ELITE NEWS BULLETIN               05-07-07

 

NEWARK ACADEMY FACILITY ISSUES NOT YET SOLVED; CHECK WEBSITE FOR PRACTICE SCHEDULE:

 

      NA was unable to get the compressor delivered on Saturday. This means the circulation situation has not changed at Newark Academy as of today. Newark Academy expects the compressor to be delivered and installed on Tuesday.

 

            On Saturday, the air quality and the chemicals were still good and the temperature was 80%. Given this situation, Elite will practice as scheduled on Monday, May 7 at Newark Academy. However, that will be the last day Elite will practice at Newark Academy until the air circulation situation is corrected.

 

            On Tuesday, Elite will not practice at Newark Academy. That night, the Marlin Teals, the Seniors and the Senior Preps will not practice. The Wave Golds and Wave Blacks will practice at Morristown-Beard from 7:00 pm to 8:30 pm.

 

            Assuming that the Newark Academy pool is fixed on Tuesday, Elite resume practice on Wednesday at Newark Academy. The schedule will be the normal practice with the exceptions of the Marlins; both the Marlin Teals and the Marlin Blacks will practice on Wednesday from 5:00 pm to 6:00 pm.

 

            If the compressor does not arrive on Tuesday or if Newark Academy is not ready on Wednesday, Elite will continue to alter its practice schedule Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Check your email and the practice schedule for updates.

 

            Please remember two things: 1) the drill work and stroke technique work Elite is focusing on now was already scheduled and built into the practices. The Elite coaches are now just rearranging practice to concentrate on topics they were going to cover over more practices-they are just rearranging the order of the presentation; we are not changing our curriculum & 2) next week, the Seniors, Senior Preps, Wave Golds and the Wave Blacks will be practicing long course at Summit Municipal Pool. Long course training will super-charge the conditioning work for these 4 training groups. As of Friday May 5, the Summit Pool was on schedule to open for Elite on Monday, May 14.

           

6th ANNUAL ELITE-A-THON THIS SATURDAY, MAY 12:        

 

The 6th Annual Elite-a-thon fundraiser will be held Saturday, May 12th at Morristown-Beard from 4 pm to 6 pm.

 

Like all past “Elite-a-thons,” this year’s event will be structured so each individual participating will be raising money for the “charity of their choice.” A suggested list of charities will accompany the information provided by Senior Corey Deatly, who is coordinating this year’s efforts.

 

In a tradition begun three years ago, Bill will swim approximately 2000 yards to raise money for his charity. This year, Bill will raise money for the Craig School, an middle school located in Mountain Lakes that works with students with learning disabilities. The Craig School, which is in its 27th year, teaches their children strategies that enable these students to succeed in the class room. Bill and Brandy’s son Tad is a graduate of the Craig School and is now in public high school and an honor role student. In addition to raising money for their own particular charity, Bill is hoping that each swimmer on Elite will pledge at least $1 towards his swim !!!

 

Information is posted on the website under “Elite-a-thon.”  Please follow the directions and keep track of your pledge totals!!! 

 

WINTER 2007-08 PRACTICE SCHEDULE TO CHANGE; MORE TIME SLOTTED FOR MARLINS & WAVE GOLDS; SCHEDULE POSTED UNDER PRACTICE SCHEDULE:

 

            In its never ending pursuit of using the allotted pool time as efficiently as possible, Elite will have a new practice schedule starting September 2008. The practice schedule is now posted on the team website under Practice Schedule. The schedule changes allows Elite to offer significantly more pool time to 3 of the 5 Age Group Training Groups training at Newark Academy. 

 

            The Marlin Blacks and the Marlin Teals will now practice at the same time on Monday, Wednesday and Fridays. In keeping with its policy of never having more than 36 swimmers in a training group, the total number of swimmers between the two groups will never exceed 36. By using the pool for both training groups simultaneously, both groups will be offered 4 practices a week for a total of 3.75 hours. In addition, the Marlins will start 15 minutes early from Sept thru November 15 (5:00 pm) so they can get a full hour of practice when the pool is available.

 

            The Wavebuster Gold training group will also gain practice time. Currently, the Wave Golds have 10 hours of practice a week. Under the current schedule, when a swimmer earns a promotion from the Wave Golds to the Senior Preps, the amount of practice time jumps to 17 hours a week. The change in the practice schedule will better prepare the Wave Golds for this expanded practice time as a Senior Prep.  

 

LONG COURSE PRACTICE STARTS NEXT MONDAY:

 

            Long course practice at Summit Municipal Pool on Ashwood Road, Summit will start Monday, May 14th. The Seniors, Senior Preps, Wave Golds & Wave Blacks will train outside and long course during the month of May (although both the Wave Golds and Wave Blacks will also train at Newark Academy during this time). The long course practice schedule is posted on the team website under the Practice Schedule.

 

The Wave Teal practice time is also affected. Swimmers and parents are requested to study the practice schedule.

 

IMPROVED TEAM NECESSITATES A CHANGED LONG COURSE MEET SCHEDULE;

TOP AGE GROUPERS TO COMPETE AT MEMORIAL DAY MEET:

 

            The considerable improvement by the Elite Swimmers over the course of the last year has required that the Elite Coaches rethink the summer long course schedule. Thus, the previously posted schedule will be updated shortly to add additional meets.

 

            The coaches feel that the improvement of Elite’s top Age Groupers coupled with the short summer schedule requires Elite to enter swimmers in additional meets, if these swimmers are to be provided with enough chances to qualify for Junior Olympics. In addition, the issue is further complicated by the fact that the swimmers compete in a long course venue during the shortened summer season. With Elite philosophy not to “convert” short course times into long course qualifying times & vice versa (there is no accurate scientific conversion scale-regardless of “accepted” practices) also dictates that top Elite swimmers trying to qualify for meets need to compete early in the summer season to update their long course times to reflect their improvement over the winter session.

 

Early in the long course season, Elite coaches will deviate from its philosophy of not using converted times to using the coaches discretion if a swimmer should be under the qualifying time based upon the last winter’s short course times. Once long course times are established this summer, Elite coaches revert to using the new long course times as the basis to enter swimmers in championship meets.

 

            The immediate effect is that Elite entered 25 swimmers within the Age Group Program into the Memorial Day Invitational Meet held at Rutgers University. Meet information and entry information is now posted.

 

            Elite will also likely enter swimmers into the Long Course Cup Meet to be held June 15 thru June 17 at Princeton University. Details on that meet will be forth coming.

 

ELITE AGE GROUPERS TO PARTICIPATE IN LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIP MEET ON MAY 20:

 

            All Elite Swimmers who are in the Age Group Program (Wavebusters and Marlins) will be entered into a short course yards meet called New Jersey League Championship Meet. The meet is scheduled for Sunday, May 20 at the Union Boys & Girls Club in Union, New Jersey. Details of the meet and meet entries are expected to be posted on Elite’s website (under Meet Schedule) later this week.

 

            All swimmers participating in the Wavebuster Golds, Wavebuster Blacks, Wavebuster Teals, Marlin Blacks and Marlin Teals should plan to attend. The coaches will enter swimmers in the meet-there is nothing for a swimmer to do except check the meet information. If you are unable to attend, swimmers are requested to email Bill as soon as you know.

                                     

COACH MIKE TURKOT TO PARTICIPATE IN POLICE UNITY TOUR THIS WEEKEND; ELITE HAS CONTRIBUTED APPROXIMATELY $1,000 TO CAUSE; TURKOT THANKS ELITE:

 

Michael Turkot, an Elite assistant coach, will be riding in the Police Unity Tour beginning on May 9th and continuing until the 13th. Michael’s daytime job is as a police officer working at the Morris County Sheriff's Office in Morristown. The Unity Tour is a 300 mile bicycle ride that departs from Morris Township and ends in Washington, D.C., a total of over 300 miles!

 

Officers from around the country fly into New Jersey to participate in the event. Each rider is tasked with not only completing the ride, but also raising $1700 towards the charity. The money is donated to the National Law Enforcement Memorial in Washington. Over the past 11 years, the Tour has become the largest single donor to the memorial. Donations are then gifted to the families of fallen officers from around the country. The Tour's singular focus is to help support the families of these brave, selfless men and women who gave their lives protecting the general public.

 

Michael estimates that the Elite community has pledged over $1,000 towards the ride. In response to this fabulous effort by Elite, Turkot stated ‘It is heartwarming to know that people care about this cause. Although police know they are risking their lives to do their job, it is a real tragedy when this actually occurs and the affect it has on the families is devastating. Anything we can do to ease the burden of those left behind is a tremendous gesture.”

 

For more information about the Police Unity Tour, becoming a sponsor, or to see pictures from past events you can go to www.policeunitytour.com. Feel free to ask Michael any questions at practice or through email (mailto:zzturkzz@hotmail.com). Michael and the families of the fallen officers offer their sincerest thanks for your consideration.

 

SCHOLAR/ATHLETE AWARD APPLICATION POSTED:

 

The Scholar/Athlete Award Application, which will address the age-up situation, has been posted on the website. Swimmers are to fill out the application and get it to Bill (place it in the mailbox or mail it to Bill).

 

.