Hi Tiger Sharks Families --

First and foremost, great job to everyone who competed in our meet this past weekend; each and every swimmer did a fantastic job! What a surprise having Coach Harry join us on deck towards the end -- I am sure all of our swimmers were as excited as we were to see him back at "home" and so happy!

I hope to have the results from this weekend's meet posted by this evening, if not tomorrow at the latest. Ribbons will be soon to follow this week. I appreciate your patience as we roll right into the Championship meet this Saturday.

In regards to the Championship meet, I am including some important information below. Please ensure you read this in full and review the attached document - there's a lot of essential information included here that we need to get through.

1. The 2026 Polar Bear League Championship Meet will be held this coming Saturday, 2/28. Each age group will compete at a specified time - please review the information below for your swimmer(s) age group times.

• 11 & Older Swimmers: We will open the Aquatics Center at 7:15 AM for people to start entering. Fort Mill Tiger Sharks will start the first round of warm ups at 7:30 for the southern end. The meet will start at 8:30AM and is expected to have a finish time of 11ish.
• 8 & Under Swimmers: This group can plan on arriving between 11:45 and 12. We will hold southern warm ups at 12:00. Looking to start this meet at 12:45, I do not foresee it running past 2:15-2:30.

• 9 & 10 Swimmers: This group should plan on entering between 2:30 and 3PM. We will hold southern warm ups at 3:00. We will look to start NLT 3:45. This is our smallest group, if we can get going a few minutes earlier, we will try. This meet should finish 5-5:15PM. We will take care to not run too fast if the swimmers are having to turn around from one event to the other.

2. The Harris YMCA has placed a spectator limit on all age groups of the Championship meet this weekend. From Coach David: "There are capacity restrictions within our building. The first two sessions of the meet could have in excess of 180 swimmers per session. Add in coaches, lifeguards and spectators, we start getting a huge crowd. The limit will be 2 spectators per family at the meet and please try not to bring non-swimming siblings (siblings who are swimming in different sessions are welcome)." This is for everyone's safety at the meet in the event of an emergency and to ensure we stay within the fire code limits.

3. Given that we lost an entire meet due to the crazy winter weather in January, we would like to take as many swimmers as we can to the Championship meet. However, your swimmer MUST have swam in at least one (1) swim meet in order to qualify for participation in this meet. The Coaches and I will be reviewing each swimmer's attendance and will be enforcing this strictly. If your swimmer has not participated in any meets this season, they will NOT be eligible to swim in the Championship meet.

Further, in an attempt to mitigate the amount of "No-Show" swimmers we have had over the last three meets, you will be required to complete the RSVP form at the attached link ( https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C084EA9AD28A7FCC52-62547320-championship ). You will not be able to select your swimmer's event, you are only selecting whether or not your swimmer will attend the Championship meet. Please include your swimmer(s) name in the comment section - this is imperative for accurate attendance counts. This must filled out and submitted NO LATER THAN 12:00 pm WEDNESDAY 2/25 in order for your swimmer to compete in the meet.

4. Snacks will NOT be permitted inside the pool area or on deck, unless medically necessary. This includes swimmers, spectators, siblings, and parents alike -- the Harris YMCA lifeguards will be strictly enforcing this. Drinks are of course permitted, however please do not send any glass or ceramic bottles that can easily break. Please see the attached document for further information.

5. Limited volunteer opportunities will be available for this meet -- I'll update soon on what those will look like, how many slots we'll need, etc.

I know this was a long one - thank you for reading this far! As always, please don't hesitate to reach out if you have any questions, comments, or concerns. See you all poolside tomorrow!

Coach Taryn