HTCC Swim Team June 10
Meet Information and Activities for This Week
But First, My Editorial
Swimming is a team sport, the same as any other team sport like baseball, football and
volleyball – except no linebacker is coming at you or no pitcher is trying to strike you out. But
it’s still a team sport just the same. However, it feels a little different because you are
competing against each other too in individual races – then coming together as a team in the
relay. It’s a little more challenging to understand this dichotomy of a team, but when I hear the
cheering in relays and individual races – I know it’s a team.
Every once in a while I find a story on our team that inspires me and I have to share it. Our
13/14 boys – they inspire me and I hope they inspire you too. And I hope you share this story
with your children – swimmers and non-swimmers, for this is a life story, which happens to
include swimming. And really, it is a representation of what the “inspirational phrase” I put on
the back of our team shirts is all about – “No ONE is Bigger than the TEAM”.
For those of you who don’t know the 13/14 boys – we have 3 of them on our team. Hampton
Wade, age 14 – very athletic, fast swimmer, has made Championships & Classics (C&C) the last
few years in the individual events, never with a relay. Liam Roche, age 14 – his 4th year of
swimming for HTCC; has grown tremendously as an athlete this past year, and worked hard on
his times, has never made it to C&C in an individual event or on a relay, but is gonna bust his
butt to get there this year; he has been so close the previous years, he can see it just beyond his
grasp. Felix Fischer, age 13 – a star child academically, speaks two languages fluently, who is
swimming for his 3rd year at HTCC knowing that his chances of making it to either championship
team are non-existent due to the physical challenge that God gave him. But yet, these 3 boys
are a team. For the past two meets they have swam together as a team on both the medley
and free relays. And to give them yet one more challenge to their relay team, each week we
send them a different 11/12 boy to complete their relay team. And they bring this younger boy
into their team, and make him one of them for that relay. I see them huddle up before they
swim. I see and hear them cheering for each other. I see Hampton put his arm around a team
mates shoulders and give him pointers on how he can swim his race faster – they want to win!
They don’t give up on each other – they swim to win – and they swim their leg of the relay with
all the gusto and speed they have. And they cheer each other on. Not one of them has given
up on their relay team and their opportunity to improve their times each week. They persevere
and celebrate when they are able to drop a little time, and they celebrate that they finish the
race without a DQ, and they hold their heads high knowing they each did their best.
Not one of them has complained about being on this team. Not one has asked to be taken off
of it. Not one has asked that they not swim it. Not one 11/12 year old has resisted swimming
with them. They are a team in spirit and in action. And for that, I am proud of them.
This week their medley relay time was 2:55.93 with a 39th place ranking out of 45 teams. And
their freestyle relay time is 2:41.09 with a ranking of 43rd out of 48 teams.
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Last year, Felix swam with Will Dolven and Connor Buchanan in the 11/12 age group, and they
had Justin Levanowitz, who was 10 years old then, swim up with them each week. These boys
became a strong, tight team too.
If you see these boys at practice or at the meet this week – take a minute to tell them that they
are inspiring members of our team, and hopefully you are glad to have your children swimming
with them. I think they are setting an awesome example for all of our kids. And I’m very proud
that my son, Alex, has had the opportunity to swim on their relay team this year.
I won’t be at the meet this week as I will be in Florida celebrating my dad’s 80th birthday with
my family. I hope Hampton, Liam and Felix continue to work on their strokes, drop time and
cheer each other on. Even if they don’t win the race – they are winning at life, because they
understand what it takes to be a team.
June 14 Meet
3rd Meet: HTCC @ Forrester Woods
Location: 424 Piney Grove, off Miller Rd.
Directions: Bridges Road past Mauldin HS and turn right onto Miller Road. Left on
Middle Road. Left on Stoney Creek. Right on Piney Grove. Parking in field on right side.
HTCC Team director: Karen Holden; 979-5384
Arrive by: 4:30pm
Warm Ups: 4:45pm
Volunteers & Officials: Arrive by 5pm
Meet Start: 5:30pm
Bring: Spirit Buddy gifts and flashlight
Please arrive by 4:30 so your child can set up and be ready to swim by 4:45pm. Bring camp
chairs, snack bags, water bottles, 2 towels, sweatshirts and spirit buddy gifts. The weather is
predicted to be a cool night for swimming. They will have a tent set up for the team, but as the
sun goes down, it will get dark in the team area. The pool and deck will have lights. There is
also a playground nearby. If your kids go over there to play, please make sure you are close by
to watch them. The tent parents will not be watching children in the playground. They will also
not be going to the playground to find kids for their events. I would prefer that they stay in the
team area so they can be easily found when needed.
Forrester Woods will have Firehouse Subs and hot dogs with chili for dinner plus nachos and
plenty of other snack food, candy and drinks for sale in their concession stand. They will also
have heat sheets available for sale. If you want to bring a different dinner for your kids/family,
you are welcome to do it.
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Parents are responsible for the behavior of their children whether they are in the team area or
on the pool deck. If you are going to leave them unattended in the team area, please make
sure they know how to care for them self by eating the right foods and getting to their events
on time. Also make it a point of going up to the tent area about every 30 minutes to check on
your kids. See if they need anything, give them a hug for the good swim they just had. If you
take your child to the pool deck to sit, please know that you are responsible for getting them to
the Clerk of Course area for their events. The Tent Parents will call for them in the tent area,
but will not go looking for them. They can’t go wandering around looking for kids. It’s very
important that kids stay close by so they don’t miss their events.
Photos - Art Young has taken lots of photos of the kids swimming and on the pool deck during
the past 2 weeks. He has links on the homepage of the team website www.htccswim.com.
Check them out!
Post Meet Party
After the meet is finished – head on over to Pepino’s Pizza on Miller Rd, across from Fankie’s
Fun Park. They will have pizza and drinks for everyone!
Meet Requests/Notices from the Coaches
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Timers/recording timers – please remind the little kids what they are swimming in the
medley relay when they are lining up to swim. It is so easy for them to forget between
the benches and the pool.
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DQ’s – if your child get’s DQ in an event and a referee talks to them after they swim,
please tell your child to go talk to Coach Gene or Coach Molly right away. Many times
they don’t see who gets DQ’d, and the next event is already underway and they can’t do
anything to overturn the DQ or dispute it if they believe that it was given in error.
Nobody will get into any kind of trouble for a DQ – they just want to be aware of what
happened so they can work with your child on it for next time.
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Strangers - If you see somebody walking around in the tent area that is not on our team,
please report it to the tent parent or a coach immediately. Tell them what the person
looked like and what they were doing. Also, tell your kids not to go walking through the
home team’s tent area – even to visit their friends. Call to them and go talk in another
area of the pool deck. We don’t want anyone from Forrester Woods to make
accusations about our swimmers.
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Coaches area/chairs at Meets – This area is for the coaches. It’s not for the 15-18 year
olds to hang with them. It’s not for the 8 & unders to sit on their laps. It’s very cute –
but very hard for the coaches to cheer others and write down times. Gene and Molly
are running their own stopwatches on kids and calling out times to each other and
writing them down – they are working. Please help them to do their job so they can
help the kids the following week.
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Goggles – please buy some decent goggles so they stay on the kids heads when they
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dive into the water. More than a dozen kids had their goggles fall off their face when
they dove into the water this week. We know they will lose at least a few pair each
summer so you don’t want to spend much money on them – but nothing is more
frustrating to a child when they are swimming a race then to have their goggles fall off
and get tangled in their face. Sports Academy sells some really nice Speedo ones for
less than $10 a pair – it’s the ones I get my kids and write their name on it in Sharpie. At
least then, there is a chance you will get them back when they get left on the pool deck.
• Relays – This past week for the age groups where we have enough swimmers to form
two or more relay teams, the coaches decided to form the relay teams like the yeararound teams do and make them competitive with each other and not stack the fastest
swimmers in one relay. This concept worked really well for some of the groups. They
rose to the challenge, cheered each other on, and dropped some significant time in their
own segment of the relay. They will be staying with this strategy for the next two meets
for the relay teams that have multiple teams entered. The June 28 meet will be ranked
the 4 fastest swimmers in the A relay team so they can practice in a competitive
environment before the Divisional meet on July 14. The Divisional meet will have one
relay team from each age group. It will be comprised of the fastest swimmers for that
relay team as they will score the most points for our team. If some kids have very close
times, the coaches will decide based upon the effort they see in practice. As always,
there will be relay practice for all age groups during the Thursday morning practice
session.
Lost & Found – IPod Touch
The life guards at HTCC have set up a separate lost & found box for all the swim team items that
get left behind after practices and meets. It’s a smaller box that say’s “swim team” on it. There
are already several goggles, flip flops, tshirts, towels, sunglasses from last week in it. If you are
missing something, check there first.
We’ve had a phone and IPod Touch taken from swim bags during the meets the past 2 weeks.
The phone was found in the girls bathroom after the meet. The IPod Touch, taken from a
zippered compartment in Elizabeth Drayton’s bag and has not been recovered. The
headphones which were attached were left hanging from the zippered compartment. If
anybody has seen an IPod Touch around their house that isn’t their child’s, and was
inadvertently picked up, please bring it to the pool – no questions asked.
DIVISIONAL Information
Intent To Swim Forms
Over the next two weeks it will be each parent’s responsibility to find me on the pool deck and
confirm or complete your Intent to Swim forms for Divisionals and Championships & Classics.
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These have to be given to Eileen Wells by June 22 so we can stay on the Division schedule. If
you are a new family, you will need to find me to get this form and decide if you are swimming
the Divisional meet on July 14, and C&C on July 21 & 22 if your child qualifies. It is your
responsibility to find me on the pool deck and confirm these forms.
Once these forms are input into the computer by Eileen, she will print out a chart showing your
response for each child. I will post that chart on the pool deck bulletin board the week of June
25. It is your responsibility to check what Eileen has input and confirm that it is correct. You
must sign the form by your swimmer(s) name showing you have checked it. This must be
done by Friday, June 29 at 11am. This is a new step required by SAIL to help alleviate the
calls from parents saying their child can now swim C&C once they discover they have
qualified for C&C. If you don’t verify the chart that Eileen prints out, we will assume that you
are OK with the data posted for your child. I am not running after you to confirm this data.
Divisional Stroke Selection
I will have the Coaches Entry Form charts at the pool the week of June 25 for kids to sign up
for 2 strokes for the Divisional swim meet on July 14. Strokes must be selected by Friday,
June 29 at 11am – no extensions! The coaches will take a look at all the entries and select a
3rd stroke for each swimmer based on where we see them generating the most points for our
team.
Thanks for your cooperation!! Call or email me with any questions. I will send out a reminder
email with this information again.
Divisional Heat Sheet Cover Competition and Ad Sales
Let your imagination soar! And design the winning heat sheet cover for the Blue Division. Last
year Jordan Vogt was the winner of this contest and earned a $25 prize. The rules are as
follows:
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Entries must be submitted in black ink on 8-1/2"x11" white paper.
No computer generated art.
No team names or insignia are permitted unless ALL teams are included.
Should include “Blue Division 2012”.
Will be printed on Blue card stock.
The swimmer's name and team name should be listed on the BACK of the entry in
pencil.
Entries need to be turned in to Linda YOung on or before July 9th at 6pm. Voting will
take place at the seeding meeting on July 10th and you will be notified if you win.
The teams are:
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Holly Tree Country Club
Neely Farm
Foxcroft
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Botany Woods
Pebble Creek/Half Mile Lake
We will also be selling ads in the Divisional Heat Sheet that will be seen by the families of 400+
swimmers! So start thinking about who you can sell those ads to. All money earned in ad sales
goes directly back to the team. And we need a new team tent!
The prices are:
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Full page - $100
½ page (horizontal or vertical) - $50
¼ page - $25
Many parents buy a good luck/swim hard ad for their kids or grandkids. This may be a good
way for the grandparents to support our team too!
Ads must be camera-ready. Email them to me in a pdf file by Monday, July 9th at 8pm. I have to
print them and take them to the seeding meeting on July 10th.
Missing Meets
Below is the list of kids and the meets they will be missing this summer due to family vacations,
church camp and other conflicts. If you have not yet sent me the meets your child will be
missing, please do so soon. It helps the coaches with planning the meets and especially relays.
If the coaches put them in a relay and they miss the meet, it’s pretty disappointing to the other
3 kids who were counting on their teammate. So send in those meet dates you will miss!
June 14 Meet
Alex Young
Sarah Young
Laken Trimble
Will Trimble
Mathew Justus
Drew Speaks
Hannah Speaks
Samantha Speaks
June 21 Meet
Kimberlyn Mungo
Mathew Justus
Angelika Kleis
Katie Mooney
Sarah Young – relays only
Will Mahoney
June 28 Meet
Elizabeth Drayton
Mathew Drayton
Antonia Fischer
Felix Fischer
Emma Welch
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Volunteer! Volunteer! Volunteer!
Only 11 people have signed up to work at the Forrester Woods meet!! C’mon people – get to
the website and sign up! Karen Holden will appreciate it! www.htccswim.com
Meet/Officials Name Tags – 5pm Check-In
Name tags have been created for all parent volunteers. For away meets, the name tags, and
drawers with stop watches and radios will be in the tent area. Please stop by there to check the
volunteer and timer lane chart.
Thanks to Many People for Helping this Week
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Pool/Deck set up for the meet: Bo Finley, Linda Young, Sarah Young and Alex Young who
were there at 3pm to clear the deck. Thanks also to Keely and Lindsey Skidmore for
getting there at 3:30 to help set up for the meet.
Guppy Helpers at the Saturday Guppy Meet: Danielle Collier, Sarah Gonzalez, Emma
Welch, Lindsey Skidmore, Keely Skidmore, Laney Weston, Liam Weston, Lena Soenke,
and Carla Nazario.
Thanks to Jeff Wood for setting up the starter system for the guppy meet.
Team photos
Team photos are scheduled for Wednesday, June 13 at 9am. Please have all Hurricane and
Guppy swimmers here by 8:45am so they can line up. Wear a team suit if you have one.
Individual shots, family shots, friend shots and whatever kind of grouping you like can be taken
during that time.
Practice will be moved around that day. 11& Ups and Guppies will stay the same. We will shift
back the 10 & unders to 11am – noon.
Iron Man/Iron Chick
After two meets, a few swimmers have already earned their iron man/chick! Congrats to the
following swimmers: will get that list later this week from Celeste!
Tell your kids to keep working on their strokes. They have 3 more meets to earn it.
To qualify as an Iron Man or Chick, each swimmer age 9 and older will need to swim each stroke
correctly in a meet at least once. The strokes they must swim are:
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· Short freestyle
· Long freestyle
· Breast stroke
· Back stroke
· Butterfly
Individual Medley (fly, back, breast, free)
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For our 8 and Under swimmers, we require that they swim 5 of the strokes correctly in a
meet.
Swim Clinics
I have been contacted by Team Greenville to hold a swim clinic for our kids on Friday, June 15
from 6-7pm. At this clinic you can meet the coaches from TG (Coach Gene’s former team) and
discover how the year around swimmers train! Swimmers on our team that swim for TG
include: Henry Frengel, Alex Brodsky, Alex, Robbie & Kate Finley, Davis Keaton, Trevor Norris,
Keegan Ramey and Charlotte Snoad. After the clinic we will head over to the Dairy Queen for a
treat!
YSSC wants us to come to their pool on Tuesday, June 26 from 3-4pm to experience their swim
clinic. Again, you can get a feel for how the year around swimmers train with their coaches and
see how they have prepared the 8 athletes representing their team in the USA Olympic Trials!
Our former Hurricane teammate Annie Gillig is one of their Olympic Trial swimmers! Swimmers
on our team that swim for YSSC are Katie Mooney, Sarah Young and Chloe Gonzales. We will
also stop for a snack somewhere along the way back to Simpsonville! This practice will replace
our evening practice on Tuesday, so please make every effort to be there.
Please let me know if you plan to attend these clinics. The coaches put a lot of effort into
organizing them for us, and we want to make sure we have a good turnout. If someone
needs a ride to the clinic, let me know and we will try to find one for you.
Discovery Island Water Park
A trip to Discovery Island Water Park has been booked for Friday, June 22 from 11am – 3:10pm.
We will have one of the shaded cabana areas to put all our stuff. We bought 2 birthday
packages so we could book the cabana. These packages include pizza, cake and drinks for 20
kids. All the tickets that I bought with our package have been sold. If you don’t have tickets yet,
check the groupon, living social or upstate perks website for special deals. They have had deals
on there already, but they may offer another one before we go on 6/22.
I hope we can get a big crowd there again like we did last year – it was a blast!!
Spirit Parties
Every Wednesday prior to a swim meet we have a spirit party to get kids and parents pumped
up for the meet. Our next spirit party will be this Wednesday, June 13th at 5:50pm in the
cabana area. The kids will do a fun activity and have a treat. Guppies are invited to join the fun
too! Laurie Drayton and the Activities Committee is managing this activity for us each week this
summer. Please contact them if you have any ideas or suggestions for kid’s activities.
Friday Donuts & Ribbons
Come celebrate with the swimmers at donuts and ribbons each Friday morning at 9:45am.
There is stroke & turn clinic first at 9am. Once your swimmer has their ribbons, they can fill out
their Iron man/chick chart.
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Website
Please check the website often. It has sign up charts for the meets. And sign up charts for the
activities. We pay extra for the website to have this sign-up capability – please use it!! Plus
there is information on what is happening during the week. And if someone gets some great
new photo’s of the kids swimming this year and sends them to me, we will try to put those on
the website too!
June 7 Meet Recap!
Another beautiful night to swim! I hope the weather stays that good for you this Thursday!
Here is a list of everyone (I hope) who posted a high ranking in an event. The list is still quite
long after 2 meets. If I missed your swimmer, please forgive me, but email me the results so I
can include it next time! Also, I know some of these rankings might seem high, but when you
consider that 300+ kids have swam some of these events, anything below 100 is pretty good!
You can find all of these rankings online at http://www.greenvilleonline.com/sail.
We still have two kids with Top 10 rankings – Meredith Rice and Sarah Young!! Way to go
Swimmers!! If your kids have top 100 times, they need to swim these events every week and
work to cut time in them. Have them swim their slower events only once – but the events they
are competitive in, they should swim every week if possible so they have the best possible
chance to make C&C.
Short
Free
IM
Breast
Long Free
Merideth Rice
#32
#18
#8
#27
Anna Atkins
#70
#35
#82
Kate Finley
Hannah Rock
#68
Back
Butterfly
#91
#55
#71
#85
Rachel Collier
#74
Will Mahoney
#91
Zoe Herber
Jay Wilkins
#41
#72
#59
Bryan Webb
#94
Alexander Cuervo
Chloe Gonzalez
#61
#74
Mitchell Davis
Alana Atkins
#47
#58
#22
#36
#45
#55
#24
#15
#32
#43
#38
#100
#53
#62
#44
#71
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Short
Free
IM
Breast
Long Free
Haley Rice
#68
Kaitlyn Runzel
#73
Back
Butterfly
#40
Laken Trimble
#52
#42
#47
#88
#61
#87
Lindsey Skidmore
#60
#18
#16
#41
#82
#50
Alex Brodsky
#38
#26
#55
#17
#17
#67
#59
#38
#32
#56
#44
#55
#52
#53
#6
#5
#9
#28
#44
#26
#17
#16
#61
Scott Dolven
Trevor Norris
#57
Maggie Wood
#64
Sarah Young
#4
#6
Charlotte Snoad
#57
#35
#76
Keegan Ramey
#50
#31
#53
#46
#36
#57
#47
#71
#90
#63
#65
#85
Maria Carson
#25
Sarah Gonzalez
Keely Skidmore
#77
Kyndel Farmer
#70
Lena Soenke
Will Dolven
#85
#92
#84
#59
#96
#58
Alex Young
#64
#89
Parker Davis
#28
#13
#39
#81
#18
#19
#27
#17
#76
#71
#50
#59
#38
#19
#27
#23
#46
#77
Robbie Finley
#43
#52
Kimberlyn Mungo
Taylor Bennett
#98
Elizabeth Burnett
#35
Katie Mooney
#31
#34
Jamie Adams
Alex Finley
Julia Serwinowski
#20
#51
#64
#46
#88
#52
#88
June 10
Short
Free
IM
Breast
Long Free
Back
Abby Anderson
Hampton Wade
Butterfly
#99
#21
Henry Frengel
#19
#8
Liam Weston
#88
Liam Roche
#60
Mathew Justus
#100
Evan Tin
#73
Davis Keaton
#17
#37
#68
#73
#29
#60
#12
#35