BLUE ASH YMCA SWIM TEAM

NEWSLETTER SEPTEMBER 17, 2007

 

WELCOME We want to welcome our swimmers back to practice, and welcome our new swimmers to the Blue Ash YMCA Swim Team. We are looking for another great year! Our group coaches are:

Bill Whatley  (Head Coach)                         Elite Group

Chris Berling                                                   Advance Age Group

Evan Herdeman                                           Senior Group

Robin Morris & Carol Detjen                            Junior Team

Calvin Schildknecht                                       Dolphin Group & High School Training Program

Jill Dicke                                                          Dolphin Group & Adv Age

Joyce Rivers                                                   Dolphin Group

Anne Zaffiro                                                     Blue Group

Kelly Brielmaier                                            Blue Group and Pre-Competitive Group

Emily Lorentz                                                  Blue Group

Chip Dobson                                                   Elite Group

Our coaching staff is in pretty good shape this year! We will update our bios on the team’s website soon!

 

PARENT’S MEETING SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 30th, 2007

We will have our Annual Parents' meeting Sunday, September 30th at the YMCA at 6:15 PM in the basement. All families should be represented, usually lasts about an hour. All new families definitely need to be represented!

 

KROGER GIFT CARDS   One of the best fund raising programs we have is the Kroger Gift Cards.

We have them available; get one or two from Coach Bill.

 

COMMUNICATION THIS YEAR

As we become more and more internet compatible, the swim team will continue to increase our communication via e-mails and putting information up on our website -

 www.swimbash.com

Therefore, please get your e-mail address to Coach Bill as soon as possible. He will still post a newsletter in each building and thumbtack a few for you to take on each bulletin board.  This is the first of our weekly Newsletters. We try and have a Newsletter available each Monday and will e-mail it sometime on Monday or early Tuesday. We will still have folders for each family on the team, for ribbons and medals, special handouts and other items to be passed out to swimmers or families.  The folders for the Elite, Senior, Adv. Age and Dolphin Groups will be in the Ferris pool’s lobby. Junior Team and Blue Groups’ folders will be in the hallway to the Main Pool. We also post a Newsletter in each building. We will have folders for each family soon!

 

MEET SCHEDULE AND MEETINGS We have finalized most of our meet schedule and it will be on our website SOON. We are still adding dates and juggling dates. It will include the dates of our Parent’s Meetings, Suit Fitting and other important dates and deadlines. PLEASE NOTE THAT ALL DATES ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE!

 

YMCA Cards The YMCA has been checking everyone’s cards every time they enter YMCA. Please bring you! They now scan the card and then return it to you, therefore, just get into a habit of bring your card all the time.

 

SWIM CAPS AND COACHING FEES

We still have a few families that have not paid their initial coaching fees! Please do so quickly!

We will be ordering personalized swim caps for every swimmer this season- IF fees have been paid- an order will be placed soon. Each swimmer will get 2 caps with their last names.

 

Practice Schedule Changes every week will be listed here, please read this section of the Newsletter to see if your swimmer’s group is affected. 

Saturday, Sept 22nd – Elite & Senior Groups – Weights at 8:00 AM, swim 8:40 – 10:30

 

TRAINING GROUPS As swimmers get acclimated into their training groups, we need to remind parents of a couple of items:

1. Our first few weeks, we’ll be emphasizing stroke improvement through teaching and strokes drill. Training distances will be less than normal, with emphases being place on correcting stroke mechanics or learning new techniques.

2. Swimmers must maintain good behavior during their time at the YMCA. Swimmers on the team are always being looked at and everyone at the YMCA scrutinizes any misbehavior. Parents observing misbehavior should bring it to the attention of the coaches or YMCA Staff or try and handle it themselves.

3. One of our main goals is to be sure all swimmers are having fun at practice and enjoy practicing.

4. With our system, of offering more practices than swimmers need to come to, sometimes results in some large groups at some practices. Like wise, other practices have very small  attendance. Therefore, do not judge our training groups until families sort out the days they’ll be coming to practice. After a few weeks, practices usually level out.

5. We are also evaluating our swimmers and training groups, there may be a swimmer or two moved to a different group. We’ll let you know if that is going to occur.

 

Parent Information

Please wait until after practice or before practice to talk with your swimmer’s Coach. Please do not take time away from your Coach and swimmers during practice since we are limited to a specific amount of time to swim. Also, the safety of our swimmers is important, and coaches need to watch the pool during practices. To contact Coach Bill, call the YMCA at 791-5000 and his extension is 2620. He has voice mail and tries return calls a quickly as possible. He is usually always in his office from 11:00 AM till he leaves for practice at about 2:00 PM.

Also, parents must watch practice from the lobbies of the pools. An extra person on the pool deck just adds more distractions for the swimmers and coaches. We want the swimmers to give their full attention to their coach during practice.

 

Valuables 

We recommend that swimmers lock their valuable in a locker at the YMCA.  All swim bags should either be brought on to the pool deck or place in or on top of a locker. Please do not use benches or counter in the locker rooms to store your bags.