Traditions
The Donaldson Run Swim team has lots of great traditions to help create a fun, exciting and team-bonding experience for all of our swimmers! This information is just to give you a sense of what we’ll have, and we’ll be in touch throughout the summer with more details!
Pre-season Ice Cream Social
Come for some ice cream, meet the coaches, swim team representatives and fellow swimmers, and stop by the SportFair table to check out the swim suits. It’s fun for everyone, but especially great for anyone new to the team.
The 2024 Ice Cream Social will be held on Sunday, May 19th.
Meet Themes
We have meet themes for every A and B meet and encourage every swimmer (and non-swimming spectators!) to participate in the theme for each meet. Themes are shared in advance so families are not scrambling last minute to figure out an outfit.
One example of a meet theme might be tie-dye. For that meet your swimmer could wear a tie-dye hat, shirt or an entire outfit (if they have one)! We encourage swimmers to go “all-out” for the themes because it’s a ton of fun.
See 2024 Meet Themes here!
Spirit Sheets
We decorate sheets to hang up around the pool during meets, to show our great team spirit. Please set aside any spare top sheets you may have (solid colors, queen and king size work best). From time to time we will ask swimmers to bring sheets they are not using for us to spray paint.
T-Shirts
At least once during the season we decorate t-shirts, so go ahead and buy or set aside a plain white t-shirt for later use.
Swimmers of the Week
Each week the coaches will select “swimmers of the week,” who are recognized based on a variety of criteria such as: focus, work ethic, attendance, improvement, attentiveness, conduct and sportsmanship -- both with their teammates and their competitors.
Cake Bake Off
Swimmers, individually or in groups decorate a dessert. It is usually cake, but can be cupcakes, rice crispy treats, brownies etc. It can be decorated like a pool, DR logo, Coach Phil's beard, or totally creative and unrelated to swimming in any way! Everyone brings their decorated dessert to DR. Coaches "judge" the cakes and give out paper plate awards like "most spirited," "most colorful," etc. The only rules – no food fights and we have to clean-up!!
Lip Sync
Swimmers can perform solo or with a team. Grab a friend or five for your performance! Coaches are a great source of inspiration and we’ll help form groups to encourage participation.
A Meet Specific Traditions
On Friday evenings coaches and some of our older swimmers decorate plates for each swimmer in that weekend’s A meet, from our 8 and under swimmers through the 11-12 age group. On Friday nights the plates are put on each swimmer’s front door. It gives the swimmers something to look forward to that morning of the big meet!
For away A meets, we meet in the DR parking lot to decorate cars with window markers and drive to the meet together. Families are encouraged to bring their own window markers, however there are usually enough to share with families who do not have their own.
And so much more!
There are many more events that happen during the season, including age group parties, progressive dinner (rising 8th graders and older, Swim & Dive Teams combined), end of seasons parties, and the annual end of season Banquet.
