On the Sunday after this week’s Seton December Invitational, I joined my mother and my three (3) brothers for our 2nd annual pilgrimage to Section 62, Grave 361 in Arlington National Cemetery. That is the eternal resting place of RADM James E. Koehr, my father, who died during the season two (2) years ago.
It gave me an always welcomed opportunity reflect on the man he was and the impact he had on my life. Along with my wife and my mother, he was the most importance influence on the man I am today.
I doubt any of you reading this blog ever met my father, although Col. Schroer’s Dad went to high school with him in St. Louis, MO, but you all know him by proxy. Many of the things you hear come out of my month or off my computer keyboard are a reflection of the many lessons he taught me when I was a young lad swimming on a high school swimming team.
At his bedside as he was dying, I wrote a reflection on his impact on me that later became the basis of the Eulogy my mother asked me to give as his oldest son. See if any of this sounds familiar to you:
Rest in Peace, Dad – Seton Swimming
The opportunities to see his wisdom in action are plentiful as a high school swimming coach, and I had another opportunity this past week.
To Whom Should I Compare Myself?
How did you feel when you got out of the water from practice yesterday or today? I bet you felt pretty good.
Unsurprisingly, I saw lots of smiles, so that told me that you all felt like you had accomplished something more than learning a bit more about the timing of the stroke and the pull in breaststroke. You had just done something hard that most kids your age, and even many parents, would brush off as unimportant with a quick flourish of something like, “I’m not a morning person”.
When I used to train for triathlons, I’d always feel dread before the long run and jubilation afterwards. I had enough experience to know that I didn’t want to do it but that I would want to have done it.
I’m sure when your alarm went off this morning, you were not smiling. You knew you had something to face that you didn’t want to face. I’d be lying if I tried to tell you that I didn’t feel the same thing – something that only my daily “Come Holy Spirit” prayer can help me overcome as I pull back the covers and feel the rush of cold air on my warm legs.
We are fearful of the challenge before us.
Besides the obvious fears of the cold water, the pull-ups, or the sprint sets, there might be a variety of other fears that creep in also.
One might be the nagging feeling that, “I’m not good enough” or “All the other kids are so much better than me.”
I remember many years ago when one of my older boys was on the Seton Swim Team. One day he just announced, “I am terrible at swimming!”.
Now this was a kid who would eventually become the captain of the team and earn All-State honors, so I was puzzled and asked why.
“Because I’m not as good as Nevin.”
“Really? You are terrible because you are not as good as the State Champion, National Catholic Champion, All-America Nevin Cook?”, I replied.
Fortunately, that was a pretty easy and compelling response as a parent, but it is seldom that easy. We all fall into that trap of assessing our value based on how we compare with others. Even me.
My wife always laughs when I express such awe at someone who can do something well that I can’t. Apparently, I do it all the time – and I’ve had 62 years to figure this out!
I’m not going to claim to have the answer when this comes up for you as a swimmer or when you are dealing with this as parent, but I think I may have one of the right questions.
Having raised twelve children myself, I know that when dealing with a feeling of inadequacy, there is a thick grey line between validating that feeling (which is good) and enabling a disability (which is bad). As parents (and as a coaches), we want children to feel safe and loved, but we also don’t want to encourage any negative perceptions they might have about themselves – especially when they are completely false.
So, if you are swimmer who is feeling inadequate or just not good enough, ask yourself why. Is it because you, like my son all those years ago, are comparing yourself to someone else? That’s a great question for us parents to ask also when dealing with our children.
No matter who you are, there is always someone better than you at something – probably a whole lot of someones. And if that is not the case for you right now, just wait a while. Once you realize that, there’s one inescapable conclusion that I learned (mostly) from my father:
The only person to whom you should compare yourself is your former self.
This is why you so often hear me say that if you keep getting better, the good takes care of itself.
“Fake it ‘till you make it” is an expression most of us adults have heard at some point in their lives. It sounds cynical, but there is a ring of truth to it, because while you are “faking it” you are actually realizing the potential that was always inside of you.
So, if you jump in the water tomorrow morning feeling like you just can’t keep up, don’t compare yourself to the kids around you – just “fake it ‘till you make it!”
Meet Results
The December Invitational was the second of a trio of December meets that are part of the unique cadence we have for a Seton season for the swimmers and coaches too. In December, we concentrate very heavily on stroke technique and getting as many kids as possible to swim as many different events as possible. We are four (4) stroke swimmers at Seton, particularly in December. This past week, we concentrated on backstroke. Last week was freestyle and this week will feature breaststroke/butterfly.
Then, over Christmas and in January, we will hit the conditioning much harder until we rest down for the championship meets in February. From what I saw on Saturday, I think the championship season might be unusually challenging for us this year so we are going to have to maximize ever part our season’s cadence (more on that later).
Although we lined up our entries with an emphasis on personal swimmer development rather than team scoring, the team scores still turned out quite favorably for us. We faced eight (9) girls’ teams and eight (8) boys’ teams – and we won all the girls’ meets and all but one (1) of the boy’s meets.
If you want a refresher on how high school swim meets are scored, you can check out my single most-read blog called, “So How is a High School Meet Scored, Anyway?”
Here’s how the scores turned out for our meets:
Girls
Seton Swim & Dive 166 Fredericksburg Christian 119
Seton Swim & Dive 167 Trinity Christian ` 131
Seton Swim & Dive 170 Oakcrest 129
Seton Swim & Dive 189 Trinity Meadowview 90
Seton Swim & Dive 190 Immanuel Christian 109
Seton Swim & Dive 209 Flint Hill 66
Seton Swim & Dive 228 Veritas Collegiate (Arlington) 16
Seton Swim & Dive 235 Fresta Valley Christian 15
Boys
Immanuel Christian 185.5 Seton Swim & Dive 116.5
Seton Swim & Dive 162 Trinity Meadowview 115
Seton Swim & Dive 160 Flint Hill 108
Seton Swim & Dive 200 Williamsburg Christian 67
Seton Swim & Dive 209 Trinity Christian 28
Seton Swim & Dive 216 Fresta Valley Christian 32
Seton Swim & Dive 217 Veritas Collegiate (Arlington) 16
With Saturday’s 15 wins, we now have a total of 981 regular season wins since 2002. So maybe we will hit 1,000 at the VCAC Regular Season Championship meet?
Normally in December, I don’t burn much energy on final scores since we are so focused on personal development at this point in the season. Given also that the 2nd weekend in December is a time when most of our top swimmers are at other meets, I am generally even less interested.
But this year feels different. Immanuel Christian didn’t just beat us, they beat by almost 70-points!
Might the Seton Boys Have a New Conference Rival?
“I knew we might be facing something better than we expected when I saw them line up for the National Anthem.”
No, that is not what another coach said about Seton. That’s what I was thinking when I saw Immanuel Christian School’s team line-up across the bulkhead, with perfect uniforms, for the National Anthem on Saturday.
I’ll admit to feeling a bit of pride that other teams in our conference have found the way we show respect for our national colors worth emulating – but that was my second thought. My first thought was about what I saw on that bulkhead – a well-led team that was looking to make their mark on the Virginia Christian Athletic Conference (VCAC).
Coach Ken Burgess and Coach Katie Kim Wolf have certainly grown a program that only joined our conference for the 2023-24 season into a contender in a very short time. It’s very impressive, I think.
This reminds me of when Trinity Christian School first joined our conference for 2015-16. I experienced the same sort of feeling.
Prior to that, our girls had their way with conference opponents, but in that season, Trinity Christian let it be known that they were coming to get us. While we won the regular season championship for the 2016-17 season, Trinity Christian shocked us in the season-ending Conference Championship Meet by beating us for the first time ever. The next year, we won by only 0.5 points with almost 600-points scored – 300 to 299.5!
The rivalry continues to this day with Trinity having won two (2) more conference championship meets, followed by the 2023-24 season when they beat us for both the regular season and the conference championship meet – ending a unbroken conference championship streak (either the regular season or the championship meet) for our girls that started in the 1994-95 season.
Check out a comparison of the scores between Seton and the next best Conference team in the season-ending Conference Championship meet since the 2002-03 season. You can see exactly when Trinity Christian came on the scene for the 2016 meet – total dominance for Seton’s girls through 2016 followed by nailbiters every year since:
Our boys have a different trend. In the 2000s, we would regularly double the next best team’s score, but then in 2014, 2015, and 2016, we lost three (3) in a row to Fredericksburg Christian – two (2) of them by only 4-points. (If you were around in 2016, you’d understand one of the reasons why I get so upset when kids miss their events).
I blame myself for those losses. From 2011 to 2013, I was in MBA school at Darden at the University of Virginia, and I just didn’t spend the time recruiting and developing the younger kids from our middle school. That came back to bite us – but we have since recovered our winning ways. As you can see with a team of 130 kids, I don’t plan to let that happen ever again!
But now we see what is coming from Immanuel Christian School’s boys.
On January 3rd, we have our annual VCAC Regular Season Conference Championship which will be scored like a regular season meet – just like the December Invitational with Seton scoring head-to-head with Immanual Christian.
Two (2) years ago, their first year in the Conference, we beat them in this regular season Meet by a score of 207-102 (by 105-points). Last year, we beat them in this Meet 166-143 (by 23-points). If you have ever done any extrapolation in Algebra I, you can see that this trend is not good for Seton. It gets even scarier when you consider that we graduated 30 seniors last year, including eight (8) members of our boys’ Varsity team.
As daunting as all that sounds though, it excites me even more, because it gives us a great opportunity to live the Meekness component of our GEMS:
Meekness is neither timidity nor capitulation. Meekness is the spiritual strength to help your opponent over the bar we raised by winning.
That is why I took so much pride in watching the way they lined up for the National Anthem – because our example helped make them better.
Now it is their turn to make us better by neither timidity nor capitulation – they are going to try to beat us, and nothing focuses an athlete like the impending threat of getting beaten in competition.
We have also seen how much fun a good old-fashioned rivalry can be. It’s been a blast competing with the Trinity Christian girls over the past decade – and both of our teams are better off for it.
I can’t wait to see if we can grow our competition with Immanual Christian into the same sort of lasting rivalry for the boys. Blow the whistle and step up boys!
Diving Continues to Get Better
I wrote last week about all the improvements Coach Ashley Keapproth and Diving Meet Director Katie Condon have been making to the quality of our Dive Meets, and this past weekend, the improvement continued.
For the first time ever, we had judges enter their scores directly into an app on their phones that fed directly into the scoring system. Equally exciting was watching the Stream Team, led by Paul Fifield, display the scores in real-time on the Freedom Center scoreboard.
It has been amazing progress in only our first two (2) meets of the season.
The divers also continue to show great improvement. I will let Coach Keapproth take over the story from here, including a new team record by Meghan Condon (10)!
Good afternoon, Seton Diving Families–
Great job in your second meet of the season yesterday! I was so impressed by the many divers working to increase their difficulty with harder dives! Special thanks to Mrs. Condon, who ran our first meet using our new DiveLive software!
A few highlights :
- Special Congratulations to Meghan Condon (10) who finished 1st and crushed her own school record, setting a new 6-dive record of 191.00 points. Meghan did an amazing inward 1.5 somersault and competed a front flip with two twists for the first time. This was the hardest dive performed in the girls competition!
- Maria Miller (12) finished 3rd with 149.56 points, just shy of her PR. She did a great front double somersault, which was her highest scoring dive.
- Clare Kay (8) finished 4th with 147.25 points, crushing her prior PR by 15 points and qualifying for the State Championship! Clare competed a front somersault with a full twist for the first time this week and it was her highest scoring dive!
- Lucy Herwick (9) finished 5th with 138.05 points, beating her prior PR by 6 points! She competed her double somersault for the first time today which was her highest scoring dive!
- Jane Judge (10) finished 6th with 133.90 points. She performed a beautiful back dive and front 1.5 somersaults.
- Bella Gorman (8) finished 7th with 123.25 points, crushing her PR from last meet by over 10 points! She had an amazing front 1.5 somersault and front somersault with a half twist.
- Betsy Arnold (10) finished 10th with 86.65 points. Besty has worked hard to learn the 6 dives needed to compete, and her back dive was her highest scoring dive!
- On the boys side, Tom Waldron (10) finished 4th with 122.10 points. His inward flip and backflip with a half twist were both excellent!
- Kenny Nguyen (11) finished 5th with 107.90 points. His inward flip and inward 1.5 somersault were his highest scoring dives.
Highlights from the 3-dive Exhibition Meet:
- On the girls’ side, it was a close competition! Molly Croson (8) took 1st for the second week in a row, setting a new PR of 53.35. Her front dive was fantastic!
- Penny Kramer (11) was 2nd with 52.45. Her inward dive was phenomenal, and she had the highest difficulty of the exhibition competition.
- Clare Judge (9) came in 3rd with 51.15 points and new PR! Her inward dive that she just learned was fantastic!
- Addi Hardo (8) came in 4th with 17.75 points. She showed beautiful form on her front jump!
- On the boys’ side, Will Judge (7) took 1st with 55.15 points and a new PR. His best dive was his front dive tuck!
- Mark Hartung (7) was 2nd with 43.70 points and a new PR! He performed an excellent front flip. He even stayed after the meet to work on a new dive – a front flip with a half twist!
Lots of divers learned new dives this week including:
- Clare Judge (9), Cessie Reyes (8), Molly Croson (8), Mark Hartung (7), Will Judge (7), and Caleb Neuhaus (8) learned an inward dive.
- Betsy Arnold (10), Bella Nguyen (10), and Bella Gorman (8) learned a back flip.
- Bella Gorman (8), Max Ashton (8) and Brian Orellana (10) learned an inward flip.
- Emma Magness (7) learned a reverse dive and a front double.
- Jane Judge (10) learned a front double.
Thank you all for your hard work so far this season.
Coach Ashley
So Many Other PRs!
Personal Records (aka PRs or lifetime best times) are THE key metric at Seton Swimming, and if that is the measure of success, then we were incredibly successful on Saturday – 121 new Personal Records. Last year we had 1,144 total PRs, and after just Time Trials and the first two (2) Meets, we are already at a total of 337.
This past week, our emphasis was on backstroke, so check out the huge backstroke Personal Records that we saw, along with all the rest:
- Michael Zahorchak (JR) is working very hard both in and out of the pool, and the results showed with his 1.00 second PR in 100 Free and his 1.83 second PR in 200 IM.
- Joe Witter (SO) had a great swim in 100 Backstroke, beating his previous best by 8.35 seconds.
- Patrick Wise (7) swam one of the largest PRs in the entire meet – in 100 Backstroke by 23.17 seconds! Coach Shane Koehr told me that “Patrick had amazing rotation really getting his shoulders out of the water.”
- Jonas Wilson (SO) is going to be a big-time scorer for Seton in the future, and three (3) big PRs got him closer to that aspiration. In 200 IM he dropped 14.70 seconds, in 100 Free he broke the 1:00 barrier after dropping 4.65 seconds, and in 100 Free leading off the relay he dropped again, by another .41 seconds.
- Joce Wilson (7) looked great in 100 Back during her 2.89 second PR swim.
- Lily Waldron (SO) almost broke 8:00 in the 500 Free after a 10.16 second PR. She also cut a huge 3.63 seconds in 50 Back leading off a relay.
- Noah Vaughan (JR) cut 3.40 seconds from his 100 Back PR.
- Jane Vaughan (7) had a massive drop in 100 Back, by 17.54 seconds! She also dropped a whopping 2.68 seconds in 50 Free.
- Bella Vaughan (FR) beat her previous best time in 100 Back by 11.59 seconds.
- Dominic Sciscilo (7) dropped 18.92 seconds in 100 Back and swam an outstanding time for a 7th
- Maggie Schroer (SO) stayed home from the Army-Navy game and was rewarded with a 17.79 second PR in 200 IM.
- Gabby Russo (JR) lowered her 200 Free PR by 1.75 seconds, quite a feat this early in the season.
- James Reynolds (FR) had two huge drops. In 100 Back he dropped 9.51 seconds, and in 50 Free he dropped 1.34 seconds.
- Therese Rehmann (6) made Coach Jerry Zadnik proud with a 1.48 second PR in 50 Free and a 1.20 second PR in 100 Back.
- Camila Quispe (FR) didn’t surprise me with her three (3) PRs after watching her swim in practice recently. She cut 6.96 seconds in 50 Back, 3.77 seconds in 50 Free, and 9.55 seconds in 100 Back.
- Allison Quispe (SR) cut 3.46 seconds in 100 Back and .85 seconds in 50 Free.
- Charlotte Poullath (8) lowered her 100 Back PR by 1.59 seconds.
- Gianna Pillion (FR) had a similar drop in 100 Back, hers by 1.97 seconds.
- CJ Pennefather (7) cut another .47 seconds in 50 Free.
- Kolbe Partridge (6) swam three (3) PRs including a .46 second drop in 50 Free, a .65 second drop (again) in 50 Free leading off a relay, and a .62 second drop in 100 Back.
- Therese Paradise (8) swam 100 Fly for the first time at Seton in a very fast 1:04.05. She also dropped .45 seconds in 50 Free, .67 seconds in 100 Back, and .94 seconds in 100 Free. Her 100 Free time leading off a relay was 56.91, a very fast time for an 8th To put that 100 Free time in perspective, as an 8th grader at States in 2008, Seton-great Alex Doonis went 57.38
- William Orellana (8) had a big 5.44 second drop in 100 Back and a 2.12 second drop in 2.12. Believe it or not, I think he can do even better than that!
- Philip Nguyen (8) had a massive 19.81 second PR in 100 Back plus drops of 1.15 seconds in 50 Back and .40 seconds in 50 Free.
- James Nguyen (8) cut 4.72 seconds from his 100 Back PR.
- Maeve Mooney (6) looked beautiful in her 100 Back, and it showed with a massive 10.20 second PR!
- Maggie Mikkelson (8) lowered her 100 Back PR by 1.18 seconds.
- Colette Mikkelson (6) had a great 3.64 second PR swim in 100 Back.
- Charlotte Meadows (FR) swam a 2.59 second PR in 100 Breast and a 3.30 second PR in 100 Backstroke.
- Caeli McCardell (6) had the second biggest PR in the entire meet with her 46.06 second drop in 100 Back. Coach Jeremy Kleb was definitely proud of her!
- Aidan McCardell (SR) cut 1.74 seconds in 100 Breast and 5.09 seconds in 50 Back leading off a relay.
- Heidi Mayer (6) looked unphased tackling the challenge of 50 Fly in a medley relay!
- Evie Mayer (FR) beat her previous best by a whopping 7.80 seconds.
- Julia Maranian (SO) swam a very fast 50 Free, beating her previous best by .71 seconds.
- Siobhan Maher (8) had a great PR swim in 100 Back, dropping 15.38 seconds.
- Joey Lynch (SO) really shined on Saturday with his 9.38 second PR in 200 IM and his 5.84 second PR in 100 Fly.
- Rebecca Kramer (8) dropped 3.68 seconds in 100 Back and .09 seconds in 50 Free.
- Cora Kramer (JR) had a big drop in 100 Back, by 12.78 seconds.
- Colette Kramer (SR) had nearly the same drop in 100 Back as her sister, with hers by 12.78 seconds.
- Philomena Kay (JR) had a great early-season swim in 100 Fly with a .33 second PR.
- Marian Kay (6) cut 3.55 seconds in 100 Back and 1.31 seconds in 50 Free.
- Connor Kay (6) beat his previous 50 Back PR by 1.95 seconds.
- Clare Kay (8) had a superior swim in 100 Fly with a drop of 6.78 seconds. She also dropped 5.28 seconds in 200 IM.
- William Judge (7) dropped 7.82 seconds in 100 Back and .72 seconds in 50 Free.
- Jane Judge (SO) had a great early-season swim in 200 IM, beating her PR by 3.03 seconds.
- Dominic Judge (JR) rocked his 100 Free with a 2.93 second PR 56.92!
- Monica Irving (SO) dropped .91 second in 50 Back leading off a relay.
- Lucy Herwick (FR) beat her previous best by 4.39 seconds in 100 Back
- Dominic Henry (SO) had a huge 12.34 second drop in 100 Back plus a .42 second drop in 50 Back.
- Maddie Henderson (7) broke 1:30 for the first time in 100 Back after her .86 second PR.
- Charlie Hawley (7) looked great in 100 Back with a 10.49 second PR. He also dropped 1.00 seconds in 50 Free.
- Mark Hartung (7) crushed his previous PR in 50 Free by 7.51 seconds.
- Camille Hallada (6) cut 1.46 seconds from her 50 Free PR.
- Blaise Hallada (8) lowered his 50 Free PR by .50 seconds.
- Sophia Halisky (SO) showed her versatility with an excellent 1.18 second PR swim in 100 Fly.
- Gus Halisky (7) destroyed his previous PR in 100 Back by 14.38 seconds.
- Oisin Haggerty (7) beat his 100 Back PR by even more, cutting 19.68 seconds.
- Eamon Haggerty (FR) dropped 2.16 seconds in 100 Back and .91 seconds in 50 Free.
- Aoife Haggerty (JR), besides holding the team record for most consecutive vowels in her name, also beat her personal records in 100 Fly and 100 Breast, by 3.75 seconds and 1.91 seconds, respectively.
- Addi Hadro (8) went dramatically faster in 100 Back this week, beating her previous best by 20.97 seconds. He also dropped 1.37 seconds in 50 Free.
- Gigi Gibaldi (JR) swam very well in 100 Back, lowering her PR by 11.66 seconds. She also lowered her 100 Fly PR by 3.12 seconds.
- Luke Fifield (FR) had a huge 12.35 second drop in 100 Back and a 7.03 second drop in 100 Free.
- Leah Fifield (6) was a superstar on Saturday with a drop of more than one (1) minutes (66.09 seconds) in 100 Back!
- Rose Ellis (SR) cut 4.81 seconds from her 100 Back PR.
- Ben Ellis (JR) just keeps getting faster, and Saturday was no different. How about his 9.60 second PR in 500 Free!
- Mary Elder (6) had two nice swims on Saturday including an 8.57 second PR in 100 Back and a 2.03 second PR in 50 Free.
- Charlie Dusek (SR) is already having the best season of his career with a 13.08 second PR in 200 Free and a 11.77 second PR in 100 Back.
- Rafael De Micoli (SO) had a strong swim 200 IM, cutting his PR by 14.82 seconds.
- Lucas de Brey (7) dropped 4.19 seconds in 50 Free.
- Katie Cooley (8) has been a model for me in practice, often demonstrating a concept I am trying to explain, so it came as no surprise that she dropped 9.98 seconds in 100 Fly and 8.10 seconds in 100 Back.
- John Cooley (SO) lowered his 100 Back PR by 1.55 seconds.
- Anselm Clune (7) beat his previous best in 100 Backstroke by 5.47 seconds.
- Grace Catabui (8) cut a massive 9.96 seconds in 100 Back.
- Michael Brand (SR) is getting back in the swing of things with a 9.24 second PR in 100 Back.
- Joel Bookwalter (FR) is starting to swim like an upperclassman so this week will be his last week in Group 3. On Saturday, he cut 2.62 seconds in 100 Back and 1.54 seconds in 50 Free.
- James Beltran (7) crushed his 100 Back PR by 22.53 seconds. He also cut his 50 Back PR by .56 seconds.
- Emma Beltran (8) also had a nice swim in 100 Back, lowering her PR by 8.80 seconds.
- Katie Bauer (SO) beat her previous best in 100 Breast y 1.62 seconds.
- Betsy Arnold (SO) beat her 500 Free PR by more than a half of minute (32.02 seconds, actually)
- Angela Andreu (SO) cut 12.05 seconds in 100 Back and .20 seconds in 50 Free.
- Noami Allen (6) lowered her 100 Back PR by 3.98 seconds.
- Bethany Allen (7) had three (3) PRs including a 4.74 second drop in 100 Back, a 2.29 second drop in 50 Free, and a .59 second drop in 50 Back leading off a relay.
That was a lot of big Personal Records in Backstroke! I’m looking forward to a similar number in Breaststroke this coming weekend.
Our Annual Homecoming Meet
This Saturday, on December 20th, is our annual Homecoming Meet at the Freedom Center. 1st warm-up starts at 1:00 p.m. and the first event goes off at 2:08 p.m.
As we have in the past, we’ll be running some alumni relays along with our own scoring relays. We will also run some alumni heats of 50 Free.
We already have more alumni signed up than ever before! With 16 boys and 8 girls so far, we’ll be running a number of relays, including some coaches relays featuring Coaches Bryce Bohman, Kevin Koehr, Shane Koehr, Scott Kay, and Jeremy Kleb. We may even get Coach Casey Beltran in the water.
Other relays will include last year’s boy’s medley relay and, of course, the annual Wilson Brothers relay.
If you know of other alumni, please make sure they know they are welcome. If they show up with a suit and goggles, I’ll try to get them in a medley relay and an exhibition heat of 50 Free. It would be very helpful if I knew in advance that they were coming.
Christmas Break Practices
Traditionally, every Christmas Break, we have practices at the Freedom Center for the Varsity swimmers who will be scoring in the key Conference and Championship meets starting in January. It is time to get to work on some cardiovascular training, so don’t miss these practices if you can possibly help it!
Since we don’t yet know who is on the Varsity team, in general, this means Group 1 and 2 Swimmers who were entered as a scoring swimmer in one of the December meets. That means that most of the swimmers who practice with Coach Bohman, Coach Kay, and Coach Schroer should plan on attending.
Everyone else can take the Christmas holiday off. I know that some of you want to swim, but we won’t have enough lanes or enough coaches to accommodate any more kids. So, if you are not Varsity, relax and enjoy Christmas – then come back ready for the push to the January 24th JV Invitational at the Freedom Center.
For Diving, Coach Keapproth will announce her expectations for attendance over the break.
Swimming practices:
- Monday, December 22nd (8:34 a.m. for Dryland, 9:00 to 10:30 a.m. in the water)
- Tuesday, December 23rd (10:04 a.m. for Dryland, 10:30 to Noon in the water)
- Update: No Practice swim on Friday, December 26th
- Monday, December 29th (8:34 a.m. for Dryland, 9:00 to 10:30 a.m. in the water)
- Friday, January 2nd (8:34 a.m. for Dryland, 9:00 to 10:30 a.m. in the water)
Diving practices:
- Monday, December 22nd (10:15 a.m. to Noon)
- Tuesday, December 23rd (11:45 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.)
- Monday, December 29th (10:15 a.m. to Noon)
- Friday, January 2nd (normal times for normal groups from 4:15 to 7:00 p.m.)
Our Christmas practice schedule is posted on the Team Calendar on www.setonswimming.org
Also remember that we have the Cystic Fibrosis Swim-a-thon on Wednesday, December 31st from 10:00 to 1:00 p.m. at the Freedom. I have the detailed information posted under Meet Information.
Each Captain has a team, and every member of the Swim Team is assigned to one of those teams. By now, you should have joined your team and started fundraising. If you have a question, ask your team captain.
If you are in town, please plan on being at these practices and the Swim-a-thon. I’m sure that Trinity Christian and Oakcrest will be working hard.
Two more final notes:
- Former Seton Swimmer Christian Kleb is at John Hopkins right now for a kidney transplant. His mother, Donna Kleb, is asking the community for prayers that everything goes well for the surgery this evening. Also, please pray for the repose of the soul of the man who died today whose kidney is being donated.
- Update from Mr. Kleb: “My son Christian received a new kidney late last night/early this morning. He is doing well, and the new kidney is already producing some urine. Thank you for the continued prayers and support. We have been feeling them.“
- On Sunday night, after spending the afternoon with my mother and brothers, my daughter Ceili took me to see Andrea Bocelli at Capital One Arena. As we were getting a glass of wine before the concert, she told me, “The hospitality lady needs a raise! She is making lattes in the back and taking special orders for volunteers with allergies!” Nice work, Mary Partridge!
We’re off to a great start this season – great job! We’ve got one more December meet this Saturday. Expect to swim something different in those two meets.
See you at practice,
Coach Jim Koehr