I received some great news this morning that will have a wonderful impact on our practice schedule when we begin our fall/winter season at Asbury in September. On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, Asbury was able to bump us up one hour, which is fantastic in my opinion. Personally, I am thrilled with this schedule, since I will be able to coach both groups every day. Listed below is what our practice schedule will look like, but please keep in mind that there is also a great possibility that all of our afternoon practice times will move up 15 minutes, which could be even better. But for now, you can plan on something like this (all times are p.m. unless noted):

Notes about this practice schedule:

*12 & under parents, don’t freak out when you see a practice time listed on all six days. For most 10 & unders, I will recommend choosing possibly three of these, maybe four if your swimmer is somewhat experienced. For 11-12’s four practices per week is usually pretty solid, 5 if you are a little more dedicated. But basically, my approach has always been the same: we all pay the same monthly fee and you come as often or as little as you’d like. There are some rabid 13 & overs who will literally have 8 or 9 workouts/week, and that’s great, but it’s all optional.

*I will once again be able to offer a morning workout lane or two for the adults, for those who might be interested in swimming early on Tuesday and Thursday mornings! I will help you, if you’d like.

*Once in a while, whenever the Asbury college team has a home meet, we may get bumped from a Friday or Saturday practice, but you will get a notice about this. And, if and when we’re able to have meets again, we’ll usually always cancel the Friday and Saturday workouts during that meet weekend.

In the next couple of days, I will send out another newsletter giving many more details, and what events each swimmer will be in, for our little upcoming meet at Winchester County Club against Swimchester on Saturday morning, August 29th. Practically our entire summer group is participating, so thanks for signing up for this event. I do think it will be a good thing for all of us, and a great way to finish up our “summer” season. Warm-ups will probably be at about 7:30, but I’ll let you know for sure in the next newsletter. But PLEASE make sure that all of you have registered as a USA swimming member. There is a $20 option that all those who have never been a USA member should choose. You will need to go to the KY website, fill out a registration form and email it to Maureen and then send her your payment. The team will be “HA.” And, for all of those who “unattached” from KYA, it is time that you attach now to HA. All you “unattached” people need to do is to text Maureen at 859-539-9091 and say to have your child(ren) now attached to HA. When you do this, please use the full name, or usually the first name and middle initial and last name. Please take care of this asap.

I have set up a team account with Swimville (in Louisville) for Highbridge Aquatics. For suits, kickboards, pull buoys, paddles, etc…, you will get a team discount if you order these thru Swimville and I do recommend using Swimville. Our team suit is any brand of a solid ROYAL blue suit. Swimville currently has Speedos in this color, but you are certainly welcome to buy a TYR, Dolfin, Nike, any brand that you’d like, from anywhere, as long as it’s solid royal blue. Now, for our swim meet, I’d like as many swimmers as possible to wear our team suit, but I’m not going to enforce this for those who do not want to buy a suit just for this Aug. 29th meet. But, if you’re planning to swim this fall/winter season, our team suit will always stay the same, so it won’t hurt to go ahead and get one sooner than later. Or, I’m sure there are some “veterans” on the team who may have some hand-me-downs that you could use for now. And, for those who are hesitant to probably ask me, NO tech suits for this upcoming meet – just the royal blue team suits!

For this upcoming swim meet, we will be wearing yellow HA caps, and I will be “enforcing” this. Latex caps are $5, and the silicone caps are $10. Beginning Thursday, I will have a bag of caps at practice and you’re welcome to buy them then. I’ll also have license plates (no charge), HA car stickers (no charge), and some HA cups and pens (no charge) for those who still need them. It’s time to Highbridge up! The car stickers look great, so let’s get them on your cars.

I realize that many of you will actually be starting school soon. If it’s online, then maybe our practice schedule will still work for you. But if you’re actually going back to school, the actual building, then I realize that our morning schedule may not work. But our last summer morning practice is Friday, August 28th, so we’ll just have to do the best we can for the next week and a half.

Even though the Barbasol golf tournament was canceled this summer, the PGA is still doing work now for next year. Today, they are pouring concrete and finishing the entire floor in the barn back on my property. This will be nice for our annual HA Halloween Party! I notice that Halloween this year is actually on a Saturday, October 31st, which probably means that our party may have to be the following Saturday, November 7th. For new HA members, we throw a great Halloween party each year. The 12 & unders go thru the haunted barn, the spooky trails, and take a haunted hayride, and all of the 13 & overs are my workers. Since we’re back to being a smaller team again, I’ll probably need several dads to help and to be “characters,” so plan on that, please.

Happy Birthday this coming Saturday to Cooper Downey. Cooper turns 14 this Saturday, which is actually a great swimming birthday. It’s nice to know he’ll still be in the 13-14 age group for the next year.

Special thanks to Bobby Livesay for putting together a newsletter which can be found HERE.

Go HA.
Chris