate in up to three individual events (15/18s may also add 50 free in addition to three other events). Our coaches will take the swimmers’ selections into consideration when placing swimmers into events; however, these selections are not guaranteed. To select events:
1. Click City Meet event on the Team Events page
2. Commit your swimmer (or click “Edit Commitment if you’ve already declared)
3. Click your swimmer’s name
4. Select the strokes they want to swim and leave any availability notes in the note section
5. Save changes
If you only want your swimmer to only do one or two events, please make sure to select those strokes and then also leave a note letting our coaches know your swimmer is only going to do 1-2 events, is only available one day, etc.
In addition, some swimmers will be placed in relays. If your swimmer can only be at City Meet for one day, or has to leave early one or both days, please be sure to make a note of their availability in the note area.
Apparel
Thank you for being patient waiting for the 2024 season apparel to come in – it took a bit longer than expected. Most of it is in and will be available on Monday & Tuesday at the pool. If some of your items have not yet arrived, Ruth will let you know when they do. Questions – [email protected].
Meet Warm-Ups
For each meet we have different time and space constraints for warm-ups. In response to this, some groups will warm-up and others will not. Moving forward: for all meets, 6U will not warm up. For all other groups, please see the warm-up schedule when the meet sheet is sent out.
Meet Declarations – New Due Dates
We’ve adjusted the dual meet declaration due dates so that families have a bit more time to declare and leave any notes about what swimmers want to (or don’t want to swim). You can now declare and leave notes until Wednesday for Saturday meets and until Saturday for Wednesday meets. With this change, please only submit requests via the website or app.
Meet Etiquette
A couple reminders to keep our meets running smoothly and our team atmosphere feeling how we want it to feel:
1. No one except swimmers about to swim, coaches, and timers should be behind the blocks. It’s already a congested, hectic area, so please make sure non-racing swimmers, siblings, parents/caretakers, etc. stay on the pool deck and away from the blocks/timing area.
2. Maintaining a fun, supportive environment is our number one goal. To that end, please be encouraging of all swimmers – we are one big swim family at Rudgear and we hope that everyone acts with that in mind. Overtly and loudly encouraging your swimmer to beat fellow RATS isn’t how we do it at Rudgear. While competition is a natural aspect of sports, our team's success lies in unity and encouragement for all members.
Picture Day
Monday, June 10 – arrive between 8am and 10:30am. Please come at whatever time is best for you – but not everyone can come on the later side, so if you can come earlier please do so. (Even if you don’t want to order pictures, please bring your swimmer by to take their photo so it can be compiled into the team photo.) Swimmers should wear a team suit if they have one. Please see the note below from our photographers:
Picture Day OPT-IN Details -
It's a new kind of picture day! For those that have photographed with us before, this change might be a little different. There is NO PREPAY (yay!), you just need to Opt-In/Subscribe via text message, before picture day. Once pictures are ready for ordering, all those that have opted-in via text will receive the private link and access code to place their orders. All orders are mailed directly to parents' homes. It's that easy! :) *Parents/Caretakers MUST opt-in via text to receive the ordering link and SPECIAL PROMOTIONS
Text "2024RATS" to 90738 to opt-in for picture day
Buddy Day
Monday, June 10 | 11:00am-12:30pm
Our Buddy Reveal will happen right after picture day! If your swimmer signed up to be a buddy, they will find out who their buddy is! We will play team building games and have lots of fun! (If your swimmer can’t make this event and signed up to be a buddy, that is totally fine. We will post the buddy list and put your buddy’s sheet in your family folder.) Click here to check out weekly buddy ideas.
Time Pop Program
You’ll notice Time Pop posters hanging on the fence at the pool. Each Monday at practice, coaches will recognize swimmers who “popped their time” the previous week (this means swam a best time for the season) by giving them a Time Pop bracelet. Additionally, each time pop is recognized by a star on the posters. Swimmers who earn at least 15 pops for the season will earn a TIME POP LEGEND certificate.
Coach Appreciation
We are doing Coach Appreciation a little differently this season. Instead of one big week, we are assigning different age-groups different weeks. When it’s your swimmer’s week, please send them to practice with a card, a treat, a drink, etc. for the coaches! Pick any day that week that works best for your family.
Coach Appreciation Schedule
June 17 - June 21 | 6&U and 7/8
June 24 - June 28 | 9/10 and 11/12
July 8 - July 12 | 13/14, 15-18 and Rugrats
July 15 - July 18 | Rat Pack Appreciation Week
Click here to check out our coaches’ favorite things
Another way to show appreciation is to sign up to bring our coaches lunch or coffee one day. We have a big coaching staff, so we recommend teaming up with another family!
Adult Social
It’s time to get funky. The adult social is on June 22nd at 6pm at the Dohrens. Check out the Evite for more details and to RSVP.
City Meet Shout Outs & Advertisements
Click here if you want to purchase your swimmer at shout out in the City Meet program.
Want to advertise your business in the City Meet program? Click here.
Lessons
Lessons are available! We post all the coach’s sign-up links on our website (click here); however, it is the coaches’ responsibility to update their sign-ups, set prices, receive payment, etc.
We have 200 swimmers on our team, so please be considerate when booking lessons. We don't want one swimmer having three lessons per week and another left with none.
Please note: Swimmers may only sign up for one lesson per week with Coach Nick. If you sign up for multiple lessons for one swimmer, the earlier lesson will stay on his schedule and the remainder for the week will be deleted. Only team swimmers should sign up for lessons with Coach Nick. Rugrats should sign up with any other coach.
Let's Connect
Instagram: @rudgear_rats
Facebook: Click here to join our Facebook group
Let's make it a great week and GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO RATS!!
