Purple Code  

As we begin a new swim season, we have an opportunity to decide who we want to be—not only as swimmers and coaches, but also as teammates and people. We each get to make that decision for ourselves, no one else can make it for us. This season, the Purple CODE will guide how we train, compete, respond to challenges, and support one another.
Character means doing what is right, even when no one is watching.
Ownership means taking responsibility for our choices, effort, attitude, and actions—and learning and growing when we fall short.
Discipline means doing the right things consistently, trusting the process, and understanding that improvement is earned over time.
Encouragement means lifting others up, celebrating our teammates, and making sure no one on our team feels alone.
The Purple CODE is about more than swimming fast. It represents the kind of athletes, teammates, and people we want to develop throughout YOTA. Each of us has a role in bringing it to life every day in practice, at meets, and throughout our community This season, we move forward as One Team, Unified in Our Commitment to live the Purple CODE and become our best selves—in the pool and in life.

USA Swimming Registration

The YOTA Swim Team is both a registered YMCA Swimming team and a USA Swimming team. YOTA Swimmers are automatically registered with YMCA Swimming through team registration, but USA Swimming registration is a separate process. All YOTA swimmers are required to register with USA Swimming as a premium athlete for the 2026-2027 season through one of the following steps below:
  • If your swimmer was registered with USA Swimming through YOTA last year, please go to their member dashboard and click renew. 
  • If your swimmer is new to USA Swimming, please register them using this YOTA specific link. 
  • If your swimmer receives free or reduced lunches at school or utilizes YMCA scholarship funds, please register using this YOTA specific outreach link. After registration, please send verification from your swimmer’s school or the Y to your Site Director.
  • If your swimmer was registered with a different USA Swimming team last year, please go to their member dashboard > locate ‘Club Transfer’ > select current team and click ‘Initiate Transfer’ > New Club is: YMCA of the Triangle Area Swim Team > Fill in athlete name and submit transfer.

Swim Meet Volunteers & Officials

The start of every new season brings new experiences for both our swimmers and our YOTA parents. One of the most important things that YOTA parents do throughout the year is volunteer at our many meets - especially the meets that we host as a team. We cannot run meets without volunteers so having a team full of parents who step up to contribute to these events is crucial.
We know it can be nerve wracking for many parents to volunteer at first since many are scared to mess up or negatively impact a swimmer’s race or experience. Please do not let this fear stop you! Once you start volunteering, you will quickly learn from our family of volunteers and each experience will give you more confidence to volunteer more in the future. In an effort to help ease some worries headed into our first meet, we have provided some descriptions of common volunteer positions below:
  • Timers: time the swimmers during races. You are the back-up to the timing system. We will train you!
  • Runners: work with the meet admin team during the meet, post results, get back-up times from timers when needed, help bring snacks and drinks to stationary meet workers
  • Computer: help process the results (requires some training) - if you work with computers and know a little about swimming it is easy to pick up
  • Hospitality: we provide snacks and meals for meet volunteers - this position helps organize the hospitality room and brings snacks and drinks to coaches, timers and meet admin
  • Meet Marshalls: monitor the pool deck to ensure that it remains a safe and clean environment
  • Bullpen/Kid Pushers: organize the swimmers in each heat in their lane order before sending them behind the blocks
  • Officials: this position requires training through USA swimming. Sign up to start the training process HERE and view this helpful flyer!

    Ready to get started? Our YOTA Intrasquad meet serves as a practice meet for our young swimmers and is a great opportunity to practice volunteering as well. Sign up to volunteer at our YOTA Intrasquad Meet HERE! 

Parent T-Shirts

Parents, this is your opportunity to purchase your own YOTA Purple CODE shirt. If you are interested in matching your swimmer(s) this year, please check out the following links: Shirts | XXL Shirts. As a reminder, you can access our team store (U: YOTA P: Swim) all year for additional swag for you and your swimmer(s).

We have a lot to Celebrate!

  • SafeSport Recognition Renewal: YOTA has once again received Safe Sport Recognized Club status through USA Swimming! Thank you to our athletes, parents, and coaches who helped us with this amazing accomplishment!
  • Epic Stats: YOTA’s team average improvement rate was 6% for the 2025-2026 season, placing #1 in the State (NC average: 5.2%) and #33 in the Nation (USA average: 5.5%) among XL teams. Additionally, 62% of YOTA swimmers achieved a ‘BB’ standard or higher (NC average: 52% USA average: 52%) and 46% of YOTA swimmers achieved a ‘A’ standard or higher (NC average 32% USA average: 33%). Well done, YOTA!
  • NCS All Starts: Congrats to Payton McNutt for being named an NCS All Star!
  • 2026 Carolina Cup: Shoutout to Brady Houtz, Lee Lowther, Payton McNutt, Anna Muttillo and Keenan Olson who represented YOTA at the 2026 Carolina Cup on September 12! We are so proud of these swimmers for taking their open water racing experience to the next level.
  • NCS Hall of Fame: Former YOTA coach, Brooks Teal, will be inducted to the North Carolina Swimming Hall of Fame on October 2nd. Congrats, Brooks!

Looking Ahead

  • September 18-20: Senior Leadership Camp at Camp Seafarer (Senior Level Athletes)
  • September 27: YOTA Intrasquad meet at the Taylor Family YMCA (Age Group Level Athletes)
  • October 9-11: TYDE Andy Craver Invitational at the Greensboro Aquatic Center (All YOTA Athletes)

Quick Links   

YOTA Swim Team | YMCA of the Triangle | USA Swimming | YMCA Red Flag Reporting | SafeSport
One Vision, One Team: UNITY footer

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