There is still plenty of good news!
There is still plenty of good news!
To Those on the Front Lines, Thank you! 
We want to begin our Newsletter by thanking those of you who are literally on the front lines of the current pandemic.  While all of us are being affected, quite a few of our swim parents work in fields that put them directly in harm’s way.  “Thank you” is not enough. Please know that in this season of Easter and Passover our thoughts and prayers are with you and your families.  Please let us know anything we can do to ease the burden, and the stress, of your experience.

Good News

Swimmer Selection Spotlight

Here are some great things that athletes on our team have earned this spring.  Many of you probably heard about, but with the shift in all of our focuses to everything pandemic related, it is important we spread this good news once again!

Emily Harris selected to National Diversity Select Camp!  Emily applied for this USA Swimming national camp this past year and was honored to be selected.  She and Coach Marli had made plans to attend the camp in Colorado Springs this May. The camp has since been postponed until December.  Congratulations Emily!

Jake Mason, Anna Jackson, and Matthew Hughes were selected to Open Water Zones Team. 
These three swimmers thrive on long, hard races!  All three were selected to take their passion for the mile, multiply the distance a few times, and race some of the best distance swimmers in our zone in the open water.
All-Midstate Teams
Rob McCall, Morgan Carteaux, Kallie Chelsvig, Jake Mason named to All-Midstate Team in individual events.  Lindy Hunter, Lexi Stewart, Oliver Pilkinton, George Mabry, and Jack Flanagan named for relays! The Tennessean selects its All-Midstate team each year.  All athletes recognized for achievements in individual events are automatically listed as nominees for Swimmer of the Year!

All-Region Teams: These were announced back in February, and while we recognized these athletes then we think it is worth reminding everyone about great accomplishments!  We had six athletes named to the First Team All-Region for their High Schools: Morgan Carteaux (Ravenwood), Kallie Chelsvig (Ensworth), Rob McCall (Ensworth), Jack Flanagan (MBA), Jake Mason (Ensworth), and Oliver Pilkinton (MBA).  Another six were named to Second Team All-Region: Addison Wright (Hume Fogg), Reese Dismukes (Centennial), Emily Harris (Ensworth), Jonathan Henschel (Centennial), George Mabry (MBA), and Kas McIntire (Ravenwood)!
College Announcements
We are sending Kelsey Jenks, Abby Liff, George Mabry, and Jordan Williams a BIG congratulations. Kelsey and George have declared their intention to attend and compete for Sewanee; Abby will attend and compete for Washington University, and Jordan will attend and compete for Pepperdine University.  
Reflections on Our New Normal 

There is value in trying to look at the positive in any given situation.  While we are all living under a cloud of uncertainty, especially as it relates to when conditions will permit us to gather in any capacity, whether as a team, a school, an office, a church, or just at a playground, there are wonderful things happening because of the self-enforced restrictions required of us.

This week, many athletes in the Senior and Senior 1 groups have completed goal sheets in advance of virtual goal meetings.  They were asked to list three positive things that have happened since we have been unable to swim. While many answers included references to better dry-land conditioning thanks to all of the yoga and dry-land workouts, several pointed out that they’ve been experiencing lower stress levels;  many talked about getting to spend more time with family, and others addressed a mental break that has been beneficial.

It is doubtful any of us would have chosen to cordon ourselves off at home when a trip to the grocery store is as much an exercise in anxiety suppression as it is an opportunity just to leave the house, but being forced into this existence (even if for an indeterminate length of time) has yielded unanticipated opportunities in appreciation of each other, our families, and the special bonds that make our team unique.

Our virtual practices have had incredibly consistent attendance.  On Tuesday of this week, roughly 140 people were logged into various Zoom practices across all group levels.  While all of us are probably appreciating things we generally don’t give ourselves time to be thankful for, many of us are also finding that this consistent connection we make with each other truly is vital.  Parents have gotten in on our “Bring Your Parents to Practice” Thursdays; swimmers are checking off their challenges in the Sharks and Dolphins challenge checklists; and many Juniors, Seniors, and Senior 1 swimmers are taking advantage of the supplemental dry-land challenges put on Instagram each morning.

Athletes are watching inspiring swimming videos and utilizing the instructional videos on our website.  And many are sleeping more, perhaps finally sleeping ENOUGH!

This is not the way we would choose to be a team for the long term, but I am hopeful that this experience of isolation will transform some aspects of how we believe we can live our best lives.  Lower stress, more sleep, and more time with family. High attendance, prioritizing connection every day, and appreciation of each other. One need not even try to find the positives in all of this.  Thanks to all of you, these positives are an undeniable part of our new normal.

Thank you for making Ensworth Aquatics such a wonderful community.

Team Information

Billing & Payment for April
Many swim teams have been trying to figure out how to approach billing for the month of April (and potentially May/June/July) in light of the stay-at-home orders’ effect on our ability to practice.  We opted to prorate the month of March and have already credited back each account for the days we were not able to swim. We also opted not to bill at all for April.


These decisions were made for two primary reasons.  First, we were not sure what we could truly offer through virtual practices, and it was difficult to quickly ascertain an appropriate dollar amount in terms of monthly dues.  Second, and more importantly, this current crisis has certainly impacted some families more than others. With millions of people now unemployed, and likely millions more being forced to take pay cuts for the time being, I did not want any families on our team adding to potential financial stress by having their child excluded from what services we could offer due to an inability to pay.

The fairest and best thing was to not go through with regularly scheduled billing.  When I first communicated this, I said we would do this as long as it is financially viable.  A number of families immediately emailed me saying they wanted to keep paying their regularly scheduled dues.  They wanted to make sure our coaches could still be paid. It was an incredibly heartening request. I asked them to be patient as we sought to navigate this situation.

Because of the breadth of families’ personal financial situations, we are not going to establish a revised dues schedule right now.  What we will do, however, is ask that families who can contribute towards their monthly bill do so by simply processing an On-Demand payment in Team Unify.  This way, families can pay whatever they are able to right now. We welcome anyone to pay their full monthly dues, a portion of their dues, or none if the current crisis has impacted them financially.  The most important thing we can do as a coaching staff is to be there for your children.

Our virtual practices are certainly not a substitute for our normal programming, but judging by the attendance of and enthusiasm during them, they are a valued part of the day.

If you can contribute, we ask that you do.  We hope this current arrangement will be short term.  Once we get past April 20, we will evaluate what has been contributed this month and decide what works for our team’s finances for the coming months.

Please don’t hesitate to reach out to me, Christian Bahr, or Naomi Kitahara with any questions you may have.

It's a Virtual World - Literally

Thank you to our cadre of dedicated, creative, and thoughtful coaches for making the Virtual Practice experience exciting, fun, and challenging.  Coach Marli’s yoga sessions combined with Coach Victoria’s dryland have been an extremely tough mix for our 13 and over athletes - as well as Coach Bahr!  Coach Skyler’s creativity and passionate engagement are on full display with the Dolphins practices.  Coach Erin and Coach Kathleen are bringing the Stingrays to outer space, the Winter and Summer Olympics, and to Yosemite during their virtual practice experiences. Meanwhile, Coach Goeken is never short on inspirational stories or a bit of swimming history to motivate the kids, while Coach Glenn and Coach Kirstin are constant cheerleaders of their athletes while also getting in on the workouts themselves!

Please remember that all of the links to our Zoom practices are located on the password-protected Virtual Practice section of our website.  You can also find instructional videos, dry-land challenges, and links and write-ups about some of history’s greatest races.

Please feel free to share any thoughts you have about things that could be added.
Swim Meets this Summer 

We do not know when, or if, any swim meets will be held this summer.  As of right now, our meet calendar is effectively in limbo. Should we be able to resume normal practice operations sometime in May, there will not be enough time to make traveling to Auburn for the Richard Quick Invitational worth the effort.  Also, many families are likely impacted financially by the current state of affairs, so spending money on an out of town meet would, for many, be either impossible, stressful, or simply not a good idea.

We will leave the Huntsville timed final meet on our calendar, but it is doubtful we would travel to that meet either.  There are too many “what if’s” right now to make definitive decisions about late June, but Huntsville is at least close enough for people to drive down and back in one day if they would like to.  We will let you know if/when we cancel our intention to attend that meet.

We will leave our home meets on our calendar should we find we are able to host them.

We are currently in the process of declaring meet bids for the Fall.  There is no telling how the current pandemic will affect future meets (will they be smaller?  Will we need to limit numbers?), but we will proceed with bidding and scheduling meets as though the season were normal.  We are hopeful that our December meet, which was very successful this past year, will continue to grow if not much in size, then very much in competitiveness.
View Full Meet Schedule
Birthday Shout Outs
Here are upcoming birthdays for athletes through April 2020.  To all these amazing athletes, Ensworth Aquatics wishes each of you a happy birthday! 

April 1 - Kas McIntire
April 8 - Carter Miller
April 9 - Margaret Rauth
April 11 - Allie Smith
April 11 - Annika Smith
April 13 - Gabriel Mendoza 
April 13 - Harrison Wray
April 20 - Noah Lucy
April 21 - Caroline Johnson
April 21 - Miller Reardon
April 24 - Brooke Hughes
April 29 Lauren Calvert

Team Connection

GroupMe App

If you have not already joined your swimmers' GroupMe, please consider doing so.  Parents, coaches, and staff use GroupMe to communicate last-minute updates, traffic issues, practice changes, lost and found, carpooling and much more. Each practice group has its own group text, and we believe if you ask any returning team members, they will confirm that GroupMe is an invaluable communication tool as it enables them to ask specific questions and plan activities particular to their practice group. Use this link to download the GroupMe app.

Click on the links below to connect with your swimmer's practice group and parent reps:

Parent Reps
Stingrays - Jessica Horne & Maureen Kolton
Dolphins - Lindsey Sanford
Sharks - Fran Spurrier
Juniors - Margaret Mason & Susan Emrhein
Marlins - help needed
Senior1/Senior - Margaret Mason


Team Website & OnDeck
We are confident that everyone on our team has visited our team website by now, but beyond registration, it serves as the primary information tool for our team.  Through our website, parents and athletes will commit to competitions, enter events, sign up to volunteer, access newsletters, review practice schedules, much more.  Be sure to "Sign In" to the website to view all content. Go ahead and visit www.ensworthaquatics.com and bookmark it!  
OnDeck is TeamUnify's supporting app that allows our staff to communicate through our website directly to team members' mobile devices.  OnDeck also presents our website content to users with improved mobile device usability.  What this means is you can enter into swim meets and signup to volunteer more easily on your mobile devices.   Use this link to download OnDeck.


Social Media 
Ensworth Aquatics is on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Click on the icons below to connect with us through social media. 
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