ELITE NEWS BULLETIN               10-09-06

 

RACING BEGINS THIS WEEKEND:

BAC DUAL MEETS FOR WAVES & MARLINS,

TEAM 1000 FOR SENIOR LEVEL:

 

            Those quiet August and September weekends are about to be shattered; Elite begins its competition season this weekend and virtually no weekend thru March, 2007 is safe!

 

            This year, Elite will begin its competition in a unique fashion: all Elite Swimmers in the Wavebuster & Marlin training groups (and a few in the Senior Prep training group) will compete at 1 of 2 dual meet competitions verses Berkeley Aquatic Club. Each meet is being held this Saturday, Oct 14.

 

            In an attempt to make each meet manageable size-wise and competition-wise, both teams have “split” their teams into two separate teams. For Elite, this split is only done for this meet (in a similar meet vs Berkeley later in the season, Elite will also split into two). The Elite team labeled Black will compete against the stronger of the BAC teams at Morristown-Beard School at 1:00 pm. The Elite team labeled Teal will compete at BAC starting at 5:30 pm.

 

            All swimmers should check the website under Meet Schedule and locate which meet they should attend. If they are unable to attend, they need to contact Bill by email as soon as possible.

 

            Swimmers should also be aware of what Team Uniform they need to wear (team uniforms for everyone are now in and will be distributed this week!!). All swimmers are expected to race in the new Elite suit they received last month.

 

            Parents are requested to volunteer to time.

 

            For the Seniors and Senior Preps, there will be a timed 1000 swim on Saturday morning at Morristown-Beard School. These times will help establish “pace” times that swimmers should hold during sets in practice (knowledge is power!!!).

 

            Its time to start RACING!!!!

 

START CLINIC RE-SCHEDULED FOR SUNDAY, OCTOBER 22:

 

            Dean Hutchinson, Assistant Coach at Rider University, will conduct a 4 hour clinic on starts on Sunday, Oct 22 from 12 pm to 4 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. The cost for the clinic is $50 per swimmer. A Clinic Form will be posted on the website by Tuesday, Oct 10. The 1st 50 swimmers who sign up will attend the clinic. There will be no practice that day for swimmers in the Marlin Teal, Marlin Black, Wave Teal or Wave Black training groups.

 

5 SWIMMERS CONQUER SUMMER “20” CHALLENGE; WILL RECEIVE THEIR AWARDS THIS WEEK:

 

            Five enthusiastic and energetic swimmers took on the “Summer 20” Challenge the Elite coaches issued to all Elite swimmers in the Wavebuster Teal, Marlin Black and Marlin Teal training groups last spring. These special 5 swimmers will receive their awards this week at practice.

 

            Chris Balbo, Megan Balbo, Jonny Crowther, Madeleine Faust & Sarah Lowe were the industrious 5 who meet the Summer 20 Challenge. The swimmers were challenged to practice on their own for 20 separate Elite workouts during the summer. The workouts were posted on the Elite website and the parents of these swimmers have attested to the accomplishment being completed!

 

            The Elite coaches are extremely proud of these swimmers and their hard work. Their persistance and focus are to be commended. Great Job, You Guys!!!!

 

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!

 

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).

 

            Lastly, Elite will sponsor a Beginners Officials Clinic on Tuesday, October 24 at 7:00 pm at Newark Academy. This course is taught by Sid Berkowitz, the head regional NJ Swimming official and is open to all parents who express an interest in being an 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.

 

Elite desparately needs officials and requests anyone thinking about becoming an official to contact 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.Moya Chew-Lai at moya.chew-lai@prudential.com.

 

MESSAGE FROM  ESCPO:

 

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

 

Thanks to all who stopped by the ESCPO table at the suit sale on last Sunday.  More than half our swimmers families have registered and we look forward to having everyone signed up in the next few weeks.  For those who need registration information, please check under the Parent Organization section of the team website for the
necessary forms or see Bill's weekly email.  All forms should be returned to the mailbox (folder labeled Parent Organization) at Newark Academy. For Morristown Beard swimmers, forms can be given to Bill.

             By now, all families should have received ESCPO's first fundraiser campaign
Yankee Candle brochures either from the suit sale or from the coaches. Orders are due by Sunday, October 22nd and bins will be set up at MoBeard for collection that day.  If you have any questions, please contact Sandi Niccolai at Sandnic@aol.com.

 

In addition, information regarding ESCPO is now posted on the website (under Parent’s Organization). Included within these forms is a merchandize order form created by Jodi and Paul Shepard. This merchandize is available for a limited time. 

 

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!!!