Good afternoon Hurricanes,

Warning: This is a LONG email but contains VALUABLE information!

Our divisional championship is next Saturday, June 24th (can you believe how time flies) and this is the biggest meet of the season!!!! We need to know by this Wednesday June 14th, if your child will NOT be attending the event. Final entries are due this Sunday, June 18th. If we don’t hear from you then we will assume your child will participate. It is VERY important that you either declare your swimmer as NOT attending and let us know by email. It is the same process if your swimmer will NOT be attending as mentioned above. The championship has a fee for each event for each swimmer that the swim club pays as follows:

• $4 per individual event, $2.50 per relay event.

Please let us know if your swimmer(s) will NOT be there - we want to avoid paying entry fees for swimmers that don't participate and not have to make last minute adjustments or eliminations to the heat sheets.

The details are still being worked out and I will share as soon as I know but we will be swimming in the afternoon hours.

The location is Blossom Athletic Center, Walker South Swimming Pool. The pool is located at 12002 Jones-Maltsberger, San Antonio, Texas 78216.

Parking: Will be located directly west of the Natatorium between the pool and the football field. As well, parking will be up on the hill by the gymnasium. NEISD Policy prohibits from tailgating in the parking lots.

Entrance Fee: A $5 entrance fee will be collected from spectators upon entrance to the facility.

Entrance into the Facility: Entrance into the facility will be at the main entrance into the Josh Davis Pool. Spectators will enter through the far right hand side doors. Athletes and Coaches will enter through the far left hand side doors. There will be signs posted designating the entry procedure. Once in the facility, all spectators will proceed upstairs and walk through the breezeway into the Walker facility. Seating is limited to a maximum of 800. Spectators and parents are not allowed on the pool deck unless they have the correct deck pass identification. There will be overflow seating in the Davis Pool North side bleachers. That seating will have the scoreboard on displaying the meet via video, event numbers and heats in progress.

Deck Passes: There will be no parents allowed on the pool deck unless they have the correct identification, such as a League Deck Pass that states they are a timer, ready bench, meet marshal, or a coach.

• To clarify: all Hurricanes spectators and volunteers need a wrist band to enter the facility. Volunteers will receive a League Deck Pass to enter the lower level/pool deck area. Parent committee will pass out deck passes the morning of the meet.

Meet Seating: Swimmers will remain on the pool deck, seated with their team and will not be allowed to go up in the spectator bleachers. Once the swimmer has completed their events, the coach may release the swimmer to their parent and the swimmer will not be allowed back onto the pool deck. Parents will sit above (2nd floor) and watch from the viewing area above (no parents, aside from meet volunteers with a deck pass, are allowed on deck with swimmers). Consider sending a small snack/beverage with your swimmer, but keep in mind, swimmers are NOT ALLOWED to bring in personal coolers (there just isn't space).

PLEASE PRINT/BRING YOUR OWN HEAT SHEET - ESPECIALLY MEET MARSHALL/READY BENCH VOLUNTEERS! (the league will provide a few complimentary heat sheets to each division - but don't count on this! Tell your swimmer what he/she is swimming BEFORE entering the facility.

Speaking of volunteers, parents we need your help again filling volunteer positions. Consider helping out and you will get the best seat in the house with the swimmers. You can find the slots here: https://hunterscreek.swimtopia.com/swim_meets

Additional Rules:

• No posters/banners/streamers/confetti allowed in the facility.
• No cake or pastries allowed in the facility.
• No body-painting/body glitter/"eat my bubbles", etc is allowed on swimmers' bodies (allowed: only name and event #/heat/lane).
• Per the NEISD website all athletic facilities will enforce a clear bag policy. So please be prepared!

Additional Insight....

The Divisionals/Champs meet is the biggest (and most exciting) meet of the season.
The Hurricanes will be competing against the other 3 teams in our league's division at the same time, in a large, deep, very "professional" pool setting.

It's a large, LOUD, fast-paced event. Swimmers stay on deck down below; parents watch (and cheer!) from the observation deck on the upper level. Note - parents/swimmers DO NOT sit together at this meet. Coaches and a handful of our team's volunteers (those with deck passes only) will be with the swimmers on deck, helping them get to their events.

Due to the size of the meet, we are limited in the number of swimmers/relays we are allowed to enter in each event; at this meet, your swimmer MAY end up swimming events that they don't routinely swim. We try to make sure we enter a relay in every event, so sometimes we ask our younger swimmers to "swim up" with older relays so Hunters Creek Hurricanes are represented.

Swimmers earn MEDALS for 1st-3rd places (always fun to get, am I right?) and ribbons for up to 16th place. Plaques will be given to the boy and girl who score the most points in their respective age group. Banners will be given to the team that scores the most points in each age group, by gender (these are the banners that we proudly display along the fence at the pool.)

I explain all of this because, sometimes, swimmers (and parents?) are intimidated by the large, deep pool, high starting blocks, amount of noise, and the fact that they can't sit with their parents between events. For most, it's a fantastic opportunity to swim in "fast pool" (tall starting blocks, lane ropes, gutters, etc. designed to decrease turbulence) with a cool automated touch-pad timing system. Our swimmers tend to break their own personal records at this meet - and there are ALWAYS super-exciting finishes to watch! It's a great experience, and we hope that ALL HURRICANES will participate and believe that knowing some of the above details will help your swimmer (and you) be adequately prepared.

Again, we know this is a lot of information so let us know if you have any questions

Go Hurricanes!!!!

Monica