Swim Season So Far From Coach Steve Markeylu@juno.com Saturday November 17, 2007 17:18:30 Swimmers and Parents, I want to welcome all the new swimmers to the team this year as well as the returning swimmers from last year. The team has grown to over 100 swimmers this year. This is GREAT!!. The coaching staff has changed from last year. Tiffany Scoval and Meagan Morrow have joined the coaching staff this year. Tiffany brings many years of competitive swimming experience to the team and is very excited to be part of our team. Meagan is a former member of the team and will be helping with the early session of practices. Both Tiffany and Meagan are great additions to the coaching staff this year and welcome aboard coaches. Returning from last year is Coach Courtney. Courtney is a member of the Simpson Swim Team and she too brings much experience to the team and I am very happy to have her back this year. Also, Kurt Lickiss, the Indianola High School Swim Coach, will be helping at times during practices. Kurt is very familiar with the team and a former head coach. His help will be very much needed and appreciated. I feel we have a very good coaching staff this year and am looking forward working with them. With new swimmers to the team and new members to the coaching staff, I, as well as the coaching staff, have new names to learn. I am making it a point to know, by memory, everyones name by the end of November. We will see if the coach's memory has the capacity for over 100 names. Through the first few weeks of the season, the coaching staff has also been learning the swimming ability of the swimmers, especially the new swimmers, so we can better help them with their strokes. We have worked much since the beginning of the season with freestyle and backstroke. Going forward we will continue to work on these strokes but will spend more time with breaststroke and butterfly. We have over the last week worked with starts and finishes and will start next week adding turns. For many of the new swimmers , this will be new to you. Have patience and don't get discouraged. I, as well as the rest of the coaching staff, are looking forward to work with you going forward. Our first meet last Monday night with Riverfront was a great success. We had 87 of our over 100 swimmers on the team swim that night. I was very very pleased with the times that night. The results of the meet will be posted here on the web page sometime in the next week. For the new swimmers on the team, we now have times to work on reducing. I do want to thank all the parents that helped out with the meet. As you can see from Monday night, it takes many people to make a swim meet happen. Over the years we have been truly blessed with many great parents wanting to help with the meets. It really means much to me as well as the rest of the coaching staff. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Our next 3 swim meets are coming up real soon, Urbandale on Thursday, Nov 29th, Marshalltown on Sat, Dec 8th, and Johnston on Sat, Dec 15th. I will have sign up sheets at practices starting this Monday for the Urbandale meet. Be thinking now if you are planning on going to Marshalltown on Dec 8th. I will need to have our line up sent to Marshalltown about 2 or 3 days before the meet, and I will have the sign up sheets for Marshalltown at practices beginning the 26th of this month. Over the years our swimmers have really enjoyed going to Marshalltown. Marshalltown is where the state high school swim meets are held and there is always good competition for us. The Johnston meet, at this time, will be a home meet. Johnston has mentioned about us going there for the meet but they are to be letting me know sometime next week. Remember you can sign up for the meets by sending me an e-mail or calling and leaving a message. Just be sure you let me know which meet you are signing up for. If you have any questions or concerns please let me know. You can e-mail me or catch me after practice. Keep Swimming Coach Steve