Freestyle Festival news and parent meeting recap
CAST News for 9-19-23
The Freestyle Festival is this Sunday. If you had signed up by the deadline (9-12), you were entered. This is the first meet of the season and, for some swimmers, their first USA swimming meet. There are two sessions in this meet: the morning session is for 12&U's and the Afternoon session is for 13&O's. The meet is at the Poway community center. Please plan on parking taking a little time as you may have to park 1/4 to 1/2 mile from the facility. I would suggest dropping your kids off at the entrance, and then finding parking.
For AM session - please have swimmers there (on deck) by 8:00 am. Swimmers who are not in the 500 will be done around 11:00
For PM session - please have swimmers there (on deck) by noon. Swimmers not in the 500 will be done around 3:45.
Estimated Timeline (please note that these are for rough planning only). AM est. end 11:45, PM Est end 5:15
Detailed information please thoroughly read page 2 as it includes information about parking, snack bar, restrooms, and a reminder for swimmers not to go under the wall near the diving well.
Topics discussed during online parent meeting last night
Our website: Where to find news, practice schedules, time stds, link to SI swimming etc. As well as how to find information about meets, whether meets are for your swimmer or not.
Time Standards: How they work, general explanation
Swim-O-Rama: The annual team fundraiser is here. This page includes information about the fundraiser: swim date, make up swim date, getting sponsors, sponsor sheets, letters for potential sponsors, payment options, and prize information. The swim is on the 28th. Swimmers have 1 hour to swim as many lengths of the pool as possible. All swimmers will participate in the swim. Swimmers who joined after July 31st are not responsible for raising any money, but we would appreciate any money you raise. Donations are due by Oct 12th. Donations are tax deductable. If anyone has any questions, please e-mail me.
Fall Schedule: The meet schedule for fall- winter has some holes in it. Currently there are only two meets listed past December. There will be multiple meets available Jan. - Mar. and once they are bid on and accepted, they will be posted.
There is a very high likelihood that the meet on October 28-29 will be changed from a BC meet to an NTS (No Time Std) meet to accomodate all levels. This is because the meet that was scheduled to happen the weekend before (an A-BB meet) was not bid on by any teams. We will know the for sure after the LSC (Local Swim Comittee) has thier board meeting This coming Monday.
CAST Hosted meets: I explained the importance of helping out when we host meets. Typically we shoot for 2 meets a season. Last season we bid on two, and got them, but the meet in April went unbid and no one was able or willing to host it so we stepped up and gave the kids an opportunity to swim by hosting a 3rd meet. When we host a meet it typically takes 250-300 hours of work. In order to get this done, we need people to step up and volunteer, even if your swimmer is not participating. With about 75 families on the team, 300/75 = 4 hours each. So, when families don't pitch in to help, it adds a heavy burden to those that are. There are often jobs that can be done prior to the meet.
I will be posting the jobs for our October meet toward the end of Sept. We do plan on hosting a second meet in January or February.
Officials: We need more officials. Last year our total fines for lack of officials was about $2,000. We have an incentive for you to help and earn credit towards your monthly dues Here
USA swimming registrations: I will cover this topic later this week. If you are new and have not yet registered with USA swimming, please see the News tab posting from 9-7.
Thank you all for being part of CAST! See you at the pool.
Coach Dave
