🏊♂️ Briarwood Barracudas – Season Updates & Important Information

We’re getting close to the start of an exciting swim season! Please review the updates below so your family is fully prepared.  If you have any questions, please send them to [email protected] 

📅 Parent Zoom Meeting

We will host a parent Zoom meeting on Thursday, May 7th at 7:30 PM.  Link will be sent out next week.

This is especially helpful for new families or anyone who wants a refresher. During the meeting:

• We’ll cover the history of the team
• Review key dates for the season
• Coach Kate will discuss expectations and coaching philosophy

🏊♀️ Practice Schedule (Starting May 11)

Practices are scheduled to begin Monday, May 11th, pending final confirmation from the city on pool readiness. As of now, everything is on track, and we expect inspection results shortly.

This year, we have a well-balanced team, allowing us to keep each age group together without splitting sessions.

Tentative Practice Times:

• 6 & Under: 6:00 – 6:35 PM
• 7–8: 6:40 – 7:25 PM
• 9–10: 7:25 – 8:10 PM
• 11 & Up: 8:10 – 9:00 PM

All swimmers should have a girls 1 piece sport suit or a boys jammers (tighter fighting short style swim suit).  They should have goggles.  My suggestion is TYR or Speedo.  They typically have youth sizes for the littles.  Do not use a mask or goggles that are not meant for racing as they typically will leak and cause the kids to mess with them all of practice.  Kids with long hair (boy or girl) will need to wear their hair in a pony tail and/or in a swim cap.  See below as we provide 1 per swimmer. 

🌞 Morning Practices (Starting June 1)

Beginning June 1st, we will offer optional morning practices for swimmers who want extra time or cannot attend evenings.  Morning practices are only available to 9 and older swimmers.  A sign up genius will go out with each date on it and the numbers will be limited to ensure safety as there is a smaller coaching pool for morning practices.  

• Days: Monday & Friday
• Time: 10:00 – 11:00 AM

🏅 Stroke Clinics

We will offer small-group stroke clinics on the following Saturdays:

• May 30
• June 6
• June 13

Each date includes two sessions:

• 9:30 – 10:15 AM
• 10:15 – 11:00 AM

Details:

• Cost: $10 per session
• Run by coaches
• Focused, small-group instruction (each clinic has a different focus)
• Signup and payment will be shared via SignUpGenius and Venmo

🏁 Dual Meets & Meet Participation

Dual meets are now loaded into the system. Registration will open one week prior to each meet.

Important reminders:

• Please mark your swimmer’s availability for every meet
• If plans change, email immediately
• Late scratches impact relays and scoring—and can be very disappointing for teammates

Additional Notes:

• 5/6 swimmers may only participate in 2 meets per season
• We will host a Guppy Meet (5/6 only) at Briarwood on June 27 at 8:00 AM (coming soon to Swimtopia)

🏆 District and State Meet

Details for the District Meet are still being finalized and will be shared soon.  Anyone 7 and older can swim in District.  Those that finish in the top 2 per age group including relays are eligible to swim in the State Meet, which is held in the July. These meets are swam with the City of Brookhaven and we are joined by a couple other teams located in the City.  The Murphy Candler Marlins being the biggest.  It is a great opportunity for some extra competition on a state level!

🙌 Volunteers Needed

We cannot run this program without parent volunteers.

• We have 10 lead volunteers helping organize
• Each family is expected to sign up for 3 volunteer roles at the meets per season
• Volunteer slots are selected when registering for each meet

Your support is essential to making meets run smoothly!

👕 Team Gear

We are placing orders for:

• Team T-shirts
• Barracuda swim caps

Each swimmer will receive:

• 1 T-shirt
• 1 swim cap

Additional caps will be available for $5 each if needed.

We’re looking forward to a great season—see you on deck soon! 🐟💙