TSA Clinics

The Clinics Committee has scheduled several clinics. All Clinics are at 7:00 PM.

Stroke and Turn Clinic at Charleston Village in Apex on April 15. This clinic will have a seating limit of 40.
Stroke and Turn Clinic at Lochmere in Cary on May 5. This clinic will be at the Lochmere Highlands Clubhouse, not at the main Lochmere pool.
Stroke and Turn Clinic at Jewish Community Center in North Raleigh on May 12.

Coaches Clinic on May 27 at Northbrook in Raleigh.
Starter Clinic on May 28 at Carpenter Village in Cary.

Stroke and Turn clinics usually last until around 8:30. Coaches and Starter Clinics usually last one hour.

We plan to have others announced soon, including:

Coaches Clinic in Cary (tentative date is June 3).
Starter Clinic at a North League club.

We are working on additional Stroke and Turn Clinics. We plan to have one in late May and possibly a second in early June. If you are aware of someone who would like to be an instructor please email Tony McCullough or call him at 919-271-8514.

Don't forget to order your team's ribbons!

This is an ideal time of year to take stock of your team’s ribbon inventory so that you can replenish it in time for the upcoming season. Now that the meet schedules are settled, you will have a good idea of approximately how many swimmers each visiting team will bring to your three home meets (though remember to add in some slack in case any of those teams have grown since last year).

Remember, the home team provides all the ribbons awarded in a meet. This includes first-place through sixth-place ribbons for all main event swimmers (including each individual member of a relay team), as well as heat-winner ribbons for the first finisher in every other heat, and participant ribbons for all other competitors in those heats. (If your pool has only 4 or 5 lanes, you can omit the fifth-place and sixth-place ribbons because main events will never use more than 4 lanes.)

If you aren’t already familiar with the meet materials page on the TSA web site, I urge you to acquaint yourself with it. Of particular help is the ribbon calculator spreadsheet, which allows you to plug in a few basic parameters (number of lanes, number of swimmers on each team) and quickly generate your requirements for each of the eight ribbon types. (Prepare to be shocked and appalled at how many ribbons you will award over the course of the season.)

The colors of the place ribbons are specified in Article 102.5 of the Rules, but otherwise you are free to design your team’s ribbons. There are no color requirements for the heat-winner or participant ribbons, though you will probably want to make sure they are easily distinguishable from the place ribbons in order to avoid earning the undying enmity of the volunteers working the ribbon table at your meets. Another way to keep those folks happy is to pre-print ribbon labels which can be affixed to the little cardboard tag on the back of each ribbon. This time-saver allows the ribbon table volunteers to avoid having to write dates, team names, strokes, etc. on the back of each ribbon; all they need to write is the swimmer name. The meet materials page also has a ribbon label document template which can be customized for this purpose (pools with 4 or 5 lanes should use this template instead).

Pool Professionals Partnership Scholarship awarded to Denver Davis of Highcroft

At the TSA Board meeting on March 17, Pool Professionals founder and president David Harvey awarded the Pool Professionals Partnership Scholarship to Denver Davis of the Highcroft Hurricanes. Mr. Harvey praised Denver's leadership qualities as exhibited both at Highcroft and at Panther Creek High School, as well as Denver's contributions to the local community through the North Carolina Food Bank and the Special Olympics.

Denver receives the ceremonial $1000 check from Pool Professionals Staff Director Sean Hare and Regional Aquatics Supervisor Allison Huggins.

Denver Davis poses with his parents. Denver will use the scholarship when he matriculates at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in August.

Insurance Question

As a new team we have not yet wrangled with the issues of insurance. I KNOW that our homeowner's association carries adequate coverage but this year and that this would cover residents and guests. Do any of the TSA teams carry separate coverage? If you would like to reply privately with detailed advice.....please email cristine.clarke@abromitisonlinelearning.com
thanks
Cris

MOR/Speedo to offer Katie Hoff Olympic Clinic April 18

The Marlins Of Raleigh Swim Team and Speedo are offering an Olympic Swim Clinic with 2-time Olympian, Katie Hoff on Saturday April 18th from 9-11am at NC State University's Willis Casey Natatorium. This clinic is open to TSA swimmers for just $10 and includes a Speedo Goody Bag. Bring a suit/goggles and you must be able to swim 25 yards of all 4 strokes. Hoff will demonstrate the techniques that helped her break the world record and will be available to sign autographs. Parents of swimmers registered with the clinic are free to observe in the stands.
Hoff was the youngest member of the 2004 US Olympic Swim Team and finished in the top 8 of the 200 IM. At the 2008 US Olympic Trials she broke the world record in the 400 IM. In Bejing at the Olympic Games Hoff won a Silver medal in the 400 Free and Bronze in the 400 IM and 800 Free Relay.
Registration forms are available at MOR's website at www.marlinsofraleigh.com or contact MOR at coachcara45@aol.com or call 851-3000.

Head Coach wanted

Banbury Woods Swim Team is looking for a head coach for the 2009 summer season. Experienced, mature coach candidates need to contact Mindy McGinnis at mindyLmcg@aol.com.

March Board of Directors meeting

This is the usual reminder of the upcoming TSA Board of Directors meeting, which will be held Tuesday night (St. Patrick’s Day) at 7:00. This month, we will be meeting at Northbrook Country Club at 4905 North Hills Drive in North Raleigh. Northbrook has been gracious enough to let us use their clubhouse for free. However, everyone attending must complete this release form. If possible, please print out a copy and fill it out in advance to bring with you to the meeting. Otherwise, you will have to fill out a form at the door before entering the clubhouse.

As always, I also encourage you to print out your own copies of the meeting agenda and the previous meeting’s minutes to bring along with you. Our meeting will also feature a PowerPoint presentation on one club’s experience using WinSwim; those slides are not included in the agenda handout, but can be viewed here if you later want to review them at your own leisure.

If your club hasn’t paid its 2009 dues, please remember that you have until the end of April to do so. All the dues statements (in alphabetical order) can be found here.

February 2009 Meeting Minutes Now Posted

TSA Board Members,

The minutes for the February 2009 TSA Board of Directors meeting have now been posted. You can access them at the following weblink:

http://www.tsanc.googlepages.com/Minutes2009-02-17.pdf

Please review these minutes in preparation for next Tuesday's March Board of Directors meeting and let me know if you have any questions about any of the content.

Thank you!

Rick

2009 Dues

Thank you to the teams who have paid their TSA dues. Clubs, when paying the dues please make the check payable to TSA or Tarheel Swimming Association and please identify your club on the check. Thank you for your help.

Cathy Brunk

The Reserve Stingrays need Assistant Coach

The Reserve Stingrays are looking for an Assistant Coach. We are located off Hwy 55 in Cary with 120+ swimmers. Practices are twice daily with actual schedule to be coordinated with existing Head Coach and other Assistants. If interested, please contact Jill at jdecandio@gmail.com by March 30th.

WinSwim update

Every team's TSA Reps and Alternates should have received an email from me last night containing their team's license number and key code to use the fully functional version of WinSwim. Please contact me if you didn't get yours.

I'm looking for someone to volunteer to be the "single point of contact" for TSA to request WinSwim enhancements. That person need not be a TSA rep. Please contact me if you are interested in this role or if you have someone in mind.