LOTS OF INFORMATION IS LISTED BELOW. PLEASE READ CAREFULLY! This might be a good email to print and post somewhere this week...

Helllllloooooooooooooo Barracudas!

Monday officially starts Spirit Week! Spirit Week is a week packed with activities, culminating in the Gold Divisional Meet on Saturday, July 9 at the Canebrake pool. For those who are new to our team or who need a little reminder, Spirit Week is a fun time of activities and practice to get ready to swim fast and have fun at Divisionals. Practice will be held each day at Knollwood pool from 9:30-11:00. Here is the daily breakdown of ALL activities for each day:

Monday, July 4: America Day/Knollwood 4th of July Parade and Ice Cream Social = 10:00 to 11:00 on MONDAY ONLY.  Deck yourself out in your Red, White, and Blue and come join the Knollwood Parade.  We will not swim at practice because of the holiday but you are welcome to dress up and come be a part of the parade.  There will be ice cream after.

Tuesday, July 5: Drag Day = Wear jeans, long pants, sweatshirts, and long sleeve shirts to race in at morning practice.

The Officials Meeting (Referees, Starters, and Stroke and Turn Officials) will be held at Canebrake Clubhouse at 7:00 pm.

Wednesday, July 6: Greasy Watermelon/Orange and Character Day = come to practice dressed like your favorite movie, book, or TV show character. Younger kids will dive for greased oranges (in the shallow end)/ older kids for a greased watermelon.

Thursday, July 7: Decade Day/Shaving Cream War + PASTA PUMP DINNER = come to practice dressed like your favorite decade.  Are you an 80's kid, a 50's bopper, or a 70's peacemaker?  Represent your favorite by dressing up. After practice we will have a shaving cream fight. All participants must bring their own can of shaving cream (NO gel and no menthol/mint - unscented please) AND you MUST wear goggles during the fight.

At 6:30 pm, we will meet at the Mauldin First Baptist Church for a Pasta Pump Dinner to get ready for the meet on Saturday. The cost is $5/person with a $20 maximum per family to cover the cost of food. Cash, check, or Venmo will be accepted. Melissa Cerniski is working with some volunteers to cook.  You can reach out to her if you would like to offer to help (I'm not sure if everything is covered yet).  We will need help with set up and clean up also.  Please RSVP and sign up to volunteer on Swimtopia. Click on Signup Calendar, Pasta Pump.  The sign up has been updated to allow for guests so if you already RSVP's and couldn't add guests, you can now.  It will help us to know how many to set up for.

Friday, July 8: PJ Day/Coach Sunday/Pancake Breakfast = come to practice in your pajamas. Bring your favorite ice cream topping to pour on our coaches to make a yummy sundae. Coach Dane will show off his culinary skills by cooking pancakes for our swimmers for breakfast.

Mike Anderson will transport any tents, the fans and generator on Friday evening and will need two or three good, strong people to help, please reply to this email so we can make arrangements. We will need to bring them back home on Saturday, also so help will be needed loading them back in the truck. Everything we bring to Canebrake will be locked in the tennis courts and a guard will stay there through the night to keep an eye on them. If you have a tent that can be used and you would like him to take it, please drop it off at 123 Gail Drive by Thursday and pick them up by Sunday evening, July 10. 

Saturday, July 9: DIVISIONALS = THE day we have been working towards! Be at Canebrake Pool by 7:15 so you can get your swimmer settled and ready for 7:30 am warmups. There will be a parade of all of the swimmers prior to the meet, along with the Pledge of Allegiance and the Swimmers Prayer and National Anthem. Bring lots of snacks and plenty of drinks as we cheer on our swimmers.

Besides all these super fun activities, we picked Barracuda Buddies at practice this morning. Please be sure you are prepared for the fun! If you need help with ideas, you can ask your teammates (without giving away who you have), Google, or check out Pinterest for “good luck gifts/quotes, or secret buddies.  The first day to bring Buddy gifts is TUESDAY.  We suggest a small gift or motivating or appreciative note each day.  Bring a fun, larger gift (basket of goodies) on Saturday to Divisionals to give to your Buddy and let them know who their Buddy was.  We made notes on the Buddy sheets if your Buddy will not be at Divisionals.  If that is the case, please bring their Buddy gift to practice on Friday. If your Buddy will not be at practice during Spirit Week but will be at Divisionals, please still bring them a little gift each day.  We will be sure that these gifts are delivered.  If you have ANY questions at all, please be sure to reach out and we will be happy to answer them.  We want this to be a fun, bonding experience for our swimmers.  They may make a new best friend from it!

We are looking forward to a great week!  Reach out if you have any questions about anything.  I know this was A LOT to take in!