We had another great meet on Saturday. Although LPAC scored more place points, Belwood edged us in improvement points, and the Dolphins won the meet by a final score of 120.90 to 117.48. We are still very proud of all our penguins and look forward to taking on the Silver Creek Sharks this Saturday!
We’re entering the busiest part of the season, and there are lots of events and forms to keep track of, so please read this entire email carefully so you don’t miss out on any of the fun. For your convenience, we’re attaching several forms to this email, but you can also download them from the website at any time.

MORE RECORDS FALL

Nicole Richards shaved a bit more time off her week-old 15-18 Girls’ 50Y Butterfly record, posting a new time of 29.44. And Daniela Fasan set a new 11-12 Girls’ 100Y Individual Medley, with a great swim of 1:09.57 (beating Leah Thompson’s record from 2012). Congratulations!

THIS WEEK AT PRACTICE

Today kicks off the two-week “doughnut blitz” attendance challenge. Swimmers who miss no more than one practice over the next two weeks will earn themselves a delicious doughnut. Nothing tastes sweeter than a hard-earned reward, so come on out to practice every day!

NEW COACHES TAB ON WEBSITE

We’re slowly building out a new “COACHING” tab on our website, which will be a resource area with stroke technique tips and other information direct from our awesome LPAC coaches. We’ve created a new “Stroke Technique” section. If you click on the Butterfly page, you’ll find general tips, official rules, and an explanation of the different drills we do during practice. We encourage both swimmers and parents to read this information, as it can help you better understand and reinforce what the coaches are teaching. We plan to expand this section with additional strokes over the next few weeks, so stay tuned!

We’ve also posted Coach Ryan’s “Penguin Briefs” from last year. Penguin Brief #3, which talks about how “Every Race Counts” in this league, is especially relevant given the close scores in our last two meets. We’ll let you know when new articles are posted here as well.

SATURDAY’S MEET: SILVER CREEK @ LPAC

This Saturday will be our last home meet of the season, against the Silver Creek Sharks. If you have to miss any part of the meet, please email the coaches NOW: coaches@swimlpac.org.

This year Silver Creek has a smaller team, so we’re hoping the meet won’t last quite as long. Check-in time will be 6:30 am, so everyone can get an extra 15 minutes of rest Saturday morning. Please be sure to check in on time, though. Swimmers have done a great job these last two weeks, and we want to keep up the good work!

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED FOR SATURDAY

Volunteer Assignments for this Saturday’s meet have been posted to the website. We do have a number of families who will be out of town this weekend, so there are still several open jobs that we need to fill:

• 1st shift: 2 timers, 1 alternate, 1 snack bar
• 2nd shift: 1 timer, 2 alternates, Runner, 1 snack bar, 1 outdoor clean up, 1 women’s bathroom & trash

Wendy Marley is out of town, so please contact Julie Waldron (jnewcomb65@yahoo.com) if you can help fill any of these positions, or if you are currently assigned to a position and will not be at the meet Saturday. Thank you!

PICTURE DAY ON WEDNESDAY (6/18)

Picture day will be this Wednesday, June 18. Please note that there will be no practices on this day. Individual photos start at8:00 am, and the team photo will be taken at 9:00 am. All swimmers should wear either the new black-and-white LPAC team suit or a plain black suit.

Your registration fee includes one individual photo, team photo, and a photo button. You can also order additional prints and/or buddy photos for an additional charge. Please bring a checkbook on Wednesday if you plan to order additional photos. See the Picture Day page of the website for more information.

BEACH TRIP FOR HIGH SCHOOL GROUP ON SATURDAY (6/21)

The annual beach-and-bonfire trip for the high school age group will be this Saturday, June 21. If you plan to go, please RSVP to Sandi Bolton (sandi.bolton@gmail.com or 408-202-9670). The cost is $8 per person, which includes hot dogs, chips, sodas, and s’mores. You can bring the money with you that day.

We need lots of parent drivers for this event, as swimmers are not allowed to drive themselves. Plan to meet at the Los Paseos Pool at 4:30 pm. See the Beach Trip page of the website for more information, including a map to Twin Lakes State Beach and a list of things to bring.

RAFT TRIP (7/5)

The river is running! Parents and penguins are invited to join in the annual team rafting trip on Saturday, July 5. Forms and payment are due by Saturday, June 28 in the “RAFT TRIP” file folder. For more information, see the Raft Trip page of the website.

CHAMPS MEALS AND CHAMPS ADS

It’s hard to believe, but Champs is only 5 weeks away, which means it’s time to get your orders in for meals and program ads.

Champs is a long, all-day meet that usually lasts until at least 4:00 pm, so you will definitely need to plan on feeding your family. There is a full snack bar, but only a limited number of meals are prepared. Place a pre-order to be sure you don’t miss out! You can order breakfast and lunch items from the BBQ snack bar or from Panera; download and print the Champs Meal Order Forms to see all your choices. Make checks payable to “LPAC” and turn in forms and payment to the “CHAMPS MEALS” file folder no later than Saturday, June 28 (at the Montevideo meet). Proceeds benefit the Valley Cabana Swim League to help offset the cost of Champs.

A great way to show support for your swimmers (and help raise some extra funds for the team) is to place an ad in the Champs program. Please see the attached Champs Ad Form, which is also due by Saturday, June 28. You can either design your own ad, or Kris Fuss can help create one for you.

COLLECT SWIM-A-THON PLEDGES!

Don’t forget…the Swim-a-Thon is coming up next Tuesday (6/24). Be sure to collect pledges from friends and family. See theSwim-a-Thon page on the website for more information.

OLYMPIC CHAMPIONS IN SANTA CLARA

You can see Michael Phelps, Missy Franklin, and other top swimming stars competing this week at the USA Swimming Arena Grand Prix meet, June 19-22 at the International Swim Center in Santa Clara. It’s an amazing chance to see Olympians in person! Find out more at usaswimming.org.

Just some quick reminders before tomorrow:

MEET CHECK-IN: 6:15 AM
Tomorrow’s meet is at home against the Belwood Dolphins. Remember, swimmers must check in with the coaches at 6:15 am. If your child is ill, please call Coach Scott at (408) 613-5126. Thank you to everyone for getting up early so we can get the meet started on time!

CHECK THE WEBSITE
Meet entries and volunteer assignments have been posted to the Belwood Meet page of the website; please check these ahead of time so you know when you’ll be swimming and working. Once we have the final meet score and results, those will also be posted.

MERCHANDISE SALE
We have some extra team merchandise as well as “vintage” LPAC items that will be available to purchase on Saturday. Be sure to get a team cap if you haven’t done so already!

DOUGHNUT BLITZ STARTS MONDAY!
The “Doughnut Blitz” attendance challenge will start on Monday (6/16), so we hope to see all of our penguins in the water Monday morning!

See you all in the morning…GO PENGUINS!

Way to go, penguins! For the first time in 11 years, LPAC has defeated the Almaden Gators. At yesterday’s meet, LPAC beat the reigning VCSL champions in both place points and improvement points, by a total score of 129.40 to 121.12. Complete meet results have been posted to the website.

NEW TEAM RECORDS

Saturday’s meet got off to a fantastic start, with our 15-18 Medley Relay team (Mackenzie Keslin, Nico Fasan, Nicole Richards, and Connor Bleeg) pulling out an exciting win — and a new team record of 1:51.66, beating the old record by more than 2 seconds. (The old record was from 2009 with Rachel Sandberg, A.J. Urias, Julia Thompson, and Adam Jasper.)
Just a few events later, Nicole Richards got back in the water and broke the 15-18 girls’ 50 yard butterfly record (another record formerly held by Coach Julia) with a great swim of :29.54.And finally, Daniela Fasan broke her own 11-12 girls’ 50 yard breaststroke record from last year with a new time of :34.54.
Congratulations, everyone!

PRACTICE TIMES CHANGE

Morning practices start tomorrow (Monday, June 9). The practice times are as follows:

• 15-18: 6:45–7:45/8:15 am*
• 12-14: 7:45–8:45/9:15 am*
• 9-11: 8:45–9:30 am
• 8 & under: 9:30–10:15 am

Swimmers who are unable to attend morning practice because of school or work commitments may attend night practices, Monday through Thursday from 8:00-9:00 pm. Swimmers must have coaches’ prior permission to attend night practices.
*Swimmers ages 12 and up have 30 minutes of dryland exercises immediately following their regular practice times on Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday mornings. Please bring running shoes on those days.

THIS WEEK AT PRACTICE

Tomorrow will be “Fun Monday,” where we’ll work on a specific skill and then play some fun pool games to celebrate our hard-fought victory over the Gators. Coach Scott will also be bringing his top hat of treats for swimmers who have had perfect (or almost perfect) attendance for the last three weeks. In addition to our usual focus on stroke technique, we’ll be working all week with swimmers who need help with diving from the blocks.

WILL YOU BE HERE ON SATURDAY?

This Saturday, June 14, we will be swimming at home against the Belwood Dolphins. If your swimmer will miss any part of the meet, the coaches need to know NOW. If you have not already done so, please send email to coaches@swimlpac.org and also notify volunteer coordinator Wendy Marley: marleywl@yahoo.com. We had great attendance for our meet against Almaden and hope we will have all our penguins on hand to defeat the Dolphins!

LOOKING FOR MORE INDIVIDUAL STROKE INSTRUCTION?

Though our LPAC coaches focus on stroke technique every day at practice, there’s only so much they can do with 30-40 kids in the pool at one time. Individual or small-group swim lessons can be a great way to improve your strokes even more. See the Swim Lessons page of the team website for suggestions and contact information.

SWIM-A-THON IS COMING SOON

Our annual team swim-a-thon fundraiser will be held on Tuesday, June 24. Go to the Swim-a-Thon page of the website to download and print the Pledge Form now so you can start collecting pledges from your family, friends, and neighbors. It’s a fun way to help raise funds for the team while challenging yourself and getting a great workout. And you can win cool prizes too!

RAFT TRIP: RESERVE YOUR HOTEL ROOM NOW

The annual team raft trip will be on Saturday, July 5. For more details, check the Raft Trip page of the website. If you plan to stay over either Friday or Saturday night, you should make hotel reservations now. Completed forms and payment are due no later than June 28.

SPEAKING OF BOATS…

Not sure what to do with all your free time now that school’s out? Maybe start working on your cardboard boat for the Penguin Regatta on Saturday, July 12! Check the Cardboard Boat Races page of the website for official rules and more information.