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To all,
I thought it was time to give you guys a quick overview of where
we are as a team and our plans for the future.
The team is now over 300 swimmers strong. We've been holding
that number for a while now and remain consistent in our membership
numbers. We have averaged thirty (30) swimmers per month in our
learn-to-swim PreTWST program and over 40 swimmers per month in our
non-competitive Gator group which practices from August to March
each year. These statistics are excellent and contribute to the
financial strength and stability of our team.
The sheer number of team members, and those swimmers in our
other programs has created an obstacle in the form of pool water
space and time. The APOC committee and I have been working on this
issue for almost a year now and believe we are finally making
measurable headway into this problem. We held very productive
meetings with the Township of The Woodlands, which led to us using
their pools in September and October. These meetings have continued
and there is a possibility of installing heaters in two of their
pools very soon.
We were also able to use the City of Shenandoah pool in
September and October. We are trying to continue an open dialogue
with the Mayor of Shenandoah, Gary Watts, to keep the pool
opportunities in Shenandoah open including possible other aquatic
avenues that the City pursues.
On the performance side of the pool deck, the team has been very
strong. Coach Jennie has worked very hard to get the Winter
Championship highlights completed and posted on our web site. If
you have not looked at them, please take time to read about the
many and varied accomplishments of our TWST swimmers.
The Woodlands Swim Team is very strong and in a great place
right now. Our team was awarded Silver Club status by USA swimming,
which means we are one of the top 20 teams in the country based on
swimmer performance. We are also a Top 10 club in the Toyota Club
Excellence program. We have become a recognized Level I club via
USA Swimming and hope to complete the requirements for Level 4 -
the highest level of recognition in this program which honors a
team for their athletes, coaches, board and parent involvement. We
are looking forward to a great 2010 for TWST!
Coaches have done a wonderful job this past year. We would like
to welcome Coach Chris Pease to the team We also want to
welcome Coach Ryan Podraza - currently helping with Coach Val's
groups and also co-coaching our Gator group. He's taken the place
of Coach Jill, who wanted more time with her own family of little
athletes. These additions to our
coaching staff have helped keep our swimmer to coaching ratio in
line with what we believe necessary for our continued success.
The coaches have weekly staff meetings. If you as a parent have
concerns or suggestions, please let either me or Coach Shana know
via email - coachtim@itwst.org or coachshana@itwst.org. The coaches
are constantly working to make the team better. Some of the
positive things the coaches have done include holding group
meetings with parent once a season, setting seasonal goals with
their swimmers and videotaping each child which will result in an
individualized dvd for you to take home of your swimmer.
We held a staff retreat where we worked on both coaching and
team goals. We also took over the meet entry system so you don't
have to worry about your child's events. This has meant a huge
increase in swimmer participation in meets - many for the first
time. Most of the women coaches attend the American Swim Coach
Association World Clinic in Fort Lauderdale this past September.
The men will go to Indianapolis for the ASCA World Clinic in
September 2010. We also worked a way for Dave Thomas from USA
Swimming to come in a give a talk with all our parents in October.
The TWST board and committees are doing an awesome job of
organizing volunteers for all our team needs. If you are not
volunteering, please do so- there is a spot for everyone to
contribute on this team.
Thank you for your continued support of our staff, our
philosophies and The Woodlands Swim Team.
Coach Tim
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