Happy First Week of Practices Gators!

This season is off to a great start and I'm so glad the weather has cooperated with us! We hope to always keep you well-informed here at Gulfwood, so this is the first of many updates for the season!

In this email you will find all of the important information for our team for the upcoming week including meet RSVPs for our TailGators Swim Meet, volunteer sign-ups, the start to our Little Gator Swim School and our parent meeting recap. If you have any questions, please let us know!

Our first meet of the season is a week from today! The TailGators Intrasquad meet will be next Thursday (6/4/26). This is for all competitive team swimmers. Little Gator swimmers are not eligible to participate in this first meet (They will get to swim at our next home meet if they want to!) The meet will begin at 6:00pm and we will warm up as a team at 5:30pm. Plan to arrive to Gulfwood Pool no later than 5:15 PM on Thursday (earlier if you want to set up your tailgate!) 

Our TailGators meet will be a short practice meet for just our team! Parents, we'd love to have you come early and set up a fun tailgate before warmups! This meet will be a great time to get to know each other and learn how swim meets work. There will only be individual events in Freestyle, Backstroke, Breaststroke, and Butterfly (no IM's). And we will end the meet with mixed Freestyle relays.

Volunteers: 

<> SWIMMER RSVP - OPEN- CLOSES Tuesday (6/2/26 @ 7pm)

<> VOLUNTEER SIGN UP - OPEN - CLOSES Wednesday (6/3/26 @ 10pm)

This is the most vital part of putting together a swim meet. Please make sure you follow the RSVP instructions below to commit or decline your swimmer's attendance at EACH swim meet. It is extremely important that every swimmer (even Little Gators) have a commitment for our swim meets. Please RSVP for the TailGators Meet by Tuesday 6/2!

To RSVP your swimmer:

1. Log-in to the website with your username and password you established
2. Click "2026 Schedule" tab
3. Go to target meet & click green "Meet Entry"
4. You swimmer(s) names will be listed on next page. Click yellow "Edit" button.
5. Add any notes you wish the coaches to see - (i.e. James wants to swim the 25 butterfly)
6. From drop down menu select either "Attending" or "Not Attending". Click yellow "Save."

Volunteer positions for the TailGators Meet are now posted and live on the website and will close on Wednesday evening at 10:00pm. All families who are attending must volunteer to work a shift. If you are interested in a position but are unsure of what is expected we will teach you the positions and requirements! Stroke and Turn & Computer Data Entry must have proper certifications (S&T) or previous experience in the role (data entry). If you are interested in data entry and would like to shadow during a portion of this meet please let us know. If you are interested in Stroke and Turn officiating, please contact Steve Neal at: [email protected]

To sign up for volunteer shifts:

1. Log-in to the website with your username and password you established
2. Click "2026 Schedule" tab
3. Go to target meet& click green"Job Sign-Up"
4. Your (parents) names will be listed on next page. Click yellow "Sign Up for Jobs" button for the desired parent.
5. Select the job you wish to sign up for. They are broken into shifts.
6. Click yellow "Save Assignments."

Little Gator Swim School -

Our first session of our Little Gator Swim School is next Tuesday (6/2/26) at 10:45am! We are so excited to get this program up and running for our swimmers.

Our Little Gator program runs each Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday from 10:45-11:15am and will conclude with an end of season party on Thursday, July 16.

Little Gator Parent meeting - we will have a parent meeting for Little Gator parents on Tuesday morning (6/2/26) at 10:45am to answer any questions and go over our program!

Information from our 2026 Parent Meetings is posted here. Each family is responsible for understanding the information provided in the packet. Please let us know if you have any questions!

Thank you for reading all of that. If you have any questions please let us know!

Coach Joy