ELITE NEWS BULLETIN               09-04-06

 

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 (Sunday, March 25, 2007) 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, 2007.

 

MAKE UP TRYOUTS SCHEDULED FOR TUESDAY, SEPT 5 AT NEWARK ACADEMY STARTING AT 4:30 PM:

 

            As a result of the registration process of existing Elite swimmers and the tryouts held last Monday, Elite will have very few openings going into the Winter 2006-07 session.

 

            However, Elite will hold “Make-Up Tryouts” on Tuesday, September 5th at Newark Academy starting at 4:30 pm for all that are interested in training with Elite this winter.

 

            Based upon the current roster, there are very few openings, particularly at the younger swimmer levels.

 

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 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 Saturday morning, September 23 for 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), this swimmers would be incorrectly entered into the Hall-O-Ween Meet (Bronze level meet) in late October rather than Fall Festival (Silver level meet) meet, which is the higher level meet.

 

            To fix this “happy” problem, Elite will hold a Times Trial Meet on Saturday, September 23 from 9:30 am to 1:00 pm for swimmers in the Wavebuster Gold, Wavebuster Black and Wavebuster Teal training groups only (swimmers 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 spring, 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. 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).

 

ZONE EXPERIENCE “EXTREMELY FUN, VALUABLE” TO THE EIGHT ELITE REPRESENTATIVES:

 

            Reports back from the 8 Elite swimmers who represented New Jersey Swimming at the 2006 Long Course Eastern Zone All Star Championships was that the 4 day meet held August 9 thru August 12 in Buffalo, New York was “extremely fun” and “very valuable” towards their swimming development.

 

            Representing Elite at this prestigious meet held were: Courtney Brosnan, Priva Duvvuri, Katie Gorman, Greg Keiser, Regan Kology, Michael Li, Lindsay Stearns & Michael Strand. These swimmers earned the right to represent New Jersey against other Eastern Zone LSC’s (New Jersey Swimming is an LSC) such as Virginia, Connecticut, Middle Atlantic & Maryland by reaching qualifying times during Junior Olympics.

 

            With the exception on Michael Li, all were 1st time Zone Qualifiers. Qualifying for this meet was the culmination and reward for all the hard work these swimmers put in the past season. Participating in this type of meet prepares swimmers to travel and compete at a very high level of competition in the future.

 

            Our swimmers competed against the Eastern Zone’s best swimmers, mingled with other New Jersey Zone Qualifiers and were even able to get in a bit of sight seeing while in Buffalo. Our swimmers also participated in a number of relays representing New Jersey.

 

            Individual results of our swimmers can be found both on our website under meet results and at starswimming.org-meet results.  

 

SCHEDULE CHANGE FOR WAVE BLACKS AND WAVE GOLDS; WB: DRYLANDS & WG:YOGA:

 

            In Elite’s continual effort to provide the best possible training for our swimmers, the master schedule has been slightly altered with regards to the Wave Golds and the Wave Black training groups.

 

With regards to the Wave Blacks, Elite will add dryland training to the group’s weekly regiment (adding 30 minutes of stretching and shoulder muscle/rotator cuff development). 

 

With regards to the Wave Golds, Elite will add Yoga Training on Thursday nights, led by Fran Scarlessa of Bank Street Yoga (Summit).

 

The master schedule for the remaining groups is identical to last spring’s schedule. Wave Blacks are reminded that their Saturday morning (9:30 am-11:00 am) practice will be moved to Saturday afternoon (2:30 pm-4:00 pm) starting in mid November. 

 

ELITE TO “START” RACING SEASON WITH CLINIC:

 

            Dean Hutchinson, Assistant Coach at Rider University, will conduct a 4 hour clinic on starts on Saturday, Oct 14 from 2 pm to 6 pm at Morristown-Beard School.

 

            Hutchinson, who attended Auburn University and was ranked 8th in the world in 1994 in the 50 meter freestyle, is a starts expert. Along with providing clinics nationwide, Hutchinson has worked with Pieter von den Hoogenband, an Olympian Gold Medalist from Holland.

 

The clinic will only be open to Elite swimmers. There will be a cost to the clinic and the clinic will be limited. More details to follow!! Mark your calendar! 

 

ELITE’S TALENT POOL HAS SIGNIFICANTLY INCREASED AS A RESULT OF TRYOUTS; ELITE WELCOMES THE FOLLOWING SWIMMERS: 

 

            As a result of the July 24 tryouts, the quality of swimming at Elite should significantly increase (from its best season ever) this coming season. On paper, the Winter 2006-07 team is by far the strongest squad Elite has ever assembled!!!

 

            Several of the 33 swimmers who tried out this summer and were accepted Elite’s invitation to train next season have actually already been part of the Elite Family. Some swam for Elite last winter but did not participate last spring and some participated last spring but were not on Elite’s Winter 2005-06 roster.

 

            The swimmers and the coaches of Elite welcome the following 33 swimmers into the fold and look forward to working these these swimmers in Sept:

 

            Wave Blacks:   Matt Lemons, Evan O’Hara, Sydney Todd

            Wave Teals:      Jonny Crowther, Jeffrey Dong, Victoria Fetner, Rachel Greene,

                                        Kara Miller-Radest, Caroline Nash, Rachel Torrorella &

                                        Richard Yu

            Marlin Blacks:   Alexandra Burkard, Emilie Ferguson, Payton Hakes, Katie

                                        McGrath, Killian O’Gorman, Nicholas Pachiolo & James

                                        Sullivan

            Marlin Teals:     Megan Balbo, Brielle Barba, Abbie Bigham, Keegan Brown,

                                        John Burkard, Elizabeth D’Altrui, Anna Elston, Erika Fresen,

                                        Joe Gleason,  Alyssa Hartigan, Brandon Li, Sarah Lowe,

                                        Matthew Miggliozzi, Colin Miller-Radest, Spencer Todd &

                                        Emily Torre