Avery Ranch Redfish

Use the Heat Sheet to find and highlight your child's events.  Mark the arm as illustrated below in the picture in the order of Event/Heat/Lane.

Write on clean dry skin with no sunscreen. Please do not apply sunscreen until after swimmers have warmed up.

If you are not able to help your child apply sunscreen, the tent parents will help the child apply the sunscreen. But please remember to supply the sunscreen. It is not the Tent Parent's responsibility to supply your child with sunscreen.

Heat Sheets will be found in the Meet Book provided via email on Friday afternoon.

PACKING FOR A SWIM MEET

Swimmer Pack List:

• Redfish Swimsuit
• Redfish Swim-cap
• At least one pair of goggles( 2 pair preferred in case one breaks)
• At least 1 towel for warm-up and meet
• Sunscreen
• Clothes/Coverup to wear between events if preferred
• Healthy Snacks (be aware if your age group has an allergy)
• Water bottles
• Chair for under the tent
• Entertainment: Be prepared to sit around for several hours. Staying awake and alert will help you swim faster, so bring whatever keeps you happily entertained: something to read, pens and paper for coloring, your iPod, board games, or all of the above. NOTE: items will get wet! Not tent parents responsibility to keep track of these items.

Parent Pack List:

• Sharpie (to write your child's name, event #, heat #, position on his/her back shoulder before the meet if you didn't do it the night before). DO NOT put sunscreen on before body marking, or the body marking will smear all over the place.
• Money - The hosting team runs most swim meet concessions. Any profits go to support their team
• Snacks/Lunch
• Sunglasses and/or a hat
• A portable chair
• More sunscreen
• Entertainment
• Camera
• Good cheering voice. Swimmers can hear in the water. The louder the crowd, the more exciting their swim!

POOL LOCATION: Home meets are at Main Amenity Center pools located at 10113 Morgan Creek Drive, Austin, Texas 78717. Away Pool locations are listed here.

ARRIVAL TIME: Please arrive at the pool on time for all meets. The start time of the meets can be found in the Meet Book sent out on Fridays. Redfish’ Age Group tents will be located to the right of the pool when entering. Please sign in with the Volunteer Coordinator as you enter before you proceed to your child’s age group tent.

COACHING: During the meets the coaches will be taking notes on each child. These notes will be used during the next weeks practice to help each swimmer improve on their times. The assistant coaches along with the lead ready bench volunteer will be helping the swimmers at the ready bench prepare for their race. They will go over specific instructions for the strokes, dives, and relays. Please no parents in the ready bench, block area or timing are that are not working a volunteer shift.

AGE GROUP TENTS: Once you have signed in with the volunteer coordinator, please take ALL SWIMMERS to the appropriate Age Group Parent/Tent to sign him/her in. YOU MUST SIGN YOUR SWIMMERS IN with the age group parent even if they are not going to sit with the age group. If your swimmer is not signed in they will be scratched from their heats by the coaches. The same goes for the end of the meet, PLEASE inform the age group parents you are taking your swimmer home especially our 6 and under parents.

READY BENCH: Age group parents are responsible for getting our swimmers to the ready bench so if you choose to keep your own swimmer you are responsible for getting your swimmer to the ready bench.

RELAYS: Please don't cancel on relays, especially last minute - if your swimmer is signed up to swim the relay and for some reason you cannot stay, or make it, PLEASE INFORM the age group parents immediately. A relay is 4 swimmers and if one isn't there, the whole relay team has to forfeit. It makes everyone sad when this happens. When signing up for a meet, Swimtopia allows you to note your relay preference: Please indicate if your child won't be available for early or late relays. Read the Relay Policy!

FOOD AND REFRESHMENTS: As a general rule we like to promote “green” thinking so bring a reusable water bottle. Water containers will be available. At home meets breakfast tacos are for sale in the early morning. Also donuts, coffee, drinks, watermelon/fruit and snacks of all kinds will be available. Around 11:00 the food choices change to hot dogs and hamburgers with a variety of snacks available. You can bring in food and drinks, but we ask that people do not bring in glass or cans. Please be aware of any food allergies in your age group tent. The Redfish Swim Team has a strict NO NUT POLICY.

WHAT YOUR SWIMMER SHOULD KNOW: First and foremost have fun! Do their best and enjoy the meet. PLEASE leave the coaching to our amazing coaches and just encourage your swimmers. If you are volunteering and leaving your swimmer especially our younger swimmers, please make sure they know where all their "stuff" is snacks, goggles, money and entertainment. Please remind your swimmers to stay with the age group parents and not wander off as this can create chaos when time comes to swim.

Please lather your swimmers with sunscreen prior to arriving at the pool. The tent parents will have heat sheets, rubbing alcohol, & sharpies to mark your child's events.

HEAT RIBBONS: In an effort to have more kids have a chance we give out heat ribbons to first place swimmers in their heat. This is a reward for working hard in practice and improving their time to achieve first place in their heat. Please explain to your children the intention of heat ribbons and the importance of being a good sport.

Please MARK EVERYTHING with the swimmers name so we can avoid lost shirts, towels, caps, bathing suits, etc. The meet should finish between 1P and 2P. Again if you are leaving early please tell the age group parent. We encourage all parents and swimmers to stay until the end of the meet to cheer on all of our Redfish!

Wear sunscreen! Bring cash and small bills – The Redfish will not have change for anything over a $20.00! And have fun watching all the kids experience summer swim. Most of all, the REDFISH want to be known for our good sportsmanship. Please congratulate the winner no matter what team they are on, please encourage all swimmers and please encourage your swimmers to do the same. Our swimmers will follow our example.

VOLUNTEERS: If you have signed up to volunteer NO MATTER WHAT SHIFT, PLEASE check in with our volunteer coordinator as soon as you get to the pool. We LOVE our volunteers and like to know we have all our bases covered.

T-SHIRTS: Wear red t-shirts or spirit gear to meets, if you would like to buy a t-shirt, please bring $20.00.

HEATSHEETS: Heat sheets will be available online Friday night before the meet, the Coaches will let us know. PLEASE print out your heat sheet and bring to the meet. There are no extras at the meet and none for sale. For our new parents, the heat sheet is the master key to the meet. All the events and swimmers are listed on the heat sheet. For our new swimmers, they will have NT next to their time which means NO TIME. Our returning swimmers will have their time from the previous year on the sheet.

DISQUALIFIED: Swimmers will be DQ'd (disqualified) for improper strokes. If your child is DQ'd please assure your swimmer that it is okay and how proud you are of them for trying. The coaches do get a list of what the swimmer was DQ'd for and they will go over with the swimmers in practice!

Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions. Our coaches and our parent leads will also be able to answer questions you might have at the meet. Most importantly HAVE FUN and ENJOY the day!