Storm Forecast for October 15th, 2025

This Week’s Sermon: Short and Sweet

Two things: #1 – Never, ever, ever use the SportsEngine app for meet signup.  Countless times swimmers have been in wrong sessions, no sessions, or had admin errors when signed up on the app.  Feel free to uninstall it.  Use the website for everything, it’s why we attempted to make mobile-friendly buttons.

#2 – I know folks have busy lives (and I’m long-winded), but please make sure you at least skim all the pieces in these newsletters.  Example: we polled Tropical Storm families for feedback to make a decision on the future of dryland.  We got 2 answers. 

All Things in Folders!

Elite orders, Simply Swimming orders, custom caps, time standard bag tags—they’re all now in folders!

Bag Tags

If your swimmer aged up, or is new, and you need an age group bag tag, please fill out this form and Coach Lake will get a tag in your swimmer’s folder.

Tropical Dryland Recap

We’re wrapping up our 6 week test run for Tropical Storm at The Little Gym.  Please, tell us how it went!  Would you do it again?  Was it worthwhile?  Tell us here.

Storm Store

If your swimmer breaks a cap, we’ve got a wealth of them on our Storm Store.  If you’ve got a Senior that doesn’t have the necessary short blade fins, we’ve got them on our Storm Store.  If you need goggles in a pinch…you get the idea.  Seriously, we put a lot of stuff on there and it’s sitting in storage, ready for purchase.

Storm-A-Thon & Silent Auction

This year's big fundraiser will be a Storm-A-Thon (think Swim-A-Thon but without pesky copyright infringement). On Friday, December 5th Storm swimmers will race against the clock to complete as many laps as possible. In the days leading up to the event, we need swimmers (and families) to pound the pavement and find sponsors. Sponsors can donate either a flat amount or an amount per length. Family, friends, distant relatives you see at Thanksgiving—get them all to help! We're targeting a goal of $100 per swimmer raised to meet the fundraising needs.

The other half of this event is a silent auction. Items, experiences, crafts, you name it—we're going to try and sell it! One year I was lucky enough to be the high bidder on an aerial tour of Madison. Be creative! As a finder's fee, 10% of the selling price of anything you bring to the auction will be credited to your family's account. Families have until November 24th to get their silent auction item tagged and given to Coach Lake.  Google "ideas for silent auction basket" if you're stumped on ideas.

Packets will be sent to swimmers on November 3rd. Those will include details on the process and the prizes, which range from small items all the way up to tech suits and parkas!

If you have any questions in the meantime, reach out to me.

Practice Changes & Schedule

If a day isn’t listed below, assume that the schedule is as expected without change.  When in doubt, you can always check the Google Calendar.  Each group is synced to their own calendar.

Meet Signup & Details

Once a meet signup is open & connected, there’s a quick and easy way to learn more about the meet.  Things like what meets are for who, where they are, what time to arrive, what sessions to attend—all that can be found by going to the Events tab of the website and simply clicking on the title of the meet.

JJ’s Dryland Signup

Use promo code: SWIMFAST25

Sign up for the class here

Instructions on signing up here