Hello Tornados! This is a long one, but please stay with me till the end!  

The coaches were so sad to cancel FLYday today. Hopefully next week's forecast allows for some practice windows so we can get it all in! The kids have been doing such a great job, and it's been fun to see them improving. Next week is our final week of pre-meet practices, and the coaches are looking forward to continued progress! A few updates:

1. The team Instagram is full of fun photos of our Tornados -- follow us!  @thornhillswim
2. We love our Tornado sponsors!  Our first team spirit night is next Wednesday, May 27th, 4-8 p.m. at Nothing But Noodles!  Our awesome sponsor will donate 25% of your purchase back to our team if you say you are with the Tornados -- please join your fellow teammates and coaches for dinner and support the team!
3. Diving Practice Tuesday & Thursday @ 6! Monday, June 1st, is our first away meet where our swimmers will be diving from starting blocks (if they choose). Unfortunately. our pool is too shallow to allow for diving at either end, so meets at Thornhill always begin with in-water starts. Any swimmers who would like to learn/practice dives (from the side or from the block) can join our coaches at 6 p.m. this Wednesday & Thursday. Once the lane lines are removed, they will spend 30 minutes allowing kids to practice diving from the center of the pool, which is 5 feet deep. Note that our younger swimmers are always welcome to opt for in-water starts at any pool.
4. Download Swimtopia! All communications for our team are managed via Swimtopia. When you registered, you set up a user name and password that you will use to log in to our Thornhill Swimtopia site to RSVP for events and view heat sheets for meets. The Swimtopia app is great, as it allows for you to also receive alerts to your phone in case of any last-minute changes or weather issues. It will offer a free and paid version -- both allow for RSVPs and communication, but the paid version also allows you to see updates during a meet (times, scores, etc.) for those teams pushing them to the app in real time.
5. Please RSVP via Swimtopia for next Friday's time trials NOW! For those who are new to our team, time trials is basically a mock meet to allow our Thornhill swimmers to get a time in each event so the best lineup possible can be made for our meets. It's just our team, and it's a super fun way to kick off the meet season! Like always, our 5-6 shrimps will swim first, so they will be done early. If you have trouble RSVPing in the app, please email me by noon Tuesday with whether your swimmer will attend. Swimmers ages 7+ will have communicated their favorite strokes to Coach Patrick for consideration. For the sake of time, we only include in the IM our swimmers who are likely to swim it in a meet. If your swimmer is uncomfortable with a certain stroke or has expressed a desire to do the IM, please include a note in your RSVP for the coach.
6. First meet @ Bridgemill on Monday, 6/1! While you are RSVPing for time trials, please also submit your RSVP for next week's meets! I realize a meet on a school night can feel overwhelming, but the good news is that we don't anticipate it will go very late. It will be a fun start to our fast season, and we hope to have as many Tornados there as possible! Note that our second meet with be Thursday, 6/4, at HOME.

If you made it this far, THANK YOU, and please RSVP for time trials NOW! We can't wait to see everyone next Friday!

Go Tornados!

Michelle