Hi OBST families; It's another hot yet beautiful Monday!

I have a number of topics to bring to your attention this week as we head into the last couple of weeks for the summer season. Please read and digest all information so you are prepared for all that is ahead!

1. RESULTS: I have attached the results for the CMSA Last Chance Meet as well as the GS Firecracker Rec Meet. The results for GS are strictly our team's results. GS provided a zip file, so I could only pull our athletes instead of the entire meet results. I will have ribbons by Wednesday from GS in athlete mailboxes.

2. RSVP: This Saturday is the GCAAL Junior Champs competition in Bay Minette. All warm-up details will be announced later this week, but I believe we should begin warm-ups around 8:30-9 a.m. As of now we only have less than 10 attending. I expect to take a light amount because this meet has a time standard dedicated to new athletes. Our experienced or year-round athletes will most likely not be elligible to swim this weekend. I have attached the time standard sheet as well for your reference. (i.e. If a 13-14 female is swimming the 100 FR, the athlete has to have a qualifying time of 1:06.50 or slower to attend this meet.) If this is confusing, feel free to mark attendance and I will confirm if your swimmer can compete or not. 

Please confirm no later than tomorrow by EOD! Mark your swimmer's attendance in SwimTopia so that I can enter appropriately.

In addition to Junior Champs, I would love and appreciate as close to 100% attendance at the City Championship on July 18-19 as possible. I know some are out of town and others will be competing at a higher level meet, but if able, please represent! FYI: The Gulf Coast Area Aquatic League has a rule about transfer swimmers. If you joined OBST this summer from another team under GCAAL, you will be allowed to swim, however under exhibition, so you can't score points this summer for OBST at the end of season championship.

Since you'll already be in SwimTopia RSVPing for Junior Champs, please go ahead and mark your commitment for the summer championship as well (or before this Friday, 7/11). There will be an award ceremony immediately following the completion of the afternoon session on Saturday at the Fairhope pool. 

There is also a team spirit award! Last summer, we did make posters for the meet, but I think I'd rather see our athletes dressed in orange and blue... I can bring war paint and maybe pom-poms and other cheering items in our colors. I am also thinking about bringing our shark fins from the Christmas parade (to wear on deck, not in the water). 

3. AWARDS BANQUET: It's coming faster than you think, but the end of our season will be here in a blink of an eye! We will be having our annual awards banquet on Thursday, July 24th from 6-8 p.m. at the OB Community Center. The entire family is welcome to attend and bring a dish for our potluck dinner. Again, please confirm the number of people attending in your swimmer's party and sign up for a dish to bring under "jobs".

Be on alert for photo submissions for the slideshow as well!

4. FALL REGISTRATION: For returning swimmers and OB residents, registration will open on 7/14 at 8 a.m. Registration will open to the public on 7/21 at 8 a.m.

OB will begin utilizing SportsMan web to register for Parks & Rec activities instead of ActiveNet. For most of us, this is a seamless transition. For those who have a current fitness membership/account, you will simply login with the e-mail you have on file and reset your password. I will be e-mailing everyone in a seperate email with detailed PDF instructions attached to do this successfully. SportsMan is much more user-friendly and most already have an account and don't realize it!

Best,

Coach Dakota