Conference Week 2014

There's LOTS of info below.  Please read through carefully so you're fully informed and ready for the week!  If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact me and get them answered!

Before I get into the info this week, I just want to reflect a little on our time at Compassionate Heart yesterday.  Although they had fewer kids show up than usual, which is out of our control (apparently they had a lot of Saturday events in October), as usual it was a blessing to witness our team in action throughout the course of our time there.  As I wandered around, I witnessed so many neat moments: our awesome crew of talented face-painters, Taylor dishing out some serious relationship advice, Ash following Leslie for essentially two hours, our crew at the bean bag toss encouraging Austin who kept coming around to fill up his candy bag...I could go on and on.  It's fun to see our team live out what it means to live-out the idea of being Christian student-athletes! Also, thanks to those who helped run our Ducks for Bucks campaign and to those who donated.  We were able to raise $181 for their organization!


Quote for the Week:
We are so often caught up in our destination that we forget to appreciate the journey, 
especially the goodness of the people we meet along the way.  
Appreciation is a wonderful feeling, don't overlook it.

With Conference this week, our "lasts" as a team are in full-wing: last Monday Meeting, last full practice, last team prayer, last post-meet cooldown...  Our goal for those tapering for Conference is certainly to peak results-wise for the season, to cash-in on that work we've been putting in.  However, we also need to make sure that we're equally focused on appreciating the community we've built this year as a team.  I'm thankful and proud everyday of our wonderfully unique team (what other team eats lunch together each Wednesday!?).  This is going to be a FAST, HIGH-SCORING week of FUN together...I cannot WAIT for Friday!


Important News/Notes for Swimmers

• As I mentioned last week, we need to make sure that we're doing everything we can to stay rested up throughout the week.  Get enough/extra sleep and avoid adding extra vigorous physical activities.  If you have a question about something that you're doing, employ the motto "when in doubt, leave it out".  For those Conference swimmers who are taking PE classes right now, I have emailed your teachers requesting that you be allowed to sit out for physical testing, running, etc.
• Between warm up and the actual meet, each day of Conference will be 5+ hours long.  Each day, be sure to bring plenty of snacks and a couple water bottles or other drinks so that you can stay fueled-up throughout each session.  On Friday, we will be having a late lunch at the Tolsma's house once we get out of school.  Eat a lighter lunch during your normal school-lunch so you're ready to fill up at Tolsma's.  On Saturday, eat a good breakfast (much more than just a piece of toast!).  
• Each swimmer needs to bring a pair of comfortable, broken-in tennis shoes to wear on-deck during the meet on both Friday and Saturday.  Walking around barefoot on a hard-surfaced pool deck for five hours is more draining than you would expect.  Please clean the soles beforehand so we're not tracking dirt everywhere.

Conference Championships Info

• Location: Zeeland West
• Teams: The OK Green Conference is made up of Holland, Zeeland, Hamilton, Byron Center and Unity Christian.
• Prelims/Finals for Individuals: Our Conference meet is split up into two days: Prelims on Friday and Finals on Saturday.  For individual swimming events, on Friday, everyone will swim their two individual events and up to two relays.  On Saturday, there will be 3 heats of each event:
• The last two heats (the scoring Consolation and Championship heats, respectively) will be made up of the Top 16 swims from prelims, with a maximum limit of 4 athletes per team (with 6 teams, 8 out of the 24 eligible scorers will be left out).  
• The first heat of each event is a non-scoring "Bonus Heat" made up of the next 8 fastest times, regardless of team (thus, even if an athlete was one of the 4 eligible scorers, she is NOT guaranteed to swim in the bonus heat).
• Relays: On both Friday and Saturday, there will be a heat each of non-scoring B and C relays followed by a heat of the scoring A relays.  
• Diving: Divers will do 8 dives for prelims on Friday.  The final 3 dives will be completed on Saturday during the normal diving slot with the Top 16 from prelims eligible to score.
• Scoring Breakdown (descending by place):
• Relays (A relays only): 40, 34, 32, 30, 28
• Championship Finals (Top 8): 20, 17, 16, 15, 14, 13, 12, 11
• Consolation Finals (9-16): 9, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1
• Note: if a swimmer qualifies for the Consolation Finals (9-16) but swims a time on Saturday that would make the top 8, she still receives 9th place.
• Saturday Awards: On Saturday, there will be an award ceremony for the Championship Finalists from each event and the  A relays.  This will occur after the completion of the next event (eg, the awards for the Medley Relay will be after the Championship Finals Heat of the 200 Free).

Daily Info

Monday 11.3

• Conference swimmers out at 5:30pm.

Tuesday 11.4

• Conference swimmers out at 5:15pm.

Wednesday 11.5

• Conference swimmers out at 5:15pm.

Thursday 11.6

• Conference swimmers will be out of the water by 4:45pm.
• State swimmers will be out of the water at 5:30pm.
• Starting with the boys' season last year, the Aquatic Center banned teams from shaving-down in the pool locker rooms.  This decision was based on Health Code concerns (probably more of an issue for boys, who tend to get a lot of cuts..., but understandable nonetheless).  This means that girls will simply be shaving down at their own houses that night.

Friday 11.7

• Dress: team sweatshirts and t-shirts.
• Athletes will be excused from school during at 1:40pm.  Due to our schedule flip-flop on Friday due to some testing, this means you will actually be getting out during the end of what would normally be your 2nd Hour Class and missing your 3rd Hour class.  Communicate with your 2nd- and 3rd-hour teachers AHEAD OF TIME to get the work you will miss.  Work due for your 3rd-hour class on Friday still needs to be turned in ON FRIDAY, so arrange for that as well.
• From school, we will carpool to the Tolsma's house for a meal.  Please bring $5.00 to cover the cost of the meal.  Afterward, we will head to the pool for devotions and warm up.
• Swimming AND Diving: Warm Up starts at 3:00pm.  Meet starts at 5:00pm.
• Stands open at 3:30pm.

Saturday 11.8

• ALL athletes, regardless whether they qualified to swim on Saturday or not, need to be on-deck BY 10:00am for devotions.  Anyone not swimming needs to have on their team shirt and team warm up top.  Between our B and C relays and the bonus heat for each individual event, we hope to get everyone a swim on Saturday, but it's not guaranteed.
• Warm Up starts at 10:00am.  Meet starts at 12:00pm.
• Stands open at 10:30am. 
• After the meet, we will be having a team pizza dinner at the high school in the cafeteria.  All parents, siblings, etc. are welcome to attend!  An RSVP email was sent out last week.

...whew, that's it!