Entries are now open for the LAST regular YMCA meet of the season, the 2024 Flint Ottertastic 50s Meet. This is a one-day meet being held at Brandon High School in Ortonville, MI on Sunday, February 4th. Entry deadline is this Sunday, January 28 at 8pm (please pay close attention with the Indy meet occurring this weekend!). Late entries can not be accepted.

This meet is optional for those swimmers who have met their 3 YMCA meet requirement. For those swimmers who still need one more meet to qualify for championship season (Y Clusters, Y States, Y Zones and Y Nationals), this is their last chance and if they do not compete at this meet their season will be done. A separate email will be sent shortly to remind those swimmers who still need one more meet.

Here and on the BBD website is the 2023 Flint Ottertastic 50s meet packet which can also be found in the Documents section under Links in the navigation:
https://bbd.bbdswimming.com/clubs/6769/documents/562630

As always, if you have any unpaid meet fees from previous meets, those must be paid and you must email bbdentries@gmail.com to notify us of them being paid in order for your swimmer’s entries to be available

UPDATE from the host team:

Hello All,

Lake Orion School District has informed us that all activities at the school will be closed for tomorrow. This means that the Saturday session will be unfortunately canceled.

Our Sunday session is unaffected, and we will plan to run the session. Our plan will be to move the Saturday distance session to Sunday, we are awaiting approval from MI Swimming on this item.

We will be removing all Saturday entries from the meet, without any penalty.

We will be planning to take deck entries on Sunday if any of your families need to pivot because of the change.

Entries are now open for the 2024 OLY Michigan Open being held at Oakland University on February 9-11, 2024. This is an optional meet for any 13&up swimmer who is qualified, any qualified events are available in the Parent Portal for selection if your child plans to attend. This meet is also optional and open for experienced 9-12 swimmers, however you MUST have coaches permission to swim and it is recommended by the coaches that you only attend to swim an event that is not offered at YMCA Clusters (meet is not yet open for entry). The Michigan Open is a USA-S meet, not YMCA, and therefore does not count towards your YMCA requirement. Your child is REQUIRED to swim at least one day at YMCA Clusters, which is the same weekend as this meet! The entry deadline is next week Thursday, January 11 at 8pm. Late entries will not be accepted!

As noted in Kevin’s weekly email, “13/14 and 15/18 swimmers may opt to swim one day at Clusters and then the others at the Michigan Open. 9/10 and 11/12 swimmers may only attend the Michigan Open to swim an event not offered at Clusters and with a coach’s permission”.

The Michigan Open is a timed finals Friday meet and prelims/finals Saturday and Sunday meet for the OPEN events (age 13&up). 12&under is Timed Finals for all sessions. Please review the meet packet fully as all details pertaining to the meet are in the meet packet, including events and qualifying times.

Attached below is the 2024 OLY Michigan Open meet packet for your review:
https://bbd.bbdswimming.com/clubs/6769/documents/562295

Dear Swimmers and Parents,

Happy New Year!
Thank you to all of you who thought of the coaches this holiday season. Your generosity is very much appreciated and affirming!

Please take time to read this missive carefully. The season is stepping up into high gear in the next few weeks and then into a very busy championship season.

Practice changes:

Friday morning practice returns 6:00-7:15 at the Y for 13/14 and 15/18 swimmers.

Friday, January 5th
We will combine 9/10 and 11/12 at Cranbrook this Friday. No Derby.

Sunday, January 7th
No Sunday practices at Groves because of the meet.

Flint Meets;

This weekend Flint is our host. The Flint team also added a meet at the end of the month. I am very grateful for that because it will allow some of our wayward swimmers to swim their third meet and be eligible for championship meets. The Flint team lost their head coach rather abruptly at the end of November and several of their leading families left. We have pledged to help them in any way possible through this challenging time, so if you arrive at the meet and they are appealing for timers, please volunteer. I will really appreciate your support.

Championship Meets;

For the most part, championship meets are required. Please make sure you are communicating with us if there is a conflict because non-attendance puts future participation on the team in jeopardy.

February 9-11 is our first championship meet, the YMCA Eastern Cluster Meet. It is required for all swimmers. There are no time standards for this meet. If any nine and up swimmers have not met their three-meet requirement, this marks the end of the season for them. This same weekend is the Michigan Open. 13/14 and 15/18 swimmers may opt to swim one day at Clusters and then the others at the Michigan Open. 9/10 and 11/12 swimmers may only attend the Michigan Open to swim an event not offered at Clusters and with a coach’s permission.

February 24 is the YMCA Eight and Under State Meet at Traverse City. This is a required meet for all eight and under swimmers and the culmination of their season unless they have qualified as a 10-and-under for other championships. Even though we do not have all of the details about the time, the warm-up will likely be mid-morning.

March 2-3 is the YMCA State Meet at Saginaw Valley hosted by BBD. This is a required meet for all qualifiers except high school boys. Swimmers will have bonus events if they have only qualified in one event. Parents of qualified swimmers are expected to volunteer at this meet.

March 9-10 is US MAGS for 10 and unders at Holt High School. This is a new meet this year as US Swimming has broken the 9/10s apart from the 11-14 swimmers. This is a US Meet so a swimmer’s age the first day of competition decides their age group.

March 15-17 Is YMCA Great Lakes Zone Meet at Canton,Ohio and US MAGS Meet at Holland Aquatic Center. This is where it gets tricky. I hate that we have a conflict between the two meets. The YMCA Great Lakes Zone Meet is a competition among five states where we are the traditional champion. The US MAGS Meet is a relatively new competition where we have fared well also. Generally speaking, those swimmers who have aged up for US competition will attend the Zone Meet; we’d like the rest of the qualifiers at the MAGS meet. We won’t break up families (unless you want us to….) We will not require 9/10s who already swam at the US Meet on March 9th to go to Zones, but you know we want you there!

BBD is a developmental swimming program. As coaches we are always looking for the next opportunity to improve and be successful and all of our decisions have that as a premise. There is nothing easy or convenient about age-group swimming. Everyone, swimmers, parents, coaches make sacrifices by giving so much of their time to the sport—but we think it is worth it!. During the championship season, we will witness our swimmers taking big steps forward in their evolution

Thanks for reading!!

Kevin

BBD will host the YMCA 9 and Up State Meet on March 2nd and 3rd at Saginaw Valley State University. This is a meet for swimmers who are ages 9 and Up who have achieved at least one qualifying time. We sometimes have a small number of 8 and Unders who qualify as well. Please check the website for qualifying times (under Time Standards & Records).

This meet is a large undertaking for our team and will require parents of participating swimmers to volunteer. In the new year we will be sending a Sign-Up Genius at which time you will be able to select your volunteer slot. At this time we are looking for parents to head-up two critical volunteer roles at the meet. We are hoping to find parents who are interested in taking on Hospitality Coordinator and Marshaling Coordinator. While experience in these areas is helpful, it is not required. Following is a brief description of each:

Hospitality Coordinator – Manage all aspects of Hospitality function including shopping for, prepping food, and transporting to the meet setting up and break down the hospitality room, supervising all hospitality room. Hospitality is responsible for providing food and beverages for Coaches, Officials and key meet volunteers, as well as serving beverages to volunteers who are working on the pool deck.

Marshaling Coordinator – Manage all aspects of the Marshaling function including setting up the marshaling area and supervising volunteers. Marshaling is responsible for interacting with swimmers and helping them to find their heat and lane assignments before their races and get swimmers to their places for the awards presentations. This is a critical meet function and precise execution in the marshaling area is key to running an efficient swim meet. Knowledge of swimming and experience with swim meets is very helpful for this role.

If you are interested in either of these roles and available to do them on March 2nd and 3rd, please fill out and submit the Google form (link below). We will contact you after the new year to follow up. Again, a full volunteer sign-up genius will be sent out closer to the meet for other meet positions.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfxZyjgo1jva_JvEwr_QBV69ScZKKPADlo4ryQGcKivjir9Yw/viewform

Thank you!

BBD Boosters Board