Greetings Pool Shark families,

A week from today we officially start our season with our first practice at the newly renovated outdoor pool! There have been a lot of changes recently that we want to update you on for our upcoming season.

• Practice schedule change -  After meeting with our aquatics director and coaches, we have been able to create practice plans where we can safely distance our swimmers enough to be able to drop the A/B day rotation. This means your swimmer(s) can come to practice any day as long as they come during their designated age-group times. 
• Outdoor masking - It was passed by the school board last night that masks are now optional outdoors on any school district property. Swimmers (and parents/spectators at meets) will still be expected to have a mask with them if they need to use the bathhouse. 
• Flow of traffic at practice and meets - In an attempt to keep our practices and meets as safe as possible, we are going to implement a "flow of traffic" plan for practices and meets. Swimmers will be asked to enter the pool from the large gate by the concession stand to enter practices. From there, swimmers will find a space on the pool deck to put their belongings, then enter the pool for practice. We are asking swimmers to arrive and to leave practice in their suits as much as possible, only using the bathhouse on an "as needed" basis. Once practice has finished, swimmers will be asked to leave out the bathhouse to meet their parents in the parking lot. 
• Volunteer checks and requirements - IT TAKES 250 WORK HOURS TO RUN A MEET. Every summer, Pool Sharks hosts 3 or 4 home meets and we rely on parents to volunteer at each one. A separate $100 check or cash deposit must be issued by each family. At least one family member must volunteer for a job at each home meet their child swims. At the end of the season, if volunteer requirements are fulfilled, the check will be returned to the family. If they are not fulfilled, the check will be deposited into the Pool Sharks General Fund for purchase of new equipment for the Pool Sharks program.
  Volunteer sign-up takes place ONLINE when signing your swimmer up for meets. Training for any of the jobs will be provided. Most are pretty easy and most times you get the BEST viewing of your swimmer's events!
• Volunteer check collection - We will be collecting volunteer checks from June 1-11. There are 2 ways to turn them in. You can mail your check to PO Box 491, Sauk City, WI 53583 or you can drop it off at the outdoor pool in our Pool Shark mailbox. There will be a folder labeled "Volunteer checks" in the mailbox. If we have not received your check by June 11th, you swimmer(s) will not be allowed to swim in meets after the June 12th meet. 
• Meet and Volunteer sign up - Meets and Volunteer sign ups are NOW OPEN on our website. Login into your account and go to "Information" and scroll down to "Meet sign up instructions" to sign up for both meets and volunteer shifts. Swimmers need to be signed up for meets by the Monday before the meet for our coaches to have time to put line ups together. This means swimmers need to be signed up by Monday, May 31st for our first meet on June 5th. You can sign up for meets all at once, or meet by meet. The meet deadline is a hard deadline. If it is missed, unfortunately your swimmer will not be able to swim in that meet. There will be weekly email reminders to help families remember the deadline. 
• Conference - The Tri-County board had to make a hard decision early this year to cancel the conference swim meet for this season. There were many unknowns at the time the decision had to be made, that we decided it would be too hard to pull off this year with the large number of people it involves. Instead, on what is normally conference Saturday, July 24th, there will be 4 dual meets, all being swam in a 25 meter pool. We will be hosting Mt. Horeb. Coaches will put a conference line up together and the top 16 times in each event in the conference will be awarded ribbons and medals based on their finish. This will only be a 1 day event. Swimmers who want to swim for conference final places MUST swim in at least 3 dual meets this summer. There will be more information on this meet as it gets closer. 
• Clothing and apparel - If you ordered suits or apparel from Simply swimming, we should have your order sometime during the first week of practice. We will keep you posted when it comes in. 
• Zoom Parent meeting - Thursday, May 27th 6:30 via Zoom - Get all your questions answered and meet our Coaches! 

Join Zoom Meeting - https://zoom.us/j/96047608255?pwd=RldNc1FJdnR2OFJhcUxCelo5WkU5UT09

Meeting ID: 960 4760 8255

Passcode: w1XNr0

If you have made it to the end of this email, Congratulations and THANK YOU!!! A lot of hard work has been put into preparing for this season, and we are excited to get it started! Please reach out if you have any questions. See you at the parent meeting on Thursday! 

The Sauk Prairie Pool Shark Board