Storm Forecast for January 1st, 2026

Happy New Year!

It’s wild to think the majority of our swimmers only have 7 more weeks of the season.  It’s absolutely flying by.  A pair of things I wanted to show gratitude about this week:

More kids than I can ever recall brought me gifts over this break.  The thoughtful cards, the gift cards, the sweet treats---there was so much.  Thank you all for considering us gift-worthy this season.  Coaching youth sports is a constant pendulum swing from “it’s just swimming, it shouldn’t be that serious” to “Sorry mom and dad, I’m not coming home for Christmas—we’ve got practice to run!”  There are moments I know I’m being extra, but then moments like this happen and I realize that we’re important to kids and appreciated by their parents—and it makes all of it worthwhile.  Thanks for thinking of us this month, and every month.

Second—I can’t speak for practices happening at West as I was at the drippy, hot East pool, but attendance for Thunder, Tropical, Cyclone, and Typhoon was wonderful over the break.  There was never a moment where I wondered why we were hosting---kids constantly took advantage of opportunities to get better, and parents took opportunities to get kids out of the house.  Thanks for supporting what we’re doing.

One Contest Left

Our Regional cap contest has come to an end, with Option B (the red one) winning.  We’ll see the final version of that in just a few weeks.  We’re still hoping for some candidates for a new, quick and easy-to-remember team cheer.  Submit your swimmer’s cheer by email to me—the winner will get a prize!

Holiday Events

We had so much success with our events over the holiday break.  The Swim School Challenge ran without a hitch, and our Distance Challenge saw lots of swimmers breaking through milestones up at Lodi.  Thank you for supporting these efforts!

Fall River

We’re going to keep Tuesdays at Fall River on the back burner for now—we think we’ve been able to capture all the practices while staying in town.  We may use it on Fridays when we’re down a pool, but for now it won’t be a part of our regular practice schedule.

That means Hurricanes will remain at SP West at 6:15P on Tuesdays, Tropical will swim with Thunderstorm 2 at East, and Cyclones with Typhoon at East.

Mid-States All Star

Tomorrow morning, I’ll be heading down to Indianapolis to coach Team Wisconsin at the famed IU Natatorium at the Mid-States All Star Meet.  The top 10&U, 11-12, and 13-14 swimmers from Wisconsin will face off against swimmers from Minnesota, Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, and Michigan.  I’m proud to say that Storm Aquatics has a record number of swimmers in the meet this year, with FIVE swimmers selected.  Congratulations to Cypress & Legend Lambert, Lucy & Stella Hague, and Margaret Robinson and good luck this weekend!

Meet Marshals & Officials

It’s time to make a bit of a sales pitch to start replenishing two important roles within our club.

Meet Marshals – Storm Aquatics goes above and beyond the normal USA Swimming expectations when it comes to a safe environment at swim meets.  We utilize 4 meet marshals during swim meets, two of each gender.  These adults, background checked and trained, keep an eye out on the pool deck, in the stands, and anywhere our kids wander—making sure we have a place where kids and parents can feel safe.  The role isn’t a difficult one, but it does have a few steps to go through.  Candidly, it allows WAY more freedom than simply timing behind the blocks with wet feet.  If you’re interested in learning more about the role, email Emily Doughty and she can talk to you about the position.

Officials – As you’ve likely seen, it takes a LOT of officials to run a swim meet.  Typically our official’s chair starts sending messages to other teams weeks in advance so we can fully staff our meets.  I dream that one day we’ll be able to fully staff our big meets without having to reach out to other teams, filling all our roles internally.

To incentivize our parents to officiate, we have an extremely robust reimbursement program for our officials.  If you work a session of a swim meet as an official, whether home OR away, one of your swimmer’s fees for that session are reimbursed by Storm.  If you work two sessions, we reimburse for two.  So in theory, you could work it out so that your swimmer never has to pay meet fees again.

In addition, if you’re the meet referee for one of our home meets—we’ll pay your SESSION fees for a swimmer.  If you’re the meet referee for the winter classic, your swimmer pays nothing to swim for the winter session of Storm.

It’s a program that no one else in Wisconsin Swimming is doing, and it’s helped us become able to host more meets than most.  If you’re interested in becoming an official whether on the deck or behind the computer, reach out to our Official’s Chair, Michelle Schmitt.  She can tell you what to expect and how to get started.

Practice Changes & Schedule

Meet Signup & Details

JJ’s Dryland Signup

Use promo code: SWIMFAST25

Sign up for the class here

Instructions on signing up here