Happy Friday Laser Family!

It’s been a busy week, with our abbreviated B meet at Plantations on Wednesday, the exciting B relays at home last night, and Lasermania underway at the pool as I type this!

We hope to see you in the community room at 6:30 PM tonight for our weekly team building event, our pasta potluck dinner. Be sure to sign up to bring a large dish to share!

Tomorrow morning’s meet is AWAY at Long Branch (8700 Piney Branch Road, Silver Spring 20901).

Parking information from Long Branch:

Parking is available in the pool lot in any space not bearing a restricted designation (pool staff, handicap, fire lane, no parking etc.). Please ask your team to ensure they are not parking in a restricted spot or in the circle outside the community center because they may be towed if they do so. There is heavy Purple Line construction on Piney Branch Rd outside the pool entrance. We recommend using the University Ave exit off 495 to access the pool parking lot as it avoids the bulk of the Purple Line confusion and provides an easy right turn into the lot.

The parking lot is large and should be sufficient for both teams, but if anyone cannot find a spot there, additional parking is available in the Long Branch Library lot off Garland Avenue (accessed via Plymouth Ave on Flower Ave), as well as in the neighborhood behind the library along Wayne Ave and Garland Ave. There is a path with a footbridge connecting the pool and library (#4 in the image below). It takes just a couple minutes to walk between the two.

I suggest you carpool to minimize any parking hassles!

Our spirit theme is Superheroes! Our warm up begins promptly at 8:20 AM, so please arrive no later than 8:00 AM so swimmers have time to check in with their age level coach and be in the water on time.

• 15-18, 13-14, & 11-12: Coach Nick
• 9-10 & 8 and under: Coach Rachel

As a reminder, Coach Nick made the relay teams ahead of time to give swimmers and parents an idea of who will be swimming. However, relay teams at the A meet are dependent on how well swimmers swim and are subject to change up until the time of the relay. This means that once again, you must check with Coach Nick before leaving the meet.

Volunteers, here is the timeline before the meet begins.

• 8:15: Officials Briefing
• 8:25: Timer Briefing
• 8:45: Scratch meeting

From Long Branch…

The National Anthem will be played shortly after the scratch meeting adjourns, and we would like to start the meet shortly thereafter, so likely a few minutes before 9 am. We ask this because we are a public pool, and the county requires us to finish our meets by 11:45 to allow pool staff to prepare to open to the public at noon. Thank you for your help!

We will be recognizing our six graduating swimmers and giving short speeches about them during the halftime break as this is their final home meet as Water Wizards. This may extend our break by 5 or so minutes.

Team Area: Your team area is located at the far end of the pool behind the heat chairs. This area is the large grassy area straight back when you walk in, closest to the Long Branch Community Center and library footpath. We will have some chairs available for your team, but we recommend your team bring additional chairs as well as canopies if it is sunny as there is not much in the way of shade at the pool. The area is quite large so you should have ample room to spread out and put up several tents if you wish.

Concessions: We will have an assortment of prepared concessions available on Saturday--donuts, breakfast sandwiches, fruit, breakfast bars/granola bars, candy, coffee, and cold water/gatorade/soda. Our concessions accepts cash, PayPal, and Zelle.

I will send the meet program later today, once I receive it. Print out a family copy and/or review it with your swimmers so they know the events/heats/lanes they are in.

Our team lunch after the meet will be at Habit Burger, back up our way at 464 N Frederick Ave, Gaithersburg, MD 20877. You can order once you arrive or order online on your way. At lunch, the coaching staff will hand out ribbons and we will find out who will be awarded the Saturday spirit awards. We hope you can join us!

Let’s swim fast and have fun tomorrow morning at our final dual meet of the season! Go Lasers!

Daria