2022 Fall Fest Preview
Friday, September 9nd
2022 Fall Fest Preview
Friday, September 9nd
September 12-18th
Brentwood
No practices 9/16-17
Gallatin
No practices 9/16-17
Longview
No practices 9/16-17
Murfreesboro
No practices 9/16-17
September 19-25th
Brentwood
Normal practice schedule
Gallatin
Normal practice schedule
Longview
Normal practice schedule
Murfreesboro
Normal practice schedule
September 26-October 2nd
Brentwood
Normal practice schedule
Gallatin
Normal practice schedule
Longview
Normal practice schedule
Murfreesboro
Normal practice schedule
We are one week away from our first meet of the season and it promises to be an exciting one. Although we're early in the season, we expect to see fast swimming, new qualifying times and perhaps even some new team records.
Things to watch next weekend:
SES Qualifying Times- Many of our younger swimmers who qualified for the Long Course SES Championships will have to re-qualify for the Short Course meet using yard times. This should mean as many as 40-50 new qualifiers.
IMX Challenge- Fall Fest has a unique contest within the format that encourages our swimmers to compete in all the IMX events. The winners of all 5 (or 6) events combined will earn a T-shirt.
New swimmers- We have an influx of news swimmers at all ages and many of them are in swimming in their first meet. Keep an eye on our new talent to see what the rest of the season has in store for us!
Announcements
The inaugural season of the Excel Mentor Program was last season and it was a great success. We would once again like to match our more experienced swimmers up with our youngest incoming swimmers to help welcome them to the Excel family. In order to make this program work we need our older, more experienced swimmers to volunteer to be paired up with one of our new young swimmers. If your swimmer is 9 or older, has been a member of Excel Aquatics for at least one year, and would like to connect with a young incoming swimmer then please consider getting involved.
"What does this entail? " you may ask. It's fairly simple really. You just provide support and encouragement in the form of notes and small gifts in their folders before meets. There is a cap exchange at Christmas time. The mentors found this very rewarding last year and the younger swimmers were so excited to come in and check their folders for stuff.
"How do I get involved?" you ask. Complete the Google form linked below. Also, if you are interested in helping to organize this program, please email me at coachdaun@excelaquatics.org. I have one parent committed to help, but she would like some help in managing the program.
Excel Aquatics offers a few different awards programs for our swimmers over the course of the short course season. These all designed to incentivize improvement in a few different areas and our coaches will be emphasizing them in practice. In fact, the running totals will appear as the last page of every one of our Excel Extras starting in 2 weeks! Here's what to look for:
IM Tough- This award is for 10 and under swimmers. To win an IM Tough award, 8 and under swimmers must complete a 50 Fly, 50 Back, 50 Breast, 200 Free and 200 IM by the end of the season. 9 and 10 year old swimmers need to complete the 100 Fly, 100 Back, 100 Breast, 200 Free and 200 IM.
Heat Winner- This award goes to the 3 swimmers in each age group who win the most heats over the course of a season. This award emphasizes those swimmers who swim all the meets, improve over the season and race hard! Remember that heats are designed to place the same speed swimmers together so every swimmer has a chance to win the Heat Winner award.
IM Hall of Fame- This is perhaps our most difficult award to achieve as it will go to any swimmer who can achieve a short course SES A cut in EVERY EVENT.
All of our parent volunteers play a vital role in hosting meets. We simply could not host meets in your absence. While most jobs take little training or experience, meet officials go through an educational and training process that enables them to help officiate at all meets. In fact, our own Excel officials have outnumbered the host team officials in both our first two meets. We are very grateful to our officiating crew but are always looking for new members. Meet officials
Ensure a safe and fair competition for all our athletes
Satisfy all their volunteer requirements
Have the best seat in the pool
Have access to hospitality
If you have any interest in becoming a USA Swimming Certified official, please contact Coach Benji at coachbenji@excelaquatics.org
Our Brentwood and Longview sites are currently in need of swim instructors and our Brentwood site is in need of Lifeguards who are at least 15 years old. Both are great ways to give back to the Excel Family while also earning a little extra money. If you are interesting in learning more, please email: coachbenji@excelaquatics.org
September 11th- Fall Fest Entry Deadline (we have extended since the filming the Weekly Update to accommodate the number new families).
September 16-18th- Fall Fest
Our Weekly Update for 9-9-22 has been released so check it out! You may have noticed that we are receiving intros from a wide variety of sources. SEC Champions, officials, swim moms and vendors are just some of the folks who have made an appearance. If you are traveling and want to send us an intro from a unique location, we'll be sure to include it. Interested in seeing where they all come from so far? Check out Excel Aquatics from around the world below!