BLUE ASH YMCA
SWIM TEAM
NEWSLETTER October 29, 2007
Each swimmer must swim in 3
YMCA swim meets to be eligible for Championships in March. This is peculiarly
important for the High School and Junior High School swimmers, because they
must get their 3 meets done BEFORE they start swimming for their school.
If the meets on our schedule
are not going to work for you, please let Coach Bill know ASAP so he can give
you another option.
Contact him immediately, DO
NOT wait get stuck in February swimming in school meets and not being able to
swim in your 3rd YMCA meet.
This has happen in the past and is very hard to get a YMCA meet after the high
school season.
MEET SCHEDULE AND SWIM MEET ENTRIES Please go to our team’s website and look
over the swim meet entries that are due, then go to the DirectAthletics website
and sign up on line for swim meets.
November 9 – 11, ME Lyons Y Meet –
entries due Monday, October 29th by Midnight
November
16-18, BASH meet – entries due this week
November
30 -December 1-2 at Countryside YMCA, entries due soon!
December 7-9, Bus Trip to Indiana, sign ups due this
week
TEAM TEE-SHIRTS AND
SWIM CAPS We handed out each swimmers new team
tee-shirt at the Intersquad Swim Meet
this past Saturday. Coaches have the
extras for those of you not at the meet. Swim caps will be here soon; we’ll let
you know. Most of the swimsuit orders will be here later this week, ask your
coach.
OUTDOOR SWIMMING POOL This is the
last week of outdoors swimming, Elite will try and swim every afternoon, Senior
will swim Tues, Thurs and Friday afternoons. Both groups will try and swim
outside on Saturday. NO one else will swim outdoors this week
PRACTICE SCHEDULE We are now on
our traditional winter schedule – check schedule on website. Affected groups
are Adv Age, Dolphin and Senior!
October 31- Halloween – NO
Junior, Blue, Dolphin and Advance Age Groups
October 31- Halloween –
Elite will be done at 5 PM, Senior – start as soon as possible after school and
will be done at 5 PM
Saturday, November 3 – Elite
and Senior will start at 8:30 AM with weights and then swim outside from 9:30 –
11:30 AM
INTERSQUAD SWIM MEET
RESULTS This year the White Team won by a score of
2580 to 2289. The girl scores were within 10 points of each other, the White
Boys beat the Blue Boys by over 200 points. We want to thank all the parents
who helped at the meet! It went well this year, with the relay set up on the
heat sheet, organization went better this year!
WHAT WAS LEARNED AT
THE MEET The four core component of the YMCA’s
philosophy were learned/taught this Saturday AM –
Caring – Lots of adults
helped out our new younger swimmers by getting them to the starting blocks,
officials helped them with learning about their disqualification and coaches
gave swimmers lots of positive responses to their swims.
Honesty – Parents who were
officials, disqualified swimmers who made mistakes, so hopefully the swimmers
can learn from their mistakes. Coaches gave honest critiques of older swimmers
strokes, and swimmers gave their best efforts in each of their swims.
Respect – Swimmers and
parents respected the critiques of the swims by the coaches (swimmers were to
go to a coach after their swims and get feed back) and parents gave their
swimmers positive comments about their swims (no matter if swims were good or
bad).
Responsibility – Swimmers
(and parents) learn the responsibility of getting to their warm ups on time,
behind the starting blocks on time and packing a swim suit and goggles for the
swim meet!
November 16-18 are the dates
for our biggest swim meet at Blue Ash Y each year. It brings in over 15% of our
team’s income for a year, A big Deal.
Over the next few
newsletters I will be updating everyone on the meet ---
Sign up on line for the meet
as soon as possible (swimmers).
Parents – sign up to volunteer at the meet, either building at the Y,
we expect every family to sign up to
work each session your swimmer is swimming up to 3 per family. IF you need
other arrangements, please contact Coach Bill, he needs other work done before
and after the meet. You can work sessions that your swimmer is not in, thus
freeing you up for their session. We are always looking for extra help on
Friday evening.
Ads for the meet program are
due Monday, Nov 5th, form on the team’s website.
We Need a parent to step up
and volunteer to be an Assistant concessions manager
We Need a parent to step up
and volunteer to be in charge of the Coaches Hospitality
We usually pay to have the
ads for the meet program to be copied at Kinkos, we then collate the programs
at the YMCA. But, IF you can volunteer to have copies made, please let Coach
Bill know as soon as possible. Usually will be 1 page, double sided, about 400
copies. We’ll take whatever you can offer.
1-The level I Swim Officials
clinic will be held 10/30, 11/1,6,8 from 6:30-7:30+ in the Diner room in the
main building. All are required to signup at the main desk. Fee is $35 for
training and $15 for shirts. You have said the team will credit parents for
these fees.
2-All parents who want to become certified as swim officials need to take this
training and pass the on-line test. After passing the test, they will be
assigned to "shadow" a deck official for at least 3 sessions. Then
they will receive their level I patch. Level I officials’ focus on stroke
and turn judging. They will need to work 12 sessions every three years to
maintain their certification.
3-While certification is not required, level I training will benefit any
parents who participate in running the swimming portion of meets need this
background e.g. meet directors, timers, scorers, console operators etc.
4-Those who wish to progress to level II will need to work 8 sessions in one
year before taking the level II training. All officials are required to keep a
record of the sessions they work to be signed by the meet referee.
5-All existing officials are grandfathered as level II in the new system. Level
II is dedicated to those who fill the roles of Referee, Starter, and Chief
Judge. When their current certification run out, current officials will need to
decide to take the level II or I recertification test. In our league, we
will not offer recertification training this fall. We plan to run level II
training Spring '08.
5-If an OFFICIAL'S CERTIFICATION RUNS OUT THIS YEAR, they can take the level I
training and test with this current class 10/30--11/8 or in early '08 (before
our Teddy Bear Meet.)
Questions can be directed to
either Rob Schramm (rschramm1@fuse.net) or to Coach
Bill Whatley
Refunds: (calculated from swimmer’s official swim
first practice)
2 weeks of practice or less, a swimmer decides to stop, all but
$25 will be refunded.
1 month of practice, one half of the initial payment will be
refunded.
2 months of practice, none of the initial payment will be
refunded.
We must receive this
notification of stopping in writing within 1 week of your swimmers’ decision
ON Tuesday, November 13 from
7 – 9 PM we are offering training for those interested in learning how to run
the 2 computers we use in swim meets. One is the Colorado Timing computer that
records the times from the touch pads at the swim meet, the second one is the
computer that calculates the results, print the ribbons labels etc. IF you think you might be interested, please
contact Coach Bill. We have limited spots for this, and parents who have been
on the team for a while will get first preference.
A few years ago, Mr. Martin
Prescott came to the YMCA with a young boy he was mentoring. He asked if this
boy could swim on the team. We made special arrangements with the Y and Steven
McCarnan swim with us for 4 years off and on. During that time, Marty paid for
a taxi to pick up Steven, paid for a taxi for himself, since he can no longer
drive. He paid Steve’s fees for the team, etc. During this time, Marty became
an official and started working swim meet for BASH. Steve stopped swimming, but Marty is still working our swim
meets, he has come to our Senior Meet 2 Saturdays ago, and the Intersquad this
past Saturday. This is what we call a
“Real Parent Volunteer”!
Thank You Marty!
YMCA LIFEGUARDS The Y is in search for lifeguards for the Y’s pool.
We are trying to guard all of the swim team practices in addition to the
regular pool schedule. Anyone interested can contact Coach Bill with questions.
The Y can certify you, and you can guard a pool while your swimmer is
practicing!