Welcome to the 2023 season of the Greenbriar Dolphins Swim Team! We’re excited to have our largest team ever, with 198 swimmers ranging from ages 4 to 18. Look for a weekly update like this from now until the end of the season with everything you need to be tracking for the week ahead. There’s a lot of information in them so please be sure to read them all the way through.

Practices Begin on Tuesday: Our first practice sessions kick off on Tuesday afternoon. Our practice schedule can be viewed by logging into our team website https://www.greenbriardolphins.org) or navigating directly the practice schedule (https://www.greenbriardolphins.org/practices). We’ve slightly altered the schedule from what was originally posted, and assigned every swimmer to an afternoon practice group. You may locate the practice group for each of your swimmers two ways:

1. Next to the swimmer’s name in the SwimTopia Mobile app
2. By logging into the SwimTopia website and viewing each swimmer through your account

Our older swimmers in Session A (3:30 to 4:15) will be expected to help get the pool situated before practices begin (dropping in lane lines, backstroke flags, etc.). Swimmers for all other sessions should rally near the flagpole in the grassy area behind the diving well as indicated for their practice sessions on the schedule to do some stretching and dryland before they start swimming. There will be no practice on Friday, June 16th, and we will switch over to morning practices on Monday, June 19th.

Pool Capacity For Afternoon Practices: Until school is out and we switch to morning practices, our afternoon practices will be held while the pool is open to all pool members for recreational swim. This means that there may be days, especially as the weather warms, when you arrive at the pool to find it at full capacity. If this should occur, you must simply wait until patrons already in the pool depart. We do not have any priority over any other member to access the pool. Here are some hints and requests from us to help alleviate this situation:

• Please limit the number of family members who accompany your swimmer to the pool for practice. Every person through the gate counts towards the pool capacity of 248 whether they are in the actual pool or just on the pool deck.
• Please leave the pool as soon as your swimmer has finished their practice. This will allow those swimmers waiting outside the pool to enter to start their practice.
• As your swimmers become more familiar and comfortable with the routine they may enter and exit the pool for practice unaccompanied.

Should the pool reach capacity, and you are unable to enter the pool, please remember above all to be patient and kind to the front desk staff. They really do want to let you and your swimmer in the pool, but until other patrons depart their hands are tied.

Coaching Staff:We have a great coaching staff this season, and we’ve made a couple of additions and changes since our last correspondence.

• Pat McAndrews, Head Coach ([email protected], 703.424.5866)
• Ben Nguyen, Assistant Head Coach ([email protected], 571.234.9630)
• Coach Lilly, Developmental Coach
• Coach Megan, Developmental Coach
• Coach Will, Developmental Coach
• Coach Andy, Assistant Developmental Coach
• Coach Liz, Assistant Developmental Coach
• Coach Nate, Assistant Developmental Coach

While we are holding our afternoon practices, Assistant Head Coach Ben will be coaching Session A comprised of our older swimmers. Head Coach Pat, and Coach Ben will be assisted by all the other coaches for our remaining practice sessions.

Events and Calendar:We have two methods by which you can keep up with the various meets and activities we have planned throughout the season. The first is a single page, all-in-one view of the season which can be accessed via our website (when you’re logged in) or directly here (https://bit.ly/42cUKw9). The other is by reviewing the “Upcoming Events” tab on either our Team Website or in the Swimtopia Mobile App for Android or Apple iOS. It is through these methods that you will sign up your swimmer for meets, indicate whether they will be attending events, and volunteer for jobs. We have published some of the upcoming events on the “Upcoming Events” tab, and will be publishing more as we finish them up.

Volunteering:It takes a lot of parent volunteers to run our swim team program. Most require no previous experience or training, and you will be able to sign up for them on a per-event basis. There are, however, some positions which do require training and that is our meet officials. If you are interested and would like to learn to be a meet official, you may attend one of the upcoming clinics (https://bit.ly/43ceDEL). Meet officials get the best vantage point for viewing our meets, and we can’t run our meets without them.

We could also use a few dedicated parent volunteers to help with our social events and activities this season. The more hands the lighter the work. If you have any questions about any of these roles or would like to volunteer in these areas, please reply to this message and we’ll get you connected accordingly.

Facebook Page: Besides our website and the other resources mentioned above, we’ve fostered a great community of current and former parents and swimmers on our team Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/groups/411735892318380). Join the conversation, get your questions answered, and make new summer friends.

See you at the pool!

Team Reps Dan Klanderman and Rob Wayment
[email protected]