ELITE NEWS BULLETIN               11-08-10

 

    “Cultivating Excellence in Academics, Character and Swimming”

 

ATTENDANCE STATS ARE VERY STRONG THRU OCT; 5 OF 7 TRAINING GROUPS AVERAGING OVER 80% OR HIGHER SENIORS LEAD WAY WITH 89.3%!!! 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 Oct, the Elite Swimmers showed their diligent work ethic by attending practice at an astonishing rate of over 80% as team!!! The Senior training group leads the outstanding Elite attendance race by averaging, as a training group, 89.30% attendance!!! The Seniors are followed by the Marlin Blacks (86.26%), the Marlin Teals (83.17%), the Senior Preps (80.87%), Wave Blacks (80.40%), the Wave Teals (77.67%), and the Wave Golds (72.85%).

 

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*, Nikhil Deokar, Hardie Kressler*, Ryan Lam, Angelina Mayers, Will Nash, Dante Soriano* & Grace Zinn  

 

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

 

Wavebuster Teals: Megan Balbo*, Aislin Black, Eloise Burn*, Gauri Deorkar, Emily Fu*, Jennifer Huo, Erica Iizuka, Monica Iizuka, Katie Iovel*, Audrey Kim, Jessica Kraus, Sandeepan Mukherjee, Fred Nagle, Katy Shepard, Abigail Shvorin, Gian Soriano*, Will Stearns, Brittany Sun, & Claire Xu

 

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

 

Wavebuster Golds:  Chris Balbo, Emily Buckman, Morgan Conley, Elizabeth D’Altrui, Rachel Emodi, Ariel Gelman, Aaron Levin, Katie McGrath, Charlotte Morrissey, Caroline Nash, Darragh O’Gorman, Nicholas Pachiolo, Kaitlin Stearns & Cullen Walsh*.

 

Senior Preps:  Jenni Allocco, Lindsey Giostra, Jess Gorham*, Gregory Macchia, Dan Muro, Jonas Singer & Caroline Watt

 

            Seniors:  Matthew Ahlmeyer, Ali Morreale, Maggie Nelson, Ryan Sebastian*, Andrea Shepard, Lindsay Stearns*, Michael Strand & Ryan Wyer

ELITE SENIOR LINDSAY STEARNS HONORED BY SUSAN B. KOMEN FOR ELITE-A-THON CONTRIBUTIONS!!! YEARS OF WORK RECOGNIZED!!

            Elite Senior Lindsay Stearns was honored yesterday by the Susan B. Komen For the Cure North Jersey Foundation before a crowd of over 100 Komen volunteers and supporters. Lindsay was honored for her cumulative efforts of raising money for this prestigious foundation thru the annual Elite-a-thon each May. Lindsay is a 14 year old high school freshman at Millburn High.

            Each May, Elite holds a fundraiser for charities called Elite-a-thon. Thru Elite-a-thon, swimmers raise pledges for the charity of their choice by obligating themselves to swim laps during a 2 hour open swim.

            The Elite-a-thon was the brainchild of Elite swimmer Will Peters 9 years ago (Will is now a 22 year old Senior at Kenyon College).

Stearns has participated in Elite-a-thon each of her 8 years she has been part of the Elite Swim Club and has raised approximately $3000. Last May, Lindsay took over the responsibilities of coordinating the event and rallied Elite swimmers to the largest turnout in recent memory (39 swimmers participated)!!

ESCPO ANNOUNCES SWIM BAGS AND CLOTHING ITEMS HAVE ARRIVED:

            The Elite swim bags and clothing items are in (with the exception of the jackets and the performance polos).  We expect the jackets in by Thanksgiving.  Jodi Shepard will be at Newark Academy on Tuesday at 6:30 for Wave Teals and Wave Golds and at 6 on Wednesday for the Marlins and Wave Blacks.  Senior and Senior Preps will have their orders delivered to Morristown Beard.  If you are unable to meet Jodi at these times, please contact Allison Nash at allisonrnash@msn.com or Jodi Shepard at jc.shepard2@verizon.net to make alternate arrangements.  Also if you have items that are gifts, Jodi or Allison will be in touch to make arrangements.

            Allison also has Elite magnets and Elite Window Clings.  Email her at allisonrnash@msn.com if you need them.
Thanks, in advance, for picking up your Elite wear!!!

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.

WINTER 2010-11 THEME:

PB= A + TP + (F+W) + R + RS + (S + T + ST + FN) + E!!

            This season, Elite’s theme is an algebraic formula that describes the 11 controls that go into a personal best (PB) performance. A swimmer may not be able to “control” the time they get during a performance, but every swimmer can control each and every 11 controls that go into a personal best swim! This formula is on the back of this year’s white shirt uniform.

            This formula is meant to give each Elite swimmer the knowledge that they, the swimmer, control all the factors going into a personal best. Armed with this knowledge, if a swimmer works on improving or controlling each factor going into a personal best, they can virtually guarantee themselves a personal best most of the time.

            PB = personal best. A = attendance at practice while TP = training performance (how hard a swimmer works) during practice.

            F + W = fuel (nutrition) and water intake. R = rest while RS = race strategy. S + T + ST + FN = starts, turns, stroke technique and finishes.

            The most important factor is, of course, “E” which stands for ENTHUSIASM!!!

MARLIN TEALS TO BE INCLUDED IN DISTANCE DERBY IN SESSION #1 (SATURDAY 10 & UNDERS): MEET ENTRIES TO BE POSTED SHORTLY; MARLIN TEAL PARENTS REQUESTED, BUT NOT REQUIRED, TO HELP OUT AT THE MEET:

            Due to room within Session #1 (Saturday, 10 & Under Session), Elite will include the Marlin Teals at Distance Derby in Session #1 this year. All Marlin Teals will be entered into two new events: the 50 free and the 50 back.

 

            This year’s Distance Derby event format was structured to be swimmer and parent friendly; each session was designed to be limited to 2 hours, with the theory that shorter sessions will allow swimmers to get their races in and then get out and enjoy the rest of their day. 9 of the 10 offered sessions will be between 1.5 and 2.25 hours long.

 

            The one Session exception is Session 1 (Saturday, 10 & Under Session). Based upon the current entries, this session is timed out to just 1 hour, which is just not long enough for swimmers of this level to recover between events. Quite simply, Session #1 needed to be elongated.   

 

            Head Coach Bill approached NJ Swimming and they have approved Elite to add 2 events (10 & U 50 free & 10 & U 50 Back for both girls and boys).  The 50 free event will be swum after the 200 frees and the 50 back event will be swum after the 100 butterfly.  

 

            Although this is an Elite hosted meet and parents of Elite swimmers are expected to man those jobs needed to be performed to provide these splash opportunities for our swimmers, because of the late notice, Elite will not require Marlin Teal parents to work this meet. However, Marlin Teal parents are highly encouraged to offer to help while they are at the meet. Marlin Teal parents who would like to help are requested to contact Carolyn Balbo at CBALBO@COMCAST.NET this week.

 

DISTANCE DERBY 2 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 (2 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.

 

JOURNALISM INTERNSHIPS AVAILABLE WITH SWIMMING WORLD AT CERA VE INVITATIONAL IN JANUARY:

 

            Recreating the opportunity provided to New Jersey Swimmers last winter, Swimming World and Berkeley Aquatic Club will provide journal internships during the CeraVe Invitational Meet to be held January 14 thru January 16, 2011.

 

            With the overwhelming success of the Summer 2008 Beijing Olympics and what swimming as a sport provided to that success, swimming is becoming more main-stream each year. NBC Sports has increased its coverage of high level swimming, including telecasting the Pan Pacific Games this past summer.

 

            Swimming World, the most widely read swimming magazine, will be providing internships for those people in New Jersey to 1) to interview Olympians and top swimmers at the meet 2) to be  involved in producing content for Swimming World’s magazine and website-both audio and visual and 3) to interact with the Swimming World Staff.

 

            For the past two years, Elite swimmer Sam Duren (now a Senior Prep) took advantage of this opportunity.

 

            Forms for applying for the internship are attached to this memo.

           

“COLLEGE DAY”; BILL TO DISCUSS THE COLLEGE HUNTING/SWIMMING RECRUITMENT PROCESS ON FRIDAY, NOV 26:

 

            All swimmers (particularly juniors and sophomores) and all parents are welcome to a seminar that Bill will conduct on Friday, Nov 26 (day after Thanksgiving) at Morristown-Beard School from 9:30 am to 10:30 am regarding the College Hunting/Swimming Recruitment process.

 

            Bill will provide his insight into 1) when to start the college hunting process 2) how to determine what colleges are right for the student 3) if your swimmer plans to swim in college, how to attack the recruiting process and 4) when and how often to engage conversation with college swim coaches.

 

            Swimmers should bring pens and several pieces of paper to take notes.

 

MARLIN PRACTICE SHORTENS BY 15 MINUTES STARTING NOVEMBER 15; NEWARK ACADEMY’S VARSITY SWIM TEAM TO USE POOL TO 5:15 PM, VARSITY MEETS AT NA AND MBS TO AFFECT PRACTICE SCHEDULE:

 

            Elite’s practice schedule will adjust on Monday, Nov 15 when Newark Academy’s Varsity Swim Team begins their Winter Sports Season. On Monday, Wednesday and Friday’s, practice will begin at 5:15 pm and run til 6:00 pm.

 

            The Varsity Swim Teams at both Newark Academy and Morristown-Beard will affect the schedule at both pools once high school dual meets start. Millburn High School also uses Newark Academy’s pool to train and compete (starting at 8:30 pm Monday thru Thursdays).

 

            Elite’s practice time at Newark Academy will occasionally be clipped either at the front end (NA’s meets usually end at 5:15 pm or 5:30 pm) or the back end (Millburn’s meets start at 8:00 pm). Morristown-Beard, Villa Walsh & Delbarton (both with occasionally host meets at MBS) meet schedule will occasionally clip the Senior practices at MBS.

3rd PARENT WORKSHOP WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 17 AT NA; TOPIC: LEARNED OPTIMISM:    

            Head Coach Bill Deatly will hold the season’s 3rd Parent Workshop on Wednesday, November 17 from 6:45 pm to 8:15 pm at Newark Academy. The main topic of discussion will be “Learned Optimism” or how we can train our swimmers to turn failure into hope (will work for all facets of life and for Adults, too!!).

            All Elite parents are welcome (and highly encouraged!) to attend.

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: FALL RALLY FRIDAY, NOV 12 THRU SUNDAY, NOV 14; GO ELITE!!!; MEET INFORMATION POSTED; PLEASE RESPOND TO TIMER COORDINATORS EMAILS:

 

            Elite’s next two competitions will be Peddie Invite (qualifying Seniors and Senior Preps only) and Fall Rally (Seniors, Senior Preps, Wave Golds, Wave Blacks, Wave Teals & Marlin Blacks). 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!

 

ELITE LEADING WAY WITH “SWIMMER/PARENT FRIENDLY MEETS”:

DISTANCE DERBY REFORMATTED INTO 2 HOUR SESSIONS!!!

PARENTS ARE REMINDED THEY ARE EXPECTED TO WORK THE SESSIONS THEIR SWIMMER IS COMPETING IN:

 

          The one unanimous complaint about year round swimming is the length of the meet sessions during competition. Between the need 1) to have enough swimmers/competition in the building to make the meet competitive & to pay for the pool rental 2) to have enough recovery time for the swimmers between events and 3) the USA Swimming rule discouraging sessions to last longer than 4 hours, most New Jersey Sanctioned swim meet sessions last the prescribed 4 hours.

 

            Elite is taking the lead in attempting to change these “needs” and the overall mentality within NJ Swimming. A “Swimmer/Parent Friendly Meet” is the goal of this year’s Distance Derby.

 

            Elite’s hosted meet Distance Derby (held Saturday, Nov 20 & Sunday, Nov 21) has been reformatted into more but much shorter sessions. In fact, Elite is attempting to halve the session times into 2 hour sessions (yes, you read that correct: two hour sessions!!). With any luck at all, a swimmer (and parent) will be in and out of the building in less than 3 hours (when you factor in the warm-up time). The exception will be those swimmers participating in one of the distance sessions (which have been limited to 1.5 hours). The sanctioned meet information is now posted on the team website (and more information will be posted shortly). The meet format is as follows: 

 

             Meet Schedule:

 

Saturday, November 20, 2010

Warm-up

Start

Session 1

10 & Under Day 1 Session

 12:00 p.m.

12:40 p.m.

Session 2

12 & Under 500 yd Free Session

2:40 p.m.

3:00 p.m.

Session 3

11 - 12 Day 1 Session

4:30 p.m.

5:10 p.m.

Sunday, November 21, 2010

Warm-up

Start

Session 4

13 & 14 Day 2 Session

  7:00 a.m.

    7:40 a.m.

Session 5

Open 1000 Free Session

  9:40 a.m.

  10:00 a.m.

Session 6

15 & Older Day 2 Session

11:30 a.m.

 12:10 p.m.

Session 7

10 & Under Day 2 Session

  2:10 p.m.

   2:50 p.m.

Session 8

11-12 Day 2 Session

  4:50 p.m.

   5:30 p.m.

 

          This goal is for all parents and swimmers to spend less time at the pool. In order to accomplish this, Elite put a 2 event limit per session on each swimmer’s entries.

 

          Carolyn Balbo, as team meet coordinator, will shortly be reaching out to each participating family as to meet job responsibilities. Swimmers in the Seniors, Senior Preps, Wavebuster Golds, Wavebuster Blacks, Wavebuster Teals and Marlin Blacks will participate. Please respond to Carolyn as soon as you are able.

 

WANT TO SAVE $? LET BILL KNOW PRIOR TO ENTRIES SUBMITTED

THAT YOUR SWIMMER WILL NOT ATTEND A MEET (OR A SPECIFIC DAY OF THE MEET):

EVENTS TO DOVE-TAILE TO UPDATE WIDEST VARIETY OF TIMES:

 

            Swimmers who know they are not available for all or part of Elite meets should email Bill early early as possible. These emails will actually result in the family saving 50% of the entry fee (credit to be posted on the swimmer’s next bill).

 

            All swimmers (and parents-with the exception of the Marlin Teals) are expected to participate and work Distance Derby (Nov 20 & Nov 21) during the sessions that their swimmers are participating).

 

            Any parent who knows their child is NOT available for one or more of these meets (and if they are not available for 1 day of a 2 day meet) should email Bill NOW!!!

 

            Swimmers and parents should note that Elite’s philosophy is to dove-tail entries for several meets. This gives the swimmer the opportunity to update the widest variety of events and distances. 

           

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!!!