Good afternoon, Torpedo!
Given the strong likelihood of storms tonight in Black Mountain, we will not be having our meet. We will not be making the meet up, but Black Mountain will come to us in July.
With this in mind, WE WILL NOT practice this evening given the same chance of storms here.
WE WILL be having practice in the morning, but each practice will go only an hour. The 8:30 group will be DONE AT 9:30.
Our next meet is this coming Monday, July 2, in Forest City. They have a fairly small team this year, but we still want to have a good showing. All entries are due to me by Friday evening. No late entries are going to be accepted after that point, as I need to have entries to them by Saturday morning.
Thanks, everyone, for your understanding and patience as we deal with summer weather. Have a great evening.
Tuesday, June 26, 2018
Saturday, June 23, 2018
Weekly Update for 6/25
Happy Saturday, Torpedo!
First of all, I want to thank everyone for an awesome job on Thursday! You all did great in getting pictures done, setting things up, helping swimmers get to the clerk of course, cheering folks on, and helping out when the storms hit. I'm incredibly grateful to have such a great crew. When we called the meet, we were ahead of both teams by about 30 points.
We had two new team records set during the events we swam: Sam Jensen set our 8 and Under boys 25 free record, and our 15-18 girls' free relay of Caroline and Grace Lucas, Morgan Hall, and Kloey Merck. Congrats to those swimmers on a job well done! There were several other swimmers very close, and hopefully we'll see some more records fall in short order.
We did have a few discrepancies pop up regarding some of our swimmers' ages. Due to this, we are going to be verifying the dates of birth for our swimmers. We don't need a birth certificate, but we would ask that you check your child's date of birth or provide it if you didn't at the beginning of the season or in the past. This information will not be shared with anyone other than team and meet administration.
We currently have 58 girls and 33 boys registered for our team, which is fantastic! We have some great swimmers, but our younger boys' age groups have a severe shortage. This has been an issue for us in the past when it came to our championship meet participation, and we want to make sure that we keep that championship trophy at home. If you know of any young men 12 and under who could participate in the team, please encourage them to come see us this week! We are still signing swimmers up until Friday, June 29.
This Tuesday we have our meet at Black Mountain, with warm ups beginning at 5:30pm. The pool is located at 401 Laurel Circle Dr., Black Mountain, 28711. When leaving I-40W, go right on Black Mountain Ave., then take a left on W. State St.. Take a right on Cragmont Rd., and veer right at the fork onto Rhododendron Ave. Turn left at Laurel Cir Dr and the pool is on the left.
There is limited parking available, so please drop off and then find a spot to park. Please come prepared to hang out for a while at this meet. More than likely this meet will go on pretty long, as Black Mountain has almost 150 swimmers on their roster this year, and 92 participated in a home meet this past week. We will need timers and officials to assist in the meet, and I'll send out a sign up link later.
Following this meet, we are in Forest City. Please sign up if you are going to make it on Monday, July 2nd. We will need entries to them by June 30th, so the sooner you sign up, the better.
Thank you all again for an awesome job thus far! Have a great weekend!
First of all, I want to thank everyone for an awesome job on Thursday! You all did great in getting pictures done, setting things up, helping swimmers get to the clerk of course, cheering folks on, and helping out when the storms hit. I'm incredibly grateful to have such a great crew. When we called the meet, we were ahead of both teams by about 30 points.
We had two new team records set during the events we swam: Sam Jensen set our 8 and Under boys 25 free record, and our 15-18 girls' free relay of Caroline and Grace Lucas, Morgan Hall, and Kloey Merck. Congrats to those swimmers on a job well done! There were several other swimmers very close, and hopefully we'll see some more records fall in short order.
We did have a few discrepancies pop up regarding some of our swimmers' ages. Due to this, we are going to be verifying the dates of birth for our swimmers. We don't need a birth certificate, but we would ask that you check your child's date of birth or provide it if you didn't at the beginning of the season or in the past. This information will not be shared with anyone other than team and meet administration.
We currently have 58 girls and 33 boys registered for our team, which is fantastic! We have some great swimmers, but our younger boys' age groups have a severe shortage. This has been an issue for us in the past when it came to our championship meet participation, and we want to make sure that we keep that championship trophy at home. If you know of any young men 12 and under who could participate in the team, please encourage them to come see us this week! We are still signing swimmers up until Friday, June 29.
This Tuesday we have our meet at Black Mountain, with warm ups beginning at 5:30pm. The pool is located at 401 Laurel Circle Dr., Black Mountain, 28711. When leaving I-40W, go right on Black Mountain Ave., then take a left on W. State St.. Take a right on Cragmont Rd., and veer right at the fork onto Rhododendron Ave. Turn left at Laurel Cir Dr and the pool is on the left.
There is limited parking available, so please drop off and then find a spot to park. Please come prepared to hang out for a while at this meet. More than likely this meet will go on pretty long, as Black Mountain has almost 150 swimmers on their roster this year, and 92 participated in a home meet this past week. We will need timers and officials to assist in the meet, and I'll send out a sign up link later.
Following this meet, we are in Forest City. Please sign up if you are going to make it on Monday, July 2nd. We will need entries to them by June 30th, so the sooner you sign up, the better.
Thank you all again for an awesome job thus far! Have a great weekend!
Thursday, June 21, 2018
Happy Meet Day!
Happy Meet Day, Torpedo!
It's finally here, and it's a big one! We will be facing off tonight against the McDowell Mariners and the Granite Falls Sharks. There will be a lot of good, healthy competition and I want to reiterate sportsmanship on the deck tonight.
We have had a lot of people sign up for roles in the meet tonight, but we need more! Please, if you haven't had a chance, go to this SignUp Genius link and select a time for you or a family member to assist.With the exception of the stroke and turn operation, all of the jobs are something you can learn very quickly. Check out my earlier blog post on how to run the console if you are interested in that.
We will be taking pictures at 3:30pm. If you didn't get a picture form at the beginning of the season and need one, there will be some on deck for you to use. About 4pm we will start lining up to do our team photo. Please wear a team shirt or a blue shirt if you have one. I apologize for not having our team shirts yet. They should be in for next week's meet in Black Mountain.
It is going to be hot, so please be sure to bring snacks, drinks, and shade for this afternoon. We will start allowing for tent setup at 4pm. Please try to be as compact as possible on the deck, as we will have a good number of people here tonight.
I will be sending out events for swimmers through Remind later today, and they will also be available via the Meet Mobile app.
Let's get excited! It's Meet Day!
It's finally here, and it's a big one! We will be facing off tonight against the McDowell Mariners and the Granite Falls Sharks. There will be a lot of good, healthy competition and I want to reiterate sportsmanship on the deck tonight.
We have had a lot of people sign up for roles in the meet tonight, but we need more! Please, if you haven't had a chance, go to this SignUp Genius link and select a time for you or a family member to assist.With the exception of the stroke and turn operation, all of the jobs are something you can learn very quickly. Check out my earlier blog post on how to run the console if you are interested in that.
We will be taking pictures at 3:30pm. If you didn't get a picture form at the beginning of the season and need one, there will be some on deck for you to use. About 4pm we will start lining up to do our team photo. Please wear a team shirt or a blue shirt if you have one. I apologize for not having our team shirts yet. They should be in for next week's meet in Black Mountain.
It is going to be hot, so please be sure to bring snacks, drinks, and shade for this afternoon. We will start allowing for tent setup at 4pm. Please try to be as compact as possible on the deck, as we will have a good number of people here tonight.
I will be sending out events for swimmers through Remind later today, and they will also be available via the Meet Mobile app.
Let's get excited! It's Meet Day!
Sunday, June 10, 2018
UPDATE FOR THE WEEK OF JUNE 11
Happy Sunday, Torpedo!
I hope you had the chance to get out to the graduation ceremonies for our schools this past Friday and Saturday! We have some fantastic young people starting new chapters in their lives, and I again applaud and congratulate them on their success and wish them the best going forward.
This week marks the beginning of our split practices. As a reminder, our 9-10 and 11-12 swimmers will practice 7:30-8:30am, and the 13 and ups will be from 8:30-10am. Our 8 and unders will practice from 5:15-6pm. All practices are Monday-Friday, unless otherwise specified due to a meet or coach announcement. For example, please remember we will not be practicing this Friday, June 15th.
In the past we haven't required any training gear (fins, paddles, etc.), but this year I want to encourage our 11 and up swimmers to consider purchasing fins, and a snorkel. I want to encourage paddles for our swimmers 13 and up in addition to the fins and snorkel. We will use these items in practice on occasion, but again, they are not required. If you had to choose between them, please look into fins first, then the snorkel and finally paddles.
If you are interested in some awesome Torpedo swag or getting any of the above mentioned training gear, please check out our SwimOutlet.com store. I've linked to it at the bottom of the page (or here for mobile viewers: https://www.swimoutlet.com/valdesetorpedo/). If you have an account on the site, be sure to link it to the team store. We do receive a portion of sales that come through the store, and you all get awesome gear!
Speaking of swag, t-shirts and cap orders were due on Friday. If you missed this deadline, we will go ahead and start collecting names for a second run. I have only heard from a couple of swimmers regarding silicone caps, and we do not have enough to make an order at this time. We are hoping to have the shirts available for our pictures on June 21st, and caps should be in by then, as well.
I will put out the sign up sheets for this season's meets tomorrow morning (Monday) in the VTST folder at the fitness counter. In order for your swimmer to be entered in a meet, they need to be signed up by the date provided on each sign up sheet.
In anticipation of our upcoming meets, I want to encourage all parents, grandparents, siblings, aunts, uncles, etc. to find a way too assist us at our meets. We ABSOLUTELY NEED YOU ALL. I have included a link to the training videos for starters and stroke and turn officials at the bottom of the page. Please see if you can assist with either role, and let me know via email if you are interested. We will need timers, runners (collecting materials from officials), heat winner ribbon giver-outers, scorers and console operators. I will send out SignUp Genius links as the meets approach. Each role is vital to running a great meet, and you all have done an awesome job in the past. I'm looking forward to that being the case again this year!
If helping with meet operations may not be your thing, please think about helping out with our Boosters at their concession stand at home meets. You can assist by donating desired goods, or helping run the stand during the meet. Please speak with Jackie or Carol about opportunities for this.
Let's have a great week! See you all at the pool!
I hope you had the chance to get out to the graduation ceremonies for our schools this past Friday and Saturday! We have some fantastic young people starting new chapters in their lives, and I again applaud and congratulate them on their success and wish them the best going forward.
This week marks the beginning of our split practices. As a reminder, our 9-10 and 11-12 swimmers will practice 7:30-8:30am, and the 13 and ups will be from 8:30-10am. Our 8 and unders will practice from 5:15-6pm. All practices are Monday-Friday, unless otherwise specified due to a meet or coach announcement. For example, please remember we will not be practicing this Friday, June 15th.
In the past we haven't required any training gear (fins, paddles, etc.), but this year I want to encourage our 11 and up swimmers to consider purchasing fins, and a snorkel. I want to encourage paddles for our swimmers 13 and up in addition to the fins and snorkel. We will use these items in practice on occasion, but again, they are not required. If you had to choose between them, please look into fins first, then the snorkel and finally paddles.
If you are interested in some awesome Torpedo swag or getting any of the above mentioned training gear, please check out our SwimOutlet.com store. I've linked to it at the bottom of the page (or here for mobile viewers: https://www.swimoutlet.com/valdesetorpedo/). If you have an account on the site, be sure to link it to the team store. We do receive a portion of sales that come through the store, and you all get awesome gear!
Speaking of swag, t-shirts and cap orders were due on Friday. If you missed this deadline, we will go ahead and start collecting names for a second run. I have only heard from a couple of swimmers regarding silicone caps, and we do not have enough to make an order at this time. We are hoping to have the shirts available for our pictures on June 21st, and caps should be in by then, as well.
I will put out the sign up sheets for this season's meets tomorrow morning (Monday) in the VTST folder at the fitness counter. In order for your swimmer to be entered in a meet, they need to be signed up by the date provided on each sign up sheet.
In anticipation of our upcoming meets, I want to encourage all parents, grandparents, siblings, aunts, uncles, etc. to find a way too assist us at our meets. We ABSOLUTELY NEED YOU ALL. I have included a link to the training videos for starters and stroke and turn officials at the bottom of the page. Please see if you can assist with either role, and let me know via email if you are interested. We will need timers, runners (collecting materials from officials), heat winner ribbon giver-outers, scorers and console operators. I will send out SignUp Genius links as the meets approach. Each role is vital to running a great meet, and you all have done an awesome job in the past. I'm looking forward to that being the case again this year!
If helping with meet operations may not be your thing, please think about helping out with our Boosters at their concession stand at home meets. You can assist by donating desired goods, or helping run the stand during the meet. Please speak with Jackie or Carol about opportunities for this.
Let's have a great week! See you all at the pool!
Sunday, June 3, 2018
UPDATE FOR THE WEEK
Good evening, Everyone!
It looks like we might have some clear weather this week, so we are really looking forward to getting some good work in with all of our swimmers. With that said, it is summer time, and we ask that swimmers be flexible should any storms arise this week.
As a reminder, we will change schedules after this week starting on June 11, with our 9-10 and 11-12 year olds practicing from 7:30am-8:30am, and our 13-18 year olds swimming from 8:30am-10am. Our 8 and Unders will swim from 5:15pm-6:00pm. All practices are Monday-Friday unless otherwise announced.
If you are interested in getting a shirt for the summer, please be sure to get your order in by Friday afternoon at the latest. Likewise, if you are interested in a silicone swim cap, please let me know so I can get numbers in line to place an order.
We have several swimmers participating in graduation celebrations this weekend, and we want to wish them congratulations and all the best! Please take a moment to congratulate our seniors when you see them on deck this week. We are very proud of all they have accomplished!
In addition to the best wishes to our upcoming grads, I have a two bits of information to share with everyone. First, I have recently accepted a full-time position with the Town of Valdese Recreation Department as the new Aquatics and Fitness Supervisor. I will be continuing in my coaching duties with the team, as well as assuming several new roles at the pool and fitness center. I am really looking forward to the new opportunities this provides the community, myself, and family. Second, as a result of this transition, I will be attending a day-long training in Asheville on Friday, June 15th. We will have a long weekend with no practice that Friday.
It looks like we might have some clear weather this week, so we are really looking forward to getting some good work in with all of our swimmers. With that said, it is summer time, and we ask that swimmers be flexible should any storms arise this week.
As a reminder, we will change schedules after this week starting on June 11, with our 9-10 and 11-12 year olds practicing from 7:30am-8:30am, and our 13-18 year olds swimming from 8:30am-10am. Our 8 and Unders will swim from 5:15pm-6:00pm. All practices are Monday-Friday unless otherwise announced.
If you are interested in getting a shirt for the summer, please be sure to get your order in by Friday afternoon at the latest. Likewise, if you are interested in a silicone swim cap, please let me know so I can get numbers in line to place an order.
We have several swimmers participating in graduation celebrations this weekend, and we want to wish them congratulations and all the best! Please take a moment to congratulate our seniors when you see them on deck this week. We are very proud of all they have accomplished!
In addition to the best wishes to our upcoming grads, I have a two bits of information to share with everyone. First, I have recently accepted a full-time position with the Town of Valdese Recreation Department as the new Aquatics and Fitness Supervisor. I will be continuing in my coaching duties with the team, as well as assuming several new roles at the pool and fitness center. I am really looking forward to the new opportunities this provides the community, myself, and family. Second, as a result of this transition, I will be attending a day-long training in Asheville on Friday, June 15th. We will have a long weekend with no practice that Friday.
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