IOWA CITY EELS

 

Contact: 351-3336 or swimice@aol.com            website: www.iceels.org        March 2003

________________________________________________________________________

 

Thanks to our corporate sponsors: Scheels All Sports, the Coral Fruit Market, Hawkeye State Bank, and Iowa State Bank & Trust- their generous support helps   keep our Club in the water!

________________________________________________________________________

 

Coming up:

 

 

3/30:             Swimmer Recognition Banquet

3/31:             Registration at Mercer for the Long Course season (6:00-7:30 PM)

4/1:              Practice resumes at Mercer

4/1-4/6:          USAS Nationals

4/7:              Stroke Clinic begins at both Mercer and Coralville sites

4/7:              ICE Board Meeting 6:30 PM at Mercer

4/18:             Sign-up deadline for Spring Meltdown

4/23:             Cookie Night at both Mercer and Coralville sites

4/25:             Stroke Clinic ends

4/28:             Practice resumes at Coralville

5/3-5/4:             Spring Meltdown

5/10 or 5/11:          Mock Swim Meet?

 

 

 

 

 

COACHES CORNER

 

Masters meets: There are two Masters Meets coming up in April. One at the Ankeny YMCA on April 5th with the other being the Iowa Masters SC Championships at Coe College on April 13th. Invitations are available on-line at the Iowa Masters website (www.iowamasters.org). There will be copies of these invitations available at Mercer after Sectionals.

Swimmers of the month for February 2003:

Frost: (Tie) Amanda Gerard and Amber Gerard


Cubes: (Tie) Stuart McMillin and Justin Choi


Morays:  (Tie) Sarah Striegel and Jody Olson


Eels: (Tie) Gabi MacKay and Lauren Talman

 

­­­­­­­­­­­­­

Practice schedule: With the coming of the long course (summer) season a slightly altered swim practice schedule will take effect beginning April 1st and lasting until school lets out in June.  Please remember that there will be no practice at the Coralville pool until April 28th due to space limitations caused by the operation of the Stroke Clinic at that facility. Once pool times are finalized for the remainder of the season (from early June through July) that schedule will be posted as well.

 

At Mercer Aquatic Center April 1st through the first week or so of June:

 

Morays & Eels                         5:50-8:20 PM                       M-F

                                                            8:00-10:40 AM            SAT

 

Cubes:                                                  5:45-6:45 PM                       M-F

                                                            8:00-9:30 AM                      SAT

 

Frost:                                                   5:45-6:30 PM                       M-F

                                                            9:30-10:20 AM            SAT

 

Masters:                                               6:00-7:15 AM                      M,W,F

                                                            8:00-9:30 AM                      SAT

 

At Coralville Recreation Center April 28th through the first week or so of June:

 

Cubes:                                                  6:30-7:30 PM                       M-F

 

Frost:                                                   6:30-7:15 PM                       M-F

 

 

Stroke Clinic times and locales:

 

Stroke Clinic (Mercer 4/1-4/25)    5:45-6:45 PM                       M,W,F

 

Stroke Clinic (Coralville 4/1-4/25)    6:30-7:30 PM                       M,W,F

 

Beginning 4/28 Stroke Clinic swimmers practice with the club for a week.

 

National Reportable Time: Congratulations to Sarah Striegel for swimming a NRT in the 100 yard breaststroke at the 12 & Under Short Course Championships held at Coe College the first weekend of March.  Sarah’s time of 1:17.37 puts her in the running for a Top 16 placement in the nation for 10 and under girls. Good job Sarah!

 

 

Swimmer Recognition Banquet: Sunday March 30th at the Robert Lee Recreation Center in downtown Iowa City the Iowa City Eels will be having their annual Swimmer Recognition Banquet. We have use of the facility from 4:00-8:00 PM with the banquet scheduled for 5:00 PM.  In addition to the dinner there will be an acknowledgement of swimmer accomplishments, a brief membership meeting, and even a few door prizes.  There will also be a table set-up for those interested in registering for the Long Course (summer) season. This year we are having the banquet catered by John’s Grocery.  There will be no cost to those attending and we are having lasagna, salad, bread, drinks, & cake. As such, we need a count of those planning to come.  Please contact Sara Hartman at 626-6980 or hjesse02@aol.com by March 26th with the following information: name, number in party attending, and entrée preference: vegetarian or meat lasagna. With this information we should be better able to order what will be needed.  Any assistance in setting up or taking down the dining equipment will be much appreciated

 

Congratulations to all swimmers on a great short course season! It's hard to believe that it is over and we will soon be having our swimmer recognition banquet. 

The final bills should be out this week and will include everything from this past season.  The fundraising portion of your bill is due now if you do not continue to swim with ICE during the spring and summer months.  If you plan to swim next season, you may wait on that portion of your bill and complete your fundraising requirement for both seasons during our spring and summer fundraisers.  Anything not raised by the end of July during our fundraisers will then be due.  If you have questions on your fundraising status, please contact Rick Noeth.  All other fees shown on your bills are due prior to beginning practice in April.  If you have any questions on the bill, please contact Michelle Larson (michelle-larson@mchsi.com).

 

ICE fundraising update:  We have had a number of successful ICE-sponsored fundraising activities during this short-course season.  Many families have fulfilled all or part of their fundraising requirement through their participation in these fundraisers - which have included:

 

Ÿ         Annual Holiday Wreath Sale

Ÿ         United Way Contributions from ICE families

Ÿ         Staffing Hawkeye Sporting Event Concessions

Ÿ         Work at Boys’ State Swimming Championships

 

The following 19 families have fulfilled all of this season’s fundraising requirement: Brennan, Doershuk, Gerard, Hartman, Hingtgen, Kampling, Larson, Lawler, Matteson, McBreen, McCue, Modestou, Mullen, Murray, Schubert, Stone, Talman, Washington, and Zhu.

 

The following 13 families have partially fulfilled this season’s fundraising requirement: Astor, Dolder, Eyanson, Frees, Gray, Hitchon, Jensen, Jetter, Knight, Noser, Rogers, Somers, and Thompson.

 

The above are based upon information from the wreath sales, United Way, Hawkeye concessions, and the Boys’ State Championships.  We are still identifying those families who had paid their fundraising requirement directly by check (either separately or as part of an ICE bill).  So please let Rick Noeth at lent9@mchsi.com if we have not correctly identified your fundraising status for this season.

 

So far we have four fundraising activities planned for the long-course season:

Ÿ         Swim-A-Thon

Ÿ         Flower Basket Sale

Ÿ         Car Wash

Ÿ         Parade of Homes Staffing

 

Please let Rick or any ICE Board member know of your ideas for different fundraising activities that the Club might get involved in.  We want to offer as wide a range of fundraising opportunities as possible to our membership.

 

ICE Board of Directors: The nominating committee presents the following names to the Board for approval as the slate of officers for 2003-04.  Additional people can be nominated from the floor at the Swimmer Recognition meeting March 30th.

President: Kelly Eyanson
Vice President: Sara Hartman
Past President: Jan Lawler
Treasurer:  Paul Schubert
Secretary: Brad Gilchrist
Trustees:  Rick Noeth
                Mary Kampling
               Bruce MacKay
              Paula Rogers


The Board that is approved at the Swimmer Recognition meeting by the club membership and will take over in August.

 

Long Course Season Registration: We will be conducting registration for the long course season at both the Swimmer Recognition Banquet on March 30th and at Mercer on March 31st (6:00-7:30 PM).  There will be further registration on the first day of practice, April 1st, but if you have questions about registration they can best be addressed at either of the first two sign-up periods.  Relevant printable forms will be posted on our website in the near future. Please remember that your swimmer must be registered before they can practice with the club.

 

Cookie Night: Wednesday April 23rd will be our Spring Cookie Night. Cookies and drinks will be available at both Coralville and Mercer pools. This is often a good chance to meet and greet families new to the club so if you would like to help out you are more than welcome to do so.

 

Spring Meltdown: The first swim meet of the long course season is scheduled for May 3rd and 4th at Mercer pool.  This is a Senior meet and draws swimmers from throughout the Midwest.  Mercer’s indoor 50-meter pool and the early date of this meet make for a very competitive event. This is usually the smallest of our hosted swim meets (we had 239 swimmers in 2002) but we will still need a strong showing from our membership in order to make this event a success. We are always looking for timers for this meet so if you know of a Scout or other service group looking for a project keep this weekend in mind.

 

Swim Camp: The University of Iowa will again be running a swim camp in June. There are two sessions (6/8-6/12 & 6/15-6/19) and swimmers have a choice of either overnight or day camp versions. Registration forms should be available the first week of April. For more information try calling the Recreation Services office at 335-9714 or visiting their website at http://recserv.uiowa.edu . Anyone with information to share about other swim camps can contact Kelly at keleyn@inav.net or leave relevant brochures for placement in the ICE notebook at Mercer.

 

Mock Swim Meet: We have tentatively scheduled another Mock Meet for the weekend of May 10th  & 11th.  The Mock Meet allows swimmers new to the club and those with less meet experience to get a feel for what a competitive meet is like.  More importantly, the Mock Meet allows parents a chance to see their swimmers up close and to ask questions of coaches and other folks on deck. This was a well attended and helpful event when we ran it the first time last October and hope that this season’s version is just as successful.  

 

Final note from communications: Over the next few weeks the picture of what to expect over the summer swim season should become clearer.  The Long Course season calendar should be available by registration time and hopefully the summer practice schedule will be finalized by then as well.  In some ways communications are more difficult during the summer months so please check your e-mail, your swimmer’s folder, the newsletter, and the bulletin boards for information that might be of use to you and your swimmer.