Barracuda Nation!

Looks like an awesome stretch of sunny weather for swim team and the pool ahead of us.  As a reminder, we have our annual Parent Survival Guide Meeting next Tuesday June 16th at 5:30pm, a great opportunity for new and experienced families to get "in the know" and ready for the start of the swim meet season. We'll have snacks and some beverages (including adult ones!) on hand to make it fun. We hope to see you there!

Speaking of hanging out at the pool on sunny days...as we get closer to the Intrasquad Meet and the start of meet season, our attention is increasingly focused on making sure we have enough volunteer support to run our home meets.

The good news: we're off to a really great start! For our first home meet on June 30 against Aqua Club, we already have a lot of sign-ups — including over half of our timer shifts filled — plus key officials like Referee, Starter, and Announcer already locked in. And we have a few all stars who have already locked in their assignment for all four home meets. It's awesome to see this kind of support from the community when we're still a few weeks out. Nice work Barracuda Families!

We'd love to build on this momentum — and in particular, we want to highlight some of the more critical "Deck Crew" roles we're looking to staff for this season and beyond.

The Barracuda Deck Crew

The Barracuda Deck Crew covers the meet operations roles that keep everything running: Computer Operator, Stroke & Turn Judge, Clerk of Course, and Age Group Coordinator. They're especially important to the flow of a home meet, and while they're all learnable, they require a bit more training, experience, or energy than your typical volunteer shift.

The good news here too: we have solid coverage in most of these roles. But our bench is thinner than we'd like in a few spots, and we're relying on a lot of the same people who've been doing this for years. We need to build a more sustainable model — and right now is actually the best time to make that jump, because you'll be able to shadow our experienced crew and learn the ropes quickly in a supported environment.

Here's what each role involves:

Computer Operator — Runs the meet management software that controls every heat, result, and relay. Being comfortable on a laptop and handling a little pressure goes a long way. The software is pretty user-friendly and designed for swim team volunteers, so you don't need a PhD in Computer Science to work this job — though if you have one, you're more than encouraged to join. There's a fun team of people who work in this role that you'll work closely with and learn from, and you get to do all of this from the upper deck, the best seat in the house.

Stroke & Turn Judge — Summer swimming is not the Olympics, but we try to make sure the kids feel like they're swimming in a real swim meet, and having Stroke and Turn judges keeping an eye on things is a big part of that. We typically have 4 per meet — 2 working each half, stationed on each side of the pool wall to officiate swimmers' strokes and turns for legal technique. This is a great role if you want to really learn the sport, and it's easy to learn the key rules for each stroke and the most common infractions necessary to be a trained judge. We have a great crew of people helping out, but it would be ideal to add a few new folks to have a more sustainable bench for this season and beyond.

Clerk of Course — Manages heat sheets and swimmer check-in in the ready area before each heat. Keeps the meet on schedule by making sure the right swimmers are in the right lanes at the right time. Friendly, organized, and detail-oriented people thrive here. We have some awesome people working Clerk of Course this season, including a few parents who have been involved with the Barracudas for years and no longer have kids swimming on the team — but we'd love to get more folks trained in this role to help have coverage for all meets and support us into next season.

Age Group Coordinator (AGC) — Supports a specific age group (8&U or 10&U, Boys or Girls) throughout the entire meet. We'd ideally like four people supporting each age group for the season — home and away meets — since building connections with the kids and getting to know their (or their parents'...) favorite hiding spots at meets helps make this job a bit easier. High energy, high reward, and the role most likely to make your kid think you're cool. We have a good base of folks for all age groups, but having additional support would be helpful, particularly for getting kids to the right end of the pool for relays — and tracking down the occasional swimmer who decided to go on an extended candy quest.

The upcoming Intrasquad Meet on June 18 is a great place to get your feet wet — particularly for Computer Operator, Stroke & Turn, and Age Group Coordinator. Lower stakes, experienced crew on hand, and a perfect introduction to how everything works.

Interested? Find Steph, Lulu, or Joe on deck, or email us at [email protected]. We'll connect you with the right folks and help get you trained up quickly and ready to go.

Other ways to help

Not ready to take on a Deck Crew role yet? There are still plenty of opportunities to sign up across all four home meets. Check out the Volunteer page to see what's available and grab a shift.

Have a neighbor or former Barracuda family who wants to help?

If you don't have a swimmer on the team this year — neighbor, former Barracuda family, alumni swimmer, or anyone else who wants to pitch in — you'll need to register as a community volunteer to get set up for the season. This creates an account and links you to the 2026 team so you can sign up for shifts and receive meet communications.

Register as a Community Volunteer — or email us at [email protected] and we'll handle the setup for you.

Thanks for all your help supporting the Barracudas — we couldn't do it without our group of awesome families.

Go Barracudas and see you at the pool!

Steph, Lulu, and Joe
2026 Swim Team Coordinators