2009 Gator Guide

Green Mountain Swim Team: Parent Survival Guide Pool Phone: 303-985-5880 www.greenmountainswimclub.org Gator blog: http://gmgators.blogspot.com

Green Mountain Gators 2009 Intra-squad meet: May 30st, 7:30 a.m. (warm-up 7:00 a.m.) @ GMSC. (We will take a short break during the swim meet for a parent meeting.)

After School practices begin May 18 Practice Schedule: Monday-Friday May 18 - May 27, 2009 5:00-6:00p.m. 6:00-7:00 p.m. 7:00-8:00 p.m.

9 year olds and 8 and under swimmers Lower Division 10, 11 & 12 year old swimmers Upper Division 13-14, 15-18 year old swimmers

Morning Practices begin May 28th

Practice Schedule: Monday-Friday May 28 - July 24, 2009 6:30-8:00 a.m. 8:00-9:00 a.m. 9:00-9:45 a.m.

15-18 Upper Division and 13-14 years old 9-10 and 11-12 years old 8 and under swimmers

Night Practice – Coaches will determine schedule (Practice times for swimmers participating in the State Meet will be set by the coach)

Other Important Dates July 2nd…………… Water World Trip/Team Pictures July 22nd.…………League Meet Pizza Party July 29th.………… Spaghetti Dinner and Year-end banquet (Please bring a salad or dessert to share)

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Swim Meet Schedule May 30: Intra-squad Meet @ GMSC

(7:00 warm-ups, meet begins at 7:30)

June 6: Stingrays @ GMSC 13: Green Mountain @ Lakewood 20: Green Mountain & Applewood Knolls @ Columbine Knolls 21: C/D Swimmers Meet @ GMSC 27: Ken–Caryl Invitational (Qualifying times required) 28: Applewood Athletic Club Pentathlon (A/B swimmers) July 1: Intra-squad Meet @ GMSC (5:30 warm-ups, meet begins at 6:00) 8: Odd Events (Stroke Events) @ Stingrays 9: Odd Events (Distance Events) @ Stingrays 11: Golden @ GMSC 15: Intra-squad Meet @ GMSC 18: Applewood Athletic Club @ GMSC 19: Last Chance Meet @ Green Mountain Recreation Center 24, 25, 26: League Meet @ Applewood Athletic Club State Meet at Golden (Splash) • • •

July 31 – August 2nd, 2009 Go to www.statemeet.com for all your information The proposed swimming schedule is as follows: (we will know more in May) Friday morning – 8 & Unders Friday afternoon – 400’s Saturday – 9-12 year olds Sunday – Upper division

Applewood Athletic Club – 13330 W. 20th Avenue Columbine Knolls - 6191 W. Plymouth Drive Golden – 3151 Illinois Street Ken Caryl – 7676 S. Continental Divide Drive Lakewood – Green Mountain Rec. Center Stingrays – 400 Holman Way 3

Gator Coaches

Head Coach: RICHARD LEEDS

Assistant Coaches: Luke Morin, Shelby Denney & Josh Peterson

Coaching Philosophy • • • • • • • • • •

Have fun. We swim because we have fun doing it! There is no substitute for hard work. Your success depends on how hard you work at it. Every athlete counts. All athletes are treated the same, no matter what! Do your best. If you do your best at anything, you will succeed. Winning is not just being number one. Winning is setting individual goals and then accomplishing those goals. Responsibility is required. We all have to take responsibility for our actions. You have to want it to achieve it. If you want to be successful at something, then you can be successful. Teach first and train second. Focus on teaching the technical aspect of swimming before allowing swimmers to train. Support your team. You must take pride in your team and help make everyone become better individuals. Change is necessary. Change is necessary to create an excellent program. A great program will always be changing to make things better daily.

Tips for Swimmers 1. Eat a little something before practice. Avoid high protein or high fat foods. 2. Drink an entire water bottle during practice to make sure you stay hydrated. 3. If you ever get cramps during practice, you might want to try drinking a sports drink while you work out. 4. Eat a meal when you get home after practice. 5. Drink lots of water after practice too! Avoid drinking soda, or keep it to a minimum. 6. Always remember to wear sunscreen at meets and practice, you don’t want to get burned! 7. Many swimmers like to bring a sleeping bag, pillow, and robe to meets, to rest between races. 8. Bring about four to five towels for drying off after each race during meets. 9. Don’t forget to bring your goggles and swim cap!!! They are the most commonly forgotten items. 4

10. Tell parents to bring a chair or blanket to sit on. Move meets have limited seating. They also might want an umbrella or visor. 11.Possible snack ideas during meets: PowerBars, fruit, Gatorade, dry cereal, bagels & cream cheese and WATER!

Notes for Parents Communication: • Please utilize the Gator blog at http://gmgators.blogspot.com. You will find • •

useful information regarding practices, meets and other events/activities. All swimmers have folders with their name on it. These are kept at the pool and are available during practices. Flyers and ribbons will be placed in these folders. Please have your swimmers check their folder daily. News/events will be posted on the swim team board at the pool as well as the blog.

Team Suits/Caps: • • • •

Team suits for both boys & girls are available at High Point Swim (Kipling & Florida). Suits are in stock and available for immediate purchase. High Point is extending a 10% discount for any regularly priced items to GMST. Team members are given a standard Gators swim cap. Silicone Gator caps are available for $8.

Meets: •

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See meet schedule. Warm-ups begin at 6:00 a.m. for home meets and 6:30 a.m. at away pools. Please be on time! It is crucial that every swimmer has the time to properly warm-up to prevent injuries and to get the body and mind ready to compete at the highest level. Each swimmer must check-in with their coach before and after the race to receive information about that particular race. Please let the coaches know if you are going to miss a meet.

Attendance at Practice: •

Please make sure your child is attending as many workouts as possible every week. To become a great swimmer you must practice.

Relays: • Relay teams will be based upon the fastest swimmers in that age group. For

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example, the “A” 200 Freestyle Relay will be made up of the fastest four freestyle swimmers. The “B” will be made up of the second fastest swimmers and so forth. Coaches normally pick relays teams on Wednesday of each week.

Entry Cards: • The coaches will help the kids decide which races they will be swimming in. Participant names will be provided for computer entry & card labels.

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Blue cards are for boys and pink cards are for girls.

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The coaches will make out the Relay cards with the swimmer’s names and a relay sheet will be posted at the pool so the swimmers and parents will know who they are swimming with. The number of events a swimmer may enter is normally three individual and two relays. A swimmer may swim additional events as exhibition depending on space.

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Non-members: • If you know of any interested swimmers who would like to swim on our team but •

are not members of the pool, we would still love to have them. The fees for non-members, per family, are: 1st swimmer: $130.00, 2nd swimmer $115.00, 3rd swimmer $105.00 (plus a $6 insurance fee).

Any further questions please contact any swim team committee member: Carol Wilsey 303-980-6725 Dave and Sandy Kruse 303-987-8625 Sandy Mortenson 303-233-5088 Marsha Aiken 720-962-6313 Grace Long 303-989-1133 Richard Leeds 303-921-1767

Volunteers The success of our Swim Team depends on you! We need as many volunteers as possible to assist in various positions at each meet. At home meets, opportunities exist in a variety of areas such as set-up, tear-down, timing, concessions, computer input, awards, event heating, as well as officials to run the meet. For away meets, we need people to transport, set-up, and bring home the team tent, as well as timers. Sign-up books are always available and we ask everyone to please help out. This is a combined effort, and we need your help to make each season a success for your child and the team! Your help would be appreciated for any of the following volunteer positions: Timers (home and away meets) – All stopwatches are provided by the team. Please sign up for your desired shift in advance. Stroke and Turn Judges (home and away meets) – Must be very familiar with proper execution of all strokes and turns and have completed the certification class. Heating Shed (home meets) – Ensures swimmers find correct lanes several events prior to start of their event. Helper moves swimmers to starting blocks just before their event begins. Post race numbers to ensure swimmers know when to report for their specific races.

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Runner (home meets) – Collects timing sheets/cards from all timers for computer entry. Ribbons (home meets) – Place stickers with the swimmers name and time on the ribbons. Concessions (home meets) – Set up food items and work the cash box. Clean up after meet. Set-Up and Take Down (home meets) – Includes set-up and take down of chairs, false start rope, back stroke flags, starters area, PA system, heating & staging area, etc. Set up the morning of meet and take down after meets. Tent Duty (home & away meets) – arranges pick-up, set-up and then return of the team tent to GMSC.

Definitions Free Relay: A relay race consisting of four swimmers usually swimming the crawl stroke. Medley Relay: A relay race consisting of four swimmers, which is swum in the following order: Backstroke, Breaststroke, Butterfly and Freestyle. Individual Medley: A race swum by a single swimmer, the order of stroke is –Butterfly, Backstroke, Breaststroke and Freestyle. 8 and under, 9/10 and 11/12 years old swim only 25 meters of each of these strokes for a 100 I.M. 13-18 year olds swim 50 meters of each stroke for a 200 I.M. Cards: Pink and blue cards are used to register swimmers for each race. They must be filled out by the swimmers/parents as completely and neatly as possible. These must include the event number, as well as the swimmer’s name, team, and the entry time (if available). Split Times: Special watches allow coaches to obtain a swimmers time on a lap-by lap basis. For example, if an 8 and under child is doing the Individual Medley, a coach may find it beneficial to know how long it took the child to complete each 25 meter increment. Likewise, if a 17-18 year old swimmer is competing in a 200 meter Freestyle race the coach may wish to know the time for each 50 meter distance. Officials: These are parents who volunteer their time to “judge” each swimmer for correctness of strokes and turns, false starts, and other possible disqualifications. There are always several officials on deck, including a starter and referee. They wear white shorts and shirts and will be wearing a blue and white Foothills Swimming Association nametag. If you disagree with an official’s call, please direct your concern to your child’s coach. Only a coach may lodge a protest. All officials have been through training. League: This term refers to the FSA league championship meet. Swimmers must qualify with “league” times as listed on the qualifying times sheet (provided in this packet). Relay swimmers are not required to have an individual league-qualifying time to compete with their relay. State: This term refers to the Colorado State Swimming Championships. A swimmer must have state-qualifying times to compete in an individual event. Relay swimmers are not required to have an individual state-qualifying time to compete with their relay.

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Summer Club: A group of swimmers who participate in meets during the summer season. Year-round swimmers such as those from the Foothills Swim Team are not allowed to swim with summer club teams unless they have ceased practicing and competition with their year-round team before May 15th. This does not apply to high school swimmers. Swimming age groups: A swimmers age on May 15 of each season shall determine the age group in which he/she competes during the season. Developmental Meets: These are meets specifically designed to assist swimmers in attaining faster times. For instance, a swimmer with a C or slower time in one or more strokes may be instructed by the coach to attend the C/D meet. Intrasquad Meets: These are meets with only Green Mountain swimmers present. This is simply to help the swimmers better their times or establish a time in a stroke they have not swum before. The intrasquad meets are staffed by qualified officials who will judge as in any other meet. These meet times also count towards league and state qualifications. There are no relays during these meets.

Foothills Swimming Association Order of Events # 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 RELAY 8 RELAY 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33

EVENT GIRLS 13-14 400 FREESTYLE BOYS 13-14 400 FREESTYLE GIRLS 15-16 400 FREESTYLE BOYS 15-16 400 FREESTYLE GIRLS 17-18 400 FREESTYLE BOYS 17-18 400 FREESTYLE GIRLS 8 & UNDER 100 MEDLEY

34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69

BOYS 8 & UNDER 100 MEDLEY GIRLS 9-10 200 MEDLEY RELAY BOYS 9-10 200 MEDLEY RELAY GIRLS 11-12 200 MEDLEY RELAY BOYS 11-12 200 MEDLEY RELAY GIRLS 13-14 200 MEDLEY RELAY BOYS 13-14 200 MEDLEY RELAY GIRLS 15-18 200 MEDLEY RELAY BOYS 15-18 200 MEDLEY RELAY GIRLS 8 & UNDER 25 FREESTYLE BOYS 8 & UNDER 25 FREESTYLE GIRLS 9-10 50 FREESTYLE BOYS 9-10 50 FREESTYLE GIRLS 11-12 50 FREESTYLE BOYS 11-12 50 FREESTYLE GIRLS 13-14 50 FREESTYLE BOYS 13-14 50 FREESTYLE GIRLS 15-16 50 FREESTYLE BOYS 15-16 50 FREESTYLE GIRLS 17-18 50 FREESTYLE BOYS 17-18 50 FREESTYLE GIRLS 8 & UNDER 25 BUTTERFLY BOYS 8 & UNDER 25 BUTTERFLY GIRLS 9-10 50 BUTTERFLY BOYS 9-10 50 BUTTERFLY GIRLS 11-12 50 BUTTERFLY

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BOYS 11-12 50 BUTTERFLY GIRLS 13-14 100 BUTTERFLY BOYS 13-14 100 BUTTERFLY GIRLS 15-16 100 BUTTERFLY BOYS 15-16 100 BUTTERFLY GIRLS 17-18 100 BUTTERFLY BOYS 17-18 100 BUTTERFLY GIRLS 8 & UNDER 100 FREESTYLE BOYS 8 & UNDER 100 FREESTYLE GIRLS 9-10 200 FREESTYLE BOYS 9-10 200 FREESTYLE GIRLS 11-12 200 FREESTYLE BOYS 11-12 200 FREESTYLE GIRLS 13-14 200 FREESTYLE BOYS 13-14 200 FREESTYLE GIRLS 15-16 200 FREESTYLE BOYS 15-16 200 FREESTYLE GIRLS 17-18 200 FREESTYLE BOYS 17-18 200 FREESTYLE GIRLS 8 & UNDER 25 BACKSTROKE BOYS 8 & UNDER 25 BACKSTROKE GIRLS 9-10 50 BACKSTROKE BOYS 9-10 50 BACKSTROKE GIRLS 11-12 50 BACKSTROKE BOYS 11-12 50 BACKSTROKE GIRLS 13-14 100 BACKSTROKE BOYS 13-14 100 BACKSTROKE GIRLS 15-16 100 BACKSTROKE BOYS 15-16 100 BACKSTROKE GIRLS 17-18 100 BACKSTROKE BOYS 17-18 100 BACKSTROKE GIRLS 8 & UNDER 100 FREE RELAY BOYS 8 & UNDER 100 FREE RELAY GIRLS 9-10 200 FREE RELAY BOYS 9-10 200 FREE RELAY GIRLS 11-12 200 FREE RELAY

70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91

BOYS 11-12 200 FREE RELAY GIRLS 13-14 200 FREE RELAY BOYS 13-14 200 FREE RELAY GIRLS 15-18 200 FREE RELAY BOYS 15-18 200 FREE RELAY GIRLS 8 & UNDER 25 BREASTROKE BOYS 8 & UNDER 25 BREASTROKE GIRLS 9-10 50 BREASTROKE BOYS 9-10 50 BREASTROKE GIRLS 11-12 50 BREASTROKE BOYS 11-12 50 BREASTROKE GIRLS 13-14 100 BREASTROKE BOYS 13-14 100 BREASTROKE GIRLS 15-16 100 BREASTROKE BOYS 15-16 100 BREASTROKE GIRLS 17-18 100 BREASTROKE BOYS 17-18 100 BREASTROKE GIRLS 8 & UNDER 50 FREESTYLE BOYS 8 & UNDER 50 FREESTYLE GIRLS 9-10 100 FREESTYLE BOYS 9-10 100 FREESTYLE GIRLS 11-12 100 FREESTYLE

92 BOYS 11-12 100 FREESTYLE 93 GIRLS 13-14 100 FREESTYLE 94 BOYS 13-14 100 FREESTYLE 95 GIRLS 15-16 100 FREESTYLE 96 BOYS 15-16 100 FREESTYLE 97 GIRLS 17-18 100 FREESTYLE 98 BOYS 17-18 100 FREESTYLE 99 GIRLS 8 & UNDER 100 IND. MEDLEY 100 BOYS 8 & UNDER 100 IND. MEDLEY 101 GIRLS 9-10 100 IND. MEDLEY 102 BOYS 9-10 100 IND. MEDLEY 103 GIRLS 11-12 100 IND. MEDLEY 104 BOYS 11-12 100 IND. MEDLEY 105 GIRLS 13-14 200 IND. MEDLEY 106 BOYS 13-14 200 IND. MEDLEY 107 GIRLS 15-16 200 IND. MEDLEY 108 BOYS 15-16 200 IND. MEDLEY 109 GIRLS 17-18 200 IND. MEDLEY 110 BOYS 17-18 200 IND. MEDLEY

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