IOWA CITY EELS
Contact: 351-3336 or swimice@aol.com October 25, 2002
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Thanks to our corporate sponsors: Scheels All Sports, the Coral Fruit Market, and Hawkeye State Bank- their generous support helps keep our Club in the water!
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Coming up:
10/29: SE/NW Girl’s Jr. High swim meet at Mercer- practice to begin at 6:30
11/1: CRAA meet sign-up deadline
11/2: Girl’s HS swimming District meet
11/4: ICE Board Meeting- 6:30 at Mercer
11/5: SE Girl’s Jr. High swim meet at Mercer- practice to begin at 6:30
11/5: NW Girl’s Jr. High swim meet at Coralville- practice?
11/6: Newsletter inputs due
11/8-9: Girl’s HS swimming State Meet
11/14: Picture Night at Mercer
11/14: BLAST meet sign-up deadline
11/14: DMET meet sign-up deadline
11/15: ICE bills due
11/15-17 DMSF Invitational
11/19: NW Girl’s Jr. High swim meet at Coralville- practice?
11/23-24: CRAA Invitational
11/27: Irving B. Weber Meet sign-up deadline
11/28: HAPPY THANKSGIVING-no practice
11/29: Practice times to be announced
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Coach’s Corner
This being my first submission to the ICE newsletter, I’ll try to keep it short and to the point. First of all, I’d like to thank the board of directors for hiring me as ICE’s Head Age Group coach. And it is nice to be able to work with Don Spellman. We’ve known each other for quite a while and we have a lot of the same ideas and direction when it comes to the sport of swimming. In fact, the only thing that he’s wrong about is that the 100 breast is, actually, better than the 200.
Okay, enough with the pleasantries…let’s get down to business. The main topic of this stream of consciousness is the USA Swimming Convention I went to Dallas for back in mid-September. Having never been to such a convention, I was naturally as nervous as I was curious. And I’d never been to Dallas. Going in I knew that the main topic of discussion was going to be the possible dues increase, and I was not disappointed. I heard so many arguments for and against it that I could recite them in my sleep.
The first meeting I went to was a new delegates meeting. It was enjoyable and informational, as I learned the answers to most of the questions I had about the convention. There was an inspirational video and many good speakers.
There were several Central Zone meetings, which were very interesting to me...having been a Zones coach for two years. The main thing I took from these meetings was that next year Indianapolis will be hosting a “mega-meet” for our Zone at which swimmers from all 15 central LSC’s will participate, instead of two meets. Also, being the only Iowa Zone coach at the convention, I was chosen to be a part of the meet evaluation committee with coaches from the other LSC’s. We discussed everything about the meet from safety to event order and selection.
I also went to some coaches meetings, but the main topic of discussion was, again, the dues increase. I hardly remember talking about anything different. The one thing that does stick out in my mind was when there was a panel of the USA PanPac team coaches. They answered questions and told stories about the experience.
The national body’s camps committee, however, led the meeting that I took the most from. They talked about all sorts of camps; national select camps, national distance camps, regional camps, and LSC camps. The last one interested me the most. Having gone to swim camps as a swimmer, and having put on a one-day clinic in Perry, IA with Donny P, I’ve come to the conclusion that camps can be a fun and important aspect to the sport. I don’t know what Iowa is doing, specifically, about camps…but I plan to find out.
The wildest meeting I attended took place on Thursday night; by which time most of the Iowa delegates were tired of meetings. It was set up as a “town meeting” where all present delegates were able to discuss and suggest things about all sorts of topics…from Zones to LSC’s to the board of directors for USA Swimming. It was nice to see all the different perspectives: coach, swimmer, parent, board member, etc.
The final meeting of the week was the House of Delegates meeting that lasted from Friday evening until Saturday afternoon. Of course, it was broken into three sessions. Friday’s session covered most of the essentials: “hope you’ve enjoyed your stay in Dallas”, “this is so-and-so”, “here’s a few awards”, “this is what we’ll be discussing tomorrow”, etc. No problem…but Saturday, now that was a different animal all together. I’m not saying it wasn’t worth it, but I did find myself looking at my reflection in the ceiling mirror on more that one occasion. The issues ranged from the wording of sentences in the USA-S rulebook; to bringing back Junior Nationals; to what the name of the winter national championship meet should be; to (the big one) the dues increase. It was nice to see the national governing body at work, even if I did feel that my voice, and the voice of Iowa Swimming, was never heard. I do salute Dave Joenson (CIA) for getting up in front of the entire house to state ISI’s position against the dues increase. In that case, maybe no one was listening.
The last thing of the week was a banquet where all the US Aquatic Sports who were there (swimming, masters, water polo, diving, synchro) got together for a big, old party. It was fun, there was some good food, and I’ve learned that to be a Masters swimmer is to be, at least partially, crazy.
In summation, it was an interesting week in which I had mixed emotions. I was happy to see Junior Nationals will be returning and that our central zone meet will be a 15-team mega meet…but I wasn’t pleased with the dues increase. I understand that inflation is a part of the system, and that an increase, to a certain point, had become almost an absolute…but the way it was gone about has left a bad taste in my mouth. “Give me the money and I’ll tell you what it’s for in a year.” Hmmmm. As a coach I was upset to miss 2 ICW girls meets, and a week of practice (both high school and club), but as a member of the swimming community it was an important thing to do. Whether or not I go next year depends on several things, but it is in San Diego. And I’ve never been there, either.
Matt Hamer
Cubes - CRAA Harvest Invite (non Q-time
events - 11/23 & 11/24), DMET Invitational (non Qtime swimmers - 12/7 &
12/8), BLAST Holiday Classic (12/6 to 12/8 - for Q swimmers and above), and the
ICE Irving B. Weber Invite (Home Meet - 12/14 & 12/15).
Morays and Eels - BLAST Holiday Classic (12/6 to 12/8) or DMET Invitational (for non
Qtime Morays), ICE Irving B. Weber Invitational (Home Meet - 12/14 & 12/15)
Masters - Grinnell Masters meet 11/24 (Warm ups @ 8 AM / Meet @ 9AM - More
information is on the way).
Swimmers of the month (October):
Frost and Cube - no meets yet
Morays - Beth Eyanson
Eels - (TIE) Kaegan Recher and Peter Cilek
Girl’s Junior High Swimming: For SE Jr. High home meets (10/29 and 11/5) we will have practice for
all groups. Frost, Morays, and Eels will start at 6:30PM and Cubes will
run (hopefully) at the normal time. There may be some delays to our 6:30
start time.
For NW Jr. High meets (11/5 and 11/19) - ICE is still waiting to hear if the
pool will be closed for the remainder of the night following these meets.
In the past this has been the case but we are hoping we can get some practices
in for the Frost and Cubes at Coralville.
Club membership issues and fees: Frost and Cubes membership will close Nov.
15th for the 2003 Short Course season. Morays and Eels membership will
close Dec. 1st for the 2003 Short Course season. Masters membership will close
on Jan. 1st for the 2003 Short Course season.
To better support Junior High swimming, those swimming with the Club and
their respective Junior High swim team will only be charged half-price during
the period these seasons overlap.
Big HS Meets: get out and support the ICE High School
girls’ swimmers at these championship meets: HS Girls Districts - November 2nd
@ Marshalltown and the HS Girls State Championships - November 9th @ Fort
Dodge.
Look for ICE Head Coach Donald P. Spellman's
"Speedo - Tip of the Week" on the USA Swimming website this month (www.usa-swimming.org)
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Picture Night: Picture Night is scheduled for Thursday, November 14th. Beginning at 6:00 PM individual and group pictures will be taken. Immediately after pictures are taken there will be pizza and pop for all involved. Please bring your team suit, towel, and a smile and do try to be prompt. Picture order forms should be in the swimmer’s folders soon.
Master’s Picture: On Wednesday, October 30th, around 6:00 AM the Masters will be taking a team picture for use as a postcard to promote the 5th annual Master’s Meet in December. The plan is to take another unique photo so please wear all of your swimming equipment- caps, goggles, zoomers, etc. If you have any questions please contact Kristi at k.bontrager@mchsi.com.
Weber Meet Reminder: The invitations have been sent and the preparations are under way for the Irving B. Weber swim meet set to run the weekend of December 14-15. We had 370 swimmers last year for this event. A meet that size requires a fair amount of work and every family is needed to insure a well-run affair. If you cannot help during the meet there are other opportunities before and after that would make the process much smoother for all involved. Concessions, always a big user of volunteer efforts, will be holding an organizational meeting sometime in early November. Additionally, volunteer sign-up sheets for all positions will be showing up before too long. If you have any questions about meet volunteer possibilities contact Weber Meet Directors Bruce (bpmackay@avalon.net) or Kelly (keleyn@inav.net).
Wreath sales: In conjunction with the Coral Fruit Market, the Eels are once again selling wreaths as a fundraiser during the Short Course swim season. Each family is asked to sell 5 wreaths and $9.50 of each wreath sold goes towards your family fundraising requirement. Orders are due Friday, November 1st. Please hand in the orders to any coach or drop them off at the ICE office at Mercer. Additional order forms can be printed from our website at www.iceels.org. Further questions may be directed to Mary at mkampling@hotmail.com.
Volunteer positions: The Eels have two important volunteer positions to fill. If you are interested in either job please contact Kelly at 339-7579 or keleyn@inav.net
*The Club could use someone to volunteer as liaison with Coralville. Any parent whose swimmer frequently uses the Coralville pool and who is willing to drop off materials, posts notes, and generally serve as a contact person for the Club would be a good choice.
*The Club is also in need of a bookkeeper. Pat Knight has been doing a fine job for quite sometime but would like to pass this responsibility along to someone else. Your primary duties would involve billing and assisting in keeping track of some fundraising efforts.
Note from communications: With the Short Course season now underway and the Senior and Junior High swim seasons in full gear keeping up with practice schedule changes and the like becomes ever more important. Every effort is made to keep folks informed of things and you can help by checking bulletin boards at the pool and by ensuring your e-mail address is correct. In addition both the ISI website and the ICE website (www.iceels.org) are host to many swimming related items.