New Faces In Tamiami

A little late with this post but I did not forget about it. In fact I left this meet feeling pretty good about the future of our team. For a while I had been relying on a small core group of swimmers on my team to attend all the meets, and really get involved with the team. Now, however, I am seeing lots of new faces at the swim meets; parents and kids alike. Hopefully this is jsut the beggining.

To this meet I took a a lot of newer swimmers, and with a new swimmer it is so easy to make small corrections and go a best time. Kids are just learning what events they like, what kind of swimmer they are, and what kind of a competitor they are. I think we had a terrific showing. Even without many of my "regulars" we still took a bigger group. And these kids ripped it up. We left with lots of ribbons, medals,best times, and most importantly the desire to come to another meet to try our talents again.

Keep checking for updates as I will be trying to get more and more of you out to some more meets!

JO's and The Race Club Banquet

A lot has happened in the last week that is worth discussing. The first of which is JO's. I had a great time at that meet mostly becasue I always enjoy a championship meet. There is a certain air at JO's that doesnt exist at the other meets. The swimming is faster, the competition is better, everyone in on top of thier game, everyone wants to win or make finals. It is the type of environment where swimmers either thrive or wither up, and I think that our swimmers did a good job of stepping up and swimming fast. Our goal for the next JO's is to get some more swimmers to the meet, and also to get more swimmers into the finals. Most everyone that swam, however, did personal bests and put thier hearts into each race. In the end what can I really ask for besides swimmers competeing with a big heart and a strong spirit. Now, I am looking forward to the summer when I know everyones focus will be on swimming and swimmers will be getting a lot faster! I plan on showing up to the summer JO's ready to rock and roll!

For the second order of buisness I would like to discuss the fundraiser held by The Race Club on monday night. It was a great event called The Race To Bejing where we tried to raise money for our swimmers competing for the Olympics. I will say I think we had a lot of success. There was a great turnout and it was nice to see the Keys coming out to support our team and our sport. Also, I think it was important becasue everyone saw how much we do here at The Race Club. Yes, our main goal is to send people to the Olympic Games, but we also run several of the aquatic programs here in the Keys, and for the first time I felt that The Race Club was more connected to the community. We are trying to create a symbiotic relationship here in the Keys, and when people show that they care about what is going on here, it makes it more fun for us coaches to give back to the community. All in all it was a very successful event, and maybe I just enjoyed socializing, but I cant wait until the next one.

There will be a few practice time that are canelled. Please continue to check for updates.