Hi makos, 

Happy Tuesday! I apologize for not getting our weekly newsletter out to y'all yesterday. It was a big day for me personally as it was my daughter's first day attending preschool; She had a wonderful day, thankfully! Hopefully everyone is adjusting well to new schedules and seasons now that the first week back is in the books. 

There are a couple athlete's who do not have all of their required equipment for practice yet. I would appreciate swimmer's having necessary equipment ordered/in-hand by next week, please! (This includes water bottles! Stay hydrated in this immense heat!)  I am not worried about suits, just gear listed here: https://obstmakos.swimtopia.com/uniform-and-equipment

A couple target topics... 

1) TROPIC LIKE IT'S HOT OPEN in PCB 9/19-21
Our first USAS meet will take place Friday Sept. 19 through Sunday Sept. 21. Please log into SwimTopia and mark your swimmer's attendance as either "attending" or "not attending". I, of course, prefer athletes to attend the entire meet, but if you cannot attend certain days, please confirm what days you are unavailable. You are welcome to leave comments in the notes section as well. Friday's warm-up begins at 3 p.m. and the meet starts at 4:30 p.m., so swimmer's will have to be dismissed from school a little early. The meet invitation is attached to this e-mail and online.

Entries are due Wednesday, Sept 3rd by noon! Please confirm attendance beforehand. If you do not mark your athlete's attendance, I will assume you are NOT attending. 

I will choose athlete events. A swimmer is allowed up to 5 events day and the cost breakdown is as follows:
Entry Fees: $4.00 per individual
SES surcharge $8.00 per individual event ($10.00 if late entry)
Facility Fee $20.00 per entered swimmer (Downloadable Heat Sheet Included)
You must be a USA Swimming-registered athlete to compete in this meet. 

2. USAS TRANSFERS & MEMBER #s
I believe most new and/or transfer swimmers have taken care of this, with the exception of a select few that I've been in touch with, but if your child swims year-round and wants to compete at a higher level of swimming under the governing body of USA Swimming, they must be a member of the organization. You can request a transfer immediately if applicable, but otherwise need to wait to join/renew USA Swimming until 9/1. Again, if you would like to become a member or already are a USAS athlete who will need to register for the next swim year (Sept 2025 - Dec 2026), please DO NOT start or renew membership until Sept, 1st! If you do so before 9/1, you will be paying your membership fees twice. 

A USAS athlete who still needs to transfer to OBST? You'll need to request a transfer from the USAS portal as well as reach out to Southeastern Swimming's Brian Haddad and confirm the request. You may reach Brian at [email protected].

I still need USAS ID #s from Sebastian Simion and the Lester family. 

New athletes registrants will join OBST and can score points for our team immediately. If you are a transfer, you will be on a penalty for 60 days. You can still compete for OBST under this transition phase, you will just be listed as unattached and not be allowed to score points until the penalty expiration date. 

Our home meet on Oct 18th is not a USAS-sanctioned meet, so all levels are welcome to swim at the OBST Spooktacular.

3. COMMUNICATION
I sincerely appreciate all families who downloaded the Slack app. I know it's a pain to have various modes of communication, but this will be extremely effective for urgent purposes and reminders. I hope to have everything from registration to communication under one website one day... but until the city is ready for us to operate that way, this will do. If you still need to join, click here: https://join.slack.com/t/orangebeachswimteam/shared_invite/zt-3b4ygskn7-UDjn5hvyVixwZCkLN_8vaQ

Have a fantastic week! 

Best,

Coach Dakota