ELITE NEWS BULLETIN 10-12-09
AGE GROUP COACHES ROLL OUT “STARS
FOR STARS” PROGRAM; DAILY MOTIVATION THE TARGET:
Head Age Group Coach Ashley Johnston is rolling out the new “Stars for Stars” program this week. The goal of this program is to heighten each swimmer’s daily motivation.
Conceived by coaches Ashley, Becky and Michelle (the 3 Wavebuster Head Training Group coaches), the Stars for Stars program will consist of a master chart of each training group posted at Newark Academy. Space on the chart will be provided for each swimmer in the 5 Age Group Training Groups (Wave Golds, Wave Blacks, Wave Teals, Marlin Blacks and Marlin Teals) allowing the coaches to award sticker “stars” to those swimmers who have earned a star.
Stars will be earned by swimmers on a variety of behavior and swimming feats. Following Elite’s core philosophy, this program is a positive motivational tool to help motivate swimmers to achieve more as people and as athletes.
Additional awards will be issued to those who accumulate a significant amount of stars. Ashley, Becky and Michelle are working out the details of this “super-star” recognition/award.
11-12 BOYS STATE RECORD BREAKING
MEDLEY RELAY 6TH IN COUNTRY; SAME BOYS 9TH IN FREE RELAY:
Elite’s
11-12 Boys Medley Relay that consisted of Ryan Sebastian (back), Zach Katz
(breast), Matthew Hong (fly) & Jeffrey Dong (free) which broke the New
Jersey State Record in the 200 LCM Medley Relay this past summer with a time of
2.09.43 was the 6th fastest Medley Relay time for that age group
nationwide during the Sept 1, 2008 thru August 31, 2009 period.
The same quartet also posted the 9th fastest 200 LCM Free Relay with their 1.56.29 time. This swim missed the NJ Record books by less than one second.
Both
times were performed at Summer Sizzle last June and both were top times for New
Jersey for their age group. Link for additional information is:
ELITE WELCOMES NEW COACH JESS
KURYLAK:
Elite has added Coach Jess Kurylak to its already stellar coaching staff last week. Jess will work extensively with the Marlin Training Groups (mostly the Marlin Teals) but will also be on deck during other training group practices as she absorbs the Elite philosophy.
A former New Jersey high school swimmer, Jess arrives at Elite thru her friendship with coaches Matt King, Michael Turkot and Patty Martin. Jess literally lives houses away from Michael & Patty.
Jess is a middle school special education teacher in the Rahway School System. Welcome Jess!!!
MEETS ON THE HORIZON MEANS
TIMING COORDINATION NEAR:
In
order for Elite swimmers to compete in meets (starting in 2 weeks!), Elite
parents are expected to provide assistance in timing. At non-Elite hosted NJ Swimming meets, Elite will be asked to
cover a lane or two each session of the meet. At Elite-hosted NJ Swimming meets
and at Elite dual meets, Elite will be expected to cover 6-8 lanes during the
sessions. As a condition of having a swimmer on Elite, each parent obligated
themselves to volunteer to help out when needed.
Carolyn
Balbo, Lisa Allocco, Jennifer Tortorella and Antone Balbo will coordinate the
timing assignments the week before those non-Elite hosted NJ Swimming meets Elite
attends (such as Hall-o-ween and Fall Festival. These volunteers have asked the
following:
“Please 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
Lisa Allocco -
lallocco@alcatel-lucent.com
Jennifer Tortorella -
jctortorella@gmail.com
Antone Balbo -
abalbo@comcast.net
FILMING AT MBS TO DISTRUPT
ELITE’S LOCKER ROOM USE SUNDAY, NOV 1ST:
Morristown-Beard will be the site of a film shoot from Friday, October 30 thru Sunday, November 1st. Film crews will be using various parts of the campus.
On Sunday, November 1st, the film shoot will involve the Girls Locker Room facility in the Athletic Center from 12 pm to 6 pm. On this day, Elite will be allowed to train in the pool but will need to make some accommodations to the film crew. The tentative plan is to have the Elite Girl swimmers use the Boys locker room that day and the boys use the upstairs Men’s Bathroom as a changing and bathroom facility.
SWIM NETWORK VYING FOR YOUR INTERNET TIME:
Elite received this email from
Swimnetwork.com this week:
USA Swimming LSCs and Clubs-
For those of you who don’t know, Swimnetwork is a dynamic
and exciting online swimming destination that delivers timely and in-depth content,
expert editorial analysis, major event coverage, and compelling entertainment.
Attached is a button (jpg) for linking Swimnetwork.com to your LSC or club
website. This button is intended to share the content of Swimnetwork with your
members. We would love for you to become a part of the “network” so please put
the button on your website and then link the button to http://www.swimnetwork.com
or simply add the link to your LSC or club site.
As a bonus, if you post the button on your website and send
a screen shot or a link back to us. You will be entered to win a $150 gift
certificate to the USA Swimming videos and publications store. The store has
items ranging from parent videos to meet books. The winner will be drawn at
random on November 2nd. The winner must be either a USA Swimming
member club or LSC.
Also, please feel free to share Swimnetwork’s facebook fan
page and twitter page with your members. Please follow and become a fan! Twitter.com/swimnetwork and Facebook.com/swimnetwork
To check out everything that USA Swimming is doing with social networking click here – USA Swimming Social Networking.
TENTATIVE
LIST OF LEGAL SUITS POSTED ON TEAM WEBSITE:
USA Swimming’s tentative list of legal suits
is now posted on the Elite website, as well as USA Swimming’s website. FINA,
the world swimming federation, has not yet posted its list of legal suits. At
such time as FINA posts its list, USA Swimming will officially adopt this list
as it’s final legal suit list. USA Swimming (and Elite) will update its list
upon receipt of FINA’s list (not expected until December, 2009).
Swimmers and parents can check out the list at: http://www.eliteswimclub.org/Suits/Reference List for Allowable Swimsuits 2009.htm
CLOTHING ITEMS CAN BE PURCHASED
THRU ESCPO:
The Elite Swim Club Parents Organization is offering “Elite-wear” to anyone interested in buying clothing with the Elite logo or name on it. These items are great birthday and holiday gifts.
The link to the items available is: http://www.eliteswimclub.org/Parents Org/ELITE 2009 Clothing.pdf
REGISTRATION
FORMS ARE NEEDED FROM THESE SWIMMERS:
Registration forms were provided to each swimmer in their welcome packets handed out the first day of practice. At this time, the following swimmers still have not handed in their registration forms:
Marlin Blacks: Ethan Blum, Richard Carchia, Andy Fresen,
Wave Teals: Tabatha Georget, Rachel Hong, Andrew Huang, Jennifer Huo
Wave Blacks: Nicole Blum, Lindsay Ellerthrope, Isabella Morreale, Gloria Xu
Wave Golds: Daniel Chu, Daniel Scherb & Jonas Singer
MEET ENTRIES TO
FALL FESTIVAL OF X-CELLENCE”, HALL-O-WEEN & DISTANCE DERBY POSTED: EVENTS
DOVE-TAILED TO UPDATE WIDEST VARIETY OF TIMES:
Elite has already entered swimmers into 6 different meets (no swimmer is competing in all 6 meets). To insure the team gets as much data on our swimmers as soon as possible, for these meets where possible the meet entries will be dovetailed (swimmers will swim the widest variety of strokes and distances as possible between the three meets).
Please note that with respect to Halloween, all Wave Golds, Wave Blacks, Wave Teals & Marlin Blacks will be entered.
Please note with respect to Fall Festival, there are qualifying times (and if a swimmer makes 1 time with the session, they are allowed to swim 3 events). All Seniors, Senior Preps, Wave Golds, Wave Blacks, Wave Teals and Marlin Blacks WHO QUALIFY will be entered into this meet. The only exception will be those swimmers who also qualify for NYC OPEN, held the same weekend. Bill will determine which meet (or both-different days) these swimmers will attend. NYC OPEN is an extremely high level meet where only the top Senior level swimmers will attend (qualifying times are approximately 15 & Older Junior Olympic times-long course).
Please note with respect to Distance Derby, all Seniors, Senior Preps, Wave Golds, Wave Blacks & Wave Teals will be entered into this meet.
POOLS BREAK
DOWN; CHECK EMAIL AND WEBSITE FOR INFORMATION:
The unfortunate fact of swimming pools is that they occasionally breakdown. And usually when it is most inconvenient (like the beginning of the season). While it has not happened this September so far, Newark Academy and Morristown-Beard have been down early in the season in prior seasons. In addition, winter storms (or even the threat of winter storms) will shut down the facilities.
Thru the email chain, a blast will be sent to all swimmers if practice is unexpected cancelled. In addition, a note will be placed prominently on the website front page announcing the cancellation of the practice. This note serves as a reminder that swimmers (not parents) should regularly check the team website and emails in case there is a last minute pool disruption.
If there is
a pool disruption & practice is cancelled, all Elite members are requested
to reach out to their friends (phone, text, email) to let them know of the
situation. Cover your friend’s back!
PARKING AN ISSUE AT NEWARK ACADEMY (& MORRISTOWN-BEARD):
There is a distinct shortage of parking spaces at Newark Academy, especially on weekdays between 5:15 pm and 6:30 pm. Parents are welcome to “drop off” or “pick-up” their swimmers by the field house entrance during this time period if the driver remains in the car. If a parent is coming into the building, they are requested to park in the “upper” lot and walk thru the school to reach the pool.
Please remember to drive slowly thru the parking lots and do not park in the fire lanes, as the Livingston Police will ticket improperly parked cars.
Morristown-Beard
School parking has eased as a result of the completion of the school
construction. Parents are reminded not to park anywhere designated as
fire-lanes!
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 again 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 more officials than most NJ Swim Club is still 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 continue to build 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). If you are computer savvy or have an interest, please let Bill know!!
We are always in need of developing our Parental Talent as well!!!
Anyone with
interest in either volunteer position should contact Bill as soon as possible.
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!!!