Friday, January 30, 2009

Prep clinics for YOUR team, at YOUR time

Curran Aquatic Center invites TSA teams to bring over their swimmers for exclusive summer prep clinics! The kids can get in the water together to swim before the pools open (and the water warms up) to get excited about the summer season.

Contact our Program Manager, Doracy Harrison, for more information and to schedule a time for your club's clinic. Limited slots this Spring!

919.459.4045 x223 or email dharrison@triangleaquatics.org

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

We've Added 24 New Spots

Thank you to all the TSA reps that have shared information about our swim team prep classes at the Triangle Aquatic Center. We have filled all of our swim team prep classes at the TAC location.


To meet the demand for swim team prep classes we are adding a new location at Impact Athletics with 24 new open spots. We have two outstanding coaches for this location, SEE OUR IMPACT LOCATION COACHES.


TAC LOCATION - All 66 swim team prep slots are full.

IMPACT ATHLETICS LOCATION- 24 new swim team prep spots open.


For more information contact either Susan or Andrea at 919-267-4762 or
CUSTOMER SUPPORT

_____________________________________________________________________

Coaches to Student Ratio / 1:6
Swim Team Prep Classes are 60 minutes and the class is offered as follows:

Sunday, February 8, 2009 thru Sunday, March, 29, 2009 (8 classes) - $100.00

All classes will be at Impact Athletics Pool in Cary.

  • Sunday @ 3:00-4:00 p.m. - Swim Team Prep 1 (12 spots / 2 Coaches)
  • Sunday @ 4:00-5:00 p.m. - Swim Team Prep 2 (12 spots / 2 Coaches)

_____________________________________________________________________

Monday, January 26, 2009

Board of Directors meeting is tomorrow night

Just a reminder that the TSA Board of Directors meeting that was originally scheduled for last Tuesday will be held tomorrow night at 7:00 at the Triangle Aquatic Center. As before, please bring your own copy of the meeting agenda (and also the minutes of our last meeting) if possible.

One of the topics we’ll discuss will be our 2009 meet calendar. In addition to the information about previous meet calendars shown in a table on the agenda, I’ve also re-cast that data as a bar chart, which might be easier to grasp visually. And as long as we’re delving into history, some of you may also be interested in TSA’s growth trends and its detailed club membership history, both of which now have complete data covering TSA’s entire history starting in 1971.

See you then!

Bob

Swim Across America-Making Waves to Fight Cancer-Quick Style

Please join the swimming community in helping Richard fight! Please post attached are your local club, Year Round Club or YMCA to get the word out!!!!! Richard is the current Auburn University Swim Coach and is in the battle of his life! Go to your local pool and swim on February 14th as one, as strength is gained in numbers and with each and everyone of you, we can make a difference!!!!!!

Libby George, Durant Typhoons

As most of you have heard, one of America’s most respected and decorated Swim Coaches, Richard Quick, has been diagnosed with inoperable brain cancer. In the world of swimming, he has "done it all" – coached six US Olympic Swimming Teams, led his collegiate teams to 12 NCAA titles, inspired every swimmer he has coached, and led the swimming community with respect and integrity.
Now it is our turn to give back. Richard and his family have teamed up with Swim Across America in an attempt to combat this disease and raise money towards finding a cure. The swimming community is now tasked with joining forces with Richard as he faces this newest challenge in his life.
WHAT IS SWIM QUICK?
Many people in the swimming community have asked what they can do to help Richard during these difficult days. "Swim Quick" is a fundraising program developed by Swim Across America to answer this question -- and it provides a tangible way for everyone to support Richard. By collectively donating to Swim Across America and swimming together in his honor, we can share with him how much he has impacted our lives.
HOW DO I PARTICIPATE?
Simply go to www.swimacrossamerica.org/swimquick and donate as generously as you can. You can also register to swim in the event. Or, if you are a coach, you can reach out to your team to participate and dedicate a workout in Richard’s honor. Simply tell your swimmers and parents about the program, ask for donations and collect the funds. All checks can be made out to Swim Across America, Inc. and will be put toward the Richard Quick Endowment.
WHEN IS SWIM QUICK?
The event will be held on February 14th, Valentines Day with hundreds of people swimming in his honor and sending him their positive thoughts, prayers and energy while they swim. However, if this day and time doesn’t work with your schedule, you can swim in his honor on any day and at any time that is convenient for you or your team.
QUESTIONS?
Please contact Janel Jorgensen, Executive Director, Swim Across America at janel@swimacrossamerica.org or call (888) SWIM-USA. Swim Across America, Inc. is a non-profit organization created over 20 years ago to with the mission of raising money and awareness for cancer research, prevention and treatment. All checks should be payable to Swim Across America, and can be mailed to One International Place, Suite 4600, Boston, MA, 02110.

Saturday, January 24, 2009

Coaching Position: Harrington Grove Swim & Racquet Club

COACHING POSITION:
Harrington Grove
Swim & Racquet Club

TSA SWIM LEAGUE:
Harrington Grove Swim & Racquet Club is looking to hire a responsible individual with swimming knowledge, who is organized, and enthusiastic about coaching our summer swim team (ages 4 –18). Must be available late May through late July for practices and swim meets. Harrington Grove is located in northwest Raleigh off the 540- Leesville exit.
E-mail resumes to: jcountie@nc.rr.com or call
919-846-0287 with questions by March 1, 2009.
Prior coaching experience preferred.

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

TAC Programs of interest to TSA Pools

I'm pleased to announce some great programs for families and staff at summer pools to prep for the upcoming season!

GuardStart: Junior Guard program for 11-14 yr olds, to be held evenings and as half-day camp in track-outs. They even earn Community CPR and First Aid certification in the course!

Torpedoes (evening/Sat) and Tigerfish (daytime): Monthly swim team prep groups that bridge the gap between lessons and competitive swim team.

Summer tune-ups: Saturday afternoon clinics starting mid-April to help kids gear up for the opening of the summer season. Only $5 each Saturday. Come to one or all!

Lifeguard/CPR classes and recertifications: We have several offerings to help accommodate everyone's schedules, including Cary Academy, Cardinal Gibbons, and college breaks.

Water Safety Instructor: Boost the caliber of the instructors at your pool with American Red Cross WSI certification. They'll be certified in the new release (Mar '09) of the WSI curriculum.

and of course, our Swim Lessons are on-going for daytime, evening, and Saturday options. Other fun and different classes we have are Synchronized Swimming and Discover Scuba!

If you would like more information on the above programs, please email me at dharrison@triangleaquatics.org for flyers or details.

Board of Directors meeting postponed until January 27th

Due to hazardous travel conditions, the January meeting has been postponed until next week. We will meet at the same location (TAC in Cary) at the same time of day (7:00 PM), but we will do it exactly one week later on Tuesday, January 27th.

Monday, January 19, 2009

Possible postponement of Tuesday's Board of Directors meeting

It looks like TSA can't escape weather worries even when the pools are closed. With a threat of winter weather approaching, we may not be able to hold our first Board meeting tomorrow night. Stay tuned to this blog -- I will post a go/no-go decision no later than noon Tuesday.

If we are forced to postpone the meeting, it would be made up exactly one week later (7:00 PM on Tuesday, January 27) at the same location (TAC in Cary). I realize that some of you may have schedule conflicts next week, so if we do end up postponing, please get one of your club's Alternate Reps to come. If you don't have an Alternate Rep, please designate some member of your club to attend.

In the meantime, Leagues & Scheduling chairman Bill Grussemeyer is already accepting your feedback about the proposed team rankings and would like to get everyone's input by the end of Wednesday the 28th regardless of when we hold the Board meeting. So please study the rankings proposal in the agenda and send Bill your comments. If you downloaded a copy of the agenda prior to 5 PM today, please retrieve it again. The original version contained errors in the South League rankings proposal on page 6: the "2008 Rank" column actually contained 2007 rankings, and the "Potential Rank Change" column was therefore also incorrect. A second version of the agenda (marked as such at the top of page 1 and the bottom of page 6) is now available that corrects those errors.

January Board of Directors meeting

A reminder: our first Board meeting of 2009 is coming up tomorrow night (Tuesday, January 20) at 7:00 at the Triangle Aquatic Center. If you can, please print and bring your own copy of the meeting agenda. A limited number of hard copies will be available for those unable to bring their own.

One high-priority issue to think about before the meeting: no one has yet expressed interest in serving as TSA Treasurer for the term spanning this year and next. Our current Treasurer, Nita Dail, no longer has any children swimming in TSA and has therefore opted not to stand for reelection. So before we leave Tuesday night, we must identify someone in the room to serve as Treasurer! Please review the job description on page 3 of the agenda and consider serving in this office; you will see that it is not a very onerous or time-consuming position and that no special qualifications are required.

See you there!

Friday, January 16, 2009

2009 Swim for Smiles Youth Triathlon - Registration Open

First, I want to thank the TSA for so many participants in our 2008 event. Over 100 of the 370 kids who participated in the 2008 Swim for Smiles Youth Triathlon apparently from the TSA. And, a special thanks to Bob Goudreau for allowing us to use your Blog site to get the word out. We ended up raising over $15,000 from that event.

I am writing to tell you about the 2009 event! We opened registration this morning at 11:30am for the 3rd Annual Swim for Smiles Youth Triathlon - to be held, again, in Chapel Hill - on Sunday, May 31st. Last year's event drew more than 370 participants and we sold out of spaces. So, we have expanded to over 400 spots for 2009.

Remember, this is a fundraiser for the UNC Children's Hospital and kids ages 6-17 can participate - we have a short course (100m swim/2.5mile bike/1K run) and a long course (300m swim/5mile bike/3k run) and every finisher gets a medal and we have all sorts of prizes for placing in each age group.

Please consider passing this information on to your swim teams and encouraging them to participate. It's a lot of fun, it's for a great cause and it's truly Kids Helping Kids.

Check out complete details here.

Thank you,

The Swim For Smiles Foundation

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Some feedback from the survey feedback

Some of the comments in responses to the post-season survey posed questions that I can answer, or reported problems that are already addressed. There were also a couple that seem to be based on mistaken information, and I'd like to clear those up too. So here they are, in no particular order...


A comment on last year’s Board meetings said:

“One meeting date was changed to a date before the original scheduled one and it made it impossible to attend. Not all reps check the blog or web site daily.”

I’m not sure what this is referring to. No dates were changed, and all meeting notifications and reminders were sent by email (as well as being posted on the blog). The entire slate of 2008 Board meeting dates was announced in email sent to all TSA Reps on November 29, 2007, which pointed to the previous day’s Blog posting. All were held on the originally advertised dates, except for the April one, which the Board voted at the March meeting to cancel (as we usually do when there is no more TSA business to discuss before May). Each meeting (as well as the cancellation) was also heralded by an email reminder and a new blog posting a day or two in advance of the event.


A couple people wished there was a way to train Stroke & Turn judges on the web:

“If this is on DVD, it should be made more readily available for past stroke and turn judges.”

“Since the content is all there on line we should have an on-line clinic.”


This is entirely feasible technically, but impossible for legal reasons. The dilemma here is that the video clips are an essential part of the training, but we do not have the rights to distribute them electronically because they are copyrighted material owned by USA Swimming. We are allowed to use them in person because we actually own two separate copies of the training DVD from which they are taken; we can thus conduct up to two (but not more) simultaneous S&T clinics that display this material.


A comment about the meet result entry part of the web site suggested:

“Consider adding another option for the meet results: NO SWIM. This would address situations where weather does not permit swimming and each team agrees not to swim. Right now you have to call it a tie, but another option may be more descriptive.”

We actually do have that capability already. One of the meet status values (along with “Completed Full Meet”, “Completed Partial Meet”, etc.) is “Meet Not to be Completed”, which is intended for exactly such situations. A canceled meet is scored as a tie, but the 0-0 score does convey to next year’s Leagues & Scheduling Committee (and anyone else) that no actual meet was held.


Another rep had trouble seeing meet results:

“…as a TSA rep, it would be helpful if I could see the results of our Away meets as entered by the other TSA rep on the website. As far as I could tell, I could only see the Home meet results I entered and if I wanted to go back to review the results I entered at a later time, I had to go through all the steps to see them.”

I’m not sure what the problem is here. Once a meet’s results have been entered (always by the home team’s rep), the results are visible to everybody by just clicking on the date of the meet from the schedule/results table on either team’s page. The results include all the triple-winners, double-winners and new pool and team records that were set. Results for all meets held on a given date can be seen by clicking on one of the date links on the “scores” page of the site.


A comment about a different part of the web site suggested:

“It would be great if we could add a couple of text boxes to the club information page to list the type of timing system and software, with a contact name. This would help facilitate communications before meets on sending meet manager files, timing, etc.”

The site already has this feature too. Log in to your TSA web site account, click on the “club” tab and then on the “Update your club’s information” link. The “Notes:” text box can be filled in with multiple lines of arbitrary text information, which will be displayed near the top of your club’s page.


Two reps wanted email notification about blog postings:

“The website is fine and so is the blog. I still think it would be nice to get an email if there is important information in case Reps don't check the blog.”

“The website is well organized; the blog was helpful. It would have been helpful to me if every time someone posted to the blog if I had gotten an email with perhaps the subject line because once the season started, I didn't always remember to go out to the blog to see what was new.”


The tradeoff here is information vs. annoyance. I instituted the blog in the first place to cut down on the amount of email that I was sending to TSA reps. I still try to make sure all important communications go out in email (in addition to being reflected in the blog), but less urgent items can be blog-only instead of cluttering everyone’s inbox. However, those who want immediate notification of blog postings can subscribe to an RSS feed of the blog, or use an external notification service such as Blog Alert to generate automated email.


One rep noted that it’s getting harder to get meet results printed in the community newspapers:

“What was the deal with the newspapers this year? I submitted results for all of our home meets and one away meet ... and they never published them or responded to my emails. We need the TSA organization to exert some influence.”

I don’t have a good suggestion for this. The newspaper industry’s slow secular decline seems to have suddenly accelerated in the last year or two, and all papers are cutting back. The “news hole” has shrunk everywhere, from the community weeklies to the News & Observer. All of the local weekly papers for the suburban towns used to be happy to print meet results involving local teams, but they may not be willing to any more. (For instance, I know that he Cary News no longer does so.) However, they may still post these results on their web sites, even though that may not be as exciting for the kids as seeing their names in print used to be.

Monday, January 12, 2009

Stonebridge Looking for Summer League Coaches

Stonebridge summer swim team is looking for a Head Coach and an Assistant Coach. We are located in North Raleigh and have approximately 100 swimmers on our team. Afternoon and morning practice mandatory for coaches. Individuals should have experience coaching summer league, high school or year round. Knowledge of TSA rules and meet management are essential. Qualities we are looking for in applicants: maturity, enthusiasm and leadership. Resumes should be sent to Nora Flynn at DFlynn0526@aol.com by February 1st.

Thursday, January 8, 2009

New Swim Team Needs Equipment


Used equipment needed for New Swim Team – 2009 is Meredith Townes first swim team year, and we are in need of used equipment to get us started. If you have used equipment or have ideas on where we can locate lane lines, spools, flag, starting blocks , etc. we’d appreciate hearing from you. Contact TSA rep Parker Herring at pherring@foryourlife.com or call 919-971-5663.

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Cary Park Sea Dragons Head Coach Wanted

The Cary Park Sea Dragons are looking for an experienced head coach for its summer swim league. The Sea Dragons are a 150 member, TSA Division 4 team of swimmers age 5 to 18 that is run by an enthusiastic and supportive group of parent volunteers. We are seeking an enthusiastic, organized individual with proficiency in stroke mechanics, the ability to motivate swimmers of all ages and skill levels, and strong communication skills with parents, swimmers, and assistant coach(es).

Duties include, but are not limited to: day-to-day team operations, development and supervision of age group appropriate workouts, supervising and mentoring assistant coach(es), preparing and submitting meet entries, attending swim team planning/parent meetings.
The position is part time from mid-May through July. The head coach must be available weekday mornings and evenings for practices, Saturday mornings for practices, Tuesday evenings for swim meets, and occasional weekend days for invitational swim meets.The ideal candidate will have prior swim team coaching experience, competitive swim team experience, and be proficient with Hy-Tek Meet Manager software. Must be a high school graduate with some college a plus. Knowledge of TSA rules and regulations is helpful.

If interested, please send resume to caryparkswimteam@gmail.com.

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Results of Post-season Survey

At long last, the results of the 2008 post-season survey are ready. My apologies for leaving it so late; I should have started badgering the late responders sooner so that all the results would have been in before mid-December. Thanks to everyone who took the time to complete the entire survey.

As with the previous survey, I have broken the results up into separate thematic sections, each represented by one of the links below. As before, all results are anonymous, and a few comments have been redacted [denoted by square brackets like this] to remove specific identifying information. All financial information has been aggregated over large numbers of teams, so it will not be possible to deduce specific dollar amounts spent by any particular club.

Survey sections:

Friday, January 2, 2009

Swim Team Prep Classes

Triangle Swim School (TSS) will be starting their winter session swim team prep classes soon. Registration for new families begins January 6th.

Our experienced coaches have designed the Swim Team Prep class for those swimmers who wish to improve technique (teaching, drills), enhance conditioning, and have fun!! Classes are filling up quickly with returning students and we have limited spots available.

Attracting the very best coaches in the area who embrace a caring, nurturing, positive attitude toward kids is our top priority. We hire only the finest instructors in the area and compensate them at a much higher rate than our competitors. SEE OUR COACHES

For more information contact either Susan or Andrea at 919-267-4762 or
CUSTOMER SUPPORT

_____________________________________________________________________

Coaches to Student Ratio / 1:6
Swim Team Prep Classes are 60 minutes and the class is offered as follows:

Friday, February 6, 2009 thru Friday, April 3, 2009 (7 classes) - $87.50
  • Friday @ 5:00-6:00 p.m. - Swim Team Prep 1
  • Friday @ 6:00-7:00 p.m. - Swim Team Prep 2
Sunday, February 8, 2009 thru Sunday, March, 29, 2009 (8 classes) - $100.00
  • Sunday @ 1:00-2:00 p.m. - Swim Team Prep 1
  • Sunday @ 2:00-3:00 p.m. - Swim Team Prep 2
  • Sunday @ 3:30-4:30 p.m. - Swim Team Prep 1
  • Sunday @ 3:30-4:30 p.m. - Swim Team Prep 2
_____________________________________________________________________