ELITE NEWS BULLETIN               1-24-11

 

    “Cultivating Excellence in Academics, Character and Swimming”

 

12 & UNDERS REPRESENT ELITE AT RUTGERS INVITATIONAL:

COMPETE ALONGSIDE TOP COLLEGE GIRLS:

 

          16 Elite swimmers participated this weekend in relays in the unique meet format now known as Rutgers Invitational, held at Rutgers University.

 

            Rutgers invited 6 college women’ss teams to a two-day meet, along with NJ Swimming 12 & Unders. Invited were 13th ranked Minnesota (which won the meet), Harvard, University of Toledo, Rider University and St. Francis University (Penn). New Jersey Swimming clubs were invited to participate in Medley Relays interspersed between the college events.

 

            Elite’s 9-10 Girls, comprising of Claire Xu (back), Grace Xu (breast), Erica Iizuka (fly) and Katy Shepard (free) placed 3rd  (2.17.76), the highest placing for Elite at the meet. This quartet was nearly 2 seconds under their original seed time!

 

            Elite’s 11-12 Girls, comprising of Christina Pick (back), Alicia Iizuka (breast), Emily Gorham (fly) and Kaitlin Stearns placed 6th, being just touched out of 5th place by .06 (2.02.86).

 

            On the boys side, Elite’s 11-12 year olds also placed 6th, with Chris Balbo (back), Jimmy Coyne (breast), Matt Critchley (fly) and Evan Ng (free) swimming nearly 3 seconds under their seeded time for a 2.06.09.

 

            Elite’s 9-10 boys placed 7th, as Will Stearns (back), Ben Litvin (breast), Tedddy Maquire (fly) and Joseph Pick (free) combined for a 2.41.34 time.

 

Along the way, the Elite swimmers were treated to some very fast women’s racing; Minnesota’s Ashley Steenvoorden (from NJ) broke her Rutgers Pool record in the 1650 free (16.10. 93) and while teammate Haley Spencer clipped Olympian Rebecca Soni’s pool record in the 200 breaststroke with a 2.14.01 time!

 

THRU MID JAN, ATTENDANCE STATS FALL OFF SLIGHLY; 3 OF 7 TRAINING GROUPS AVERAGING OVER 80% OR HIGHER SENIORS LEAD WAY WITH 86.47%!!! ATHLETES RECOGNIZED:

 

          Practice attendance is the foundation of improvement. Starting the season with good attendance (and thus, great work habits and a great aerobic base) is the way to faster swimming. Thru mid January, the Elite Swimmers showed their diligent work ethic by attending practice at a rate slightly less than 80% as team!!! The Senior training group leads the outstanding & close Elite attendance race by averaging, as a training group, 86.47% attendance!!! The Seniors are followed by the Marlin Blacks (83.85%), the Marlin Teals (82.11%), the Senior Preps (78.12%), Wave Blacks (77.74%), the Wave Teals (77.69%), and the Wave Golds (71.27%).

 

At the end of the Season Awards Dinner, Elite swimmers with 85% attendance (or greater) will be presented with the Attendance Award. This award, plus attendance requirements for swimmers who want to be promoted, have positively motivated Elite Swimmers to come to practice for the past 6 years.

 

            81 swimmers, nearly half the team, are currently on track to win the attendance award (who have an 85% or higher attendance record) are (* designates perfect attendance!):

 

            Marlin Teals:  Miland Bangalore, Sheetel Bangalore, Cordelia Burn, Aaron Damesek, Jonathan Kao, Hardie Kressler, Angelina Mayers, Will Nash & Dante Soriano  

 

            Marlin Blacks: Natalia Beltran, Schulyer Bunn, Ben Campbell, Abby Hartwig*, Gabrielle Hayek, Alyssa Levy, Teddy Maguire, Leighton Mayers, Delaney Smith*, Sachi Tanwar, Zowie Vukasinovic & Doris Xia*

 

Wavebuster Teals: Megan Balbo*, Eloise Burn*, Emily Fu*, Erica Iizuka, Monica Iizuka, Fred Nagle, Joe Pick, Brandon Rossi, Katy Shepard, Gian Soriano, Will Stearns, Brittany Sun & Claire Xu

 

Wavebuster Blacks: Brielle Barba, Meggie Butler, Jimmy Coyne, Andrea Ferrell, Emily Gorham, Alicia Iizuka, Karen Iizuka, Brandon Li, Evan Ng, Danielle Peterson, Joseph Romano, Jason Steinberg, Abir Thakur, Vivian Xia & Grace Xu.

 

Wavebuster Golds:  Chris Balbo, Abbie Bigham, Emily Buckman, Morgan Conley, Elizabeth D’Altrui, Katie McGrath, Charlotte Morrissey, Caroline Nash, Christina Pick, Kaitlin Stearns & Cullen Walsh*.

 

Senior Preps:  Jess Gorham*, Gregory Macchia & Caroline Watt

 

            Seniors:  Matthew Ahlmeyer, Ryan Sebastian*, Andrea Shepard, Lindsay Stearns* & Michael Strand

COLLEGE BOUND AND SWIMMING? NJ SWIMMING SCHOLARSHIP MONEY AVAILABLE:  

            New Jersey Swimmers who are attending college next year and plan to swim can apply to receive a $1,250 one-time scholarship from New Jersey Swimming.  

            Information regarding this scholarship opportunity is attached and the application will be posted on the NJ Swimming website shortly.

PREPARATION BEGINS FOR 9-10 SILVER/BRONZE CHAMPS AND 13-19 SILVERS/BRONZE; PLEASE RESPOND TO MEET COORDINATORS EMAILS!!

Meet Coordination for the 9-10 Silver Bronze Championships is gearing up for this championship meet which Elite will host February 26th & 27th at Newark Academy.  All parents of swimmers 10 years of age and younger (yes, including 8 year olds, 7 year olds and 6 year olds) are expected to work this meet as part of their parental obligation to Elite. 

Carolyn Balbo will be emailing a questionnaire to all parents shortly requesting preferences as to which volunteer job each parent prefers. Please respond to this email asap as it will help Carolyn create her work coverage chart. Carolyn’s email is: cbalbo@comcast.net.  Jobs include officiating, timing, concessions, hall monitor, medical, admissions, coach’s hospitality, set-up & clean-up, etc. 

If Carolyn does not hear from you, she will reach out again. Two non-responses will require Carolyn to place those non-response workers in positions she needs filled, rather than their preference. 

            If a parent/family forsees a problem fulfilling their parental obligation, they need to contact Bill AND Carolyn asap. In the past, parents/families have fulfilled their parental obligation by having a relative (grandparents or siblings) work, or even hiring a worker for their spot. Thus, there is really no reason a parental obligation can not be fulfilled by an Elite club member. 

            Failure to fulfill a parental obligation will jeopardize a swimmer’s roster spot on Elite. As part of having a swimmer on Elite, parent have agreed to step up and help when it is Elite’s turn to provide splash opportunities for the greater swimming community. 

            Parents of all 13 & Older swimmers will also be contacted in the near future regarding Elite’s co-hosting of the 13 & Older Silver Bronze Championships at Rutgers University on March 12th and 13th.  All parents of swimmers 13 & over are expected to work this meet.

 REMINDER: SCHOLAR/ATHLETE AWARDS WILL BE HIGHLIGHT OF AWARDS BANQUET:

 

          With the conclusion of the 2nd marking periods, swimmers are reminded that the ultimate award an Elite swimmer can earn at the season ending Awards Banquet (Sunday, April 10, 2011) 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 Scholastic All-American Qualifying time (Jr. National bonus cut). This award is actually a USA Swimming Award and will be presented by USA 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 Qualify Time

 

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 Qualifying 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 of grammar school students should remember that Bill will review the grading legend (assuming A’s and B’s are not given) to ascertain if the swimmer has fulfilled the academic requirements to receive the award.

 

Bill is now accepting the scholastic information. If your swimmer made a JO or Silver qualifying time last summer or this winter and then aged up, an applicant must fill out the application form on the team website that will point Bill to the swim in question. All scholastic information needs to be to Bill by Tuesday, March 22 (if a marking period is about to end-please contact Bill).

 

ELITE TO ADD 2 NEW TRAINING GROUPS THIS SPRING:

A SMALL TRAINING GROUP BETWEEN SENIOR PREPS & WAVE GOLDS &

A PRE-COMPETITION TRAINING GROUP;   

 

            Elite will expand during the Spring 2011 Session by adding two training groups to the club. Each group are created to enhance the overall performance of the club. The creation of these groups will have no affect on the training schedule of the existing 7 training groups. The Spring 2011 Session training schedule will be identical to the Winter 2010-11 training schedule.

 

            Starting with the Spring 2011 Session, Elite will promote a very select group of older swimmers (mainly if not totally Seniors-to-be in High School) into a new training group called the Senior Preps-2. This training group will train from 6:30 pm to 8:30 pm at Morristown-Beard School along with the Seniors and Senior Preps. This group will consist of 3-10 swimmers and will train in one lane at a MBS from 7:00 pm to 8:30 pm.

 

          Also starting in the Spring 2011 Session, Elite will create a Pre-Elite Program. This Pre-Elite program will actually be two programs in one:

 

1)      Program #1: For swimmers at the Wavebuster Teal, Marlin Black or Marlin Teal level whom would be turned away at tryouts due to lack of space within these Elite training groups. By offering these swimmers training in the Spring 2011 (and in the Fall 2011 from Sept thru Nov 15), Elite will be developing swimmers to enter Elite when room becomes available. Each year, Elite experiences attrition during the season; this training group would “feed” the Wavebuster Teals, Marlin Blacks and Marlin Teal levels during the season when space becomes available. Swimmers in this group will also be given priority entrance into Elite at the next tryout if space does not become available during the season.

 

2)      Program #2: For swimmers who are not yet at the Marlin Teal level. This program will give these swimmers “water time” to develop their swimming within the structure of Elite’s training system. These swimmers will also have priority entrance into Elite upon achieving the Marlin Teal level (when space opens up or at the next tryout).

 

            At the moment, the plan is for the Pre-Elite program will train 3 times a week, Monday, Wednesday and Friday for 1 hour (4:00 pm to 5:00 pm).

 

SICK? COULD BE YOUR LACK OF “AT HOME” SWIMMING DETAILS!!!

 

Are you sick? Got the flu, strep or a bad head cold?  Your sickness is may be caused by your own lack of swimming details!!!

 

Since we are in our heaviest training, swimmers are “broken down” or tired based upon the heavy swimming workload. To stay healthy, each swimmer needs to practice their “at home” swimming details: drinking lots of fluids, eating properly and often, getting enough sleep and dressing properly for winter.

 

There are literally dozens of swimmers that ignore these vital “at home” swimming details, and most of these swimmers end up missing significant training and/or actually missing their meets because they do not live their “at home” swimming details. These swimmers literally shorten their training seasons due to their sickness!!!

 

Be a winner: do your swimming details at home and at school, in addition to at the pool!!!

 

PROMOTION REQUIREMENTS:

ATTENDENCE, LEVEL OF TRAINING AND STROKE TECHNIQUE: 

            As we are already well passed the mid-point of our training season, swimmers and parents are reminded that swimmers EARN their promotions by accomplishing 3 criteria thru the season. Coaches are making their recommendations for promotions to Bill starting in mid January and the promotion letters will be mailed in early February. No swimmer will be considered for promotion unless they comply with the following 3 criteria (and swimmers are reminded that they control this process, not the coaches); 

1)      great attendance as defined as follows:  

·         over 70% for Marlin Teals, Marlin Blacks, Wave Teals & Wave Blacks.

·         over 80% for Wave Golds

·         over 85% for Senior Preps

 

2)        Training within the top lanes in one’s training group. Each training group has 2 to 6 different levels of training within the training group. A swimmer must be training within the top 2 training levels to be considered.

 

3)      Great stroke technique. While swimmers are training in the top level of their training group, they need to hold their stroke technique. Each swimmer is aware of those things they need to work on.  

            Each swimmer is encouraged to talk to their coach regarding their current status and things they need to do during the 2nd half of the season to earn a promotion.  

PARENTS: PLEASE BE PROMPT IN PICKING UP SWIMMERS:

 

            Parents are requested to be prompt in picking up their swimmers at the end of practice. Recently, especially after the Wave Golds on weekdays and the Wave Teals on Saturday, swimmers have had to wait 30-45 minutes after practice for their ride.

 

            Bill has asked the coaches to remain at practice until the last child has been picked up (for the obvious safety reasons). Coaches are more than willing to do so occasionally. But Elite coaches have other full time jobs and several are attending school in addition to their primary jobs and coaching. It is unfair to ask the coaches to spend an additional 30-40 minutes waiting for parents to pick up their children.

 

            Elite is prompt about ending practice on time. Please help out the coaches by being prompt to pick up your child.

 

TIMING COORDINATORS ASK FOR YOUR HELP IN RESPONDING TO EMAILS:

 

            Parents of Elite swimmers are asked to add the following four email addresses to your e-mail address book to ensure you receive important information regarding Elite Hosted Meets, Timing Information for all other meets and Parent Association Information.  Adding the e-mail addresses will insure that these important e-mails do not go to your junk/spam folder. 

 

Carolyn Balbo -                     cbalbo@comcast.net

Sanjeeta Mukherjee -        sanjumukhe@gmail.com         

Sue Duren -                            sueduren@aol.com

Antone Balbo -                      abalbo@comcast.net

 

NEXT UP: AGE GROUP CHAMPS (& TWST DUAL CANCELLED); GO ELITE!!!; MEET INFORMATION POSTED; PLEASE RESPOND TO TIMER COORDINATORS EMAILS:

 

            Elite’s next competition will be Age Group Championships (14 & U qualifiers only) on January 28, 29 & 30. Information regarding this meet is posted on the team website at: http://www.eliteswimclub.org/Meet%20Schedule/homepage.htm. Please have your swimmer get in the habit of checking this page on a regular basis (and report back to you about details such as warm-up times, entries, meet locations!).

 

            The Tidal Wave (TWST) dual meet originally scheduled for Sunday, Jan 30 has been cancelled. Elite will hold its normal practice schedule that day.

 

WHEN IN DOUBT, CHECK THE WEBSITE:

 

            If you have questions about Elite, your first source of information is Elite’s website located at eliteswimclub.org.  When in doubt, first check the website!!!