ELITE NEWS BULLETIN               10-02-06

 

STELLAR START FOR ATTENDENCE-63% OVER 85%!!!; ATHLETES RECOGNIZED:

 

          Since improvement occurs at practice and only “shows up” at the meets, attendence is a great indicator that swimmers are already improving their times. For the past three years, Elite has been actively motivating its swimmers to increase their individual attendence at practice. It seems to be working as 104 out of 165 Elite swimmers (63% of the team!!) have attended practice at a rate of 85% or higher in September (* designates perfect attendence!):

 

            Marlin Teals:  Katie Brosnan*, Keegan Brown*, Elizabeth D’Altrui*, Erika Fresen*, Joe Gleason*, Alexandra Gordon*, Dominique Gordon*, Alyssa Hartigan*, Michael Kellstrom*, Brandon Li*, Sarah Lowe*, Matthew Migliozzi*, Colin Miller-Radest*, Spencer Todd* & Emily Torre*

 

            Marlin Blacks:  Chris Balbo, Eric Binder*, Alexandra Burkard, Helena Elston*, Emilie Ferguson, Andrea Ferrell, Emily Goad*, Andre Guacelli, Scott Harris*, Mark Kellstrom, Sarah Kleppe*, Clark LaRaia*, Isabel LaRaia*, Megan McEvoy*, Katie McGrath*,  Julia Muro*, Gregory Niccolai*, Natalie Wetmore*

 

Wavebuster Teals: Jonny Crowther*, Jeffrey Dong*, Brandon Faris*, Madeleine Faust*, Victoria Fetner, Katie Golway*, Rachel Greene, Julia Guacelli*, Patrick Lai*, Aaron Levin*, Kara Miller-Radest*, Isabella Morreale*, Caroline Nash*, Darragh O’Gorman*, Christina Pick, Gabrielle Pick*, Michelle Pick*, Taylor Savarese*, Kaitlin Stearns*, Rachel Torrorella*, Spencer Tuckington, Caroline Watt* & Richard Yu* 

 

Wavebuster Blacks:  Taylor Campolattaro*, Laura Culiuc, Sam Duren, Kristen Fedor, Spencer Fisch, Hannah Gleason, Katie Gorman*, Brent Jones, Zackie Katz, Regan Kology*, Matt Lemons, Jessie Lowe*, Marisa Manzi*, Brendan Miller-Radest*, Rebecca Niccolai, Evan O’Hara, Christopher Plunkett, Bethany Stachenfeld, Lindsay Stearns*, Sydney Todd, Michael Wang, Sarah Weinbrom, Maggie Woodruff

 

Wavebuster Golds:  Gregory Keiser, Victoria Keiser, Morgan Kiley, Emmie Lai*, Robert Maloney, Daniella Manzi, Sarah McGrath, Kendall Murray*, Katie Ragan, Amanda Scherb, Lexi Tedesco

 

Senior Preps:  Lindsay Anderson, Victoria D’Altrui, Tad Deatly, Breana Fitzpatrick, Michelle Franks, David Lemons*, Michael Li, Maggie Nelson 

 

Seniors:  Chris Dart, Sarah Peay*, Kayla Wolonsky 

 

ELITE CAN HELP SAVE RUTGERS MEN’S SWIMMING:

 

            In June 2006, Rutgers University announced that due to a loss of funds from the New Jersey State Government, it would eliminate 6 Varsity Sports. Among the unlucky sports is Men’s Varsity Swimming. Elimination of the 6 sports will save the university approximately $750,000 per year.

 

            Interestingly, 5 of the 6 sports teams Rutgers choose to cut were the top 5 Academic Teams within Rutger’s Varsity Sports (highest GPA’s among Varsity Sports Teams). Quite simply, what is the message this sends to the Student Athlete??

 

            Across the nation, Men’s Varsity Swimming has been eliminated at the college level at an alarming rate (persumably to help ease the Title IX issue but mostly to help fund revenue producing sports such as football and basketball).

 

             Chuck Warner, head coach of Rutgers Men and Women Swimming (no cost reduction in his pay to coach 1 less team), has been vigorously trying to save the Men’s Swimming Program. Chuck strongly believes that if WE show Rutgers/NJ that we care (there is an election in 6 weeks), that the program can be saved. He is working on several different levels: 1) getting influential people involved at the top University/Government level 2) raising money  3) getting the message out for mass support by the public.

 

Chuck has outlined several steps that each swimmer/NJ Club-Y team can help in “our” effort to help save Rutgers Men’s Swimming.

 

            These are the steps YOU and/or ELITE can do to help save Men’s Swimming at Rutgers University:

 

            1) go to the saverutgersswimming.org websit to get familiar with the issues

 

            2) write your congressmen. Purportedly, legislators receive very few letters regarding the issues. If we swamp them with letters in support of Rutgers Swimming, they will become familiar with the issues.

 

            3) plan to attend New Jersey Swimming Day at Rutgers University on Saturday, November 4. That is the day of the “last” Men’s home meet (if we do nothing). Warner is organizing a clinic and hoping to fly in Olympians, etc. to celebrate our successes while sending a message to legislators. Elite will be organizing our mobilization to this event.

 

            The coaches at Elite will be organizing a letter writing campaign during practice to get the message to our legislators directly from our swimmers.

 

To get started, go to the saverutgersswiming.org website. If any Elite parent has influence with Rutgers University or a state government official, please contact Bill immediately. And stay tuned!!! Lets help save our sport!

 

             

CHANGE THE DATE: BAC DUAL MEETS TO BE HELD SATURDAY, OCT 14:

 

            Due to an unexpected scheduling conflict involving the Morristown-Beard School pool (MBS is holding an open house on Sunday, Oct 15), the dual meets that Elite is participating in with the Berkeley Aquatic Club have been moved to Saturday, Oct. 14.

 

In order to allow the maximum amount of swimmers to participate, each club will host a meet that day. Elite’s meet will be held at Morristown-Beard with warm-ups starting at 1 pm. BAC’s meet will be held at Berkeley Aquatic’s facility in Berkeley Heights with warm-ups at 5:30 pm.

 

The structure of the meet will be as follows: Elite and BAC will each break their teams into two different squads (top swimmers on one team and 2nd tier swimmers on the other squad) Both top teams will compete and both 2nd tier teams will compete (hopefully getting a competitive meet in both circumstances).

 

Meet information should be posted by Wednesday, October 4.

 

The Starts Clinic previously scheduled that day will be rescheduled. Elite is working with Dean Hutchinson to find an alternatave date.

 

ELITE ACTIVE IN RECERTIFYING, FINDING NEW OFFICIALS:

 

            Elite will be an active participant in both recruiting and recertifying New Jersey Swimming Officials this fall.

 

New Jersey Swimming is unable to run a swim meet without the appropriate amount of officials. At the present, Elite has 6 officials. Being a team of 170 swimmers, Elite should have a minimum of 15-20 officials within the club. Thus, Elite parents are strongly urged to consider becoming an official (besides, the officials have the best seat in the house at the meet!).

 

            Elite, along with Morris County Swim Club, will sponsor a recertification of existing Officials at Morristown-Beard School on Thursday, October 12 at 7 pm.

 

            At the BAC Dual meet scheduled for  Saturday, October 14 at Morristown-Beard School, there will be a Starters Clinic (in conjunction with the dual meet).

 

            During the week of October 23 (date to be announced shortly), there will be a beginners clinic held at Newark Academy which will be taught by Sid Berkowitz, the head regional NJ Swimming official.

 

To complete the training to become an official, an online (and open book) test will be conducted and 5 training sessions (at meets your childs participating at) are needed. In addition, Elite “Officials in Training” will be encouraged to participate at Elite Intraclub and dual meets to help in their training process.

 

            Parents will questions regarding the training process are welcome to contact Richard Farnow (Rfarnow@ogy-grmurray.com) or Moya Chew-Lai (moya.chew-lai@prudential.com. Farnow and Chew-Lai are the co-chairpersons of the newly formed Officials Committee of the Elite Swim Club.

 

NEWLY CREATED “ESCPO” SAYS HELLO,

LOOKING FOR PARENT VOLUNTEERS:

 

            The following is a note from the newly created ESCPO Board:

 

With our children back in school, and the smell of chlorine permeating our households and cars, it can only mean one thing…..Swim Season!!  This fall marks the 12th year of operation for Elite.   This season also ushers in the inaugural year of the Elite Swim Club Parents Organization (ESCPO).  Over the course of the summer, the Board of ESCPO were hard at work laying the foundation for the formation of the organization including drafting by-laws, a mission statement, legal filings, etc. 

 

The development of our children as people, scholars and swimmers is based on not only the individual, but also the support network provided by coaches, teachers and family.  This includes the commitment we as parents make to drive our swimmers to practice, get everyone out the door for those 7 a.m. meet warm-ups, or providing those words of encouragement at the right time.

 

Elite has grown tremendously in the last few years.  One constant has been (other than Bill and Brandy) and will continue to be parental support of the team.  We extend a warm welcome to all new and returning Elite families and we are proud to include you as members in the ESC Parents Organization.  Remember, that first 7 a.m. meet warm-up is only a few weeks away.

 

Look for more information on the ESCPO on the team website and at the upcoming suit sale at Morristown Beard.  Register your family and tell us how you would like to help by volunteering your time or a special skill by filling out the attached registration and volunteer forms. 

 

See you at the pool!

 

ESCPO Board:  Dave Dart, Moya Chew-Lai, Sharon Brosnan, Sandi Niccolai.

 

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!!!