Good morning, Sharks families.

Saturday was a great day to be a SHARK! The weather cooperated and we came away with a great win against the Hazlet Hammerheads! We are so proud of our team. Thanks to all of our volunteers who braved the heat and made our meet a truly enjoyable experience. A very special THANK YOU to our Marshallers who were short handed and still managed to help every single Shark get to their events successfully.  Hopefully you all enjoyed your time on deck and would like to pitch in again. IMPORTANT:  If you cannot fulfill the volunteer spot for which you signed up, please let one of the parent reps know ASAP. We need every single person to make our meets run safely and smoothly. We understand that conflicts can arise at any time but understand that you are VERY MUCH NEEDED. It would be very helpful if you could find a replacement parent to fulfill your requirement as Sherrill and I are extremely busy before and during each meet :-)

If you have any questions but anything that happened during the meet, please do not hesitate to ask. Swimming seems to be very black and white (whoever touches the wall first wins) but there are times when it may not be so clear. Do not hesitate to ask a question if you have one!

There WILL BE practice on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday this week.  On Wednesday, we will have a HOME meet against the Candlewood Sundevils. Arrival time for Wednesday meets is 4:15PM. As of this moment, we have 37 swimmers who are undeclared for this meet! If you are unsure how to declare your swimmer as ATTENDING or NOT ATTENDING meets, click here for instructions WITH PICTURES.

ATTENTION: We will be using the RAPTOR preregistration system again.  All spectators and swimmers 18 ages 18 and over will need to pre-register and show photo ID before entering the YMCA. This is a Y policy which must be enforced!  It takes less than a minute.  Each person must have their own "ticket" and show a matching photo ID.   CLICK HERE TO PRE-REGISTER.

Holmdel Red White and Blue Sprints Meet on THURSDAY July 3rd

This is the last call for any family who would like to participate in the BONUS Sprints Meet at Holmdel Swim Club this Thursday, July 3rd. THIS IS A MORNING MEET! Arrival is 7:45AM and the meet is predicted to finish before 11AM. There is NO FEE to attend this meet. We just have to let them know how many swimmers we have and provide 2 or 3 parents/coaches to help out with marshalling. Sprints meets are super fun! If you previously filled out the google form but now cannot attend (remember THIS IS A MORNING MEET!!) please let us know right away!  Here is the link to the form. I have to submit our names and Freestyle times by 5pm!! This is a hard deadline. You will not be able to just show up to this meet.

A few housekeeping items:

**If you are not volunteering you are absolutely NOT allowed on the deck (this is the concrete area surrounding the pool). Please stay behind the yellow caution tape at all times. This is both a YMCA and USA Swimming regulation and can result in ejection from the meet. If you'd like to get right up close to the action, consider signing up to volunteer! Please double check the spots for which you have signed up. If you cannot make your assignment, please take yourself out!!

**Please have your swimmer check in with a coach before leaving the meet. The coach may have last minute things to tell your swimmer or (at the very least) want the opportunity to congratulate him/her on a great meet. Your swimmer should simply tell the coach "I just swam my last race and my family needs to leave". It is ALWAYS a better idea to stay for the entirety of the meet and cheer for teammates if you can. We know life is busy. If you need to leave you absolutely are not obligated to stay!

**PLEASE let the coaches know if your swimmer will not be attending a meet. We had to scratch multiple relays today because swimmers whom we were expecting did not show up. This can be very upsetting for the other members of the relay team. Please declare through the Swimtopia App or the website. If you are not sure how to do this, check previous emails where there are step-by-step photos showing the process. Even if something comes up at the last minute... you can ALWAYS send a message to us quickly by responding to the REMIND. If you still have not signed up for REMIND messages, just text the message @fhsharks25 to the phone number 81010.

***If you HAVE NOT turned in your $50 workbond check, you can hand to either parent rep OR drop in the SHARKS mailbox on the front desk of the main building of the YMCA. Your swimmer MAY NOT be entered in the next meet until your workbond check has been received.

***If you HAVE NOT picked up your swimmer's team t-shirt and you registered before June 9th, please see one of the parent reps at practice.  After this week, we will begin handing out shirts to those families who registered after June 9th.  IF YOU WERE AN EARLY REGISTRANT AND DO NOT COME TO GET YOUR SHIRT IT MAY BE GIVEN TO SOMEONE ELSE!

**If you're on Instagram, be sure to follow our Sharks Instagram page!  Just search for @freeholdsharksswim

**Let's keep Pokemon cards at home :-)