Hello ERGSD Families,

Welcome to Week #6! The season is flying by, and the girls are looking strong in practice and performing well at meets. In our pre-meet meeting this week, I reminded them that we are unstoppable when we compete with both our heads and our hearts, and when we bring contagious energy to the deck. You can feel it—the excitement builds when we cheer on our teammates, when every race or dive matters, and when we create that undeniable electricity in the air together.

It’s important to remember that success doesn’t always mean a new best time or a higher final score. The sport gets tougher as you improve, as the training load increases, and as the demands of school and competition add up. Many times, our athletes have just minutes between races, which is incredibly challenging. We encourage them to approach each race or dive with a fresh mindset, because you never know when the next breakthrough performance will come. Swimming and diving will always have ups and downs, but what matters most is effort, commitment, and giving 100%—which can look different from day to day. Athletics is a journey. Stay positive, lean on your teammates when you’re struggling, celebrate victories big and small, and be proud of the moments that remind you why you love being part of this team.

We are wrapping up a long stretch of meets! Many of the girls competed in four meets over 10 days, including two back-to-back sets of a dual meet with an invite - with only 36 hours to recover. They rose to the challenge! A highlight for me was not in the actual pool but the bus ride home from Spring Lake Park, where the girls were singing (loudly, together), laughing, and enjoying the time together as teammates. This warms my heart to say the least! Our win over Spring Lake Park was solid, and it was fun to be able to swim exhibition after the 100 backstroke. On Saturday, we traveled to the Maroon and Gold Meet at the U of M, where the girls impressed us again by taking on extra events, often with very short turnaround times (minutes between each). They handled it like pros!

This week we shift to late practices. On Thursday, we host Osseo for Faculty Night. Osseo is a smaller team, so it will be a good chance to change things up while still pushing hard in training. Rogers has homecoming this week, so Becca has let me know they’ll be out of the pool at 4:30pm. We’ll adjust and begin practice earlier that day—please check the schedule for details.

As school workloads increase, so will our training volume in the pool and at dryland. Athletes should plan ahead, stay on top of academics, and prioritize good rest. Illness has started circulating, so please do what you can to keep your athlete healthy. If your athlete is sick, follow the same guidelines as school: they should be symptom-free (no vomiting, diarrhea, or fever) for at least 24 hours before returning. Please notify me as soon as possible—and each day they are out—if your athlete is sick. This is a minimum requirement to be excused.  Line-Ups take hours to write, keeping me informed helps me plan accordingly and rewrite as soon as possible. It also helps us adjust practice lanes if possible! Thank you so much, it is appreciated! 

Attached you’ll find the ERGSD Master Schedule for this week.