Hello and Welcome to 2022 Windermere Dolphins Swim Team!

Are you ready for summer?!

We are so happy to have you and your family be part of the swim team this year! We hope you and your kid(s) will really enjoy the experience and have a fun summer at the pool. We have 116 swimmers this year and it’s going to be a great season!

The rest of this email has LOTS of information organized as indicated below.

Items included in this email:

• Website information
• Swim practices
• Team swimsuits
• COVID considerations
• Swim meet sign up information and deadlines
• Committee and shift assignment information
• Coaches and team manager
• Inclement weather information
• Team shirts
• Sponsors
• Technology
• Conduct expectations
• Other

Website Information

By now you have all had a chance to login to the website (where you registered for the team), but as a reminder, the site is: https://windermeredolphins.swimtopia.com/ This will be a primary place to go for information throughout the season.

Swim Practices

Swim practice will take place every weekday morning beginning on Wednesday, June 1st.

Swimmers should wear a swimsuit, shorts, and tennis shoes to practice (sometimes they warm-up with games outside the pool) and sunscreen. Swimmers should also bring goggles, a towel, and a water bottle.

This is a list of the practice times for the age groups. Your child’s age group is determined by their age on June 1st, 2022.

Monday - Thursday

8:15 - 9:00 = 7 & 8 yrs

9:00 - 9:45 = 9 & 10 yrs

9:45 -10:45 =11 yrs & up

9:45-10:30 = 6 yrs & under

Fun Fridays (starting June 10^th)

9:00 - 10:00 am

Relays, Games, Diving Board and Snacks

Team Swimsuits

We have changed vendors for our team suit, and you can now purchase the team suit from Elsmore Swim Shop at 4705 E. 96^th Street. You are welcome to visit the shop to try on suit sizes and purchase in person. Logos have been ordered, will be in store sometime next week, and can be applied while you wait in store. The website below shows the suit styles and allows you to order directly, but note that shipping may take longer than desired for our season start date this year. (Timing in future years will be better now that we have this new process established!) Note that team suits are NOT required, so purchasing a suit is at your discretion. Most swimmers do wear a team suit or a dark blue or black suit at meets.

https://elsmoreswim.com/teams/indiana/summer/windermere-dolphins.html

COVID Considerations

We do not expect any restrictions or limitations due to COVID at this time. However, we do ask that you continue to be diligent in monitoring symptoms or possible COVID cases within your family and do not attend practices or meets if you have suspected or confirmed cases in your family.

Swim Meet Sign Up Information and Deadlines

If you haven’t had a chance, please be sure to check the schedule tab for the dates of our upcoming swim meets. You will also need to sign up your swimmers for each meet on this page. Instructions are located on the FAQs page (https://windermeredolphins.swimtopia.com/faqs).

Our coaching staff will be setting the lineup for meets, and they will need to know who will be attending each meet before setting the lineup. If you are unsure as the meet approaches, err on the side of signing up because, while not ideal, it is easier to remove a swimmer than to add one. Pro tip: if you expect that you’ll be attending all the meets, make life easy and just go ahead and sign up your kids now, and then you don’t have to worry about the deadlines later! You can easily go back later and change it before the deadline if your schedule changes.

Here are the Sign up Deadlines for the meets (which are also listed on the website):

SIGN UP DEADLINE = June 1st for June 3rd Mock Meet (8-10:45 am)

SIGN UP DEADLINE = June 6th for June 9th River Glen at Windermere

SIGN UP DEADLINE = June 10th for June 14th Avalon at Windermere

SIGN UP DEADLINE = June 13th for June 16th Windermere at Summer Break

SIGN UP DEADLINE = June 17th for June 21st Gray Eagle at Windermere

SIGN UP DEADLINE = June 20th for June 23rd Plum Creek at Windermere

SIGN UP DEADLINE = June 24th for June 28th Windermere at River Glen

SIGN UP DEADLINE TBD for June 30th Invitational at Fisher HS (~8:00 am start time)

Committee and Shift Assignment Information

Attached is a roster of the Windermere Swim Team for 2022 and a list of your Committee and Shift assignments. For your committees, a board member will be reaching out to your committee team with instructions as the season begins.

We realize things come up and plans change, however, these are the assigned shifts that you chose. If you are unable to work your shift, it is YOUR RESPONSIBILITY to contact and switch with another family or to find a replacement for your shift. If needed, we can share a list of local teens and young adults who may be available to hire for $30+ per meet.

Coaches and Team Manager

We are pleased to welcome back our entire coaching staff this year! Emily Ratliff is returning as our head coach, and our assistant coaches are Olivia Kiley, Lauren Bergman, Grace Newton, and Ethan Guthrie. Also, Ashley Saple will be back as our lifeguard. The coaching staff will be interacting with all the kids as they are responsible for running practices, teaching the swim strokes, setting meet line-ups, and encouraging the swimmers during the meets. As this is a recreation league, there will be a balance of friendly competition during the meets and safe swim fun all season!

Our team manager is also returning this year! Natalie Sturgeon is the resource for parent questions, administrative tasks, and overall team coordination. Natalie will serve as a consistent point of contact throughout our season for you. If you have any questions or concerns, please let Natalie know and she will find the answers for you!

You can find more information about our staff on the website at: https://windermeredolphins.swimtopia.com/coaches

Inclement Weather Information

In the event of inclement weather, we may cancel practice or meets. We will post this information on Swimtopia. You will also receive an email to your email addresses on file.

Team Shirts

Team shirts have been ordered for all registered swimmers and will be passed out the first full week of practice. Please put your swimmer’s name on their shirt ASAP since they all have the same design. We will be wearing these for meets and the invitational.

Sponsors

Please visit and thank our generous sponsors Windermere Dairy Queen, Guthrie Financial Group, Jim Wilson with RE/MAX Realty, Metronet, Peterson’s, Heinzmann Law Office, CR Hero’s, and Independence Village Senior Living. Without the generosity of our sponsors, we would not be able to do all the fun things we have planned for the year nor would be able to upkeep all the equipment needed to run the team smoothly! We so appreciate their contributions and hope that you will consider giving them your business in the future!

Technology

Note that the software we use to run the meets evolved last year and we will continue to need your help getting your swimmer information updated to run the meets. There will be a separate action-oriented email with instructions coming soon to make sure we have the technology set up to run the meets successfully!

Conduct Expectations

While the swim team is competitive with other neighborhood teams during our meets, the primary mission of the team is to support fun and a sense of community for our families. We expect swimmers on the team to be kind and supportive to each other, and we expect adults to be great role models by positively cheering for your kids and being respectful to coaches and other families, including those from the other teams. We wanted to take a moment to remind our families and your swimmers that we will not tolerate behavior that contradicts our expectations of respect, support, and fun. We look forward to embodying those characteristics as a team at each practice and meet!

Other

For pool fun all summer long, the Windermere pool is an awesome pool and lots of swim team families can be found there on any given day throughout the summer. If you would like to join the pool, visit http://www.windermerefishers.com/index.php?id=pool-2022 for more information.

Lastly, we want to emphasize that this is a volunteer organization and we need the help of parents like you to keep it fun and exciting for our kids for years to come. Your volunteer commitments during the meets are extremely important and we cannot do it without you! As the board, we volunteer our time because we love supporting the team and the community, and seeing all the fun and smiles from the kids during the season is very rewarding! If you are ever interested in becoming more involved, reach out to any of the board members for more information.

See you at the pool on June 1st!

Kelly, Dan, Dave, and Jeff

Kelly Blue (317) 508-3596 [email protected]

Dan Zone (814) 397-0121 [email protected]

Dave Tocco (773) 426-6331 [email protected]

Treasurer: Jeff Heinzmann (317) 696-6031 [email protected]