Thanks again for another fantastic season!

Good morning! We managed to avoid any rain and have a great dinner and awards ceremony last night. Thank you to everyone who came and provided food and fellowship.
We still have some t-shirts available, as well as caps and ribbons for some swimmers. We hope to have all the Sprint/Distance ribbons together by Monday, so please feel free to stop by and pick them up then.
As was the case last season, we have another short evaluation available. This is an opportunity for you all to give myself, the coaching staff, and the Rec. some feedback about our program. The survey is completely anonymous, so please feel free to be as blunt as you wish to be. It can be found here: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/C8LQBNT. It will be open to respondents until the end of the month.
Also, don't think that summer is the only time you can be in the water. There are several programs available in the area, and I will be more than happy to discuss ways to stay in the pool. Feel free to email me should you be interested, and I hope many of you will be!
 Finally, I want to personally thank you all again for a wonderful season.Without your support, this program would not be what it is, and what it is is fantastic. We as coaches had a great time, and we thank you for allowing us to work with and to get to know your families. We hope to see you back next summer for another great season of Torpedo swimming!

Last minute conference news

Good morning!
Tonight will be our spaghetti dinner! Please bring pasta, sauce, salad or bread to share. Come after 6pm, and we will eat at 6:30 after the 9-10 practice finishes.
Tomorrow will be a pretty long day. Conference warm ups are at 7:30am. Please be on time as deck space will fill quickly. Should you want to come early, tents maybe set up at 6am. Any tents found onthe tennis  courts before 6am will be removed.
Parents, please plan to contribute some food to our coach and official hospitality with drinks,fruit, baked goods, or sandwich fixings. Any help would be great and welcome!
Finally, please come out tomorrow ready to cheer on all of the swimmers. We want it to be a good meet for everyone, and a positive environment will help us achieve that goal.
See you all tonight!

REMINDER: No Practice TODAY, Wednesday July 24!

Good morning!

Please remember that there is NO PRACTICE for any group today, Wednesday, July 24th. This was mentioned in an earlier blog post, as well as at practice earlier this week.

Thanks, and see you tomorrow!

July 17 5pm practice canceled!

Storms moving through the area have caused us to cancel the 5pm practice tonight. You should receive a text to tell you if 5:45 practice has also been canceled.
Please sign up for the meet at the pool for the meet tomorrow and Saturday. Entries will be done tonight.
SportPix of Shelby will begin taking pictures at 4pm tomorrow. Please be there a little early to get your t-shirts, as well.

See you all soon!

The Final Countdown...

Good morning Torpedo!

First of all, I want to say great job to everyone who came out and swam against Morganton last night. A lot of swimmers did a very good job, but in the end, the team lost to the defending champs 766-414. We were missing a number of swimmers, too, so that bodes well for our upcoming league championship meet.
Parents, you all did an excellent job timing, scoring, running, and giving out ribbons. Thanks, as always, and keep up the good work.

T-Shirts and Caps are now at the pool. Please don't ask a coach for them in the middle of practice. Please ask either before or after practice.

We have a lot going on in the next two weeks. The sign-up sheets for the remaining meets are in the binder at the fitness counter, so please go ahead and sign up for the rest of the season.

Here is a breakdown of what is happening the next couple of weeks:

Tuesday, July 16: Away meet at Forest City: Warm-ups are at 5:30pm. Take I-40 West to Exit 103. At the end of the exit ramp, turn left. Take HWY 64 to Rutherford County. After passing through Westminster Community, turn left on Hudlow Rd at the traffic light. Follow Hudlow Rd to West Main Street in Forest City. Turn left on West Main Street. Take the second right (Harris St). The pool is at the end of Harris St. PLEASE SIGN UP FOR THE MEET BY MONDAY NIGHT! IF YOU ARE NOT SIGNED UP, YOU WILL NOT BE ENTERED!

Thursday, July 18: Home meet against Granite Falls: Warm-ups are at 5:00pm. This promises to be a large meet like the Morganton meet, so please be prepared to volunteer for some position over the course of the meet. WE WILL BE HAVING A TEAM PICTURE taken by SportPix of Shelby. They also have individual packages available. If you would like an order form,  please ask Coach Andersen.PICTURES START AT 4pm, so PLEASE BE ON TIME!

Saturday, July 20: Sprint/ Distance Meet at Home: Warm-ups at 7am, meet start at 8am, meet ends at noon. This is a chance for swimmers to swim longer and shorter events than they get the chance to during the regular meets in the season. The meet is limited to swimmers ages 11 and up (WHO WILL BE EXPECTED TO PARTICIPATE), but should your younger swimmer be interested in coming, sign them up, but with the knowledge they will be swimming against older swimmers. Swimmers from all of the teams in the league will be present for this fun, non-scored meet.

Wednesday, July 24: ENTRY DEADLINE FOR CHAMPIONSHIP MEET. IF YOU DON'T ENTER, YOU WILL NOT SWIM!!! NO PRACTICE FOR ANY GROUPS. 

Friday, July 26: Spaghetti Dinner and Championship Meet Set-Up at 6:30pm: We will have a pot luck spaghetti dinner at Rotary Park before setting the pool up for the Championship meet. This is always a fun event, and the more people we have to get the pool ready for conference, the easier it will be. Should you want to bring any tents for you or your family to use, please feel free to set them up.

Saturday, July 27: Tarheel Swim League Championship Meet at Home: Warm-ups are start at 7:30am and you NEED TO BE ON TIME. Please come prepared to stay a good portion of the day. Healthy snacks like fruit and good sources of carbs like bagels are great things to have on hand, as well as plenty of water and some sports drinks (NOT ENERGY DRINKS) for after swims. EVERYONE IS EXPECTED TO ATTEND THIS MEET. 

OK, That's all for now! See you all on Monday, and have a fantastic weekend!

Great Job!

Fantastic job last night! For those interested, the final score was 735-236. Many of you had best times, and there were also some first-time event winners. No matter how you finished, everyone should be proud of how they swam.

Parents, thank you for being so responsive to volunteering. Without you all, we couldn't have pulled the meet off, let alone in just over 2 hours and 20 minutes. Keep up the good work!
 
Valdese swimmers with first place finishes included Emily F. (200 Free, 15-18 200 IM, 100 Free, 100 Fly), Tanner S. (200 Free, 15-18 100 Free, 100 Breast), Ava J. (6&Under 25 Free), Trey J. (8&U 25 Free, 50 Free, 25 Fly), Tate J.(6&U 25 Free, 8&U 25 Breast), Alex L.(9-10 50 Free, 50 Back, 50 Fly), Alannah G. (11-12 50 Free, 50 Breast), Austin G. (13-14 50 Free, 100 Back, 100 Breast), Cecylia Y.(15-18 50 Free, 100 Back, 100 Breast), Justin B. (15-18 50 Free, 100 Back), Caroline L. (9-10 100 IM, 50 Back, 50 Breast), Grace L. (11-12 100 IM), Keegan R. (13-14 200 IM, 100 Free, 100 Fly), Avery B. (15-18 200 IM, 100 Fly), Jacob J. (8&U 25 Back), Kloey M. (11-12 50 Back), Carter C.(11-12 50 Back, 100 Free), Paige B. (13-14 100 Back), Dessie M. (9-10 100 Free), Aidan G. (9-10 100 Free), Makenzie H. (11-12 100 Free), Jenna Claire B. (9-10 50 Fly), Rebekah Q. (11-12 50 Fly), and Luke M. (11-12 50 Fly). Eight Torpedo relay teams took first, as well. Once again, 23 different individuals took first place! Way to go!

We will practice on Monday and Tuesday of this coming week, but there isn't another meet until July 11th. Please take a moment to sign your swimmer up on Monday or Tuesday for this meet, or send me an email to let me know you all will be participating.

I hope everyone has a fantastic 4th of July, and safe travels if you happen to be leaving town for the holiday!

Forest City Tonight!

Good afternoon, Torpedo!

We have had quite an eventful week as far as the weather has been concerned. There is still a chance of storms this afternoon, but we are going to go ahead with the meet against Forest City. Our warm-ups are at 5pm. Please be ready to swim then. Anyone willing to volunteer please come see either Coach Andersen or Coach Emily when you arrive or after warm-ups.

Also, Sportpix will once again be doing our team pictures this year. They will be at the pool at 4pm on Thursday, July 18, before our home meet against Granite Falls. Please see Coach Andersen for order forms. Money does not need to be paid up front.

See you all this evening!

5pm Practice canceled

Good evening Torpedo,

The 5pm practice this evening, June 24, is canceled. Please check your text messages for more information about the 5:45pm practice.

Directions to Granite Falls

Good evening Torpedo!

Tomorrow we swim against our neighbors to the North, the Granite Falls Sharks! Please be ready to warm-up at 5:30pm. The meet will start promptly at 6:00pm.

We still need parents to sign up to time and work as stroke and turn officials. Please find a coach when you arrive at the meet to let us know you will be helping us out. Remember, these are the best seats in the house!

Directions to the Granite Falls Recreation pool can be found here: http://granitefallssharks.com/id5.html
The address is 56 Pinewood Rd, Granite Falls, NC 28630.

See everyone at the meet tomorrow!

Great Meet! (and NO FRIDAY PRACTICES!)

Well, once it finally stopped raining, last night was fantastic! Our swimmers did a great job, our parents did a great job, our guards and the Rec staff did a great job, and I feel safe in saying that everyone had a great time! Start to finish was just over two and a half hours, and I was incredibly proud of everyone. Many parents from McDowell approached the coaches and workers to let us know how much fun they had. Way to go Torpedo Family!
As far as the competition went, we had a final score of 666.5 to 399.5 over McDowell. We had 23 different swimmers claim first in different events, with many claiming multiple firsts. Many others finished high up in the ranks. We had a slew of best times, and our first time swimmers did a fantastic job, too.
The VTST 8&Under, 9-10, 11-12, 13-14, and 15-18 Girls Medley Relays all claimed victory. For the Boys, the 11-12, 13-14, and 15-18 Medley Relays claimed victory. In the freestyle relays, the 8 and Under girls and boys, 11-12 boys, 13-14 girls and boys, and 15-18 boys and girls finished first.
Individual event winners were Paige B. (200 Free, 13-14 100 Back), Tanner S. (200 Free, 15-18 100 Back), Ava J. (6&Under 25 Free), Trey J. (8&Under 25 Free, 8&Under 25 Back, 8&Under 50 Free), Tate J. (6&Under 25 Free), Jaxon S. (9-10 50 Free, 9-10 50 Back), Keegan R. (13-14 50 Free), Haley B. (15-18 50 Free, 15-18 100 Breast), Alec B. (15-18 50 Free, 15-18 100 Free, 15-18 100 Fly), Sarah Q. (8&Under 100 IM), Caroline L. (9-10 100 IM, 9-10 50 Fly), Grace L. (11-12 100 IM),  Justin B. (15-18 200 IM), Jenna Claire B. (9-10 50 Back), Alannah G. (11-12 50 Back, 11-12 50 Breast), Trey B. (11-12 50 Back, 11-12 100 Free), Avery R. (13-14 100 Free, 13-14 100 Fly), Emily F. (15-18 100 Free), Braxton R. (8&Under 25 Fly), Caitlyn P. (8&Under 25 Breast), Aidan G. (9-10 50 Breast), Austin G. (13-14 100 Breast), Nick L. (15-18 100 Breast).
Our next meet will be on Thursday at Granite Falls. Directions will be posted later this week, but swimmers need to sign up by TUESDAY EVENING at the latest. If they are not signed up by then, they will not be entered.
Many of you have signed up for our text reminders. That's fantastic! Please encourage others to sign up so they can stay in touch when we have reminders sent out, such as the one this morning informing you all that the coaching staff wants to wish everyone a Happy Father's Day weekend by  deciding there will NOT BE ANY PRACTICE TODAY. I know I will enjoy it as it is my first Father's Day with my daughter, Ginny. I hope all of you enjoy it, too!
We will see you back at the pool on Monday morning! Have a great weekend, and thanks again for a fantastic meet last night!

Meet Is A Go!

Good afternoon!

 There are some crazy storms coming through town right now, but we intend to try to start the meet as close to the planned time as possible. We are hoping that the second line of storms makes its way through town before 6pm.

Please sign up to help out with the meet when you arrive. The meet will not be over in a timely manner unless we have everyone help out. We will especially need timers and people to collect the time cards (runners).

See you all soon!

Text Reminders for Team Members

Good afternoon Torpedo!

One thing we're doing this year is to try out an automated text reminder service. On your registration form, there was a mention of this service, but there was some misunderstanding as to how you could sign up for the service.

So here it is: If you want to receive text updates about things such as practice cancellations, please text @valdese in the text body to the number (828) 475-0121. Once you have done this, you should follow the directions you receive.

Your information will be kept private from other users and will not be given away or sold to any third party. These instructions will also be posted at the pool on the VTST bulletin board.

Raindrops are Falling on my Head

Good morning Torpedo Family!

I hope everyone had a fantastic weekend! I know that two of our coaches had especially nice weekends as they are now officially high school graduates. Congratulations to Coach Alec and Coach Haley for their graduations from East Burke and Draughn High respectively. Please take a moment to congratulate them on their accomplishment. Alec will be attending Pfeiffer University, and Haley will be attending N.C. State.

Please pay attention to the weather today. If there is audible thunder from the pool at practice time, we may be canceling practice. Please call the pool office before coming if there are thunderstorms near your home. We will try to get practice in, but in the event of cancellation, it will be posted here on the blog.

Tomorrow marks the beginning of our new schedule. 11-12 and more novice 13-14 swimmers will practice from 7:30am-8:30am, and the advanced 13-14 and 15-18 swimmers will practice from 8:30am-9:30am. Our 8 and Unders will practice from 5pm-5:45pm, and the 9-10 group will practice from 5:45pm-6:30pm. Please have your child practice with their age group unless it has been cleared with me, Coach Andersen.

This Thursday night is our first meet of the season! We will host the McDowell Mariners. Warm-ups for the meet begin at 5pm. Please be on deck, ready to warm up at 5pm! Please do not arrive late as we only have 30 minutes to warm up.

In order for your son or daughter to swim on Thursday, you need to SIGN UP in the VTST binder at the Fitness Desk. If you fail to sign up your swimmer, then they will not be entered in the meet. You can also sign up for volunteer slots, too. The sign up will be in the book this afternoon.

We will need to have all hands on deck to pull this meet off, so parents, please plan on volunteering to time, officiate, clerk of course, etc. Our biggest need is timers, and it isn't a scary job. If you want to help out, please speak to me at practice sometime before Thursday afternoon or contact me via e-mail.

Stay dry!

What a Great Start!

Good afternoon Torpedo family!

Yesterday marked the beginning of the 2013 season, and it was fantastic to see the lanes filled with even more swimmers on the way! The weather was great and everyone seemed to have a great time, which is something I hope we will continue to see as the season continues.
I want to remind parents of the Stroke and Turn clinic this Saturday morning from 10-12 at the Rec. Members from other league teams will be there, as well, learning the ins and outs of the stroke and turn judge position. Please come out and join us Saturday!

See you all this afternoon at practice!

Couple Quick Updates

Good afternoon!

I wanted to let everyone know about a few changes on the schedule that was published earlier in the season and on the blog.
The first change is that the Sprint/Distance Meet will be held this year at Valdese. Warm-ups will begin for us at 7:30am, and the meet will begin at 8am. It will last no longer than 4 hours.We will host this meet the week before we host the Conference Championship, so I'd like for us to think of it as a chance to work all of the kinks out of our systems and organization prior to the big show.
The second change is to the day of the Spaghetti Dinner and Conference set up. The schedule mistakenly has that on July 27, when in fact it will be held on July 26. The time and the location are still the same.
We are going to try to get our automated timing system functioning again this year, especially with the later meets in July. If you have any computer savvy, please consider this volunteer slot. We have done much better with getting parents involved, but there is still a lot that we could do to make things run smoother for everyone, and this system can help tremendously.
We are also looking at making some small barriers to help with crowd control during the meets, particularly at the shallow end of the pool during 8 and under relays and 25s. We are looking at sinking PVC into small buckets with concrete. If anyone has any scrap supplies they could donate, or time they would be willing to spend helping make these items, we would be more than grateful. Email me to discuss this further.
Finally, when you signed up, part of your sign up included a box about text updates. We will be using a system to send text reminders to swimmers this year. This way you will be texted about meet sign ups, meet results, practice changes, and any thing else related to the team. If you DO NOT wish to receive these messages and did not opt out on the sign up sheet, I need to hear from you. Otherwise, you will receive the messages.
That is all for now, and I hope that everyone is looking forward to a fantastic summer!

Team Update (including practice schedules)!

Good afternoon, Torpedo family!

I hope that everyone had a great Mother's Day and has been by to see the pool without the Bubble. It is looking fantastic.
I wanted to take a quick moment to introduce you all to our coaching staff this summer. We have two coaches returning from last summer: Alec Blackwood and Emily Farris. Joining us this year will be Haley Brinkley. Haley has been swimming at Valdese for a long time and has competed at the state high school meets as a member of the Draughn team all four years at Draughn.
Finally, at long last, here is the practice schedule for the summer:


May 28 - June 10:
11 and Up: 3:30-4:30pm
10 and Under: 4:30-5:15pm
June 11- End of Summer:
7:30-8:30am: 11-12, beginner 13-14
8:30-9:30am: advanced 13-14, 15-18
5:00-5:45pm: 8 and Under
5:45-6:30pm: 9-10

We hope to see you all on the 28th!

Valdese Torpedo 2013 Schedule

HELLLLOOOOO TORPEDO FAMILY!

Today coaches of the Tarheel Swim League gathered at Valdese to plan the schedule for the upcoming season!
Valdese hosts the League championship this year, so all parents need to plan on volunteering as much as possible throughout the season so we will have a smoothly run meet at the end of July.

So, without further adieu...

4/8 - Sign-ups for VTST begin! Tell your friends!
5/28 - Afternoon Practices for all ages begins (Times TBA)
6/1 - Stroke and Turn Training for Parents at Valdese (10-12pm)
6/11 - Summer Practice schedule begins (Times TBA)
(All meets start at 6pm, warm-ups for home team 5pm, visiting team 5:30pm)
6/13 - McDowell @ Valdese
6/20 - Valdese @ Granite Falls
6/22 - Stroke and Turn Training for Parents at Valdese (10-12pm)
6/27 - Forest City @ Valdese
7/3-5: July 4th Break! Enjoy the Holiday! NO PRACTICE!
7/11 - Morganton @ Valdese
7/16 - Valdese @ Forest City
7/18 - Granite Falls @ Valdese
7/20 - Sprint/Distance Meet @ Granite Falls (8am start)
7/27 - Spaghetti Dinner and Set-Up for Championship Meet (6:30pm)
7/27 - TSL League Championship Meet @ Valdese (9am start, warm-up at 7:30am)
8/6 - Valdese Awards Banquet and Pot Luck @ Rotary Park - 6pm

Those are all the dates for now! Be sure to check in at the pool starting April 8 to sign up!