On Saturday December 3, 2022, we held our annual home opener – the Seton Icebreaker Invitational. It was relaxed and intimate, giving our large number of new swimmers a chance to break into the regular season by participating in their first competitive meet at Seton against other teams – and for many young swimmers, it was their first competitive meet ever. I know there were lots of nervous young swimmers, but all of them overcame their fear and showed how much they have already improved after only four (4) weeks of practice.
For many of those young swimmers, it was a very courageous performance – but no performance was more courageous that the one I saw from our Senior Captain Joe Wilson.
Joe concluded last year’s season with a breakout performance at the Virginia State Championship Meet. Leading off our 400 Free Relay in the Consolation Finals, Joe dropped an incredible 2.36 seconds to a personal record 52.21 for 100 Free. He was pumped! Joe was hoping to bring that momentum into his senior season, but over the summer, he was in a very serious car accident.
His injuries were significant, including a broken femur – the largest bone in the human body. After an extended time in the hospital, Joe emerged in a wheelchair with a steel rod inserted to reestablish the integrity of his leg bone.
When I first saw Joe at school in September, he was in a wheelchair. By early October, he was able to shift to crutches, and it wasn’t until only two (2) weeks before the season began that he was even able to walk unassisted. But that didn’t keep Joe from joining us at the first practice, swimming at Time Trials – and scoring at Saturday’s meet.
After Time Trials, where he swam one of the fastest 50 Fly times in the meet even without being able to push off on his starts and turns, I realized that Joe was not going to be held back. During the interview I did with Joe on the livestream broadcast during the meet he told me, “When you get into an accident like that, and everyone tells you are not going to walk for 6-8 months ….. I just thought I was going to be a vegetable for my senior year. I am so blessed to be here.” I encourage all of you to watch the interview on the live stream recording under the videos menu or by clicking here. (start at 2:18 and then the 2:20 mark in the recording).
As I prepared our entries this past week, I knew I could use him in some relays, but not wanting to push him too soon, I asked him before the meet what he wanted to swim. “Anything but breaststroke. I’m even up for the 500”, came back his reply. Really? So, the 500 it is! And let’s throw in 100 Fly just for good measure 😉.
Joe started the meet by splitting 26.10 in 50 Fly for our “A” medley relay. Then he swam 1:02.54 in 100 Fly and 6:39.59 in 500 Free. He finished his incredible performance with another relay start to split 25.96 in our “A” 200 Free Relay. Wow!
The level of courage and determination that we all saw from Joe Wilson should serve as a tremendous example for all of us on how to fight through obstacles and never quit.
One other element of Joe’s example should also influence all our thinking too: Unless you are going into a combat zone or landing a jet aircraft on an aircraft carrier, the most dangerous thing you are likely to do in your life is to simply drive a car. So, swimmers and divers, please be patient with your parents when they are slow to give you the keys or when they don’t allow you to ride in a car alone with your friends.
Meet Results
The Icebreaker Invitational was the beginning 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 freestyle. The next two weeks will feature backstroke and then 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 is likely to treat Seton very well this year.
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 several teams, including two other VCAC teams – our friendly rival Trinity Christian and new VCAC-member Oakcrest – and we won with both the boys and girls against everyone except a very powerful boys team from The Heights.
Within our conference, it’s always been the Trinity girls who have given us the most challenge, but it is clear after Saturday that both the Trinity Boys and the young Oakcrest girls team could also prove to be strong competitors for the conference title too. A three-way competition on the girl’s side is going to be a whole lot of fun come championship season!
Here’s how the scores turned out:
Girls
Seton Swimming 165 Trinity Christian 138
Seton Swimming 202 Oakcrest 100
Seton Swimming 228 Immanuel Christian 51
Seton Swimming 241 Fresta Valley Christian 40
Seton Swimming 242 Carmel School 18
Boys
The Heights 192 Seton Swimming 123
Seton Swimming 198 Trinity Christian 101
Seton Swimming 218.5 Immanuel Christian 78.5
Seton Swimming 231 Carmel School 47
Diving
Over the past couple of seasons, we have seen a technological revolution with the way we run and broadcast our meets, but in parallel with that we have also seen another revolution – the emergence of a very significant diving program.
Led by Coach Ashley Keapproth, a Nokesville attorney who doesn’t even have kids at Seton, we have developed a team of 16 divers that have the use of two (2) diving boards at the Freedom Center and a new dryland diving practice facility she built at Renaissance Montessori School. Both facilities are now equipped with cameras and widescreen TVs that utilize software to allow divers to review their dives in fast- or slow-motion immediately after completing them.
Coach Keapproth’s leadership is proving to be a great model of our team value of Meekness too. On Saturday, four (4) teams showed up with divers, including both Trinity Christian and Oakcrest. The VCAC Conference now has real competition in diving.
The meet on Saturday was exciting for more than just the 27 total divers we had entered. The meet featured two (2) phenomenal year-round club divers, including Harper Thornett from Trinity Christian and Finn Gelbach from The Heights.
Finn was particularly amazing. He started the meet with a front 3-and-a-half and later in the meet did an inward 2-and-a-half – I would not have thought that 2.5 flips inward towards the board was even possible. Coach Keapproth tells me Finn is on the USA Diving Team talent squad and has been identified for Olympic Team Training.
Our divers did very well too, with Connor Koehr (SO) taking 3rd (156.75 points) behind only the two phenoms. Connor was followed by Mick Fioramonti (SO) in 4th, Jacob Oswald (SO) in 6th, and new diver Max Gonzalez (SO) in 7th. Jacob dove a PR 115.80. JJ Brox’s PR 140.25 would have placed 5th, but I chose to have him dive exhibition so that he could score twice in swimming events. Dominic Miller (JR) from our Seton Family Homeschool team also dove a PR with his score of 124.50
On the girl’s side, two Oakcrest sisters took 1st and 2nd followed by Rose Waldron (SO), Maria Miller (FR), and Elizabeth Francis (SO) taking 3rd, 4th, and 5th. Rosie got her highest score ever with a 124.57.
Breakout Performances on Saturday
Every year, it is so much fun for me as a coach at this point in the season to watch kids emerge as potential scoring leaders for the team, either now or in the future. Usually it is just one (1) or two (2) kids, but on Saturday, we had number of swimmers jump out at me and the other coaches:
- Drew Nguyen (SO) had a tremendous performance on Saturday, even after his coach accidently put him the all of the first three (3) events back-to-back-to-back. He started by posting the top 50 Breaststroke split on the team from the “B” Relay. His 30.23 was 1.70 seconds faster than his previous best, and that swim earned him a spot on our “A” Medley Relay for next week.
Then Drew immediately went into the 200 Free where, despite very limited cardiovascular training so far this season, he dropped 1.46 seconds to take 3rd behind two (2) top swimmers from The Heights. After those two swims, imagine my surprise when I next saw him the 200 IM! Did I really do that? Yep. Did that stop Drew from hitting another big PR? Nope. How about a 5.83 second drop!
Drew wasn’t done. After swimming the first three events, he also swam the final event – the 400 Free Relay – where he split a 56.08. His flat start PR is 57.04! I can’t wait to give Drew another shot at 100 Freestyle to see what he can do from a flat start.
- Ariana Aldeguer (8) can finally score this season now that she is no longer in 7th grade, and she made the most of that opportunity on Saturday as she just continues to get better. She started the meet with a very strong lead-off leg for our “A” Medley Relay, splitting 29.89 in 50 Back and giving Seton a lead that they would not relinquish. Next, Ariana swam a 2.93 second PR in 200 IM to take 2nd place overall and a 3.22 second PR in 100 Fly to take 1st place overall. Both of her times crushed the qualifying times for States and National Catholics. Ariana finished her day with the fastest lead-off split in the 200 Free Relay (and another .46 second PR) to once again lead the Seton girls to 1st Four (4) PRs, three (3) first place finishes, and one (2) second place finish – not a bad day for this tremendous young swimmer. Both of Ariana’s individual swims qualified her for States and National Catholics.
- Lionel Martinez (8) is only in 8th grade and on the Seton team for the first time, but he certainly made his presence known against much older swimmers from Trinity Christian and The Heights. He started with a 22.81 anchor leg for our “A” medley relay – that is smoking fast for an 8th grader! Then I wanted him to take a shot at the 500 Free, and he did not disappoint. How about a 5:14.35!? Watching him build his pace late in the race, we could see that he could go even faster. His 9th 50 split was actually faster than the split from the ultimate winner from The Heights.
Continuing to mix it up a bit, I also gave Lionel a chance to race in 100 Breaststroke where he took 4th with a very fast 1:05.82. Then, with no rest at all (oops – my mistake Lionel), he jumped onto the anchor leg of our 400 Free Relay and still managed to split 52.51! Both of Lionel’s individual swims qualified him for States and National Catholics.
- Stella Paradise (JR) showed us her speed and versatility on Saturday. Our Medley Relay is still up in the air, so I gave Stella chance to try to 50 Breaststroke leg. Her 34.31 split may start to give me options to use our top breaststroker, Clara Condon (SO), in 50 Butterfly where she is also our top swimmer. Immediately after the Medley Relay, Stella won the 200 Free with an 8.69 second PR that also earned her the State and National Catholic cuts.
Following those two great performances, she starting feeling pretty badly so we didn’t get a chance to see what she could do in the 500 Free. Courageously though, she jumped in and anchored our 1st place 200 Free Relay with a strong split to secure the win.
- David Hudson (JR) had a breakout day in the sprints starting with his .41 second PR 24.89 in 50 Free and his 24.78 anchor split in the 200 Free Relay. With Joe’s injury, that means that David is currently the 2nd fastest sprinter on the team behind only Lionel Martinez.
- Liam Halisky (SO) also broke out in the sprints, moving his way up the slot on “A” 200 Free Relay with his massive 2.71 second PR in 50 Free. 20 will become 24.XX in the next few weeks, and then Liam will really be on to something here. Liam also broke 1:00 for the first time in 100 Free with a 3.95 second PR.
- Jacqueline Oswald (SR) had a great meet on Saturday – it was so much fun to watch! She started with a very strong lead-off leg on the Medley Relay. We missed the split, but I know it was really strong. Then she moved to 100 Free where she swam a PR 1:04.65 and 100 Breaststroke where she surprised everyone (including herself) with a PR 1:22.72. There were big smiles all-around with Jacqueline after the meet.
- Lucy Cunningham (SO) caught Coach DD Ross’ eye with her tremendous 5.99 second PR in 100 Fly. Her 1:18.65 was good enough to score in 4th Lucy also dropped another .86 seconds in 50 Free leading off a relay.
- Peter Konstanty (JR) looked stronger than I’ve ever seen him look on Saturday, particularly in the 200 IM where he cut 3.71 seconds and in 100 Free where his .53 second PR has him on the cusp of breaking 1:00. Peter also split 26.25 in 50 Free during a 200 Free Relay – his flat start PR is 27.15, so I am also looking forward to giving him a chance to see what he can do sprinting from a flat start.
- Philomena Kay (8) is swimming for the first time with Seton, but I can already see that she is going to be a significant scorer for us over the next few years. I can see how well she has been doing in practice, so I decided to give her a chance to swim the 500 Free right out of the gate. She took full advantage of the opportunity by swimming a 6:43.89 in her first attempt at the event – that is a very strong time for an 8th grade girl, and it was good enough for 5th place overall. Philomena also had a 1.32 second drop in 100 Breaststroke. I can’t wait to start working with her breaststroke this coming week.
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 – 132 new Personal Records.
We have already heard about some of the swimmers who had massive Personal Records (PRs) and breakout performances in their first meet of the season, but here are the other swimmers who had PRs this past weekend:
- Michael Zahorchak (8) had a pair of big PRs with his 2.59 second drop in 100 Free and his 2.28 second drop in 50 Free. In the 50, he broke :30 for the first time ever.
- Max Wilson (SO) lowered his 50 Free PR by a huge 1.89 seconds leading off a relay. He also cut 1.14 seconds in 100 Back.
- Jonas Wilson (7) dropped .63 seconds in 50 Free and .41 seconds in 100 Free.
- Rose Waldron (SO) is approaching that :30 second barrier in 50 Free with another .18 second PR in the event. She also swam a 1.09 second PR in 100 Fly.
- Lily Waldron (7) cut 1.63 seconds from her 50 Free PR.
- Cath Waldron (JR) swam 50 Free .33 seconds faster than ever before.
- William Sokban (SO) lowered his 100 Fly PR by .37 seconds and his 50 Free PR by another .16 seconds.
- Daniel Sokban (8) had a massive drop in 200 IM, lowering his PR by 23.50 seconds. He also lowered his 50 Free PR by 1.47 seconds.
- Maggie Schroer (7) is getting faster especially in 100 Free where she dropped 2.04 seconds and in 50 Free where she dropped .54 seconds.
- Gabriella Russo (8) looked really good in 50 Free, and it showed in her time with a .85 second PR.
- Noemi Rodriguez (8) has improved tremendously since her time in Group 5 last season, and her improvement continued on Saturday with another .85 second PR in 50 Free.
- Allison Quispe (FR) had a very nice swim in 50 Backstroke leading off a medley relay. Her swim resulted in a 2.29 second PR.
- Shannon O’Malley (SO) looked particularly strong in the 200 Free with a very long stroke. Not surprisingly, she swam a 6.98 second PR in the event. She also cut .40 seconds from her 100 Free PR.
- Kenneth Nguyen (8) dropped 2.09 seconds in 50 Free which has him very close to breaking the :30 second barrier.
- Colin Nguyen (SR) is on the team for the first time as a senior, and I can already see that he is capable of working himself into a scoring position for us. That will be especially true if he keeps swimming PRs like his 1.36 second PR in 50 Free and his 2.93 second PR in 100 Free.
- Bella Nguyen (7) had a huge drop of 3.02 seconds in 50 Free.
- Joseph Minarik (JR) of our Seton Family Homeschool team had a great swim in 100 Free, beating his previous best time by 1.41 seconds.
- Aidan McCardell (FR) continues to get better at 50 Free, this time by 2.13 seconds.
- Thiago Martinez (7) is doing competitive high school times as a 7th grader, and those times are getting even more competitive especially in 50 Free where he dropped another.26 seconds.
- Luke Mantooth (JR) has a chance to be a pretty good swimmer, and those chances are improving after his 1.84 second PR in 100 Free, his .23 second PR in 50 Free, and his .99 second PR in 100 Breaststroke.
- Joey Lynch (7) looked great in 50 Free where he lowered his PR by .71 seconds. He also looked good swimming a .43 second PR in 100 Free.
- Raphael Likoy (8) had a massive 20.92 second drop in 100 Free. He also dropped another 1.68 seconds in 50 Free.
- Cora Kramer (8) parlayed her new flip turn into a 1.12 second PR in 50 Free and a 2.80 second PR in 100 Free
- Sophia Kohlhaas (7) showed massive amounts of improvement in both of her individual events. It was very impressive to see her drop 21.06 seconds in 100 Free and 5.22 seconds in 50 Free.
- Daniel Kohlhaas (6) crushed the :60 second barrier in 50 Free by more than 9 seconds with his 9.84 second PR.
- Connor Koehr (SO) is more than just our top diver. He is also one of our top swimmers, and it showed with his 8.53 second PR in 200 IM and his 5.35 second PR in 100 Fly. He also had his best-ever medley relay lead-off leg of 29.07.
- Patrick Kay (7) dropped 3.13 seconds in 100 Free and 1.48 seconds in 50 Free. His 1:05.34 and 27.81 in the events, respectively, are quite good for a 7th
- Jane Judge (7) had a great swim in 50 Free where she lowered her PR by 1.95 seconds. She also cut .40 seconds in 100 Free.
- Dominic Judge (8) was recently moved up to Coach DD Ross’ lanes, and his 2.82 second PR in 50 Free and his 6.58 second PR in 100 Free show you some of the reasons why.
- Mary Catherine Hurley (SO) had a big day with two (2) new PRs. In 50 Free she cut .84 seconds, and in 100 Free she cut .85 seconds.
- Elizabeth Hurley (7) lowered her 50 Free PR by 2.01 seconds. She is now only 1.03 seconds away from the :30 barrier.
- Dominic Henry (7) broke 1:00 in 50 Free for the first time with a huge 8.98 second PR. He also lowered his 100 Free PR by a huge 8.17 seconds.
- Maddie Heiny (FR) swam well in 50 Free, lowering her PR by another .87 seconds.
- Clare Heiny (7) smiled her way to three (3) new Personal Records including a 4.36 second drop in 50 Back leading off a medley relay, a 4.12 second drop in 100 Free, and a .09 second drop in 50 Free.
- Sophia Halisky (7) didn’t look like a 7th grader while we watched her drop 13.41 seconds in 100 Free and 5.68 seconds in 50 Free. Those are really big drops.
- Amelie Halisky (SR) was awesome on Saturday. She set three (3) new PRs in 50 Back leading off a medley (by 3.99 seconds), in 50 Free (by 1.87 seconds), and in 100 Free (by 5.36 seconds).
- Orla Haggerty (SO) cut .59 seconds in 50 Free and 4.15 seconds in 100 Free. Nice!
- Aoife Haggerty (8) lowered her 100 Free PR by another 2.99 seconds.
- Jack Gregory (JR) made his coach, Joey Dealey, proud after he swam 100 Free 24.40 seconds faster than ever before. He also swam 50 Free 6.05 seconds faster than ever before.
- Anastasia Garvey (FR) had two huge drops in 200 IM (by 9.13 seconds) and in 100 Free leading off a relay (by 3.08 seconds).
- Josh Fioramonti (FR) got another 4.69 seconds closer to the 1:00 minute barrier in 100 Free and another .28 seconds closer to the :27 barrier in 50 Free.
- Ben Ellis (8) is starting to catch his stride, and it showed in his 5.54 second PR in 100 Free and his 2.29 second PR in 50 Free.
- Joseph Dwane (8) lowered his 100 Free PR by 5.63 seconds and his 50 Free PR by 2.29 seconds.
- John Cooley (7) was great on Saturday. It was fun to watch him swim 50 Free 3.95 seconds faster than ever before and 100 Free 2.34 seconds faster.
- JJ Cooley (FR) is looking like he wants to be a Varsity swimmer in the future after his 2.30 second drop in 50 Free and his 2.33 second drop in 100 Free.
- Michael Brox (SO) participated in his very first diving meet. I think he can be pretty good at that sport. He’s already pretty good at swimming, and he got even better with another .02 second drop in 50 Back leading off a medley relay.
- Joseph Borneman (SO) continued his trend toward significant improvement from Time Trials to improve by another 2.50 seconds in 200 Free and by another 1.81 seconds in 100 Breast.
- Tim Blanchette (SR) wakes up every morning wondering why he hasn’t swum his entire high school career. At least he’s with us for his senior year though, and he is making most of it with a 5.34 second PR in 50 Free and a 4.84 second PR in 100 Free.
- Kit Blanchette (7) showed some big improvement in 50 Free with another 1.34 second PR.
- Aaron Bishop (JR) is now within .46 seconds from breaking :30 in 50 Free after a drop of 1.00. He also had a nice drop in 100 Free of 3.63 seconds.
- Mariana Bingham (8) cut .04 seconds in 50 free and then another .08 seconds leading off a free relay. She also cut 2.14 seconds in 100 Free.
- Lucia Bingham (SO) smashed the 3:00 barrier in 200 IM with her 9.06 second PR. She also cut .58 seconds in 100 Back and .21 seconds in 50 Free leading off a relay.
- Ryan Beltran (JR) dropped 3.27 seconds in 200 IM.
- Ryan Baughman (FR) had a great meet on Saturday lowering his 50 Back PR leading off a relay by 8.62 seconds, his 100 Free PR by 4.82 seconds, and his 50 Free PR by 1.82 seconds.
- Molly Bauer (SO) had a big 3.74 second drop in 100 Free.
- Katie Bauer (7) made me smile on Saturday. She not only did a great job leading the team prayer in our pre-meet meeting, but she also dropped 4.41 seconds in 100 Free and 1.94 seconds in 50 Free.
- Greg Bauer (FR) got a nice shout-out from Coach DD Ross on the post-meet wrap-up on the livestream. She was very pleased to see his 3.31 second PR in 100 Free and his 1.76 second PR in 50 Free.
- Betsy Arnold (7) rocks! How about a 3.30 second PR in 50 Free and a 3.78 second PR in 100 Free!? She’s about to break :30 in 50 Free believe it or not.
- Jed Albin (JR) cut .24 seconds in 100 Free.
Thank You Jacqueline, Madelyn and Joey
For the third year in a row, we’ve had to add practice sessions on Wednesday and Friday, and for those sessions, we need student Coaches to help with dryland and stroke demonstrations. It’s a tough ask because it means that you need to get up early all five (5) days during the week – quite a sacrifice for a teenager.
All of you in the Wednesday/Friday swimmers should be very grateful that Jacqueline Oswald, Madelyn Zadnik and Joey Dealey have volunteered to take on this important role. These are three (3) very impressive young leaders for whom I am very grateful.
Opportunities for Improvement
Overall, I was extremely pleased with how we performed at the meet, but I still see a couple of things that are causing me a little frustration:
- Swim Caps During Warm-up
- I talked about this at Time Trials, but somehow, we had a number of people who didn’t seem to understand how serious I am about this.
- Our Swim Cap is an important part of our uniform. Everyone should be wearing a swim cap during warm-up and during each of their competitive swims.
- To be clear, you are not disqualified from the meet if you do not have a Seton cap on.
- But you are going to upset me, especially if you are wearing a cap from another team.
- Everyone was issued a free swim cap, so there is no excuse to not have one
- I’ve asked Mrs. Lynch to be at every meet with some extra swim caps
- If you don’t have a cap, bring Mrs. Lynch a $5 bill and she’ll make sure you have one.
- Uniforms on Deck
- We did not have a huge problem with this one, but I’d like to emphasis it just so we don’t have any problem at all – if you are not heading to or from the blocks to swim, you should be wearing your blue shorts and your blue t-shirts.
- I probably shouldn’t have to say this part, but I will: Don’t tear the sleeves off of your team uniform shirt, right JB?
- Finishes
- Remember in practice when I said “Never, never, never, never ….. never finish the race by grabbing the top of the gutter”?
- When you finish a race, you should reach for the touchpad with your head down, and touch the pad below the surface of the water.
- Not only will that ensure that your time is recorded properly, it is also the fastest way to finish.
- Missed Events
- We had only two (2) swimmers miss their event without me personally knowing about it in advance.
- For our first meet, that is not too bad, but I just want it to be clear on these points:
- This is a high school swim team, so you all should be responsible enough to get to where you are supposed to be in time for your event.
- If you feel like you can’t swim the event, you need to talk to me.
I can see that we also have an opportunity to further define our Meet routine by clarifying two new times when the whole team will gather together during each meet:
- Team Meeting Before the Meet – right after we conclude our warm-up session, everyone will return to the team area in the bleachers, get their uniforms on, and reconvene in the hallway outside of the racquetball courts for a pre-meet team meeting. At the meeting, we will start with a team prayer and discuss our goals for the meet.
- Post-Meet Handshake – At the beginning of the first heat of the Boys 400 Free Relay, the entire team should be on deck and in uniform to cheer for the final two relays. That way, as soon as the last heat of girls finishes, we can show our gratitude to the officials, timers and our competitors by marching around the pool for the post-meet handshake.
I had a few interesting conversations with swimmers who wanted to leave the meet early because they were done swimming. Fortunately, the swimmers with whom I was speaking play other sports so I was able to frame the issue in a way that they could clearly understand. Imagine you are at the end of the bench with your team for a football, baseball, basketball, hockey or soccer game, and you know you are done playing. Would it ever be OK for you to head to the locker room before the game ended?
Our Annual Homecoming Meet
Two Saturday’s from now, on December 17th, 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 2:10 p.m.
As we have in the past, we’ll be running some alumni relays along with our own scoring relays. I know that several of the adult Koehr Brothers will be there, and I’ve also heard that Coach Mulhern and Coach Palazzo are putting together a 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 relay and an exhibition heat of 50 Free.
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.
Since we don’t yet know who is on the Varsity team, in general, this means Group 1 and 2 Swimmers and Group 1 Divers who were entered as a scoring swimmer in one of the December meets. That means that most of the swimmers who practice with Coach Mulhern, Coach Palazzo, or Coach Ross should plan on attending.
Everyone else can take the 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 29th JV Invitational at the WARF.
I’m still finalizing the schedule, but I am anticipating practices from 9:00 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. for swimming and 10:30 to 11:30 a.m. for Group 1 diving on:
- Monday, December 19th
- Tuesday, December 20th
- Thursday, December 22nd
- Tuesday, December 27th
- Thursday, December 29th
Also remember that we have the Cystic Fibrosis Swim-a-thon on New Year’s Eve from 10:00 to 1:00 p.m. at the Freedom. I have more information posted on that shortly.
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.
We’re off to a great start this season – great job! We’ve got two (2) more December meets on the next Saturdays. Expect to swim something different in those two meets.
See you at practice,
Coach Jim Koehr