2026 Season Opening Letter

March 6th.

Happy Friday!

I wanted to take a moment to reach out to all of our families to touch base, confirm info, open the lines of communication and update everyone so we are all on the same page with regard to our schedule, season, expectations, etc.

First off, we are so happy to have you all and can't wait to get the season started. This early warmth is making us all the more anxious to get into the pool! Secondly, thank you so much to those returning families and the new families for coming to us this season. We are set to have an awesome team and a lot of fun. Our team is nearly the biggest it has been in the past 7+ years, but still easily manageable. We finished 2025 SO STRONG. We were undefeated and became League 5 Champions!

Ok, so to get this started... Communication: Feel free to email, call or text me if you need to for any reason. My cell number is 530.417.5615. My email is [email protected]. I will do my best to get back to you ASAP if I miss your call or email (which is highly likely as I am homeschooling my children part-time through the summer along with gardening, farming, ranching, life, competitive jiu jitsu, etc) but I will do my best.

Schedule: At the parent meeting, you will receive the schedule along with all of the fundraising info for the season. Dates and times TBD.

Fundraising, swim-a-thon, etc: Dates and times TBD and will be scheduled in the next 30 days or so. WE MAY NEED A NEW LOCATION FOR THE BAKE SALE AND/OR CAR WASH. See me if you have a line on a good location. We do VERY WELL at our bake sale when we have it at Pinnacle Pest in Kingston and would like to keep that momentum going. Also, if you would like to help sponsor the team or know of someone who would, please let me know and I can provide documents to them and they will go on Facebook, the website, the shirts, etc.

Eric Tilford is our head coach this season. Aftyn Rose is one of our assistant coaches, along with Laken Cantu (volunteer lane coach). We also have Tristan Tilford (volunteer lane coach for 10 & under), Anestynn Fugate (volunteer lane coach for 10 & under), Elin Hall (volunteer lane coach for 10 & under). If anyone knows of another RESPONSIBLE teen (or adult) who needs community service hours and/or just wants to volunteer and has experience working with children aged 18 and younger AND has swim experience and can commit to the time slot (most days), feel free to send them my way (volunteer only).

Myself (Nicole Tilford) and Amy Lyons are board members and will do our best to answer your questions and help with whatever comes up.

Swimsuits: Feel free to wear trunks, old jammers, one-piece swimsuits of any color, design, etc. for PRACTICE. For meets, we kindly ask that the swimmers wear NAVY BLUE jammers and one-piece swimsuits. It's not mandatory and they WILL still swim if they have something different but we'd like to look a little more "uniform" than in years past. I will find matching suits and jammers and communicate that info to you ASAP.

Caps & Goggles: For PRACTICE, we don't care what cap they wear as long as it isn't another team logo. Goggles too. Something that's comfortable and they like. For MEETS, they must wear a Kingston swim cap. Any Kingston swim cap is fine.

Practice: We have decided it is still better to have the little kids practice SECOND and the bigger kids to practice FIRST. I have heard both sides (both relief and grief) with this change in 2025, but overall, we are getting positive feedback with this change (not just from the little kids' parents). 11 and up practice from 7:30am-9am. Dry land/warm-up will happen first. 10 and under practice from 9am-10am. Dry land/warm-up will happen first. Practice times are set and we expect our swimmers to be there on time.

The first day of practice is Tuesday, May 26th. I'll have parent packets for those who need them, schedules, fundraising forms, etc. and I will be there to answer any questions, take payments, welcome families, etc.

Breakfast: Do not allow your child(ren) to consume dairy, especially milk, prior to practice. It does really disgusting things mixed with pool water and they are highly likely to swallow at least a little bit of it. If they vomit in the pool, practice is over so we really try to avoid any of 'that' happening.

The end of the year party will be announced shortly but I want to prepare you all that we WILL do the cardboard boat races again, with awards. I'll post the rules, guidelines, etc. in the coming weeks.

IMPORTANT: City meet is AFTER SMI this year! We think that is a positive change. Also, by early June, I'd like to know who intends to go to SMI and City Meet. We are going to continue practice through July 22nd with all coaching, etc. in order to attend City Meet. We are thrilled to attend both again this year and would like to take a good number of our swimmers, if possible. We have 5 regular swim meets this year; 2 home meets and 3 away meets.

I hope this info helps and again, reach out of I didn't answer your question(s).

Take care and see you at the pool soon!!

More dates and times will be posted soon, stay tuned.

Welcome to the Kingston Clippers Swim Team!

-Nicole Tilford