Good morning,

Welcome to the 2024 Ray Nation! This year marks the 25th year of Stingrays and we have much to celebrate. We are expectant for a fun and fast summer. We thank your family for choosing to join us for our favorite time of year. The following email contains a number of highlights. Please read to the end.

Those of you who were with us last season are familiar with Coach Jodi’s cancer diagnosis. We are grateful for the extraordinary way our team rallied around her and came together united. I am pleased to share that Coach Jodi has begun her one-year post scans and tests and so far they are looking good. Thank you Jesus!

The culture of our team is special and we have several veteran families who are well-versed in swim team specifics. I encourage you to jump in and get to know those around you. Veteran families, please jump in and welcome new faces and “show them the ropes” of SWSR. We were all first year swim parents at one point. There are many questions we can help each other answer before turning to the coaching staff. Plus, it helps us all to develop new friends and get to know one another.

Points of contact for the season:

Michelle Bell - registration, all general questions; [email protected], 701-426-9736

Stacy Rector - merchandise related questions

Amy Steger & Natalie Evans - meet worker positions

Coaches Jodi, Gabby, Reagan - swim and swimmer related questions

Merchandise on the website is live. https://swsr.swimtopia.com/shop All athletes will receive a t-shirt and team cap included with registration. Additional t-shirts, crewneck sweatshirts, tanks, caps, and other ray-gear are available for pre-order NOW. Orders need to be submitted by May 12 (Mother’s day) by midnight. Parent orders and swimmer caps will be delivered the first day of practice. Swimmer t-shirts will be passed out at the Red and Black meet prior to team pictures. If you are unable to attend that meet, you can pick up your t-shirt the following week at practice.

Let’s keep the Ray-spirit going strong…feel free to bring outgrown Ray-gear to practice to share with other families. We love seeing our team spirit worn out in the wild.

SMI and City meet registrations can be purchased now on the website. If your child plans to attend both, a money saving bundle is available for purchase. SMI (Smoky Mountain Invitational) and City Meet are the largest meets of the season for our team. These meets are optional and include all the teams that compete in our region. It is worth mentioning…we will be defending our title at SMI this year and would love to have as many athletes participate as are able. More information will be communicated about these in the weeks ahead. Please reach out if you have further questions about these meets.

One of the highlights of the summer is the Farragut 4th of July parade. Do you have a boat you would consider letting the team use for the parade? If so, we would be so grateful. We require young children to ride in the boat with chaperones and older children/adults walk along the side. If you are able to fill this need, please reach out to Gerand Saffles at: 865-603-2105, [email protected]

Please see the attached flyer for our Blaze pizza night on June 3 from 5-9 pm! We are kicking the season off with a team building dinner. This was a first for us last year and it was a lot of fun. Show the flyer during purchase and Blaze donates a portion to our team. Thank you Blaze! We hope to see you there!

Rays in the water, 

Michelle Bell and the SWSR Board of Directors