Hello Sharks! 

This is a bit long, but it is an important message from your friendly team rep (Kat) about some issues I'd like us to work together to fix/prevent. It takes a great amount of support and cooperation from ALL Sharks to make the swim season a success. I need your help!

First, I'd like to address something very serious. When you registered your swimmer/family and joined the Sharks team, you signed a behavior/conduct contract. In this, expectations were detailed about swimmer and guest behavior. Unfortunately, over the course of this season as your Team Rep and the Division Rep for all of our competing teams, I have dealt with several serious behavior issues -  from unkind words all the way up to property damage and physical altercations. This is across all 6 teams, but our team has had its share.

I am asking you to speak to your swimmers right now about the importance of appropriate conduct, respectful behavior and sportsmanship. Remind them to stay quiet if they can't be kind. Remind them to KEEP THEIR HANDS TO THEMSELVES. Remind them that using bad words is absolutely unacceptable. Remind them that making messes, moving, and damaging things that don't belong to them is a serious offense. Remind them that being a kind and supportive teammate is incredibly important.

Tell them that involving an adult is the best solution in a tough situation.

Most of all: encourage them to treat others as they would like to be treated. :) 

Being a part of an amazing team experience like this is such a great privilege that we all share. When these things happen, it damages the experience for many involved, including our young kids.  Future behavior issues or unsportsmanlike conduct will not be tolerated. These issues will lead to disqualification from swim meets, suspension from future team practices/activities, or even removal from the Sharks team entirely. I am considering this email the final warning to everyone.

Last, I'd like to respectfully remind our amazing volunteers of a few things. Timers and scribes have an incredibly important job in this sport. This job cannot be done if the volunteer is not where they should be. Please make sure you are staying in your assigned lane, and giving your focus to the swimmer in front of you. Verify swimmer names when possible, so that we can be sure times are recorded correctly. Please do not leave your post without proper relief, as this causes meet delays and lost results. You certainly wouldn't want this happening to your own hard-working swimmers, so please give the courtesy of your attention to every swimmer in your lane. Also: PLEASE make sure clipboards and time sheets are turned in TO COMPUTERS and stopwatches/lanyards returned to Nora, our amazing volunteer coordinator. This last week's meet was delayed (by volunteers from both teams) because result sheets were incorrect, or set in random places instead of being turned in. Let's make sure our efforts reflect our passion!!

Thank you to everyone for reading this communication. I know the Sharks family is FANTASTIC and we all want summer swim to be a fun, uplifting, POSITIVE experience for our families. I appreciate everyone and love volunteering with you and all your amazing kids. Please feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions/concerns. Have a great day, and GO SHARKS!!! 

Katherine Henderson

Sharks Team Rep

832-353-9157