💙🏊♂️ MONTPELIER MARLINS — THE SEASON IS ALMOST A WRAP! 🏊♀️💙

Dear Parents and Swimmers,

Marlins families, swimmers, and friends — what a season it has been! Divisionals may not have unfolded the way any of us hoped, but the heart, courage, and unity this team showed was nothing short of extraordinary!

⚠️ Navigating a Tough Situation Together

The air quality challenges placed every family in an impossible position. With levels too high for safe competition — and the vote against rescheduling — parents had to make a deeply personal choice:

● Pulling their swimmer from the meet for safety ● Allowing their swimmer to compete in divisionals and for All‑Stars

Both decisions took strength. Both were made out of love. And both deserve respect.

Your swimmers showed excellent sportsmanship, and your families showed unity even through this challenge. That is the true spirit of the Marlins.

I will be sending a formal letter to the league presidentaddressing the air‑quality decision and advocating for clearer, safer policies moving forward. Families are absolutely welcome to share their own thoughts with the league as well — your voices matter!

🐬 A Season of Grit, Growth, and Glory

Despite the challenges, our Marlins ended the season strong, powered by grit, determination, and the kind of teamwork that makes this community special!

Every swimmer — from first‑year novices to seasoned competitors — contributed to a season we’ll be talking about for years.

You showed up. You pushed through. You swam with heart.

And you reminded the league exactly who the Montpelier Marlins are.

🎉 A Banquet to Remember

Our end‑of‑year banquet was nothing short of beautiful.

A huge thank‑you to Christina Kposowa and Mandi Armandfor organizing an evening full of joy, celebration, and Marlin pride! The food, the energy, the laughter — it was the perfect way to close out an unforgettable season! And a special thank you to Paul Coleman for creating the beautiful photos for the swim team slideshow!

⭐ All‑Stars Week Ahead

Next week is All‑Stars, and only All‑Star swimmers will be practicing. Practices are Tuesday and Thursday 6pm- 7pm only.

Congratulations to Dale, Frankie, Jaylen, Carlos, Eddie, Olamipo, Kaz, Donnie, Soliel, Sachi, and Junia as All-Star swimmers and alternates! Your swimming makes the Marlins Proud!!

💫 Closing Thoughts

This season tested us.

This season strengthened us.

This season proved that the Marlins don’t just swim — they make waves!

Hold your heads high, celebrate your races, and celebrate the incredible community we’ve built together.

Go Marlins — today, tomorrow, and always. 💙🏊♂️

With appreciation,The Marlins Swim Committee

From the Coaches:

Team,

What a Divisional meet. We are proud of how the committee leadership and you, the parents, navigated this incredibly challenging situation. Shoutout to Melissa for fearlessly advocating for the swimmer's health. And to all the parents - thank you for your patience and flexibility during the chaos!

As coaches we are with the committee that we did not want anyone to be in this situation but once the meet proceeded we had to do our best to navigate through the impact of that. This really put our “safe space” culture we do our best to foster to the test. It wasn’t about points on Saturday for us but about making sure that whatever decision you the parents made for your family we as the coaches were able to be support you in those choices. We hope you feel that support - we are both sad for the swimmers who had that opportunity taken from them due to the safety issues in play and excited for the swimmers who had great swims that day.The memories from the banquet, the smiles, celebrations, and time together, as well as the teams support of one another on such a hard day are the end to the season that we want to keep in mind as we move forward.

We also want to say how proud we are of all of our swimmers and everything they have accomplished this season. Their hard work, resilience, and sportsmanship have defined this team, and it has been a joy to watch them grow.

Congrats to those who made it to All Stars - with all the complexities we don’t want to overlook this exciting opportunity for you! And congrats to Frankie Boesze Hayward for breaking the Laurel Invitational meet record in the 9-10 women's 50m freestyle!

All the best!

- Mercedes & Vanessa

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