I cannot tell you how many times I get complimented for the way we run a swim meet. Of course, the reason why I can accept these compliments is because of the number of parents that choose to volunteer at nearly every event Seton Swimming has. It also amazes some people that this entire program is run by volunteers – from the Team President (Mr. Cook) to all of the coaches, officials, timers, announcers and scorers, to the apparel coordinator and deck mom (Mrs. Zapiain), to the team treasurer (Mr. Corkery). It is a truly wonderful thing about Seton. Once again, we will be hosting three big post season meets that will require lots of parents. If you’ve paid attention to everything we do in Seton Swimming, then you’ve probably figured out that $125 per kid doesn’t nearly cover it. These three meets are our major fundraisers for the year:
- Saturday, January 24th – Junior Varsity Invitational at the WARF
- Saturday, January 31st – Seton Swimming Invitational at Freedom
- Friday and Saturday, February 13-14th – VSIS State Championship at Freedom
The January 31st meet will present some unique challenges because it coincides with the National Catholic High School Championships (they changed the meet date on me) and many of our normal volunteers will be up there. Mr. Cook and I are staying down here for the meet and Saturday and then going up to Villanova that night. We will need lots of help for that meet, so please step forward when you see the call for volunteers.
One key volunteer we will need for our January 31st invitational is a concessions coordinator. Concessions can be a big money maker for us, but we need someone to take charge.
Once again we are hosting the Virginia State Championship Meet. As my father used to say, this will be an “all-hands evolution”. We have 50 families in Seton swimming and 42 of them have volunteered regularly this season – pretty good, but not good enough. For the State Meet, I am looking forward to 100% participation.
States is a two day meet with preliminaries in the morning and finals in the evening. Those four sessions have about 500 swimmers, many with parents and siblings, who are willing to pay for food and drinks.
Carol Doonis has graciously volunteered to take charge of the concession effort. This is a big job, but it will be much easier if every family helps. I have given her a list with every family name and that family’s history of volunteerism for Seton Swimming. I have asked her to make assignments to every family that is not otherwise involved in running the meet. She’ll most likely be asking all of you for two things:
- Specific donations of food and/or drinks
- To work one or more time slots at the concession stand
I realize that everyone is busy – many of us have lots of kids, challenging jobs, other volunteer responsibilities at Seton, and the inevitable conflicts with other important things. I hope I can count on all of you to respond enthusiastically to Carol Doonis’ upcoming request. We have quite a good thing going here with Seton Swimming. It is up to all of us to help perpetuate it for today’s swimmers and tomorrow’s.
Coach Koehr