Sectionals Day 3 & 4

Well I found it hard to keep up the blog from day to day, wow coaching is such an emotional roller coaster.
The last two days of the overall went well, although we were a little flat on Day 3, but bounced back on day 4. As the RAYS coaches always say "Sunday is our best day"

Some of the many highlights was Becca Postoll finishing 3rd in the 400 Fr with a great race, then in the next final our Alum Alec Cohen finished 3rd in the same event. Then Jimmy Yoder was 3rd in the 1500 Fr and we finished with two more 3rd's with Melissa Postoll in the 200 Bk and our Men's 400 Medley Relay of Jarrod Blanton, Chris Lohff, Jimmy Yoder & Michael Dugan.

Overall a 4th place finish was an excellent result from us. We took 19 swimmers and 17 scored a great team effort. Kids were great, atmosphere great and the parents behaved :)

Sectionals Day 2

Well things got better with some amazing RAYS swims. We had 10 swimmers make finals tonight and they represented us amazingly. For starters we had two new Olympic Trials qualifiers today which runs our total to nine.

The Postoll sisters are both heading to Omaha in June. Melissa made the 200 Bk cut with a 2:17.1 & then tonight her sister Rebecca set a new 13/14 GA Record in the 200 Fr with a 2:02.7. Finalists tonight include Gabriel, Jimmy, Nathon, Chris,  Alec, Michael, Taylor & Lauren.

To cap off the night the Men's 400 Fr relay finished 3rd. The RAYS are simply swimming great, with great support from the parent group too.

SC Sectionals 2012 Day 1

Well the RAYS arrived for Day 1 and were awesome in the 800 meter Fr.

The pool here at Greensboro is a beautiful Olympic size venue. Plenty of seating and a very fast tank. We started the night with Becca Postoll recording a best time and a 2nd place finish with a 9:01 which qualifies Becca for Summer Junior Nationals. Then we had Melissa Postoll swimming a best time of 9:21; Lila Best with 9:30 and wrapping up the girls 800 Rebecca Justus with a 26 second drop 9:34. The Boys only had one swimmer compete in the 800 and we had a winner with Jimmy Yoder recording a 1st place and a US Open cut of 8:18.

The Men's 800 Fr relay placed 5th with all 4 swimmers recording their Best time or close to it. The relay of Jimmy Yoder, Michael Dugan, Chris Lohff & Nathon Burwick had the honors.

RAYS Swimmers Compete at College Championships

This time of the year is fun being a swim coach. It's the time when all the athletes hard work starts to pay off and we get to see that at the championship meets. What's also fun is watching the athletes, that have come through our program, competing for their University. Presently we have approximately 20+ such athletes doing that, this weekend. I love watching the results, sending good luck texts and above all seeing what our program does best. Helping dreams come true.

Stingrays does that about as best as anyone.

College swimming isn't for everyone, but it is one of our goals, that goes along with our philosophy of "Training For Life"

Final Days

Well we are in the home stretch at MVN and its been a really good eye opening trip.

Yesterday I had the honor to help Coach Bill with the Olympic group. They did a set 1x1500 @20 + 1x800 @11 x3 dec 1-3
The fastest 1500 guy was 16:03 Girl 16:57; 800 8:25 & 8:57. Pretty impressive to me that is.

We had a meeting with Siga Rose about their 8&under swimmers. Wow that lady is a fire ball. Great energy, great ideas and a great coach.

Today we get to talk about Olympic group, help with their workout today, I expect it to be recovery:) Then we are going to dinner with some staff members, then home to the ATL Saturday.

Then I'll be on the deck Sunday morning. I love my job

MVN Trip

Well the weather was excellent on Tue and it was nice to see the whole team in action.
MVN have the swim groups set up in Divisions, a very interesting concept. They have 8 & under, 10 & under, 11/12 and 13/14 swim together. Each division is broken into 3 groups. They move everyone up at the same time, twice a year depending on the swimmers birthday at the Championship meet for that season.

It works very well if 1. you have the numbers 2. the staff and 3. probably at one location.
The Senior division is based on time standards.

MVN Trip

Well I arrived at LA Orange County airport yesterday and it was pouring. Never seen it rain so hard in CA. I met up with my coach buddy Russ from Swim Mac Carolina and we headed over to Mission Viejo Swim team complex.

On arrival we met the staff and watched the Olympic group train for 2 hours. They did a set of 400's which I observed two girls end the last one under 4:20 LCM.

Russ and I then met with Coach Bryan Dedeaux who is their 10 and under division coach. We had an informative discussion about how they organize and coach their 10 & Unders and other various topics.

Today we are attend their staff meeting.