Practice Schedule Changes this week-end

Due to the Golden Bear Meet we will make the following changes:

Friday Silver 1 & 2 no change, Scarlet Elite 6-8 pm

Saturday:

No practice for Scarlet & Senior

Buckeye 1, TOO & 3 swim 8:30-9:30 am

No change on Sunday

UASC Golden Bear Updates

Warm-up times
(please plan to arrive 15 minutes prior to warm-ups each day):

• Friday 5:30
• Saturday & Sunday
• Age 15+ 7:25 am
• Age 13-14 10:25 am
• 11-12 2:00
• 10-un 5:10 Saturday, 4:50 on Sunday

The meet will limit most events 200 yards and over to 8 heats per event. There will be no relays during this meet and flyover starts will be used to help move the meet along.

UASC typically opens it's 'Bear Room' &/or gymnasium for swimmers and families to camp out in during the meet. This is a large area off of the pool deck that allows for some comfortable lounging. Most families enjoy joining their swimmers in this room and popping onto the pool deck/bleacher area just to watch their kids swim. There is very limited on deck seating.

Extra team tees!

Kastaway has extra team t-shirts in red with our new logo at their Worthington store. The shirts are lightweight red shirts, a real nice weight for a hot pool. Stop by the store to purchase.

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10/31 Open Practice

Reminder! Monday's practice is an open practice for any elite swimmer from 4-6. Have a safe and happy Beggar's night!

Lost & Found

With fall sports ending we have seen a nice increase in practice attendance. As a result the swimmer's areas at practice are getting crowded - this crowding leads to clothing & gear being buried under bags and kids accidently picking up other kids items. Please follow these easy practices to help eliminate lost gear and clothes:

1. Label ALL of your swim & team gear, including your mesh bag.
2. Do not place your gear bag at the end of your lane until after the group before you has picked their gear up. Your gear bag can wait by the tables while you warm-up.
3. Place all of your clothing inside your back pack during practice, do not leave clothing lying around.
4. Do not place your back pack or clothing on top of anyone else's.
5. PLEASE check what you are grabbing. We have had a couple of kids that were "given" someone else's clothes to go home in when their clothes were picked up by someone else.

There are a few lost and found areas at the pool: the green tub at the entrance collects most clothing items, goggle and gear go by our team mail folders or in the closet storage areas.

Did you know?

In the 2009-2010 season 11,769 women and 9,025 men swam for an NCAA Division 1, 2 or 3 program.

Approximately 2000 men and women swim in NAIA & NCJAA college programs.

In the 2010-2011 season 160,881 girls and 133,900 boys represented their high school in swimming & diving.

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Deck Pass is now available for your iPhone

The time is finally here....USA Swimming's first-ever mobile application is now available!

Download the free Deck Pass application today and connect with all your swimming friends. Share times, brag about your accomplishments and set your goals in this new application that lets you compete and connect.

All swimmers, from state champions to summer leaguers, can track their times with the log book and even keep track of their personal goals through Deck Pass. USA Swimming members can also look up their times and recent meets, check their IMX scores, and see all of the Deck Pass patches they’ve earned.

USA Swimming coaches can use the mobile application to monitor their team’s times and rankings. Furthermore, coaches can use the mobile application to assign coach-given patches to swimmers. Why wait until you’re in front of a computer when you can use your mobile phone on deck to award your swimmers for their hard work?

Deck Pass Mobile features include:

- IMX scores, best times, recent meets and rankings.
- Digital patches for your achievements at practice and at competitions
- A way to connect with your swimming friends.
- A tool that allows coaches to award digital patches to their swimmers
- Your team's times, scores and ranks.
- USA Swimming information on events, meetings, certifications and results
- A digital logbook to keep track of your times and earn more patched
- A goal tracker to set goals for the season and monitor your progress

Download the FREE Deck Pass mobile application for iPhones here!

Download the FREE Deck Pass mobile application for Androids here! - COMING SOON!

Better Late than Never

Last spring, Coach Lew put together a wonderful swim meet guide for our parents. We both forgot about this guide as the summer months came to a close. Of course I intended to send it to everyone BEFORE the first meet with a little note about what to expect at Worthington. I hope everyone will enjoy this light reading, it really is a good guide into what we expect from the kids with great tips for parents.

ParentSwimMeetGuide.pdf - https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B5Fb_Y_UYoxtYmQ1N2U4NjYtYjA5Yy00OGFlLWJlYzgtY2ZmNjQwNDYzMTZj&hl=en_US

Congratulations 10 & Unders

I want to recognize the outstanding meet our swimmers, coaches and parents (yes, parents too) had on Saturday afternoon:

Swimmers: Our swimmers really learned and adapted quickly to the meet format. The kids did a great job of listening to the coaches and being where they needed to be promptly. Everyone went through the bullpen with ease and swam AMAZING!!! I hope all of you swimmers had fun too :)

Parents: Thank you parents for 'going with the flow' when thrown a curve ball. So sorry to not go over the basics before the meet - but you all did a great job adapting. You were also a great cheering squad when our Buckeyes were in the water!

Coaches: A super big thanks to Coach Lew & Coach Julie for helping out Saturday afternoon. Lew was the organizer and got everyone to the bullpen. Julie was behind the blocks making sure everyone knew the rules and had a plan of attack for each event. We sailed through the meet with, I believe, only 1-2 DQ's. Thanks Coaches!!

Extra T-Shirts

The Pollock Family has donated about 60 t-shirts sporting the new team logo to our Booster Club. The shirts come in a variety of colors and sizes. Each family will have their chance to pick ONE shirt on Monday or Tuesday at practice. On Wednesday, any shirts remaining will be available to anyone. A donation to the booster club for your shirt is optional.

The kids are now receiving their team t-shirts that were made exclusively for kids and coaches.

Kast-A-Way has not yet printed our red t-shirts, if you would like to order one I suggest you call today. These shirts are being printed on a light weight t-shirt from Sport Tek.

Tweet! Tweet!

Coaches Lew & Laurie will be attempting to tweet from our meets. You can follow along on Twitter -just search for our user names in Twitter:

Coach Lew is lewswims

Coach Laurie is swimbuckeye

Swimming Pool Project

Our new pool project is underway. We have two very pressing items that we need to address to make this project happen:

1. Location, location, location! We are really making good progress on this - I will update everyone in a private team email when I have more news.
2. Cash - we need 50 more investors at the $2500 rate to dive in by middle November. We have done a super job outlining investment options for you and the risks involved, please weigh these carefully and call or email if you can invest or have further questions.

Sunday, October 30 BOO! Practice

Join us for a special practice during your regular practice time. All swimmers are encouraged to wear an old costume to practice to swim in! Be as creative as you like, but please no body paint or make-up in the water. The coaches will have some creative practice sets for the swimmers, including some tricks and some treats!

Monday, October 31 Practice Schedule

It appears that the majority of Columbus will have their Beggar's night on October 31 this year. As a result, all regular group practices are cancelled on 10/31. We understand that not all of our swimmers trick-or-treat, thus we will hold an open practice available to all Elite swimmers from 4-6 pm.

John Bruce Memorial Updates

Warm-up Times - please arrive 10 minutes prior to your assigned warm-up time:

· Friday: 4:55 (lanes 1-2)

· Saturday AM, ages 11 & over: 7:55 (lanes 3-4) **

· Saturday PM, ages 10 & younger: 1:55 (lanes 3-4)

· Sunday AM, ages 11 & over: 8:20 (lanes 3-4)**

**all warm-up lanes have 20 swimmers assigned which is VERY crowded. We have asked the Columbus Sports Club if we can warm-up there from 7:45-8:30 am so that our 11 & overs can warm-up in a calm & conducive environment. If they are able to open the pool for us, we will announce this at practice all week.

Notes from the Meet Director:

1. We will use flyover starts for all sessions. Please instruct your swimmers in the art of flyover starts. Thanks.

2. The Friday evening session will be moved up by half an hour so that warm-ups will start at 4:30pm and the meet will start at 5:30pm.

3. The 200 freestyle on Saturday morning (events #21 and 22) will be limited to the 24 fastest girls and 24 fastest boys after scratches (4 heats each).

4. The 200 breaststroke on Sunday morning (events #55 and 56) will be limited to the 24 fastest girls and 24 fastest boys after scratches (4 heats each).

5. There will be positive check-in for all events 200 and longer. Positive check-in closes 30 minutes prior to the start of each session.

6. The Saturday afternoon session will be moved back by half an hour so that warm-ups will start at 1:30pm and the meet will start at 2:30pm.

7. There will be no deck entries except in the first heat of every event, if space allows. Deck entries closes 30 minutes prior to the start of each session. Max 4 events per session.

We look forward to hosting you this coming weekend.

USA Swimming wants your Inspirational Story

Dear USA Swimming Coaches

We are very excited to announce a new project that will be launched next year in support of the USA Swimming Foundation, internally named “Operation Inspiration.”

In May 2012, the USA Swimming Foundation will release a compilation book of inspiring stories from individuals who have been affected by swimming. Stories will come from National Team athletes, past Olympians, Make a Splash heroes, etc. As we are reaching out to those individuals in the swimming community that we are aware of, we are also looking for some of the best stories in the country. We hope you can help!

The stories can be funny, sad, heartwarming, life-changing—basically, any story that will pull at the heartstrings of the average reader while focusing on the lifestyles of those in the swimming community.
Within the next few weeks we will host a social media campaign calling for the best stories from across the country via Facebook, twitter, etc. Individuals will be invited to submit their stories to swimstories@usaswimming.org. Select stories will be included in the book, alongside some of America’s favorite athletes.

At this point we would like to make sure the swimming community is aware of this opportunity and request that you notify us of any stories that you think will be a good fit for this project—especially those that will touch the hearts of Americans everywhere.

Deadline for submission is October 28, 2011. If selected to participate in the book project, your story will be reviewed by the publisher, edited and sent back to the writer for approval. We are currently looking for stories with a 1000+ word count to be considered. We know that as National Team Alumni you all will have some of the best stories.

More Information on the Book
• Proceeds from the book sales will directly benefit the USA Swimming Foundation
• Release date: Scheduled for May 2012
• Cost: $14.99 (available in paperback and e-book)
• Publisher: Farrah Gray Publishing
• Book Title: Pending

If you have any questions about “Operation Inspiration,” feel free to contact Talia Mark (swimstories@usaswimming.org) or call at 719.425.0409

Sign -up for Deck Pass

USA Swimming has launched a new web feature called Deck Pass. This feature will allow coaches to award patches to swimmers to recognize special efforts at meets and practice. We ask that ALL parents & swimmers sign up this week so that we can begin handing out patches following our first meet. Sign-up and info is here: http://www.usaswimming.org/DesktopDefault.aspx?TabId=2151&Alias=Rainbow&Lang=en

Practice Schedule Changes 10/20-22

We have several changes to accommodate coaches schedules, Friday's day off school and the swim meet. Please review:

Thursday 10/20

SCARLET swims an hour early 5:45-7:30

Friday 10/21

All groups are earlier:

Silver 1 & 2 4-5:15

Scarlet 5:15-7:00 pm

Saturday 10/22

NO PRACTICE, all groups

Team Caps

All swimmers should be receiving their team cap at practice. Returning swimmers should check their caps before their first meet to make sure they are intact. The coaching staff always carries spare caps to the meets (caps are available at no additional charge).

Team T-Shirts

Team t-shirts will arrive Friday afternoon (10/21). We will begin distributing shirts at the meet Saturday morning.

Meet Entries Posted

Meet entries for our first meet (10/21-23) at Worthington and our 2nd meet at Upper Arlington (11/4-6) have been posted to the Members Only portion of our new website www.bkyswim.com. You will need the login and password to gain access to this area of the website. Please email or text if you have misplaced that information.