Waynewood Dolphins Weekly Newsletter
June 12, 2022

Thank you to all of our volunteers, spectators, and swimmers who joined us for Time Trials. Our season is already off to a strong start!

This Week’s Calendar at a Glance:

• Monday—Morning Practice Begins, B Meet @ Mount Vernon Park (arrive at 5 p.m.)
• Tuesday—Little Dolphins Swim Test (12-12:30 p.m.; 5:30-6 p.m.)
• Thursday—Teen Night (6 p.m.)
• Friday—Pep Rally (6 p.m.)
• Saturday—A Meet vs. Fairfax Station @ Waynewood (warmups at 8 a.m.)

In This Week’s Message:

1. Away B Meet—Monday, Waynewood @ Mount Vernon Park
2. Little Dolphins Start Tuesday
3. Summer Practice Hours
4. Teen Night—Thursday at 6 p.m. @ WRA
5. Motivational T-shirts Pep Rally—Friday at 6 p.m. @ WRA
6. Sign-Ups for Home A Meet, June 18, and Away B Meet, June 20
7. Time Trials Results and Photos

1) Away B Meet—Monday, Waynewood @ Mount Vernon Park

Our first B Meet is Monday, June 13. It will take place at nearby Mount Vernon Park, located at 8042 Fairfax Rd, Alexandria, VA 22308.

Swimmers are allowed to compete in two strokes, plus IM. Swimmers should arrive by 5:15 p.m. Warm-ups begin at 5:20 p.m. The meet starts at 6 p.m.

Volunteers: We are still in need of volunteers. Grab a spot or two! Is your favorite job filled already? Try something new! We need to fill all our shifts to run our meets smoothly for the swimmers. Sign up here: https://waynewood.swimtopia.com/swim_meets

Parking: Mount Vernon Park will have parking attendants to assist with parking. They’ve requested we park inside the park if there are no spots left in the front or back lot. DO NOT PARK ON NEIGHBORING STREETS. They will have dinner at the Gator Cafe (most likely Chick-fil-A sandwiches). Cash, PayPal, or Venmo will be accepted as payments.

Spectators should bring their own chairs and/or blankets.

2) Little Dolphins Start Tuesday

We love our Little Dolphins and our coaches can’t wait to start working with them!

All Little Dolphins will be tested on their first day, Tuesday, June 14 (choose 12 p.m. or 5:30 p.m.) to see if they can swim the length of the pool without touching the side or a lane line. No kickboards or flotation devices will be permitted. The stroke or how they accomplish it does not matter. Safety is our No. 1 concern.

The Little Dolphins program is large. We have awesome coaches in the pool during practice and great lifeguards on the side. We will be cheering for everyone to pass this test, but if they don't, we will cheerfully retest them. A few private lessons or sessions working with their parents is sometimes all it takes to get there.

Our Little Dolphins coaches work hard to make this swim test as fun a process as possible with smiles and encouraging words as they root for them to do their best!

A few things about Tuesday:

• Test day isn't a normal practice. The entire session will be tests so once swimmers have taken it, they're free to go home on this first day.
• For swimmers who can't come Tuesday, let us know when you plan to join the team. This notice will help our coaches plan for when they need to administer later tests.

A few general things about Little Dolphins practice:

• During the Little Dolphins practice season, you don't need to let us know when swimmers will miss practice.
• Little Dolphins should only attend one session per day.
• Let our coaches or Team Reps know if your young swimmer is feeling especially anxious or just isn't enjoying practice. This helps our coaches know where a little extra attention may be needed.
• We encourage swimmers to bring fins and goggles to practice.

Our Little Dolphins Head Coaches are Hana Keenan and Annie Hogan. Look for them after practice sessions or send our Team Reps an email if you have questions.

3) Summer Practice Hours

Monday will be the beginning of our new practice schedule. See details below. Please note that swimmers can choose to swim with their age group in the morning, or in the afternoon. We offer these practice times to assist with our swimmers who may have work, camps, or other activities during the day.

Please note: There is no afternoon practice on Mondays due to B Meets. If there are specialty meets or events during the week that will cause the cancellation of practice, we will alert you beforehand.

Set your alarms! All swimmers should be on time and prepared to swim at their designated time.

Morning Practice

• Ages 9-10—8:00-9:15 a.m.
• Ages 13 & up—9:00-10:15 a.m.
• Ages 11-12—10:00-11:15 a.m.
• Ages 8 & under—11:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m.
• Little Dolphins—12:00-12:30 p.m.

Afternoon Practice

• Ages 10 & under—4:00-4:45 p.m.
• Ages 11 & up—4:45-5:30 p.m.
• Little Dolphins—5:30-6:00 p.m.

4) Teen Night—Thursday at 6 p.m. @ WRA

The teens are celebrating the beginning of summer with their first Teen Night. The teens will meet at the pool at 6 p.m. Participants must be registered Waynewood Dolphin swimmers and be 13 or above on the date of the teen night to attend. Please respect that no exceptions will be made.

5) Motivational T-shirts Pep Rally—Friday at 6 p.m. @ WRA

Coach Dylan asks that everyone bring a plain BLUE or WHITE T-shirt to the pep rally on Friday to decorate with Dolphin Spirit. The results are always really cool.

Paint and masking tape will be provided. If our more artistic Dolphins want to get a head start, they are welcome to make stencils ahead of time and bring them to the Pep Rally. Helpful hint: Contact paper makes for an excellent stencil.

It will be great to see our Dolphins sporting these T-shirts at practices and events! In addition, there will be cheers and the announcement of the week’s practice monsters. Don't miss it!

6) Volunteer Sign-Ups for Home A Meet, June 18, and Away B Meet, June 20

We’ll be opening volunteer sign-ups on Tuesday at 8 p.m. for the home A Meet with Fairfax Station and away B Meet at Hollin Meadows. https://waynewood.swimtopia.com/swim_meets

We’ll also be opening for additional swimmer signups soon after Monday’s B Meet. For A meets, we need everyone to tell us if they are or are not available for the meet so that we have a true picture of the pool of swimmers to choose from. All non-Little Dolphin swimmers should indicate their availability for Saturday morning A meets. Do not assume that your child will not be selected! It takes a lot of swimmers to fill the lanes!

Swimmers will be notified no later than Thursday if they are participating in the A Meet. We will be sending out a list to confirm. Those swimming in the A Meet will need to arrive at 7:45 a.m. on Saturday morning for the 8 a.m. warm-up. The meet starts at 9 a.m.

7) Time Trials Results and Photos

We hope you and your swimmer had a great experience at Time Trials. The swimmers did great and we thank all our volunteers!

If your swimmers are looking for ribbons, please remind them that we don’t do ribbons for Time Trials—their first ribbons will be earned on Monday night at the B Meet. However, we do have many photos posted on Instagram and Smugmug.

Our Data Coordinator, Katie Wolf, has the ladder from Saturday’s Time Trials posted on Swimtopia! Click here. These are the results for everyone who swam (each age group in each stroke). Girls are listed first in age group order, and then the boys. An updated ladder will be released after each B Meet—the coaches use this ladder for seeding A Meets.

If you just want to see your swimmer's times without wading through the ladder, click on "My Account" at the top right-hand corner of the page and select the swimmer you want to look at, scroll down. Click on each stroke to see a history of times.

Show your swimmer how fast they are! If they are sensitive to where they are in comparison to other kids, just show them their individual times and challenge them to outdo themselves next time! Or ignore the times—praise their stroke improvement, endurance, sportsmanship, and friend-making skills!

Questions? Please don’t hesitate to contact our Team Reps, Tom and Frederick, at [email protected].

Go Dolphins!

Waynewood Dolphins Communications