ELITE NEWS BULLETIN               09-03-07

 

LETS GET IT STARTED!!

SEASON TO BEGIN THIS WEEK WITH SENIOR/SENIOR PREPS,

WAVESBUSTERS AND MARLINS PHASE IN NEXT TWO WEEKS:

 

With more talent and hard working swimmers than ever in its illustrious 12-year history, the Elite Swim Club begins its Winter 2007-08 Season this week with the Seniors and the Senior Preps having their orientation meetings and first practices. With the enthusiasm generated by their great summer accomplishments at the summer championship meets, the sky’s is truly the only limit to what can be accomplished by Elite swimmers this coming season.

 

            The three Wavebuster Training Groups will have their first practices next week (week of Sept 10) while the two Marlins training groups will have their first practice starting the week of Sept 17.

 

            All parents and swimmers are requested to review the 3 week practice schedule with is posted on the website. So, lets get it started!!!!

 

MAKE UP TRYOUTS SCHEDULED FOR TUESDAY, SEPT 4 AT NEWARK ACADEMY STARTING AT 4:30 PM:

 

            As a result of the registration process of existing Elite swimmers plus the tryouts held last July, Elite still has a few openings going into the Winter 2007-08 session.

 

            Thus, Elite will hold “Make-Up Tryouts” on Tuesday, September 4th (tomorrow) at Newark Academy starting at 4:30 pm for all those swimmers interested in training with Elite this winter. Swimmers invited to train with Elite pursuant to these tryouts will be notified before Thursday, Sept 6 at 3 pm thru Elite’s website.

 

            Any Elite swimmer or parent who would like to assist Elite in the tryout process would be welcome (timers especially!!).

 

TENTATIVE MEET SCHEDULE NOW POSTED:

 

      The tentative Winter 2007-08 Meet Schedule is now posted under Meet Schedule. 

 

       Please be advised as to the following: 

 

      1) meet dates change during the season due to pool availability. Thus, Elite's meet schedule will be updated from time to time thru out the season. Already, several Oct dates will be changed due to Newark Academy and Morristown-Beard conflicts!!! 

 

      2) Elite is exploring the possibility of participating in 2 important & different "travel" meets this coming year. Although nothing is set at this time, these are the meets are currently under consideration:

 

              1) Elite is exploring participating in Sectionals outside the Eastern Zone (quite probably Indiana). Thus, the dates for this meet are fluid since Sectionals in different USA Zones are held on different weekends.  It is highly likely Elite will participate in a Sectional meet outside the Eastern Zone. 

 

              2) Elite is exploring participating in a travel meet for Age Groupers and/or Seniors. One possibility is in April AFTER NJ Swimming's Championships (this would extend the SCY season for many Elite swimmers). Elite is also exploring a travel meet in January, 2008 for Age Groupers Only. 

 

               It is extremely unlikely Elite will participate in two different travel meets for the Age Groupers this season but it is extremely likely Elite will participate in one of these two options. 

 

        Stay tuned for additional information!!!

 

NEW JERSEY SWIMMING’S SCY TIME STANDARDS NOW POSTED:

 

            The time standards for Junior Olympics and Silver Championships are now posted on both Elite’s (under time standards) and New Jersey Swimming’s website (njswim.com).

 

            Compared to last year, there have been some significant changes to the New Jersey time standards.

 

With regards to the JO qualifying times, some times have been tightened but many of the times remain the same as last years.

 

However, with regards to the Silver qualifying times, there have been some significant changes: many of the times have been relaxed/made easier.  These changes are a direct positive result of NJ Swimming changing the SCY Championship Meets from separate Silver and Bronze Meets to Age Group Silver/Bronze Championship Meets. This change reduced the “overcrowding” issue at the former meets and now allows the times to be more motivational oriented rather than meet size management tools. This has also allowed NJ Swimming to reduce the huge discrepancy in the time standards between the girls and boys.

 

Swimmers: lets get prepared to CRUSH these times!!!

 

COACHING STAFF RETURNS IN TACT (ALTHOUGH WITH SOME NEW RESPONSIBILITIES) AND WITH A NEW COACH: BECKY MARCELLIANO;

 

 The entire Elite coaching staff returns from last year with one exception: there will be an additional new coach on deck.

 

Returning to coach the Seniors and Senior Preps will be Bill Deatly, Head Coach and Co-Head Senior/Senior Prep Coach and Cindy Deatly Ross Co-Head Senior/Senior Prep/Head Stroke Technician Coach. Cindy’s responsibilities will be new this year, as she brings her exceptional technique work to the highest training levels within Elite. Also lending his technique expertise at the Senior/Senior Prep level will be Michael Turkot. Brandy Deatly will also assist in the dryland aspect of the Senior/Senior Prep training.

 

Leighann Marcelliano has been named Head Age Group Coach at Elite. In this position, Leighann will be primarily responsible for managing the Wavebuster and Marlin training groups. As such, during the Winter 2007-08 Season, Leighann will be the Head Training Group Coach of both the Wave Golds and the Wave Blacks while overseeing the Head Training Group Coaches of the Wavebuster Teals, Marlin Blacks and Marlin Teals and overseeing the Assistant Training Group Coaches of all 5 training groups. Since Elite is set up to consistently teach the same techniques from top to bottom throughout the program, Leighann will also continue to have significant input into the general planning of all the training programs.

 

Also returning within the Age Group Program will be Ashley Johnston, Mark Niziol & Matt King. Ashley will be Head Training Group Coach for the Wavebuster Teals and the Marlin Blacks while also assisting the technique training at the Wavebuster Gold level. Mark Niziol will be the Head Training Group Coach for the Marlin Teals in addition to assisting the technique training at the Wavebuster Gold level. Matt King, a former Elite swimmer, will assist at all levels of the Age Group program.

 

Joining Elite will be Rebecca (“Becky”) Marcelliano (sister of Leighann). As many of you know, Becky worked with Elite swimmers this past summer starting in late May, after returning to NJ from Colorado. This summer, Becky focused on learning Elite’s total immersion philosophy & drills, the Fluid Mechanics swimming language and understanding the Counsilman training system. Becky will work at all levels within the Age Group Program.  

 

DART, DEATLY, MORRISON, PEAY NAMED TEAM CAPTAINS:

 

            Formalizing what has long been an Elite tradition but never officially recognized, the Elite Senior Seniors (seniors in high school who train with the Elite Senior Training Group) whom this season consist of Chris Dart, Corey Deatly, Alex Morrison and Sarah Peay, have been named Captains of the Elite Swim Club, Winter 2007-08.

 

            For years, Elite Senior Seniors were expected to lead their training groups and the team thru their examples of hard work, dedication & commitment to the team. On a daily basis, Senior Seniors lead dryland practice and are expected to lead at every opportunity during pool practice. Senior Seniors are also expected to communicate to the Senior Coaches issues involving the training group. Lastly, Senior Seniors help plan the annual training trip in late December.

 

            Despite these responsibilities, Elite has never formally recognized these swimmers in the past. Starting this season, all Senior Seniors will be officially Captains of the Elite Swim Club. Congratulations Chris, Corey, Alex and Sarah!!!

 

SCHOLAR/ATHLETE AWARDS WILL BE HIGHLIGHT OF AWARDS BANQUET:

 

          Swimmers are reminded that the ultimate award an Elite swimmer can earn at the season ending Awards Banquet will once again be the Elite Scholar-Athlete Awards. Great grades, in addition to great swim times, are required for a swimmer to earn one of these awards.

 

            These awards will be broken down into three levels:

 

1) All-American Scholar Athlete Award: Swimmer must have a 3.5 grade average and at least 1 Sectional Qualifying time. This award is actually a USA Swimming Award and will be presented by New Jersey Swimming. Elite will also provide a certificate to those swimmers who have qualified for this award.

 

2) The Elite Scholar-Athlete Gold Award: A swimmer must have all A’s and no more than 1 B (or the equivalent of all A’s and 1 B) plus at least 1 individual Junior Olympic QualifyTime

 

3) The Elite Scholar-Athlete Teal Award: Swimmer must have all A’s and B’s (of the equivalent) plus at least 1 individual Silver Qualfying Time

 

In addition to each swimmer receiving an impressive certificate from Elite acknowledging this achievement, from this season forward Elite will post the names of its scholar athletes on its website-forever acknowledging its most special scholar-athletes. 

 

Parents will be requested to provide the scholastic information in early March, 2008.

 

OFFICIALS & COMPUTER VOLUNTEERS NEEDED TO RUN MEETS:

 

          To effectively run meets, Elite needs a variety of parents to volunteer their time and efforts during these meets. This season, Elite will be strongly encouraging those parents who have an interest to become New Jersey certified officials.

 

            To run New Jersey sanctioned meets, certified officials are a necessity. Currently within New Jersey Swimming, there is a shortage of officials certified. Elite, while having 6 certified is understaffed and thus, under represented officiating meets. In addition, Elite likes to have officials present even when we run our dual meets/intraclub meets, as the officials provide significant feed back as to areas the coaches need to focus upon.

 

            In addition, this year Elite will be building up its volunteers with regards to the electronic running of the meets (touch pads, timing console & processing the data coming thru both into Elite’s computer).

 

Anyone with interest in either volunteer positions should contact Bill as soon as possible.

 

TIME TRIALS TO SOLVE “HAPPY” PROBLEM:

 

            The coaches believe the swimmers at Elite have a “happy” problem and the coaches plan to fix it: to find out just how much faster the Wavebuster level swimmers are since their last SCY (25 yard) times were recorded last March. To solve this “happy” problem, Elite will be holding a time trial meet at Newark Academy on Tuesday, Sept 25 for all Wavebuster level swimmers only.

 

            Returning Elite swimmers are well aware that Elite is extremely diligent in using only established times in its entry process for NJ Sanctioned meets. Elite does not use “guestimate” times for entries unless the meet is a Bronze level (no bottom cut times) nor does Elite use “conversion times” (attempting to translate Long Course Meter times-50 meter pool times- into SCY times). By holding steadfastly to this practice, Elite swimmers who have improved since last March (quite possibly a large number because of the hard training many Elite swimmers put in this past spring and summer) might inadvertently not be entered into appropriate level meets this fall (particularly the Fall Festival Meet in early November.

 

            To fix this “happy” problem, Elite will hold a Times Trial Meet on Tuesday, September 25 from 5:15 pm to 8:30 pm for swimmers in the Wavebuster Gold, Wavebuster Black and Wavebuster Teal training groups only (swimmers most likely affected by this situation).

 

            Since the Time Trials meet will be run just like Elite’s Dual/Intraclub Meet, parents will be needed to help time and officiate. Please volunteer to help out!!    

 

SUMMER “20”: PARENTS NEED TO GET INFO TO BILL:

 

            Last summer, the Elite coaches challenged swimmers in the Wavebuster Teal, Marlin Black and Marlin Teal training groups to add Elite swim practices to their summer regiment. Five workouts for each of these training groups plus a calendar were posted on Elite’s website. Swimmers were challenged to do 20 workouts during the summer and parents were requested to keep tabs of these workouts on the calendar.

 

            Parents of the “stud” swimmers who met the challenge and completed a minimum of 20 of these workouts are requested to get the calendar to Bill (by email or place it in Bill’s mailbox) so that Elite can organize and present the earned rewards. This needs to be done by Friday, Sept 22 (end of the 1st week of practice for these training groups).

 

TRYOUTS YIELD QUALITY FOR NEXT SEASON:

 

As a result of July’s tryouts, Elite expects some very competitive new swimmers joining the team in this month!! A total of 18 new swimmers have accepted Elite’s invitation to join and be part of the club. Those invited to join the team as a result of the July tryouts were:

 

 

Wave Golds: Matt Ahlmeyer, Silas Newcomb, Katerina Salsano & Ryan Wyer

 

Wave Blacks: Ryan Buckham, Matt Hong & Jonas Singer

 

Wave Teals: Drew D’Andrea, Patrick Hong

 

Marlin Blacks: James Sullivan

 

Marlin Teals: Eloise Burn, Meggie Butler, Andy Fresen, RJ Fresen, Rachel Keselman, Spencer Pearce, Michael Tortorella & Katie Tselepis

 

Congratulations to all the above. The coaches can’t wait to begin working with you on a day to day basis!!

 

ELITE PARENTS SOCIAL TENATIVELY SCHEDULE FOR FRIDAY, OCT 12:

 

            ESCPO (Elite Swim Club Parents Organization) is planning its 1st parent social for Friday, October 12. Tentative plans are for the social to be held from 7:30 pm to 9:30 pm at the Chatham Fish & Game Club in Chatham.

 

            All parents are invited. Details to follow.