Good Thursday Morning:

All practices are cancelled this Saturday, November 17.

Here is the schedule for this weekend at Big Cat Sessions in which we have swimmers):

A reminder that the Bloomsburg meet warm-ups begin at 10:00, and the meet begins at 11:00.

Here is the practice schedule for Thanksgiving weekend:

* D3 group begins Monday through Thursday from 4:10 – 5:40
* Regular Dryland schedule begins again, including Spinning on Tuesdays

There will be a coaching change starting November 28. When I hired Dan Prince to coach the Cubs and Pride, I knew he would be leaving in early January to go overseas to study in Florence, Italy – it’s gotta be tough. However, at the time there were no other candidates. On the 28th, Tracey Brauksieck will take over the Cubs and Pride. Tracey swam YMCA and is now a triathlete. I am looking forward to Tracey, who, by the way, has direct lineage to Kaiser Willhelm II. Hmmmm, and here I thought she was Irish.

A Property Of shirt (large) was found at the Hollidaysburg, and is now sitting on my desk, waiting to be picked up by its rightful owner.

I hope everybody has a wonderful Thanksgiving. This is my favorite holiday. Kelli and I will be going to Ellicott City, MD, to spend the day with relatives by marriage. When we get back we go get our Christmas tree. Have a good one everybody!

SP

October 10, 2007

Good Wednesday Morning:

We have four items that need to get into me in quick order. I apologize for backing all this up. Should you have any questions, please make sure you contact me so I can answer them.

All meets listed above must be entered using our Meet Sign Up forms which are located in the wall rack in our area in the lobby. Please complete the forms, including best times that you have (summer times are OK), attach a check, payable to SCAY for the amount – DO NOT USE CASH FOR ENTRIES, PLEASE! Place entry forms and attached checks in the meet entry folder in the cabinet.

I will attach the Hollidaysburg meet info, and will post a copy on our bulletin board. I will also post a copy of the Halloween meet info, and have requested a copy via email, which, when I get, I will send to you.

You can access the Big Cat meet info via the Mid Atlantic site: maswim.org. Go to meets and you are there.

Also, for USA registrations you can get these through the MA site. Click onto Forms Depot and then Athletes Registration. The check for this should also be made payable to SCAY. All Athlete registrations must be done electronically by me. I am only going to do this once, so plan ahead. As I have mentioned we go to one USA meet in the fall and up to three in the spring and summer. Registering now will cover the swimmer through December 31, 2008.

October 8, 2007

A short note about this week. This Friday (10/12) and next Friday (10/19) there will be all team practices from 4:30 – 5:30. All groups will practice during these times. The purpose of these practices will be to practice our Aqualaps relays.

Starting tonight we will be taking sign ups for the Intersquad meet on Sunday. We will set it up as a Pentathlon so that the swimmers will swim each event (8/U = 25's;

9/Older = 50's; all = 100IM). Warm ups will be from Noon – 12:30, when the meet will begin. We will be done no later than 4:00.

I hope everyone is on Aqualaps and doing well with that.

We had our KYSL meeting yesterday and there was unbelievable cordiality. As it stands now the meet schedule couldn't have been much better for us. Each team is looking at the schedule to make sure it is good for them and their pool schedules. I will get out the meet schedule in a few days.

I will have another note out by Wednesday with meet entry dates for Williamsport, Hollidaysburg, Big Cat.

SP

Good Wednesday Morning:

Here are a few things coming our way that we need to be aware of and ready to act on:

*October 7: We will have our KYSL (Keystone YMCA Swim League) meeting here at our Y. At this meeting our KYSL dual and championship meet schedule will be established. I will get our complete schedule out to you next week. For those of you who have experienced our dual and championship meets, if you have any suggestions, get them to me and I will take them to the meeting.

*October 14: Our annual intersquad meet. Beginning Monday, October 8, the coaches will begin asking the swimmers if they will be attending. Please discuss with your swimmer(s) so they can tell their coach yes or no. You can also email me that your swimmer will or will not be attending the meet. This is the process we use for our dual meets, and one or two other meets. This meet is a practice meet, not only for the kids in the water, also for parents to practice running a meet, and, as mentioned, the sign up process.

*October 20: Aqualaps. I hope everyone is getting on top of this. My mailings have already gone out and I have been distributing pledge forms to people I know locally. Aqualaps is extremely important to what we want to do with the swimmers, so please make sure this is a priority – and remember, parents you, too, can raise money for your swimmers.

* November 3: Halloween Invitational at Williamsport. This is a fun meet for the kids, so you should plan on attending.

*November 10: Hollidaysburg Block Party Invitational. This is the first year for this meet, and it should be fun. Entries are due for this meet on November 1.

*November 16-18: Big Cat Fall Kick-Off meet, which is a USA meet.

For the above meets, I will let you know when you need to get entries to me.

*USA Registrations: These are going to be due soon. For those of you new to SCAY, there are two types of year round swimming: YMCA and USA. SCAY is affiliated with both. Swimmers do not need to do anything special to register with YMCA, and do for USA . SCAY attends 4-5 USA meets during the calendar year. If you registered at anytime before December 31, 2006 you are covered through the end of 2007.

I will give you specifics on all the above next week. Due dates will be coming quickly, so this is a heads-up.

Good Wednesday Morning:  

Just a couple things this week…..

All practices tomorrow (Thursday, September 27) are cancelled.  I am encouraging all SCAY swimmers to go to the high school Homecoming parade that starts at 5:00 at the North Building, to show support for the high school swim team that will have a float.  AND WEAR SCAY GEAR.

All SCAY swimmers should be registered by the end of next week.  Simply come to the front desk to take care of this.

I will have more information next week about upcoming events.

SP

Good Thursday Morning:

Things are off to a good start!  The kids look good in the water and the coaches are doing a very good job.  We had our first board meeting Tuesday night and I must say that we have super people serving the team.  As you have heard and will hear often, we have many day-to-day type jobs that need to be filled.  When you hear the call, please step up.

Aqualaps is October 20.  Please get on this right away.  The goal for this year is for families with one swimmer to secure $150 worth of pledges; for families with two or more swimmers, the goal is $250 for the family.  Remember, these are minimums.  One way to get pledges is to mail forms to relatives and friends who don't live in State College.  We have actually had swimmers get into the “500 Club” ($500 or more in pledges, earning a special t-shirt) solely through the mail. 

Tomorrow morning for dryland, the kids will be doing “Boot Camp” with Ms. Garrigan.  This will run from 6:00 – 6:45.  At 6:45 we will play basketball.  The swimmers are to report directly to Gym A and check in with Ms. Garrigan.

More as it comes up………

Dear SCAY Parents and Swimmers:

Parents, please make sure your swimmers, especially the JR/SR swimmers as they begin practices on Monday.

Registration is ongoing for Swim Team. Jen Corman, office manager, will send some information out on payment plans when she returns next week. If you are not sure about the group into which your swimmer has been placed, you have two weeks to take care of registration.

The Stroke Clinic is full, we have a waiting list of six, and I have arranged about 7-8 individual evaluations next week. I will also call the waiting list folks to offer evaluations for their swimmers. I have been asked by a couple parents wanting to get their swimmers on the team if the Clinic is the only way to get on the team. IT IS NOT! Evaluations are the other method, and all they need to is contact me. My home phone is 231-0340, and you know my email address. Evaluations can take place any time during the year.

So, things are looking good in terms of swimming numbers. And we are fully staffed with coaches. So we are ready to go. Sunday the coaches and I are meeting to get things going.

Our parent meeting on September 16 has been moved to starting at 1:00 instead of 2:00.

Starting Monday we will be getting out a great deal of information as time goes by. AS always, if you have questions, the best ways to get an answer are to email me or phone me at home. Have a great weekend, and go UW Huskies!! Er, I mean Penn State!

SP

SCAY AQUALIONS 07-8

FALL/WINTER PRACTICE SCHEDULE

Begins September 17

Notes:

Dryland – The week of September 3 – 8, dryland will be on Wednesday (5 th ) and Friday (7 th ), and outside as weather allows. The Tuesday sessions will begin on September 11 th . For the Spinning, Etc., sessions, we will work with the numbers of swimmers/bikes available.

Swim practices for the JR/SR group will begin Monday, September 10, and will be held from 3:40 – 5:00 p.m. Saturday (15 th ) will be from 9:00 – 11:00 a.m.

Stroke Clinic – Our 7 th Annual Stroke Clinic is from September 10 – 14, 5:00 – 6:00 p.m.

Regular Practice Schedule – Beginning September 17, all groups will be practicing according to the schedule above. Any changes will be sent out as early as we can get them out.

Parent Meeting – We will have an all-SCAY parent meeting on Sunday, September 16, at 2:00 p.m., here at the Y. It would be good for everyone to be at this meeting.

Group Fees

Group	Fees
Cubs	$ 290
Pride	$ 305
D1	$ 335
D2	$ 365
D3	$ 420
JR	$ 475
SR	$ 380