Dear Families:
I wish to welcome everyone, either back to the “fold”, for the start of our fall/winter season. As you can probably tell from the enlarged size of addresses to this email, we’ve grown quite a bit. Be patient with the size of this mailing, as there are lots to tell everyone.
1) Welcome all new families!! We are glad to see so many new faces, especially in the younger age brackets. We were overwhelmed with the number of good swimmers in the tryouts, and just found it really difficult to say no to so many. As a result, Coach Kate has her hands full, but is excited about the possibilities. We also hired a new assistant to help with Coach Kei, as we also started a new group - geared towards teenagers and high schoolers. 2) Our new assistant is Sean Sweet, a former swimmer here with Bearcats, and spent sometime in Corvallis as well. He then went on to University of Wyoming for a year, and is now back in Salem attending CCC, hoping to eventually get into coaching. Sean’s responsibility will be to work with Coach Kei and with the new AG4 group - basically our teenagers and high schoolers. Say HI to Sean, and accept our new member of the coaching staff. 3) Our new AG4 was the result of a brainstorm Kate and I had. We’ve felt for a couple years that there was an oppurtunity/gap to help some swimmers between AG3, Senior Preps, and Seniors. Something geared more towards teenagers/High schoolers that could be better prepare them for a longer club season, year round swimming yet maybe not as “driven” to fit into our senior level. With all the tryouts, we came up with this new level, and hope to see it fit into our total overall program. 4)With all the new swimmers, don’t be surprised to see some moves with the swimmers into different levels other than what was originally assigned. As we put all the swimmers in the pool together, we see a wider ability range than expected, and wish to more closely match the abilities of the swimmers to the groups. When this happens, we will talk with the swimmer, and the family, to confirm their “move”. Thanks for everyone’s patience in this, as we try to match abilities, group levels, and numbers of swimmers in each group. 5) A decision has been reached about a new senior head coach, and I’ve contacted him this morning. He has yet to respond, but I want all to know that we are in the final stages of finding that replacement for Coach Kate at that level. When it is finally confirmed, I will contact all. 6) Expect to see some information about suit tryons in the next couple weeks. We will keep the same design/suit as last year, same caps, etc. Randy Rasmussen, Lisa Harnisch, and Leilani Slama have volunteered to organize this for us. The big contact for this is Russ Chandler, a representative for Big 5 Sporting Goods - so many thanks to him in advance. 7) Pool time issues - always a tough one. When the new head coach comes on board, and the group changes get finalized, there is the possibility that some practice times might change. Although nothing has been set, I wanted to warn everyone in advance. I’m sure any changes will be discussed ad nauseum… 8) The Oregon Swimming Expo will be held here at Willamette University next month, Oct. 10-12th. This will include coaching clinics, swimmer clinics (including 1-2 Olympians), and the House of Delegates meeting. Although the Olympians have not been named, this would be a great oppurtunity for our athletes to listen, watch, possibly receive coaching tips, ask questions, etc of some very talented swimmers. The date for the swimmer’s clinics will be Sat., Oct. 11th - so look for more information. 9) An offshoot of the Oregon Swimming Expo is there will be no AG3/AG4 practice the evening of Friday, Oct. 10th. The pool will be used for coaches recertification at that time. NO PRACTICE for AG3 & 4, on Friday, OCT. 10th. 10) If you want to become an official, contact Oregon Swimming’s office (503-297-6027), and they will give you any information. We have several officials, but could always use more. As an added incentive, the club will pay for any official’s registration. To our current officials, forward to me your re-registration forms as soon as possible. 11) New billing statements will be distributed to everyone this week, possibly today. This will include Sept. dues, and the 2009 USA Registration ($50.00 this year) for our “old” swimmers. I am starting this early because some families didn’t want to wait until Dec. - to better budget for the holidays. I ask that everyone check the information, and let me know if it’s incorrect or you have questions.
Whew! A long one, but again, WELCOME all new members!
Al Stephenson 503-370-6601
