Happy Thanksgiving-Program Updates for DART-Solano
DART Swimmers and Families-
Happy Thanksgiving to all of you and your families. I hope you fully enjoy the holiday with family and friends.
Thanksgiving serves as a reminder to be thankful for all that we are afforded. Thank you to all of the swimmers who are a part of our program as well as all of the parents for your support. It takes a village to support student athletes at all levels-both in and out of the pool.
Practice Schedule
We have a couple of days left on our Thanksgiving week schedule. This can be found below.
We will begin our Winter practice schedule on Monday, December 1. There are a few slight changes to some of the groups, so be sure to look over the schedule for your swimmer(s.)
The Winter Holiday schedule is available below. We hope this helps families while they are making their winter break plans.
Group and Program Updates
We have some updates on groups and staff leading into our winter schedule. Our swim and polo programs are in full swing this winter. It has been great to see so many swimmers and polo players at the pool. We will begin to branch out next week to the local high school pools for our older polo players (Rod and AC High.)
“Change Brings Opportunity”-Nido Qubein
Recent changes allow for improvement-which our staff is excited about for the Winter season. We have assigned Lead Coaches to all groups to ensure focused coaching and communication for all levels and groups. This includes direct communication to parents about swim meets, feedback and more.
Intro and Beginner
Phoebe Arabarabaghi will be directly overseeing Intro and Beginner. Phoebe has been working with DART-Solano for several years (grew up swimming here) and has recently played soccer for Napa College. Maleena Maupin and Nadia Barlow will assist when needed.
Yellow, Blue, Senior Fit
Haley Barker will be directly overseeing Yellow and Blue. Haley is a long time DART coach and instructor. She has previously been the head swim and polo coach at Armijo High School. Maleena Maupin and Nadia Barlow will assist when needed.
Age Group and Junior
Abby David will be directly overseeing Age Group and Junior. Abby grew up swimming at SASO (DART-Solano) and still holds several records at our site as well as in the MEL’s league (high school.) She is a Kinesiology major at Cal State East Bay.
Steph Sit will continue to coach on Tue and Thu-both swim and dryland. Steph is a longtime swim parent in our program who swam club in the East Bay and played water polo at UC Santa Cruz.
National, Senior and Senior Fit
I (Ricky Silva) will continue to directly oversee National and Senior. I will also oversee the communication for the Senior Fit group, however, they will continue to swim with Blue Tue-Thu (combined with Senior on Fridays.)
Logan Cherry and Nick Lillard will assist with the Senior and National groups. We are also planning on a returning coach this January to work with our high performance swimmers.
Logan is currently the Head Coach of our Girls High School water polo team. She played polo at Sierra College/Cal State East Bay and was a swimmer and polo player at Rod. She will assist primarily on Mon and Fri in the Winter-but will have an expanded role as a swim coach with our program starting in February.
Additional Coach(s)
We will be bringing one additional coach on board this spring to help in a larger role with our team based on growth and needs. We will wait until the early spring-as well as for the right person that fits the level and needs of our program. We have already begun to create a short list of coaches to meet with this winter.
Planning-Swim Staff
Our swim staff will be meeting for a planning session on Tue, Dec 30 for the upcoming season and year. If parents have feedback for our staff, feel free to contact me directly to talk via phone or in person. You can also email feedback to me at [email protected].
Many of our staff will be attending the American Swim Coaches Association Coaches Clinic in Napa January 9-11. This is an opportunity for staff to learn and grow in an ever-evolving sport.
Dryland
Steph Sit will continue to run our dryland workouts on-site at Solano College. She works with Jeff Greer, who is the Owner of Pinnacle Fitness and oversees National/Senior dryland workouts at his gym as well as our dryland curriculum.
Team Admin and Operations
Lacie Lopez has taken a larger role as our Team Admin and Swim School Lead. She handles a variety of tasks for our program, including billing, invoicing, team communications as well as a ton of behind the scene tasks.
Our new Board of Directors is also taking a larger active role in our program-and will be reaching out to parents to fill committees and other volunteer needs.
I will continue to be involved on the oversight/planning side of our program-but will shift focus to the “wet’ side of the team to focus on our swimmers and polo players as well as facilities.
Austin Preston President
Marrah Molina Vice-President
Lisa Arana Treasurer
Lacie Lopez Secretary
Ricky Silva Head Coach/Site Lead
Sara Royer At Large Member
Justin Koeppen At Large Member
Communications and Parent and Swimmer Meetings
We will hold the following meets to review information for the winter and spring season. This includes practices, season plans, swim meets, socials and more. Meetings will be held on the following dates and times:
Dec 1 Intro/Yellow Parent 4:50-5:10 pm Pool
Dec 1 Beginner/Blue Parents 5:25-5:45 pm Pool
Dec 1 Senior Meeting-Swimmers 4:45-5:15 pm Pool
Dec 1 Water Polo Meeting 7:30-8:30 pm ZOOM
Dec 2 Senior Parent Meeting 8:00-8:30 pm ZOOM
Dec 2 Junior/AG Meeting Swimmer 4:45-5:15 pm Pool
Dec 3 Junior/AG Parent Meeting 8:00-8:30 pm ZOOM
Dec 15 Masters 7:45-8:15 pm ZOOM
Our Lead Coaches will continue to send weekly emails as well as work on additional ways to communicate with parents and swimmers. This includes Group Me for our Competitive swimmers as well as Band for our Developmental swimmers. We are also looking at some system/website updates and improvements for the spring.
Happy Thanksgiving to all. We are looking forward to a great winter as well as 2026!!!
Ricky Silva
Site Lead-DART Solano
Assistant Coach-Solano College
