NOTES FROM THE COACH JANUARY 2nd 2015

CHRISTMAS BREAK I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and New Year’s Day, and a chance to visit family and rest up for the remaining 6 weeks of the season. It is hard to believe that the swim season is half over. Now comes the fun part with 5 meets in the coming 4 weeks starting with the Hood River Relay Meet on Thursday January 8th followed by our own home meet on Saturday the 10th. Then there will be the Madras meet on the 17th, the Hood River Meet on the 24th and Baker City on the 31st. There will be a weekend off before the District Meet on February 14th. For those who qualify for the State Meet at MHCC, warm-ups start at 4:00 on Friday the 20th with finals on Saturday at 5:00 PM.

 HOOD RIVER RELAY MEET – Thursday January 8th The Bus will leave at 12:15 on Thursday, with warmups from 1-2:30, and the meet running from 2:45 - 5:00. We will need to clean up and then be out by 5:30 and home by 6:00. I’m not exactly sure about the format but we will spend more time in our warmup for this meet so we don’t lose another day of training.

 HOME MEET at HOOD RIVER AQUATIC CENTER ON SATURDAY JANUARY 10TH:

The bus will leave at 8:00 AM for Hood River with the warm-ups running from 9:00 to 10:00 A.M. The meet will start at 10:15. Also tell your parents that all swimmers are expected to stay till the end of the meet to clean up. With everyone’s help it doesn't take too long and we are usually out by 5:30. It is a large meet with 300 swimmers competing from over 10 teams. We are also responsible for setting up the lane lines and starting blocks and tables on Friday night at 8:00 PM after the pool closes. We will need 4 – 6 volunteers to drive to Hood River to help out.

 PRACTICE SCHEDULE: No afternoon practices on Tuesdays and Thursdays for rest of season. The time has come. There will no longer be afternoon practices on Tuesdays and Thursdays. If you find it difficult to make the 6:00 AM practice on Tuesdays and Thursdays because of where you live or parent’s schedule, talk to me and we’ll see if there is something we can work out.

 NEXT PEE Friday January 9th 5:30 – 7:30 at Allie’s Church. The next PEE will be on Friday the 9th the night before our home meet. We will discuss the mental aspects of competition and how to be mentally prepared to perform at your best.

 ALUMNI RELAYS The Alumni Relays were once again a lot of fun with 11 alumni returning to relive their glory days. The Alumni scored the most points finishing first to the second place Seniors/Juniors; and finishing third were the Sophomores/Freshmen. The most fun was catching up and learning what everyone was doing. The Alumni Relays are always between Christmas and New Years with the 2015 Alumni Relays tentatively scheduled for Monday December 28th.