Trophy and how to display?

Please advise us on how you display your trophies and/or other memorabilia. We do not have a display case at the pool and would worry about vandalism if we built one. Any other teams have a creative solution/idea? thanks Cris Clarke Hollands Crossing Sea Devils cristine.clarke@abromitisonlinelearning.com

Join Triangle Aquatics Torpedoes this Fall!

Summer pools close, but it's summer all year at TAC!

The Triangle Aquatics Torpedoes is a swim league for the families who seek flexibility, affordability, and fun. With month-to-month schedules and weekday to weekend options, the league is a great way to fit in swimming through the rest of the year. Skills stay fresh and continue to improve, and the kids never miss a beat before the next season.

Registrations are now open at TAC for the Blue and White squads. Minimum age 6.

BLUE is for advanced swimmers who have developed some endurance and are either considering year-round clubs or want a low-key alternative.
Pre-requisites: Able to perfom 25 yards (1 length) of each of the four competitive strokes, swim continuous 50 yards Freestyle under 1:30, and tread water 2 minutes.
To learn more, click HERE.

WHITE is for swimmers who have a strong foundation of the strokes and will work on building endurance and stroke technique.
Pre-requisite: Able to perfom 25 yards (1 length) of Freestyle,Backstroke, and Breaststroke, and demonstrate butterfly. Tread water 1 minute.
To learn more, click HERE.

Practices are held at Triangle Aquatic Center, 275 Convention Dr, Cary, which is conveniently located off I-40 by Cary Towne Center.

Register online at the above links or at the front desk.
Questions? Call 459-4045
www.triangleaquatics.org

Announcing the TSA Educational Grant Winners for 2009

Board Members,

I am pleased to announce that Bob Goudreau, Mike Kaufman and I conducted the random selection process last Thursday night (7/23) and selected the following 20 individuals as recipients of one of the $400 TSA Educational Grants for the 2009 swim season:

Charlie Holland - Apex
James Harrison Ashworth - Bentwinds
Scott Graham - Cary
Thomas Whitehead - Cary
Andreia Wehrle - Devereaux
Kirby Trundle - Greystone
Tommy Brader - Lake Park
Bill Wagner - MacGregor Downs
Katie Kelly - Manchester
Michelle Delellis - Oxxford Hunt
Jack Friesen - Planter's Walk
Whitney Sweesy - Prestonwood
Sam Toumey - Quail Hollow
Kristin White - Shepherd's Vineyard
Jackie Navarro - Stonebridge
Jeff Beale - Stonebridge
Matt Peterson - Wellsley
Teagan Miller - Wellsley
David Hurley - Wood Valley
John Isaac Jordan - Wood Valley

Congratulations to all the winners!

The executive board is in the process of completing the administrative activities relative to issuing the grant checks and all recipients can expect to see their checks within the next week.

Rick Rudd
TSA Secretary

End of Season Notes

We lucked out with the weather on Tuesday, so the 2009 season was able to end on schedule. I hope everyone had an enjoyable season. Before you clear your mind of all things TSA for the rest of the summer, I would like to ask everyone to take care of a few end-of-season housekeeping tasks:

1) Please verify that your 2009 team size listed on your team’s page on the TSA web site is accurate, and correct it if it is not. The easiest way to check is to count the number of names on your printed roster from the final meet. To set this on your team page, log into http://www.tsanc.org/ and click on the “club” link, followed by the “Update your club’s information” link.

2) While you’re logged in and updating your club info, please also fill in the mascot field if it is blank. Having this information helps us greatly when ordering divisional champion trophies. Be sure to pluralize your mascot (e.g., “Killer Whales” instead of “Killer Whale”), unless your team is known collectively by a singular noun (e.g. “Carolina Courage”, “Orlando Magic”).

3) Also check for any other blank fields in the club info section and fill them in, especially phone number and address information for your pool.

4) Remember to remind your team’s rising high school seniors (not graduates) of the $1000 Pool Professionals Partnership Scholarship. Information is available online, and the application deadline is September 1st.

5) If you have any swimmers who may be interested in learning or playing water polo, please spread the word about water polo clinics about clinics at TAC offered by the Triangle Water Polo Club.

6) I’ll be sending out the postseason survey sometime next month. Please let me know about any specific questions that you would like to see on this year’s survey.

7) Remember that the two year terms of the President and Secretary are expiring at the end of this year. If you would like to stand for either of these posts in the on-line election this fall, please notify any current officer.

Enjoy the rest of your summer!

Upcoming Youth Water Polo Clinics

Please help spread the word about this fantastic, fun way to enjoy the water after summer swim league:

Triangle Aquatic Center and the Triangle Water Polo Club are hosting three Introduction to Water Polo clinics for youth 12+. Upon completion, qualified participants are eligible to join the Triangle Water Polo Club (ages 16+).

Time and Date: August 1, August 8 and August 15 12:00 PM—2:00 PM
Clinic 1—Fundamentals & Techniques (eggbeaters, passing, shooting)

Clinic 2—Basic Offensive/Defensive Strategies + 30 minute scrimmage

Clinic 3—Intermediate Strategies +30 minute scrimmage>

Location: Triangle Aquatic Center, 275 Convention Drive, Cary

Cost: $10 per clinic or $25 for all three clinics. Participants can pay at the front desk or online at http://www.triangleaquatics.org/Programs/ Proceeds go to lane rental and equipment costs. Please register at the front desk to receive the 3-clinic discount.

Age: 12 and up

Pre-requisites: Participants should be able to swim 50 continuous yards freestyle and should feel comfortable treading water

FAQs: Q: Do I need to attend all 3 clinics? A: No, however, each clinic will build on lessons of previous clinic.

Q: Is there a way to waive the entrance fee? A: If you have difficulty meeting the cost, please contact Rob Dickens at the email below.

Q: I am an adult, can I attend? A: Yes. Although this clinic is primarily designed for youth, adults are welcome to attend! This would be a great learning opportunity before getting involved in Triangle Water Polo Club (practices 1-2x).

Q: What other Water Polo opportunities are available? A: The Triangle Water Polo Club currently practices 1 to 2 nights per week at TAC. Qualified youth and adults are welcome to join this club. For younger children, we hope to grow a summer program. These clinics are your first step!

If you are interested in pre-enrolling in the Water Polo Clinics, please visit the TAC website http://www.triangleaquatics.org. For more information about the Triangle Water Polo Club please visit our website: http://www.meetup.com/Triangle-Water-Polo-Club/. If you have questions about the clinics or the water polo club, contact Rob Dickens at robstuff@yahoo.com.

Pool Management Companies

Hi All,

I am probably a bit off topic for most of you, but I am taking a shot at this anyways. In addition to being one of the TSA reps, I am on the Pool Committee for our subdivision. We are interested in, at least, talking to some other pool maintenance companies. The one we have is not horrible, but really likes to let us know that we are only one of seventy pools they service. I guess we are just not too high on the priority list. We currently have a salt water system which is spectacular and I definitely want to keep.

Do any of you know anything about your current pool management companies or can you put me in touch with the person who does??? I've been told that with pool servicing we can only hope to find "the best of the worst" and although that might be true, I hope that with the network we have going here we could actually change that :) The word of mouth and manpower certainly exists.

Thank you in advance for any help and information you are able to send my way.

Best Regards,

Wendy Cox
cox.wendy@gmail.com
Hollands Crossing Sea Devil's
349.9595

Olympic Dream International Swim Clinic

Jon Vorpagel and Dan Velez with the Olympic Dream International Swim Clinic recently conducted a clinic for a group of Park Village swimmers. Both Jon and Dan spent an hour in the water breaking down the freestyle and breaststroke and offering insights on improvement to our swimmers. Afterward Dan shared his experiences from the 2008 Olympics and brought along some of his artifacts from Beijing for our kids to see. He also spoke to the swimmers about what it took for him to make the Puerto Rican Olympic team and kindly posed for photos with our swimmers.

We would definitely recommend this clinic to other clubs that may be seeking something insightful and educational for its swimmers. Our team members and parents were impressed with the clinic and the material. Jon and Dan were great with the kids and we would definitely consider inviting them back in the future. You can reach them at olympicdreamisc@gmail.com if you are interested in having them conduct a clinic at your pool.

WinSwim "cookbook" now available

For those of you who are using WinSwim (and even those of you who just might want to see what it’s all about), I have finally completed a “cookbook” document that describes how to use WinSwim to enter, seed and time a TSA dual meet. Please don’t send feedback and questions to me via email; instead, please post them to the Google Group dedicated to TSA WinSwim users.

Get ready for the start of the season!

Hello TSA Reps,

As we prepare to kick off the first meets of the season Tuesday, I want to remind you all of a few housekeeping tasks you should take care of before then:

1) Log in to your account on the TSA web site. Doing this now will ensure that you don’t have a crisis the night of your first home meet when you suddenly realize that you have forgotten your password J. If you already had an account on the site, your password is unchanged. If you are a new Rep or Alternate, then the person who created your account for you (most likely one of your predecessor from your team) should have sent you your initial password. If you don’t know or can’t remember your password, email me and I’ll reset it for you.

2) Update your contact information. Once logged in, click the “personal” link and fill in or update any of your contact information that is missing or outdated. It’s very important to enter all your phone numbers, as another team’s Rep may need to contact your urgently on the day of a meet if, say, their pool had to close suddenly due to a contamination accident and they want to find out if they can switch the meet to your pool.

3) Enter your club’s information. From the “club” link, select “Update your club’s information” and fill in anything that is missing, especially your pool’s address and phone number. New this year is a “Number of Swimmers” field; please update this to reflect the number of swimmers on your team’s official roster (the one you must submit to the Scorer’s table at each meet in accordance with TSA rules). If you add swimmers to the team during the season, please remember to update the swimmer count field on the web site as well. Another club information field this year is “Mascot”; fill this in with “Sharks” or “Giant Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches”, or whatever your team calls itself.

4) Enter your club’s roster (optional). Also on the “club” link, look for “Manage Roster”, “Promote Roster” and other roster related operations. This will allow you to enter your team’s roster, which will give you pull-down name menus for entering swimmer names in meet results (for new records and for triple- and double-winners). If you had your roster on the site last year, you can promote it and then remove the swimmers no longer on the team before you add swimmers who are new to the team this year.

5) Practice entering meet results. If you have never been a rep before, click the “results” link and play around with entering meet results for one of your three home meets. Remember to clean up from your practice by setting the meet status back to “Meet Not Held Yet” when you’re done.

6) Put a reminder in your schedules for entering meet results. The home team’s TSA Rep will need to enter meet results on the web site no later than 8:00 PM on the evening after the meet. If you can do nothing else by that deadline, at least enter the meet score and meet status, which should only take about 30 seconds of your time. You can then come back and enter the rest of the results (no more than 10-15 additional minutes) later. The reason we really want to get the meet score by 8:00 is because that’s the deadline for submitting our results to the News & Observer so that they can print them on the Scoreboard page of the Thursday sports section. If your meet is postponed due to weather, please indicate that in the meet status as well before 8:00 Wednesday.

7) Know your responsibilities as a TSA Rep. You should be familiar with the TSA Rulebook, particularly the sections concerning weather delays and postponements. You may also find this checklist helpful in remembering your duties before, during and after a meet.

8) Stroke & Turn Judges. The list of TSA-certified Stroke & Turn judges is available here. The list will be updated if there are corrections or additions.


On a separate topic, I wanted to pass along a free tool that my club has found useful this year for tracking which swimmers will be absent for which meets. It’s a website called MySignup.com, and it’s very easy to set up and use. Take a look at this example to see the type of interface we have for each meet. The password is “tsa”. If you configure your own similar signup pages, you can assign a password so that only families on your team get access. Signup results can also be downloaded to a spreadsheet if your coach doesn’t want to check the whole roster for “no” answers.

I wish everyone a safe and storm-free season!

List of certified Stroke & Turn Judges now available

Vice president Mike Kaufman passes along the following news:

Attached please find the certified listing of all Stroke and Turn Judges for 2009. If we have missed someone, please let me know ASAP so we can verify the training date and get the person added to the list. Sorry for any misspelled names. Tony, thanks again for getting some many training sessions together for Stroke and Turn.

Have a great season and we will see you around the pool

Mike Kaufman

YOTA Stroke School

YOTA STROKE SCHOOL

The YMCA of the Triangle Area Swim Team (YOTA) is continuing to offer new opportunities for families in our communities. We will begin a NEW Stroke School Clinic program to help swimmers learn the proper stroke technique for more efficient swimming. All lessons will be given by our experienced and certified YOTA Coaching Staff. We hope you will come join us for an educational experience!

6 Sessions Dates:
#1 Oct. 3, 4, 17,18, 24, 25
#2 Oct. 31, Nov. 1, 6, 8, 20, 22
#3 Jan. 8, 9, 23, 24, 30, 31
#4 Feb. 6, 7, 13, 14, 27, 28
#5 Mar. 6, 7, 13, 14, 27, 28
#6 May 1, 2, 8, 9, 15, 16

Time:
11:00-12:00pm (Saturday and Sunday)

Location:
OPC 1012 Oberlin Road, Raleigh (the old YWCA building just off of Wade Avenue). Pool is located in the back entrance of the Interact building.

Cost Per Session:
$90 for 6 one hour lessons, given in a group setting

Lesson Plan:
Day 1: Freestyle, Day 2: Backstroke, Day 3: Breaststroke, Day 4: Butterfly, Day 5: Review, Day 6: Fun Race Day

Requirements:
•Must be able to swim a lap of freestyle with no assistance and have had an introduction to butterfly, backstroke, and breaststroke.
•Ages 6-12
•YMCA membership NOT required-all are welcomed.

Make Up Policy:
•Should YOTA cancel a class, we will schedule a make up date depending on pool and staff availability.
•If you miss for outside circumstances a make up will be unavailable.

Refund Policy:•If a participant drops out prior to start date of the session a full refund will be given.
•If a participant drops out for medical reasons then a full refund will be given only if the session hasn’t begun.
•No refund will be given once a class has completed its 2nd day unless for medical reasons then a percentage could be refunded.

Coordinator Contact:
Tammy Minyard 919-832-9088 ext. 6 tammy.minyard@ymcatriangle.org

2009-2010 YOTA Swim Team Evaluation Schedule

All evaluations will take place at the YMCA Oberlin Program Center located at
1012 Oberlin Road, Raleigh, NC 27605. The entrance to the aquatic facility is located in the
back of the Inter-Act building. Please park in the back parking lot where you will see the
entrance to the YMCA aquatics facility.

Evaluations are scheduled on the following dates:
June 11th, June 18th and July 2nd from 6:30-8:00pm
Each evaluation session will be limited to 20 swimmers per training group.

To Sign up for an evaluation:
Contact Head Age Group Coach Brendan Betts via email at brendan.betts@ymcatriangle.org

Prior to signs up, please take the opportunity to read through our Training Group Standards on
our website located at www.ymcatriangle.org/YMCA_Swim_Team/Training_Groups.aspx.
Please include in your email the following information:
1. Child’s full name
2. Child’s date of birth
3. A brief summary of your child’s swimming background
4. The group your child is trying out for
5. Your name and contact information – email address and phone number

Once your child has completed the evaluation we will let you know whether or not your child
has met the standards required for the designated training group. If your child does not meet the training standards, we will recommend that you enroll your child in the YOTA Stroke School
and the appropriate swim lesson program at your local YMCA branch.

The YOTA Coaches will contact you by Monday, July 13th to inform you whether we have
space for your child. At that time, we will provide registration instructions. Once all of our
spaces are full we will form a waiting list at each location, for each group. We will contact those
who are on the waiting list as soon as a spot comes available.

If you have any questions, please contact Brendan Betts at (919) 832-9088 ext. 3 or
brendan.betts@ymcatriangle.org.

Stroke and Turn Clinic

We are scheduling another Stroke and Turn Clinic on Tuesday June 9. It will be at Falls River in North Raleigh and the time will be 7:00 PM. We would like for anyone planning to attend to RSVP to Michelle Gemmell or Tony McCullough so that we can be sure we have enough seats.

Tony McCullough
TSA Clinics

Southern Wake Invitational Meet at Sunset Ridge - July 12, 2009

The meet information for S.W.I.M. was emailed to most teams already. If you did not receive that information, and your team wishes to attend, you can find the meet information on the MOR website.

Please email your intent to attend S.W.I.M., with approximate number of swimmers, to Cindie Lawton by May 29, 2009. As we get closer to the meet, the MOR website will have all updates and changes. If you should have any questions or concerns, please contact Cindie.

We are looking forward to another great meet!

Olympic Dream International Swim Clinic

Thank you for letting Dan and I speak tonight at the TSA meeting. We are dedicated to creating a fun, informative, and entertaining clinic that will be time well spent. Dan's Olympic story and our swimming expertise is guaranteed to benefit all swimmers who participate. Please feel free to contact me with any questions at OlympicDreamISC@gmail.com.

Thanks!

May Board of Directors Meeting

Remember, our final in-person Board meeting of 2009 is coming up tomorrow night (Tuesday, May 19) at 7:00. We will be meeting at the NC State University Club again. If you can, please print and bring your own copy of the meeting agenda and the March Meeting Minutes..

The Board meeting proper should be quite short, which will allow us to distribute meet management materials and then adjourn directly into our annual Meet Management Clinic. Everyone is welcome to stay for this clinic, but it will be most useful for new TSA reps and for new clubs (including exhibition teams). If you are unable to attend the clinic but have questions, be sure to read the meet organization document on the TSA website and to familiarize yourself with some of the other resources on the site.

One reminder about attendance: TSA Bylaws require that a club attend at least half the Board meetings each year in order to avoid probation. The following teams have attended only a single meeting this year, and must not miss either of the remaining two Board meetings (in person tomorrow night; and the post-season survey and elections on the web this fall):

• Black Horse Run
• Crabtree
• Holland’s Crossing
• Regency Park
• Southall
• Weatherstone
• Zebulon & Zebulon Country Club

If you find it difficult to attend Tuesday’s meeting, I strongly urge you to find some other team parent to send in your place. As mentioned above, the meeting itself will last only a few minutes, and having someone attend will save you the inconvenience of having to track down your team’s bag of meet materials later.

Stroke and Turn Clinic

We are scheduling another Stroke and Turn Clinic on Tuesday May 26. It will be at Lochmere and the time will be 7:00 PM. We are working out details for another clinic in North Raleigh as well.

Tony McCullough
TSA Clinics

March Board meeting minutes

Board Members,

I have just posted the minutes of the March TSA Board of Directors meeting.

I apologize for the delay in posting these and I hope it has not caused any inconvenience. With my job going away the 1st of April and the job hunt in full earnest, my schedule is not laid out quite as cleanly as it was when I was at IBM.

As always, please do let me know if there are any questions or concerns about any of the information included in the meeting minutes.

Thanks!

Rick

North Raleigh Championships (formerly known as the JC Meet)

Meet information for the July 12th North Raleigh Championships hosted by the Marlins of Raleigh and formerly called the JC Meet can be found on the MOR web site by clicking on the meet information link. You will also find the Meet Event File as well as the directions and web link to download TM Lite if you do not already have Team Manager.

We are excited to host this meet again for 2009 - with just a little name change. Please note that there is no limit on how many swimmers your team can bring to this meet. However, we do ask that you email Cara Cameron with your intent to attend by June 16th. This meet is great for the swimmers of the Tarheel Swimming Association and is run to benefit the children.

If you should have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact Cara Cameron.

Reminder: No Board meeting Tuesday

Just a reminder that the Board of Directors meeting scheduled for Tuesday night has been canceled. For those of you who missed March’s Board meeting, we finished our off-season business and voted to skip the April meeting.

The sole remaining Board meeting this spring will be the brief May 19th meeting at University Club. Please make sure to attend this meeting, as this is when the bags of materials will be distributed. If you are a new TSA Rep, you will probably want to stick around for the annual Meet Management Clinic which begins immediately after the Board meeting adjourns.