Hi everyone! This email is SUPER important so please read to the end and complete ASAP!

We are already mid-way through our season, so we are looking ahead to our big Divisionals meet hosted by Botany Woods. Divisionals will be held on Friday, July 8th at late afternoon/evening for our 11 & up swimmers and Saturday morning, July 9th for our 10 & unders. On these days, all six teams from our Green Division will compete against each other. Trophies are awarded to the teams with the most total points (often one of the larger teams) as well as the team who earns the most points per swimmer (total team points divided by number of swimmers participating--also called quality points). So, it will be a fun day of cheering on SPAR! We would LOVE to have as many swimmers as possible participate!

Also, a swimmer's times at Divisionals could qualify them for Championships (Saturday, July 16th) or Classics (Sunday, July 17th). The fastest 16 times in all of SAIL (all the Divisions combined) for each event qualify for Classics and numbers 17-40 (plus some alternates) qualify for Championships. The fastest eight relays in all of SAIL in each age group qualify for Classics and numbers 9-16 qualify for Championships. So our swimmers will be trying to swim their very fastest times of the season at Divisionals in order to qualify!

So, here's the important part: Our team and SAIL need to know which swimmers will be participating or available to participate in these meets. So, now's the time to go to our website, www.sparswimteam.com, click on the Meets tab and then the option to Sign up for Meets. Once there you will see THREE different meets (Green Divisionals, Championships and Classics). You will need to open each meet and declare whether or not your swimmer will or will not participate.

If you say yes to Divisionals, you don't necessarily have to say yes to Championships or Classics if your swimmer would not be available those days. And keep in mind that not all swimmers will qualify, so the Championships and Classics response is just letting us know if you are available those days.

We MUST be very accurate when sending in the names of our swimmers to SAIL because scratch fees apply if a swimmer is entered into one of those meets and then does not come. The scratch fees for Divisionals are $5 per event. Between Divisionals and C&C, all events are $25 per scratch. However, starting at 10 am the Wednesday prior to C&C, the fees are $50 per individual event scratch and $100 per relay scratch. The swimmer's family is responsible for paying these scratch fees so we want to make sure we get these right. Physical illness, death in the family, etc are valid reasons for scratching, but SAIL is trying to avoid scratches due to vacation, miscommunications etc.

The deadline to declare your swimmer for these meets is next Wednesday, June 22nd at midnight. You'll notice that you won't be able to choose your swimmers' events for Divisionals as the coaches choose these based on current rankings in SAIL.

We will also need volunteers for Divisionals but will open that up at a later time once we know what Botany Woods needs and which of our families will be going.

Please let me know if you have any questions at all!

Amy