Can you believe that this Saturday is our last regular meet with Divisionals next week? Once we got over the beginning bumps last Saturday, everything seemed to go smoothly. I’ve gotten a new Mike and cord and they will be tested tomorrow. Let’s hope for the best.

This Friday I think we’ll continue as last Friday with the Pasta Dinner at 5:30 followed by games for the children while we parents get the pool ready for Saturday’s meet.

We’ll have ice cream after the meet Saturday, so the parents can help put the pool back together afterward. I’d like as many of you as possible to help in this effort as it can be a daunting task when only two or three do it. But when we all lend a hand, it can go pretty fast. I believe that it can take less than an hour when we all pitch in, and no one gets too frazzled.

On another note, Monday, July 24th is the Annual IM Invitational at Mount Vernon Park.

The Individual Medley (IM) Invitational Meet [©Charles C. Chadbourn, III] was established in 1987 with a field of six teams participating.  This meet is now the largest IM invitational meet in the NVSL with over 420 swimmers participating!  For the first fourteen years of its existence the meet was held at Hollin Meadows, but as the meet expanded in size and grew in popularity a new venue was necessary.  For the next five years the meet was held at centrally-located Little Hunting Park, one of the twelve charter pools of the NVSL.  In 2006 and again in 2007 the meet will be at Mount Vernon Park.  The concept of this meet is to bring together neighborhood pools from the Greater Mount Vernon Area for an evening of competitive swimming involving events normally swum only at NVSL Divisional Individual Championships and All Stars: the 100 meter Individual Medley (IM) plus the 8 and Under 25 meter Butterfly.  Five teams - Hollin Meadows, Pinewood Lake, Riverside Gardens, Stratford and Waynewood - have participated every year since the meet began.  In 1998 the meet was expanded to twelve teams, and we now have fourteen teams competing.  Teams are divided into three divisions based on their NVSL seeding.  Team trophies are awarded in each of the three divisions. 

I encourage everyone to try and attend to cheer our team mates on. The only problem is that parking is very limited and the surrounding community can’t contain any overflow. There will, however, be satellite parking at the Hollin Hills Senior Center with a shuttle going to and from the event all evening.

I have not yet gotten the warm up schedule but the swimmers may need to be at the pool as early as 3PM.  Please let me know if anyone is going to need a ride and I’ll make any arrangements that I can. There will be plenty of concessions being sold, so bring your wallets and come and cheer for our team! Directions to Mount Vernon Park are attached.