Rising Stars: January 2008 Archives

Hello Everyone! After a week hiatus from my blogs, I have many items to share with all of you.

Practice Focus.With the last two months of the season upon us, the focus of practices will continue to focus on developing stroke technique and good habits. But, we will also spend more time on swimming longer distances. Of course the exact distances depend on the level of each swimmer. Also, our older, more experienced Rising Star Swimmers will work on faster intervals within practices as we prepare for our final meets of the season.

Late Season Schedule.Can you believe we are to February! And with the month of February, we only have two months left in our short-course swim season. Just wanted to briefly explain how the seasons end and begin. The final swim meet of the season for all of the Starfish and Rising Stars to compete in is the Season Finale. This meet is March 29-30th. The team will take a break the week of March 31-April 8th. Once we start again after the break, the schedule will remain the same until school is out for the summer. However, our meets will be conducted long-course (50 meters). When school is out, our tentative practice schedule (according to last summer) is three mornings and two evenings each week. We practice long-course in the mornings and short-course in the afternoons. The long course season will run through the end of July. At that point we will take another team break for early August. I would HIGHLY encourage everyone to continue with the team. Many of the young swimmers do take part in a summer league meet also. I will keep announcing this schedule as we approach it this spring.

Swim Meets.
*WSF Swim Meet. A HUGE congratulations to everyone who swam this past weekend! We sure looked good in the water and had MANY new best times. With the two groups combined, we had 90% new best times!! Coach Mo and I were quite impressed with how well the young swimmers handled themselves in the cold on Sunday. The group is doing a very good job of remembering to come see the coaches after every swim. If your swimmer is not doing this, please help remind them that this is important to get feedback from the coaches about how they swam.
*Phil Levine Meet. Please remember if you are interested, I need to know by Friday, Feb. 1st. The meet information was placed in every one's mailbox on Monday. We are attending Saturday of the meet only.
*Remaining meets for short-course=
Phil Levine/Neptune Swim Club Meet (for everyone) Saturday, Feb. 9th
Regionals (must have Regional cuts-only Rising Star Swimmers at the present time) Feb.28-March 2nd.
Season Finale Swim Meet. (for everyone) March 29-30th.

"Swimmers-of-the Meet"For the WSF Meet this past weekend, we had so many great swims. It was very hard to figure out who was the outstanding swimmers of the meet! But based on the number of best times achieved, the Starfish "Swimmer of the Meet" was awarded to Ava DiStefano. She had five new best times! The Rising Star "Swimmers of the Meet" were awarded to two young ladies who also both achieved five new best times-Quinn Blake and Anita Dorsey! Congratulations to these three young ladies for doing a great job this weekend!

"Fun Days"Remember the emphasis of the "Fun Days" are used as a reward for their hard work and fast swimming achieved at each swim meet. It gives all of us a chance to unwind after each of the meets. We try to do something a little different each "Fun Day." Playing team games are the main focus. It gives the children a chance to get to socialize with each other in a more relaxed atmosphere than during practice. It should be looked upon as an avenue to help build team spirit and camaraderie. These always take place the Tuesday after the swim meets. I have been sending out an e-mail to all of the families reminding them of this day and the special schedule for it.

Coach/Parent Conferences Informational Flyer.These flyers will be placed in every one's mailboxes tomorrow-Thursday, January 31st. These will be conducted much like Parent/Teacher Conferences that you attend at school. This will be an opportunity for you, as a parent, to share 15-20' one-on-one with the coach. Sign-up/scheduling sheets will be available starting on Saturday, February 2nd for everyone to choose a meeting time. I hope everyone will take part in this opportunity. Please know that if you don't sign up during the regular scheduling time, it may be difficult to meet with the coach until everyone who has a conference time is taken care of. I want to be fair with everyone and give everyone their fair share of time.

BEST Calendar February-May 2008.
In closing, I would like to give you a glance of the BEST activity calendar from now-February through early May, 2008. I know many people like to get dates on their own calendar:

Saturday, February 9th=Phil Levine/Neptune One Day Meet
Wednesday, Feb. 20th=BEST Parents Meeting (Topics to be announced)
Saturday, Feb. 23rd=Starfish/Rising Stars End-of-Season Party (Bowling?)
Feb. 28-March 2nd=Regionals Swim Meet. (Need to qualify)

March 21-24th=Easter Weekend Break
March 29-30th=Season Finale Meet (for everyone)
March 31-April 8th=BEST Team Break

Wednesday, April 9th=Resume practices for Spring season.
Saturday, April 24th=BEST Long Course Intrasquad Meet

Sunday, May 4th=BEST Team Awards Dinner and Banquet

Thanks for reading I I know I covered a lot of details in this blog. Have a great weekend. Hopefully you can enjoy the Super Bowl and Super Bowl Sunday festivities; FBR Golf Tournament; the NFL Experience or just a quiet weekend with the family! (My support goes out to the Manning Family. If I can't watch Peyton, I'll take Eli!)

Take care! -Coach Jennifer

This blog will be a short and sweet one. A change coming from my usual!

Practice Schedule Reminders/Changes.Following are practice schedule updates for the Starfish and Rising Star groups that are known through the month of February.
Sat. Jan. 19th=11:15-12:15p.m.
Mon. Jan. 21st=Normal Rising Star Practice @ 5p.m.
Sat. Jan 26th=NO Practice due to WSF Swim Meet!
Tues. Jan. 29th=Fun Day!!
Sat. Feb. 2nd=11:30a.m.-12:30p.m.
Sat. Feb. 9th=Practice TBA
Sat. Feb. 16th=Practice TBA
Sat. Feb. 23rd=11:30-12:30p.m.
Sat. Mar. 1st=NO Practice due to the Regional Swim Meet!

WSF Swim Meet.Just so everyone is on the page concerning the upcoming meet next weekend, January 26-27th, here are a few details to help everyone. The Starfish & Rising Stars (all 14 & Unders) swim in the afternoons-both Saturday and Sunday. The meet is located at the Southwest Valley YMCA (where we swam at the November meet), 2919 N. Litchfield Road, Goodyear, AZ
Warm-ups are estimated to start at 1:00p.m. both days and meet starting at 2:00p.m. Please be on time for warm-ups! Everyone needs to wear BEST team apparel. Saturday we will wear Red BEST shirts & Sunday we will wear White. The entries are posted on the age group bulletin board.

"Coach/Parent Conferences" Informational Flyers.Please check your mailboxes for flyers next Tuesday, January 22nd. I will e-mail this information out to everyone at that time also. I conducted Coach/Parent Conferences (much like Teacher/Parent) for many years when I was the Head Age Group Coach in Indiana. I am trying to get this organized for late January to early February. Please make sure you read this very important info coming soon!

Spring/Summer 2008 Practice Schedules.As people/families begin to make preliminary plans for the upcoming spring and summer, I am beginning to get questions concerning the spring & summer schedule for the Starfish and Rising Star groups. At this point in time, I cannot give you the confirmed schedule for the upcoming summer, but I can estimate that it will be close to the schedule that we ran last summer. It was as follows:
Present Schedule runs through the end of the school year.
The changeover to the team's summer practice schedule will most likely go into effect either the week of June 2nd or 9th.
The summer schedule ran through late July, with the majority of August off for vacation and the start of school.
Last year's schedule (summer 2007)=Mon/Wed/Fri 11:15a.m.-12:15p.m.; Tue/Thu 4-5:15p.m.; Sat. 11a.m.-12Noon.
The Starfish were schedule for Mon/Tue/Wed/Thu/Sat
More precise information will follow in late February.
The Rising Stars were offered everyday, except Sunday.
The Starfish and Rising Stars were offered four meets last summer season.

We do now have the ribbons for the Glendale Gauchos Swim Meet in December.
Have a great week!
-Coach Jennifer

Happy New Year! I certainly hope that everyone enjoyed the holiday season and are back into the swing of things! It sure was nice to have the swimmers back in the water this week. both coach Mo and myself noticed how happy, fresh and excited they were all at practice. The big thing that we noticed is how well everyone was listening again! It is amazing what a small break can do for children of this age can do to help keep things fresh and exciting for them!

Meet Schedule.Just want to make sure everyone knows the upcoming meets.
Jan.26-27=WSF Meet. At this meet the 14 & Under swimmers swim in the afternoons. At this meet, it primarily consists of 100's as the focus for each stroke. They do offer the 50 Free. This meet is looked at as a challenge meet for everyone. We will enter all of the Rising Star group and most of the Starfish group. Please let me know if you do NOT want to have your swimmer(s) entered or if after you see the entry, you have questions, let me know ASAP!! The entry will be posted on Monday.
Feb.28-Mar.2=Age Group Regionals. Must have Regional cuts/time standards to qualify. We have approx 10 Rising Stars who are eligible for this meet at this time.
Mar. 29-30=Season FinaleEveryone is eligible for this meet.

Attendance.Beginning at the end of this month, January, I will begin posting the monthly attendance percentages. When we are focusing on improvement, CONSTISTENCY is the key at this stage of development for an athlete!! I will also post the months of September-December, 2007.

Attention...We have a LOST ParkaWe know how much the swimmers take pride in their parkas. Well, some one picked up Lou DiMuro's parka by mistake. He has a parka that says Travis in it. Will everyone please check to make sure they have the right parkas! Thanks for your help! Lou's was taken on Monday,January 7th.

Next week-January 14th's BlogIn next week's blog, parents I will have information concerning upcoming BEST Parent Meetings & Coach/Parent Conferences.

In closing, I want to send out a huge THANK YOU for every one's generosity towards me this Christmas!! Not only in the monetary gift from the team, but also in the many wonderful gifts that i received from both the swimmers and their families! Thank you...not necessary, but very much appreciated!

Thank you all so much for your continued support of BEST, your wonderful children and of the coaches!
-Coach Jennifer