College Night 2008

We had our Annual WSY College Night on Friday evening, November 28 and I think this was our largest showing in about 8 years. We had 17 student/athletes representing Division I and Division II schools, plus two college grads that are now in the professional world. We then had 19 high school and 8th graders who were asking some great questions of our panel. Each year our WSY Alumni that come back for this important evening grows, and I can't thank them enough for taking the time our of their schedule to "give back". Many of the Alumni were actually sitting "on the other side of the table" at some point in their swimming career, and I know in talking to everyone, College Night is something they look forward too as they switch sides of the table.

In talking with the high school and middle school WSY swimmers......it is very important for them to hear what goes on at college from their peers. This is "real life stuff", ranging from how to handle "challenging room ates" to "how did you prepare for your college selection, and what would you do different".

Thanks again for everyone for attending, and with 14 graduating WSY Seniors in the Class of 2009, we should once again have a large turnout next year.

Trick or Treat 2008 WSY Style PLUS Apples and Oranges

Trick or Treat WSY Style - Last year we began having a costume night on "Trick or Treat " night in Central Pennsylvania. Not really sure why we always have to have Trick or Treat night on a date that is not really Halloween, but that is how it is done in Central PA, so we felt that WSY swimmers should show their best costume prior to practice, and we had a great turnout this year. The best part is the parading down the hall at Messiah College. After the costume fun it was time to get to the "main event" the Annual WSY Apples v Oranges. This event was actually started I believe in 2002 on a Sunday at practice, where we simply divided up the practice group, selected team captains, and put together a 90 minute dual meet. We ran this meet for a few years and then took a break. I know many of the WSY Alum in college already found out we were bringing back the Apples v Oranges event as I have received a few upset text messages today as we have not run this fun event for the last two years.

Tonight, we had a awesome event. Each team had 11 swimmers. There were 11 individual events, one medley relay, and two team events. Two of the individual events were kicking events, and the point values doubled for these events. The team events involved a Team Cheer (judged by the Messiah College lifeguards).....as a side note Ben Appleby will go down as one of the most original cheerleaders (I am certain Harry taught him well)......the other team event was a Sharks and Minnows event where the team captains could earn 5 points for every member of the opposite team they tagged.

We had some awesome times swum in our meet. Several swimmers were even faster then their lifetime best times. Several swimmers swam a 100 breastroke and a 400 IM with only 90 seconds rest, and we saw some awesome racing. We had great team work and it was great to see everyone work together. In the end Team Oranges (led by Steven and Carrigan) was victorious with 222 points over Team Apples (led by Justin "JB" and Caroline) who had an amazing 221 points.

Another great evening of racing and fun with WSY.

Apples and Oranges will appear again in October of 2009 and I am certain we will top our event from 2008

The Finish

Fingers down, fingers up, half stroke, kick to wall, head down, head up???? .01 is a tight finish

Men's 400 Free Relay underwater

Some great swimming under water

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Olympics are here - hope everyone is watching

WOW, last night was the first finals session (remember the finals are in the morning in Beijing, which is 12 hours ahead of us). From what I can see, finals start about 10am, Beijing time which is 10pm the night prior East Coast Time. As I was watching some of the prelim interviews after the actual swims, the American swimmers are still getting used to it it; if you watched any of the prelims yesterday (last night in Beijing) every one of the swimmers that was interviewed talked about “getting it done this morning” and “looking forward to tonight” so yes the athletes themselves are still getting accustomed to this new setting. I do remember when I was in Rio (2 years ago at the Fina World Youth Championships), the meet was set up as evening finals, and the country of Brazil had been running their meets in this set up for the last 8 years, so several of the countries in Beijing should have no problem with evening finals, but the USA athletes will have to make an adjustment, which it seems several of them have been doing. If you have not been to nbcolympics.com, it is a great web site to catch up on all of the video from prelims and everything not shown late at night.

From some of my contacts in Beijing with Team USA, here is some of what has been going on:

**Sightings included Bill Gates, Henry Kissinger, President Bush, and about five hundred secret service. Bush was flanked by brother Jeb, wife Laura, and daughter Barbara. I’m not sure if he has ever been to a swim meet but he looked to be enjoying himself: waving the flag, smiling huge.

**During the medal ceremonies, information for the crowd scrolls across the scoreboard: They list the award presenters, the athletes, they show the event results, tell when you to stand up for the national anthem, etc. and even crown instructions such as "SIT DOWN, PLEASE"

**The music in the swimming venue is so strange. It is primarily inspirational/elevator music sung in Chinese. They have five or six songs on rotation. And then, everyone now and then, Toby Keith’s “How Do You Like Me Know” comes blaring over the loudspeaker. Renegade country music-Dixie Chicks haters over here in China.

Garrett from Floswimming is in Beijing, and has been getting some nice interviews with the athletes either before the swimmers get into the water cube, or as they are departing the bus. As NBC paid almost $1 billion for the broadcast rights to the Olympic games, getting into the actual water cube and capturing content is very hard, and Garrett does a great job on the side streets getting video of what the swimmers are doing. Kudos to him for flying over there and giving us video of the good stuff.

As I continue to watch video and see pictures that are emailed to me, check out the smog . Here is a picture of what I believe is the athletes village and you can see how horrible the smog in Beijing looks to be. In Athens the pool was outdoors, but in Beijing, the pool is indoors which looks to be a good thing .

Continue to enjoy the great coverage of the swimming events. You can really see some great underwater coverage, and I am even detecting several of the athletes had some first night nervousness, which is to be expected at this level.

Final Day at 2008 Long Course Nationals/Positive Energy

Sorry for my lack of blogging about everything that happened on the last night (Friday) of Y Nationals. Actually I am not sure that anyone could have predicted what actually happened in College Park, Maryland. I go back and think about it now, and it is astounding every time I think about it of watch the video's. After the awards were presented (video), the team went to Dave and Busters. It was 10:45pm before we got seated and had our dinner. As I looked around at the 21 WSY athletes sitting at the table it really hit me what an amazing trip this meet had been. We had several athletes that were new to our team, three swimmers from our NYAC family, and several first time swimmers at a National level meet. The last 6 days brought this group closer as a team and gave everyone memories that will last a lifetime. Other than Leah and Harry all of these swimmers will be at 2009 Spring Nationals along with new WSY qualifiers to that meet. This 2008 National came together and worked as a team. This is the type of Positive Energy that must be present within our team at these meets. I know in previous years I have tried to explain Positive Energy, but there is no explanation better than what happened over the last 6 days. We were up at 5:15am each day, and finally in bed by 9:30-10pm, so I know the swimmers were tired. Ben and Jess were at the meet to swim one event on tghe very last day, yet managed to do their lifetime best times. Girls Relays - Out of the 5 relays, WSY won 4 of them AND set four new National YMCA Records, plus one new University of Maryland Pool Record. I can not tell you how many coaches asked me "Mike...How did this happen??". I can only go back to what I attempted to explain for 4-5 years now, the effect of Positive Energy. As a team we did not allow ourselves to get caught up in any drama within the team, we did not allow ourselves to get caught up in any type of relay disputes, when challenges came along, we dealt with them, and them moved on for what was best for the team. We had awesome attitudes, and worked together as a team. All 21 swimmers, no matter if they scored points or swam a lifetime best time, they were at the meet for one purpose......WSY. 19 of the 21 swimmers will be going into the 2008-2009 season with this meet fresh in their minds, and will be taking all of the experiences from this meet through 30 weeks of training with the outcome being 2009 Short Course Nationals in Fort Lauderdale in April. We will again take the power of Positive Energy and use it to accomplish team goals at that meet. We finally got back to the team hotel after Dave and Busters about 1:30am (Saturday morning), and I think everyone, including myself "crashed" as we were departing at 8am on Saturday. Now for what happened Friday evening in College Park:

Prior to our departure, we had our final team meeting of the meet where we talked about something new we learned about each other during the trip, and Leah and Harry gave their last "Thought of the Day" as a member of our WSY National Team. Over the years these team meetings have been alot of fun. One of the other fin parts of the trip is the WSY National Team Journals. Each of the athletes is given a Journal at the beginning of the week to write down their thoughts and any improvements they would like to see in the trip. The swimmers are asked to be honest and open as the only person that reads these journals is myself. Over the last 8 or 9 years we have been doing this, there have been some great journals. Some of the swimmers actually fill every page, and I actually get an inside perspective of their life. When we got to the pool, we had our normal finals warm up for all of the swimmers that were participating in tonight's events. Carly had to be extra careful with the amount of energy she had and to be sure she was warm ed up properly as she had the tough double of 1500 free and 200 fly (within 50 minutes). She seemed relaxed and ready for the challenge. She had a great mile and looked strong, and ended up 5th with a lifetime best time. She got out of the pool, got hydrated and was in the warm down pool to prepare of the 200 fly. She had Jess Burkett go to the awards podium to accept her award (Jess is really looking forward to swimming the 1500 free at Nationals after that experience). Up next was the 200 free relays. The girls were up first (video), and WSY showed their "sprint speed"......and after this relay all I keep hearing is the WSY are now sprinters. My response has always been that if you train for Mid Distance and Distance type events, you will always be able to drop down and sprint. A great example of the Positive Energy" within the team was this relay. Alie, Steph, Lauren, and Leah put together a great relay to not only win the relay, we set a new Y National Record, and new University of Maryland Pool Record(results). We had some happy swimmers after this event. The guys took this energy into their relay. The guys were in the "Consol Final" and had to show their stuff. (video/results). We won the Consol final, and I think the guys were reminded once again that you need to swim hast in the morning heats in order to make the Top 8 at night. That has always been one of our goals at the Nationals meet, place all 10 WSY relays in the Top 8 at night, but in order to be represented at night, you need to swim fast in the morning. 200 fly was up next. Carly was ready for the double (swam the mile earlier). She was in the consol final, and swam a very controlled race. I know Carly is looking forward to this double in future years, and with every experience comes new learning. Carly "passed the test", and I know is relay for Spring when she can perform this double again. I was very proud of the way she performed with this double. (results). Leah and Emily were up next in the final heat (video/results). This would be Leah's final race of her Y National career (attending Nationals since she has been 12). This race also represented a turning point in the meet. After Thursday evening we were 60 points behind Spartansburg YMCA (Middle Tyger) for the National Championship (WSY has never won a Team Title at the National Meet). We needed a 1-2 finish in this race. Leah was going to deliver a very impressive 2:09.96 (37th fastest time in the world this year) and Emily was right behind her with a 2:18.53 (Emily's previous best time had been 2:23.53). A 1-2 finish was what the WSY Girls needed to move into first place as we knew our competition did not have a relay in the 400 Medley (due to a DQ in the morning heats). Our WSY 50 backstrokers were up next. On the men's side, Eric and Kevin showed some great sprint speed (Eric - Results/Video) (Kevin - Results/Video). In the end Kevin was 3rd and Eric was 10th. It was important for the WSY guys to continue to score their share of points as were had a race in the Total Team race as well. The guys did not let down. They felt the positive energy as well. Stephanie "SK" Kinsey was up next. (video/results). Steph ended up 6th with a great improvement over her time from the morning.

We ended up the meet with the swimmers favorite, the 400 medley relay. The girls were up first, and other than the 200 free relay, the WSY girls had won and set new National records in every other relay of the meet, so this relay provided a bit of challenge for the girls. I remember telling Claire before she swam that there is a possibility that she would be in for a good race as the anchor freestyle leg of the relay and I had 100 percent confidence in her to "bring it home", and wow....did all four girls deliver. (Video/Results). This relay took a group effort from all four girls, and all four were better or right at their lifetime best times in this relay, which won, and cleared the Boyertown National Record and gave WSY their 9th National record for the meet. WSY guys were up next. (video/results). Kevin took in out very fast, and JB, Eric, and Harry finished it up in style for a 4th place finish ending what will go down as one of my most remembered National meets in my 18 years at WSY (trust me.....I do not remember any of the National Meets where I was swimming back in the 80's...as most times I was cheering my team mates, as I was not fast enough to me in the evening finals)

After all of the swimming was over, WSY Girls took the team title, the WSY guys were a very impressive 4th, and we were National Runner-ups as a total team (scores). As I am sitting here writing this it comes with sadness that we must see Leah and Harry depart this team, although I know both of them are looking forward to the next chapter in their lives and that is NCAA competition, and being a student/athlete at the next level. We wish them both great success, as I know both of them will be following our National Team in April. It also is with great happiness that I am looking ahead 35 weeks when we will again come together at Short Course Nationals in Fort Lauderdale and over 20 WSY swimmers will come together again and use Positive Energy to bring our team great results.

Thanks to everyone over the last week, from WSY parents to WSY Coaches Kim, Scott and Kristen, all of the WSY swimmers and parents back home that emailed or tex'd us well wished. I also have to thank Garrett at Floswimming.org . If you have never been to his website, it is great, and Garrett does all of this because of his love for the sport. He travels all over the World to get swimming video all on a very low budget. I know he is departing Tuesday for Beijing and he will get us some great video from the Olympic Games. Thanks to my buddy Jason at Swimming World Magazine for giving YMCA swimming such excellent coverage.

As always, thanks for following, and for all of the WSY swimmers that could not be with us, I look forward to you being with us in the next few years, and the WSY Alum, I look forward to you continuing to follow the team/family that you helped me build over the last 18 years. September 2nd will be here in a few weeks where we will again come together for some fun and excitement.

.....as we move forward........................Mike

Some photo's from Beijing

I was going through some of the email today and found an email from one of the staff persons with the USA delegation in Beijing for the 2008 Olympic Games. The picture on top is a photo from outside the pool at night, and the picture on the bottom is taken inside the pool, and it is being reported to me that there is much less actual seating that was in Omaha at our USA Olympic Team Trials. As I get other photo's from Beijing, I will post them

Day 3 finals and WSY swimmers are getting faster

Thanks to everyone for the emails and texts. All are very well received. Tonight, usually the shortest day of the meet, WSY swimmers were alive with great swims. Carly Munchel swam a lifetime best time in her 400 IM (results), 5th place (5:05.71). Carly swam the race as we like all 400 IM's which is negative split the backstroke, breastroke, and freestyle legs of the race. WSY was very well represented in the 100 free. On the women's side we had some fun as Steph and Claire tied for 9th, and Lauren got 11th (results). On the mens side, Kevin took his 100 out like a rocket, and swam to an 11th place finish (results). Adri Phillips was holding the points for the team in the 200 backstroke, where she bettered her prelim time. Adri finished15th (results). Lets not forget about the 50 butterfly where we had Harry and Eric ready for the "Butterfly Dash". In the 50 fly, it all comes down to timing of the finish. (Results) Eric was 13th and Harry was 2nd (same as his place in 2007).

Up next were the 800 free relays. This is the only relay where it is swum as "Timed Finals", meaning you only need to swim it one time. Girls were up first. The 800 free relay (Results) is very mental, meaning you never want to allow your relay to get too far behind the leaders as it is very hard to catch up. We chose to lead off with Leah as we knew we would get a lead. Peter from Spartansburg and I spoke with each other last evening and decided we would "show our cards" so we could both race against each other.....he led off with his fastest swimmer as well. This meant Leah had a shot at the Y National record (old record was 2:03.90). At the 100 when I saw her 100 time of 58.8, I thought she had a shot of breaking 2:00, which would be her best time by over a second, at the touch she was 2:00.22, a new National Record, PLUS a University of Maryland Pool record. Now it was up to Lauren, Emily and Claire to bring home the race, and they swam very well, and really worked as a team. In the end, WSY set a new National Record by 6 seconds. Congratulations Girls

On the mens side, we wanted to be sure Eric, Harry, Ben and Kevin swam "smart races" in their 800 free relay (results), and no one went out fast the first 100, and "dropped off". Each one of the guys swam very well, and used great race planning. In the end, they ended up 11th place......so WSY had a great night for the 3rd night in a row. Tomorrow (Friday) is the last day of the meet, and we plan on showing more WSY fast swimming, and great team spirit. It is awesome for me as a coach to see the WSY swimmers supporting each other for every race. No matter what the outcome of the race, there is always a teammate around you for support.

We have some big relays tomorrow (4 of them), which means big team points. Also, Ben and Jess will also be swimming their first and only event of the meet (50 backstroke). You would not knnow that these two are only swimming one event on the last day. They have been a huge part of the team, never once complaining about 5:15am wake-up calls or being tired. I am very impressed with both Jess and Ben for their maturity on this trip, and look forward to having them on future National trips. We are currently in 2nd as a team, but need to work hard to remain in 2nd place. The meet has been going so well, and it has been an honor to be here with such a fine group. After the meet ends tomorrow night (Friday), we will all be going to Dave and Busters for some fun time with team mates.

I am going to sign off for now so that I can be sure not to have any coffee preparation problems tomorrow. Unlike Spring Nationals I have not had to listen to my roomate Coach Scott snore too much, although he does talk at times......I will have to listen to hear if he says anything about me.

More tomorrow

Mike

WSY having amazing success in College Park, Maryland

Sorry about not writing last night as I had a few "server" type problems which are way too much to explain. We had an awesome day yesterday with excellent results for the entire team. One of the areas we talk about in our daily team meetings is keeping positive, and working together as a team. It is almost like the "snowball effect", when you get a few athletes swimming fast, and seeing great time improvements, all of the swimmers start to think "if they can do it, so can I". We talk about "Laying it on the line", not holding back. getting our fast in all of your races, yet still able to finish strong. Sure, you are going to be fatigued due to the long days, and sure it may hurt a bit, but really, this is the last meet of the season. Lets see what you have.

Right from the beginning yesterday we had some awesome swims. We are scoring points in many events. The team spirit is very high, and everyone is getting along and becoming closer as a team. As I mentioned previously, only Leah and Harry (out of 21 swimmers) will be leaving us after this meet. The other 19 swimmers will be together in April at Short Course Nationals as well as the many new WSY swimmers that will be joining us in Fort Lauderdale. Last night in finals (all video of all finals races is here), we started off with a great 800 free from Claire (results), during the morning distance events Ryan Turner swam his best time in his mile going 17:34.19, and Maddie Hopch scored 13th place with her best time in the 800 going 9:32.00. Next up was the 100 fly. Leah and Emily were in the final heat and BOTH girls swam to their lifetime best times (results). Leah set a new National record going 1:00.49, and Emily 1:04.12. The young 14 year old that Leah swam against (who previously held the National record - her name is Hayley Lips (video here of her interview) does remind me of Leah when she was 14. Hayley swims for a good friend Peter Wright in Spartansville, South Carolina. Kevie/Kev Marsteller also had one of the best finishes of any race in the years I have known Kevin in his 100 fly. With about 4 more feet of the pool, Kevin would have won this race (results), however settled for 2nd going 56.95, and team mate Harry Foster got 4th. Justin "JB" Beegle made his first National final in the 200 breastroke (results) going 2:28 (6th place). JB had a huge cheering section behind his lane of many WSY swimmers due to his status as "The King". The WSY 200 freestylers were very strong, both prelims and finals. First year national qualifier Carrigan Eckels swam to a best time in prelims going 2:15, and Lauren, Emily and Claire swam for evening swims in their 200 freestyle's. (Results). These three times should really help our 800 free relay (which will be swum tonight - Thursday).

The final event of the day was the 400 freestyle relays. I know some of you reading this blog have been to this meet previously, but the aura surrounding the relays can not be described. Eact team only gets one relay, which means only 4 swimmers can represent your team. Everyone swims very fast in relays. All of the swimmers want to be on the relay that represents the team. The 400 free relays at this session were no different. The girls went first. We went in as the first seed, but we knew that Spartansburg was making some switches to attempt to knock off WSY. Lauren, Claire, Steph, and Leah knew they had a shot at winning, and I think the National record was in sight. (Here is the video that describes it the best). In the end, the girls got 1st place, and crushed the National record. The WSY men were up next. This was a very competitive field. Harry, Kevin, Ben, and Eric had a tough order. (results). In the end, we had some great splits and ended up 5th.

Our team meetings have been going great and we do have some more video from each of these meetings. Tonight's finals session (Thursday) should be great, and then we move into the final day of competition (Friday).

Oh wait.......I think the biggest problem yesterday was the blow up of my coffee machine in the room. I think I told you that the coffee machine "ran over" the day before......well yesterday (Wednesday) it would not start. It was 4:20am, and I do not have any coffee. I knew there was nothing open around the hotel, so.....visualize me yelling at this coffee machine while Coach Scott is attempting to sleep. He finally woke up and said "Mike....the coffee machine does not have vocal chords, it can not yell back at you". So I went over to the pool, got in line (there were 4 coaches in front of me), and finally got in the pool area at 5:45am and guess what......no coffee was available in the pool area. Being the patient person I am, I waited until I say the large coffee pot in the hospitality area, waited a few minutes for the line to go down, and then walked in the hospitality room. Can you believe the thermos filled with coffee was empty???? I was fuming. I ran out of the room and told, Coach Kim and Kristin that I was running out to Starbucks. At last.....3 hours after I started the day I had a hot cup of coffee. To end this saga......we got back to the room after the morning prelims, and I brought the hotel maid to my room to show her my coffee machine would not work. I put my finger on the button to start the machine, and guess what.....IT STARTED TO WORK IMMEDIATELY. I lost it at that point. Thanks to coach Scott, I calmed down.

Thanks for reading, the coffee machine works, WSY swimmers are swimming fast, we have a great WSY parent cheering section at the meet, and yes I am having alot of fun!!!! More later

Mike

Day one is some great fun and fast swimming for WSY

Day 1 (Tuesday) was the first day of the competition for the 2008 YMCA Nationals. It started early. Remember there is only one pool here, so every swimmer (1,300 strong) wants to get "prime bleacher location" for their team. So, I get up at 4am each day, and am at the pool by 4:20am to stand at the Door, so WSY is the first team to get in the natatorium....problem today was there were 4 teams in front of me. Yes, several teams arrive at 4am, even though the doors do not open until 5:45am. Well....this was reason enough for me to have a few extra cups of Starbucks (remember at Trials hen Coach Verge from Shippensburg University got my coffee for me every day), well Coach Scott says no way......so I brew my own in the room. Today, I ran into a small problem with the hotel coffee machine....I filled it with too much coffee grounds, so I had coffee all over the floor. I had to get to the pool, SO Coach Scott to the rescue, he cleaned everything up, and I did not even hear him snore last night. On that note......our room is still not very cold, however I am dealing with it, but I do appreciate the emails sending me pictures of snowmen.

On to the meet: We had a great time today with 3 girls (Carly, Adri, and Claire) making an evening swim in the 400 free, with some very hot times (results). Kevin was Top 8 in the 100 back (results). Leah (broke the Y National Record by 2 seconds), and Steph had great 200 Im's (results). Ali and Justin got up and raced some nice 50 breastrokes in the evening. Steph swam a very nice 100 back (results), and Leah attempted (and yes I admit swam very well....even though she says otherwise in this interview) her 50 free tonight, where she and Emily (from SPY swimming) both went under the existing National Record in the 50 free (Leah's time was 26.36). Both the guy's (results) and girls (results) 200 medley's mad the Top 8 at finals tonight. At the end of the day the girls were in 2nd place, the guys in 10th place, and we are 3rd as a team. (scores).

At our team meeting today, Alie, Kevin, Enya and Jess Trgovic handed out pieces of paper with each team members name. The assignment was to take the name of the person you got and write something positive to tell that person. It was a great team building activity, and again it was something that brought this group together as a team.

The meet ended this evening about 8:45pm, and then it was 9:30pm until be had dinner and back on the floor. We had a great email today from Jess Feldish who is not with us on this trip, but she reminded each of the team members about taking naps during the day, and staying hydrated. Most of the WSY team members will be up at 5am on Wednesday for Day #2 of the 2008 Long Course Nationals, so I am going to sign off for the evening until tomorrow

Thanks for reading

Mike

Getting ready for Day 1 at YMCA Long Course Nationals

As I was talking with Coach Kim, Kristin and Scott this morning at practice, one of the areas we were discussing was out of the 21 athletes we have at the meet this year, only two (Harry and Leah) are Seniors. This means 19 of the WSY swimmers participating this year will be at the Spring National meet as well as any new qualifiers we have. In the picture above (Turtle, Jessie, Gracie, and Anna) each of these girls will be at this meet in the next 3-5 years. It is great to see the progress of each of the WSY swimmers as they develop in our program. Many of the younger swimmers get their first experience of a "Travel" type meet with the Swim International meet in Canada each November. The next step is setting your goals on the Long Course National meet as well as the Short Course National meet and onward to US Nationals, and then USA Olympic Team Trials. We are looking forward to seeing the many great swims this week by not only the "WSY Veterans", but the "WSY First Timers"

We arrived late afternoon yesterday, and the hotel staff was very organized, had all of your keys and room assignments, which allowed the stress level to be kept down, and everyone to get into their rooms. The hotel is very nice, and we are on the 2nd floor, which makes for short elevator rides. We swam for about 90 minutes yesterday, and mad our grocery run, as well as had some quick pizza. We had our first team meeting last evening where Adri, Steph, Claire, and Eric talked about motivation and working together as a team. We had some discussion of how the week will flow, and team rules. Everyone always gets excited in a new environment, thus sometimes we are not conserving energy for the remainder of the week. Then it was off to bed for the 5:15am wake up call on Monday (7/28)

Well, the air conditioning is not working the best in Coach Scott and I's room.....you know what that means, Coach Mike is complaining a bit. I awoke and told Coach Scott "I did not sleep like a rock, rather more like a pebble". Don't worry I will have this fixed by the end of the week....hopefully today. 5:30am, was here and everyone was ready to go. As always WSY was the first to the pool, therefore got great lane space and had an awesome workout. After our workout we went to the University of Maryland Dining hall and had some good breakfast, had a few minutes to relax and then it was back over to the pool where we officially registered for the meet, always a fun time. Back to the hotel to relax until lunch. Today is probably the day where the swimmers have the most "down time", as after today we are moving by 5:15am until about 9:30pm.

In our team meeting later today, we are going to talk about some team goals. as well as hear the "Thought of the Day" from Lauren, Justin, Lauren, and Emily

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WSY Swimming and why we have so much fun AND SWIM FAST

I am not really sure where to start for this blog as it has been quite a while since I have written. Our WSY National team (21 strong) will be departing in the morning, and I am taking a break from packing (as everyone knows I overpack anyway). It seems like just yesterday we were finishing up with Short Course Nationals in Florida, and saying goodbye to all of our Graduating Seniors. The last 10 weeks seemed to fly by us. We had more swimmers on the team this Summer than we have had in the last 5 years. Coach Derrick mentioned to me today "Coach Mike....do you know our 8 and Under boys have won Mid Caps in their relay the last two years??" I know Coach Derrick, Alyson, and Gillian are very proud of that fact. As I sit here thinking about the week that is ahead of us, I know this will be the last meet for Leah and Harry, but I also know that WSY is very healthy with younger swimmers.

By now, I am sure it is not a secret that I was looking at an opportunity to move away from WSY. I was very appreciative of all of the support I received from not only swimmers here within our team, but others in the area. After a long process I really came to the conclusion that I have everything I want right here in Central Pennsylvania and more specifically at the West Shore YMCA. The last 10 weeks really confirmed that for me. There is nothing more pleasing to me that to see our future WSY National team at Mid Caps today doing best times, having fun, and representing a team that they take pride in.

I know many of you will be enjoying a break from swimming over the next 5 weeks, while 21 swimmers from your WSY National Team will be representing you at the 2008 Long Course Nationals at the University of Maryland. Many of these swimmers were in our program at 9-10 years old, and they have stuck with their goals and dreams and continue to have fun and swim well. Every time I see an athlete swimming fast, I see a smile on their face. I encourage each of you to watch the Olympics in two weeks. Watch the swimmers on the medal stand.....sure they work hard, and sure they make many sacrifices in their lives, but they also have fun training hard. They have fun learning new skills. This is the challenge to each of you.....Can you swim fast, achieve goals, learn new skills and have fun at the same time.

As we do at every National meet, we come together as a team to swim well. As I say every time, the reason we swim fast is the "Power of Team". I will talk about this at our first team meeting in Maryland. All individual differences must be put aside at this time, and we will come together as a team.

Thanks for following, and one of my goals this week is to be certain to enter two Blog entries per day. Good or bad, I want to be sure to let everyone know how we are doing. As always, feel free to send us emails as they are always to read at our Team Meetings. We leave at 11am in the morning (Sunday), so I will be sure to add another entry in Sunday evening

-----Mike

WSY swimmers performing well at MA senior Champs

Many of our Senior level swimmers have been performing well at the Middle Atlantic senior Championships at Bucknell University. This meet is a four day prelim/final meet, and we are using it as a final preparation meet prior to Y Nationals. We have had several swimmers make a few more qualifying times for Y nationals. Real Time Results are here. We are half way through the meet and thus far we have had 53% lifetime best times from the WSY swimmers at the meet. The WSY swimmers have been having fun supporting each other at night at finals (picture gallery here).

Final night at Trials

The 2008 USA Olympic Team Trials has come to a close. The USA Olympic team was named tonight, and they depart in the morning for their training camp in Palo Alo, and then they will go to the international training camp in Singapore before finally arriving in Beijing for the games. This meet was the fastest swim meet in the history of the sport. Some will say the new suits played a part, and yes I believe some of it, but I think a bigger part of why our sport has gotten so fast is athletes are staying in the sport for much longer. For an example in the women's 50 free tonight, there was not one athlete under 20. The age ranged from 20-41 (Yes....Dara Torres put on a show this week), and I fully expect her to win at least the 50 in Beijing. It will be funny to see her racing Cate Cambell (from Australia who is currently the 2nd fastest in the world at 16 years old). In looking ahead to the 2012 trials (in case you are marking the calendar, the dates of the 2012 trials are June 17-24, 2012) both Joe and Leah were talking about how they are looking forward to that meet. As I mentioned in previous posts, how many other WSY swimmers will be joining them??

Joe had a tremendous race this evening. The field that swam the 1500 tonight was the fastest field of 8 in American swimming history, and Joe was part of it. Joe started out a bit slower (at the 400 he was 4:03 vs 4:02 yesterday), however he made up for in in the back half of the race. Joe ended up 8th (where he was seeded), however he did improve his time to finish at 15:21.84 (results). Joe had 3 races and had a personal best in all 3 races....a great accomplishment. Joe's college coaches at UNC were very excited for his accomplishment, and his future. The UNC Coaches (Rich, Catherine, and Mike) are great to work with in a partnership to get the athlete where he/she needs to be, and I thanked them for their work with Joe as well as any WSY athlete that could attend UNC in the future!!

In closing, as I mentioned previously, this meet was a totally different experience in American swimming. Total, there were over 160,000 fans that watched this meet, not to mention all of the fans that saw swimming on the nightly telecast on NBC. This is huge for our sport, and I know personally in my 17 years being involved as a coach, I have seed this sport changing for the better. The suits are simply part of it, the athletes are working harder, forming long term goals, staying in the sport longer, and finding a way to get their hand on the wall first.

After we move through the next few weeks with many WSY swimmers participating in Summer League Championships, Senior Championship Meets, sectional Meets, Y National Meets, US Open Meets, I hope everyone will tune in to NBC and watch the American swimmers (beeg begins 8/8/08) at the Beijing Olympic games. After the Olympic games conclude attention will be refocused to the 2012 games in London. I know it is hard to think about swimming at that level, but being at this meet I have seen so many athletes that at one point swam in their summer leagues, high school teams, and then moved through the National level meets and ultimately to the Olympic team. There were many athletes that swam in this meet (a few of which made the 2008 Olympic Team), who did not even qualify for this meet in 2004, so I know with focus and preparation it can happen!!

Wishing everyone a great end of the Summer!!

Mike

Final days of 2008 USA Olympic Team Trials

My apologies to everyone for not blogging over the last two days. I have received all of your texts and emails. We have been having a huge amount of success here at the 2008 USA Olympic Team Trials. As I had written in my last post, Leah had a very successful 200 Fly, getting a top 8 swim at night, and swimming her lifetime best time. Leah also secured another Top 8 swim in the 800 free last evening, which I know many of you saw on NBC. I wanted to take some time to go over what happens when you get a final 8 swim at the Olympic Trials.

We usually get to the pool about 5:30pm, and swim our warm-up of about 1,500 meters. The finals session is scheduled to begin at 7pm (local time). Most of this is dictated by NBC. There are some nights where we were to begin the session with some semi-finals heats, and NBC wanted to begin their live broadcast with a "Finals Heat", so we did begin a few nights at 6:45pm, so we could go live at 7pm. During the evenings of Leah's finals swims, we ended warm-ups about 6:10pm, and Leah had some time to get her racing suits on, get water, and had a few minutes to talk with me. Most times about 6:30pm was the last I talked with Leah. She went back to the warm-up pool area, where there is no media, only other swimmers and coaches. She would remain back there until she was about ready to swim. All athletes must report to the "Race Ready Room" at 15 minutes prior to their swim. This is a room where all 8 finalists sit prior to the race. There is a TV in this room where you can see the actual meet, and some times the athletes may say a few things to each other, but for the most part the swimmers usually have their head phones on, and are preparing for their races. About 5 minutes prior to the race, the athletes will be led to the "chute", which are stairs which lead to the main pool deck in the arena. When the music starts, this is the signal to begin walking out of the chute. Here the athletes will see 2-3 TV camera's, and then hear the crowd. Imagine 13,000 people screaming and yelling, and lots of bright lights. The key here as I mentioned to Leah is to keep your head set on, and block out the crowd. After all of the names have been announced, it is time to swim, and over all we have had some fantastic swims. Leah's 800 last evening was a second opportunity for her to get a Top 8 finals swim, and she learned some valuable things which will help her as she prepares over the next four years for the 2012 trials.

BIG JOE's MILE - WOW.......Joe knew his event was on the last day, so we have used this week to continue to prepare him. We kept his volume a bit higher most of the week in preparation for this event. In talking with Joe, we knew it would take about 15:15 to get a Top 8 finish. Joe's best was 15:31. The metric mile has become a very fast event for American swimming. Joe's goal all Summer was a Top 8 finish, but we knew it would be a very large task. Mid way through the week, Joe time trialed the 400 free. His previous best time was 4:02, and in his time trial he broke 4:00, and went 3:59, so he really felt ready for the mile. Joe was seeded in the 2nd to last heat of the pyramid seeding. He looked relaxed and ready to swim at yesterday's (Saturday) prelim session. As he entered the water, he was 4:02 at the 400 mark (which up until this meet was his fastest time), he held 1:01's most of the way, and was well on his way to a 9 second improvement. When he finished, he was in 5th place out of all of the heats (results) going 15:22.45. We had one heat remaining!! About 1000 meters through the last year, we knew Joe had a shot at Top 8. His college coaches at UNC were very happy. Joe accomplished his goal, and now was ready for another shot at time improvement. Hopefully everyone will be watching tonight as Joe will be swimming on National TV (NBC 9pm- Heat Sheet is here). Joe is ready for his big race!!

This meet has offered a huge amount of experience for Joe, Leah, and Tricia. In the last four years, each of these swimmers has prepared for this meet, and I think we had some huge successes. After tonight, all three swimmers will return home as Joe prepares for the US Open with his college teammates, Tricia will end the year at the Eastern Zone Sectional meet at Penn State, and Leah will joining the other WSY swimmers going to Y nationals at University of Maryland. I know all 3 swimmers are looking forward to 2012, and taking the experiences from this meet and using them over the next four years. The question we have for all WSY swimmers is who will be joining us in 2012, as we prepare for the 2012 London Games.

After Joe swims tonight, we will make one more entry to our Blog. Thanks to everyone in Central Pennsylvania for all of your supportive emails, texts, and phone calls. I know Joe, Leah, and Tricia appreciate them. Our flight is out tomorrow (Monday), and we will see everyone at the WSY Outdoor Center on Tuesday....complete with bugs, leaves, frogs, and birds singing!!!

Thanks for following

The last two days have been super for WSY

Actually at present I am not really sure what day it is any more. I look at my watch and I see it is July 4th, but I feel like it is July 31st. The Summer seems to be in over drive. This marathon meet we term USA Olympic Team trials is really beginning to unfold. As many of you are seeing on TV (schedule is here......now we move to NBC 8-9pm East Coast Time LIVE), there are so many turns in this meet. How many of you saw PA native Brendan Hansen get 4th last night in the 200 Breastroke. Of course he was very happy for his two teammates that made the team, but less than 2 months ago, this guy held the world record. There have been so many other surprises. In the men's 100 free, 19 year old Nathan Adrian tied for 9th in the semi's, and had to have a swim-off 9with Sam Goldsmith's college teammate Alek Riggi). Nathan won the swim off, and then went into last nights finals and got 4th, which means he made the Olympic Team. The guy went from not making an evening swim to actually being selected for the team. This is what I call "taking advantage of an opportunity"

Leah swam very well last night in the final. One of the goals coming into this meet was a Top 8 swim. Leah accomplished that. I could tell last night when she walked out on deck that she was a bit nervous. As one Olympic coach told me "Everyone at this meet is nervous, the key is to learn how to contain that nervousness". Leah was very happy with her swim. We had a great warm up today, and then it was time for Leah's 800 free. Joe and I were sitting in the stands and I thought it was going to take about 8:35 for an evening swim (Leah's lifetime best was 8:36). Going into Leah's heat, the 8th place time was 8:40, so I knew if she was going to advance she was going to have to hit a great swim. The rest was up to her. Feeling good she took it out at 2:06, was 4:17 at the 400, and then almost even split going 4:18 on the final 400. Her last 50 split was 30. (the fastest of anyone in the field), so I knew she has it in the tank for tomorrow evenings final for a great swim!! Her final time was 8:35.86 (tied for 5th and 31st fastest time in the world as of today)

Tricia swam the 200 back, which was a very fast event. Tricia's time going into the event was 2:17, and she swam a great race, improving her time going 2:16.61.

Tonight is an off night for WSY swimmers, however we are excited about watching some very fast swimming. On Saturday morning prelims, big Joe will swim his mile. Joe has been here supporting everyone (both WSY, his college team mates, and basically everyone he knows). The swimmers can always hear Joe when he is showing his support, and at a meet like this you need that support. Joe's big day will be Saturday AM, and Joe looks really good in the water. The men's 1500 is a stacked event, and Joe knows he will have to have the performance of his lifetime

Leah advances to Thursday evening Finals in 200 fly

Ok.......so I think I have heard 10 times today "See Mike......I told you I liked 200 fly and not distance freestyle". Well, Leah definitely made her point to me. She was in the 2nd heat of the 2-heat semi finals. I had mentioned to a few coaches earlier today that I felt it would take a 2:09 to make the final 8. It was darn close. After the prelim session today, Leah seemed very calm (even after we had some hail storms out here). She had a great warm-up, joked around with Joe, and really stayed relaxed going to the night swims. She told me she was excited, and I mentioned that she needed to "contain the excitement", which she did. When she walked out on the pool deck after being in the ready room, she looked very confident. The first semi heat was very fast, and then I new she would definitely need a 2:10 to make it back, but I did not know how fast Leah's heat would go. She took the 100 out a bit faster than today, and really stayed with her stroke the entire 2nd 100. She was mentally focused, and really contained her excitement, and any nerves that she had going. She hit the wall, and I turned to Parkland Coach Erik Posegay to get confirmation that she was 8th. Although all I really had to do was look 20 feet away and see the smile on Leah's face, and then I knew she had advanced to the Top 8 tomorrow night (Thursday). Leah finished with a 2:10.43, lifetime best by 3 seconds, and now top 35 in the world in that event.

Tomorrow (Thursday), Tricia will swim her 200 back, and most likely Joe will "time trial" a 400 IM, just to keep with some racing before his mile. On Thursday evening Leah will swim in the big 8 of the 200 fly (a first for WSY......a top 8 finisher at Olympic Trials).

Thanks to everyone for your texts and email. I know Leah really appreciates it. I heard the news made its way to the Hot Heats 10 & under Meet as well. Thanks to all of the WSY 10 & unders at that meet for your support. In talking with Coach Derrick, we had some awesome times at the Hot Heats meet. The communication goes both ways out here, and we are very proud of our WSY 10 & Under swimmers

We have our own WSY camera crew out here. I think Kim and Steph Kinsey, Karlee and her mom Michelle have a picture of every Olympian here. Tonight as I was leaving the pool area, I saw they had Brendan Hansen signing every piece of clothing they could find. These guys are really great about that stuff. As soon as I get the pictures I will upload them to the web site.

Thanks again to everyone for following. It is great to continue to get the texts and emails!! We will update again on Thursday

Had our first semi-finals qualifier

As we were building into this meet, and Joe and Leah are getting faster as the meet goes on, we saw Leah qualify 9th for tonight's semi finals in the 200 fly. She took her 200 fly out with her best 100 fly time (1:02.87) and then came back hard for a final time of of 2:11.25 (previous best was 2:13) (Heat Sheet for the event tonight is here). Now Leah will navigate through the semi-finals where the top 8 will advance to the final tomorrow night (Thursday) for a chance to make the Olympic Team. (Patriot News article). We will follow up with tonight's results after she swims!! Watch the event tonight on USA Network (NBC). Here is an interview from FloSwimming

Tuesday was a day of excitement at Olympic Trials

Today was a day filled with excitement. The weather here is getting warmer. Today it was in the 80's, but in the Quest Center there were fireworks going off tonight as we saw more world records being broken at finals. Here is an amazing fact that happened. We had a world record broken yesterday in the prelims of the women's 100 backstroke, then Natalie Coughlin came back in the next heat and re-broke the world record. We got through semi-finals (at this meet in all events 200 and less you must go through semi-finals after prelims before you get to finals). Tonight at finals......the athlete that originally broke the world record yesterday (Hayley McGregory from Texas) did not event make the Top 2, which means she missed the Olympic team. This same swimmer got 3rd place in Long Beach in 2004 as well. That is how fast this meet is moving.....break a world record, and the next day, not even make the US Team going to Beijing.

On the other end, you have athletes making the team that in 2004, did not even make the 2004 Trials. Tricia's teammate (Christine) did not even swim the 100 fly in 2004 as she did not qualify for the 2004 trials, and now 4 years later she won gold at trials and secured a spot on Team USA. It really shows you what 4 years of hard work can do. At this meet there are so many emotions that are running through the minds of every athlete. Not only athletes but coaches. I had the opportunity to ride the elevator with a coach who is on the 2008 Olympic Coaching staff, and he said to me "No matter how many world records, or gold medals your athletes win, as a coach, you will always get nervous at Olympic Trials."

As far as WSY swimmers, Leah swam a great 200 free today. She went 2:01 and almost equaled her tome from US Nationals last Summer. She took her race out much faster (she was 58 at the 100 mark), which showed a good amount of confidence as she moves into her remaining two events (200 fly and 800 free). Joe swam his lifetime best time (by 3 seconds) in the 400 freestyle. Joe had not made the qualifying time for this meet in the 400 (q time was 3:59.99), and Joe's best was 4:02. We wanted to time trial an event to see where we are in the preparation process for his mile on Saturday AM. Joe went 3:59, and looked real strong, especially his turns, which sets him up for a great mile on Saturday. So today was a big success for us.

Tonight at finals, not only did we see a great amount of fast swimming, I was sitting in the athlete section, and right beside me sat Mike Golic (interview) from Mike and Mike in the morning on ESPN. Mike was a great football player from Notre Dame, and a few Pro teams including the Eagles. I listen to his show every AM, and it was great to talk with him. His daughter swims (she has sectional cuts and does very well) for a team in Connecticut), so that was fun