ELITE NEWS BULLETIN               11-02-09         

 

ATTENDANCE STATS STILL STRONG THRU OCT; 4 OF 7 TRAINING GROUPS AVERAGING OVER 80% OR HIGHER

WAVE TEALS LEAD WAY WITH 87.66%!!! ALL GROUPS OVER 76%; 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 Sept, the Elite Swimmers showed their diligent work ethic by attending practice at an astonishing rate of close to 80% as team!!! The Wavebuster Teal training group leads the outstanding Elite attendance race by averaging, as a training group, 87.66% attendance!!! The Wave Teals are followed by the Seniors (83.92%), the Senior Preps (80.75%), the Marlin Teals (80.07%), the Wave Golds (77.15%).Wave Blacks (76.53%) and the Marlin Blacks (76.51%).

 

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 5 years.

 

            The 86 swimmers, 43% of the team, who are currently on track to win the attendance award (who have an 85% or higher attendance record) are (* designates perfect attendance!):

 

            Marlin Teals:  Schulyer Bunn*, Peter Carchia, Gabrielle Hayek*, Alyssa Levy, Delaney Smith, Dante Soriano, Jack Wenzel* & Doris Xia 

 

            Marlin Blacks:  Claire Chiperfield, Carolyn Delaney, Erica Iizuka, Monica Iizuka, Sandeepan Mukherjee, Joe Pick, Natalie Pruitt, Will Stearns, Sachi Tanwar*

 

Wavebuster Teals: Megan Balbo*, Katie Brosnan, Meggie Butler*, Jimmy Coyne, Avinash Duvvuri, Katherine Friday, Clio Galea, Emily Goad, Emily Gorham, Andrew Huang, Alicia Iizuka, Karen Iizuka, Katie Iovel, Rachel Keselman, Jessica Kraus, Brandon Li*, Michael Maccia*, Cody Matheson, Katie Shepard, Abigail Shvorin, Gian Soriano, Brittany Sun, Vivian Xia, Claire Xu, Grace Xu* 

 

Wavebuster Blacks: Abbie Bigham, Emily Buckman, Morgan Conley, Elizabeth D’Altrui, Drew D’Andrea, Andrea Ferrell, Julia Guacelli, Emma Harris, Patrick Hong, Patrick Lai, Charlotte Morrissey, Michael Nitting, Camile Relota & Abir Thakur 

 

Wavebuster Golds:  Chris Balbo, Lindsay Behar, Caitlin Brown, Andrea Galea*, Ariel Gelman, Lindsey Giostra, Jess Gorham*, Alyssa Hartigan, Matt Hong, Isabel LaRaia, Greg Maccia, Katie McGrath, Carolyn Nash, Kaitlin Stearns, Rachael Tortorella, Caroline Watt

 

Senior Preps:  Matthew Ahlmeyer, Anthony Don, Alli Dorneo*, Sam Duren, Regan Kology*, Emmie Lai, Ryan Sebastian*, Andrea Shepard & Lindsay Stearns*

 

            Seniors:  Chelsea Allocco*, Alex Mango, Ali Morreale, Michael Strand* & Ryan Wyer  

 

DISTANCE DERBY 3 WEEKS OUT; RESPONANCE TO CAROLYN BALBO’S COORDINATION EMAIL EXCELLENT:

 

            In order to help provide racing opportunities for our swimmers, Elite hosts or co-hosts New Jersey Swimming/USA Swimming sanctioned meets thru the swimming year (September thru July). Times from these meets are downloaded into USA Swimming’s SWIMS database (truly, the national swimming database for times, as in addition to USA Swimming meets, YMCA championship meets and NCAA championship meets are included in this database). One can access this database at http://www.usaswimming.org/usasweb/DesktopDefault.aspx?TabId=358&Alias=Rainbow&Lang=en-US.

 

            This year (Sept 2009 thru July, 2010), Elite will host 2 meets and co-host 3 meets. Co-hosting meets allows Elite to run meets without the full burden of hosting the meet. Hosting meets is a significant burden on the club’s membership (fully recognized by the coaching staff and appreciated). Both hosting and co-hosting meets provides our swimmers and swimmers from other clubs “splash” opportunities in racing situations. Next weekend, X-Cel at Fall Festival will be providing that opportunity for our club. Thus, NJ Swimming is a community, and Elite needs to do its part as part of this swimming community.

 

            The first meet Elite hosts each year is Distance Derby, to be held this year on Saturday, November 21 and Sunday, November 22 (3 weeks out) at Newark Academy.  All Elite swimmers in the Senior and Wavebuster training groups are entered into this meet. Parents of every swimmer in the Senior and Wavebuster training groups (Gold, Black and Teal) are expected to work this meet in the sessions that their swimmer(s) are participating in as part of their parental obligation to Elite. Jobs include officiating, timing, concessions, admissions, coaches hospitality, set-up & clean-up.

 

            Coordinating this year’s Distance Derby Parents is Carolyn Balbo (thanks Carolyn!). Carolyn will be emailing a questionnaire to all parents this week requesting preferences as to what work each parent prefers. Response to Carolyn’s emails has been terrific! (thanks parents!). As of Thurday, only 12 parents had not responded to the initial email. Carolyn’s email is: cbalbo@comcast.net.

 

            A total non-response 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 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 almost no reason a parental obligation can be fulfilled.

 

            Any family who does not fulfill their parental obligation will be jeopardizing their swimmer’s roster spot on Elite. We expect parents to step up and help when it is Elite’s turn to provide splash opportunities for the greater swimming community.

 

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 virtually every night.

 

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

 

MEET SCHEDULE & MEET ENTRIES UPDATED!!;

 

            Updated information has prompted changes to the meet schedule while last weekend’s performances have allowed Elite to update some of their meet entries. It is advisable to double check both.

 

PRACTICE SCHEDULE CHANGES (SLIGHTLY) NOVEMBER 16 FOR MARLIN TEALS & MARLIN BLACKS….

 

Swimmers and Parents are reminded that the practice schedule will change come Monday, November 16. The changes will only affect the Marlin Teals and the Marlin Blacks practices.

           

Starting Monday, November 16, Newark Academy’s high school and middle schools will begin training for their winter competitions. To accommodate NA, the immediate effect will be that the Marlin Teals and Marlin Blacks will “lose” 15 minutes of training (actually, we add 15 minutes of training in September and October and just revert back to the original practice schedule) and begin training at 5:15 pm on Mondays, Wednesdays & Fridays. Practice for these groups will still conclude at 6:00 pm.

 

….JUST WHEN YOU THOUGHT IT WAS SAFE NOT TO LOOK AT OUR PRACTICE SCHEDULE: HIGH SCHOOL MEETS TO DISRUPT PRACTICES:

 

            In December, January and thru the middle of February, high school & middle school swim teams conduct practice and meets at the two pools Elite uses. Incredibly, a total of 7 high school and middle school teams use either Newark Academy or Morristown-Beard School during this time in addition to Elite. What these means to us is that Elite’s practices will be disrupted as meets will encroach into Elite’s practice times.

 

            On days when there are no meets, Elite’s practices will be held at the identical time. However, on those days when a high school or middle school is using one of our pools for a meet, our practices might be shortened at the front end or on the back end. And meets get canceled and rescheduled. So, please continue to check the practice schedule for practice time changes on a daily basis!!

 

PARENTS: PLEASE WATCH YOUR SWIMMERS SIBLINGS DURING PRACTICE:

 

            Parents watching practice are urged to keep track of your swimmer’s siblings. Accidents have occurred in the past to unattended (and even attended) siblings.

 

            Parents are reminded that their swimmers are covered by USA Swimming’s master insurance policy while at practice. Siblings are not covered by this policy. Caution is requested when dealing with swimmer’s siblings.

 

            Parent also need to be aware that the space behind the Newark Academy bleachers is very dangerous. There are steel ropes holding the bleachers to the back wall. There has been a accident involving a child and these steel ropes in the past and parents are requested not to let anyone play or be behind the bleachers.

 

MEETS MEANS TIMING COORDINATION:

 

            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

 

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. This 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:

 

Wave Teals: Tabatha Georget

 

            Wave Golds: Daniel Scherb & Jonas Singer

 

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!!!