A Note from the Board Robin Plank-SRST Vice President

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1 Editor- Emma Plank Contributors- Natalie Carlantonio Sarah Mrozek Coach Parry Anna Plank Emma Plank Gabby Schwartz In this issue... Page 1 A Note from the Board Page 2-Swimmer of the Month Page 3-Community News Page 4-SRST Gives Thanks! Page 5-Coach s Corner Page 6-Stroke Focus- Breaststroke Page 7 Volunteer Spotlight Page 8-Volunteer Spotlight Page 9-February Birthdays, Corporate Sponsorship Thank You, and Upcoming Events A Note from the Board Robin Plank-SRST Vice President It is hard to believe that our season is nearly2/3rds over! What an amazing season we are having. Most of you see me selling 50/50 tickets for the first half of our home meets. My passion, is setting back and watching the second half of the meet. Ok, so I don t just sit back! I ve been known to cheer loudly for all SRST Eels. My oldest daughter, Emma, has declared. Mom, I think even the angels in heaven can hear you cheering at swim meets! It has been incredibly rewarding to watch our team grow over the past 18 months. Yes, we have grown in numbers. More importantly we have grown in stroke technique, sportsmanship, and camaraderie. Our financial situation has improved drastically, and we find ourselves in a position where we are contacting the University to remind them that we need invoices for pool rental! We have recently purchased new software updates to run our league meets more efficiently, and streamline our US meet entry process. Our US swimmers continue to impress the local swimming community, with many swimmers ranked in AMS swimming s Top Ten List. Our coaches, parents, swimmers, and parent board can all claim responsibility for such a successful season to date. Without each of you sharing your gifts and talents, this season would not be possible. Let us finish strong as we prepare for Champs at the end of March. All I have to say is, Watch out Northgate, we re coming for you!

Swimmers of the Month Emma Plank Logan Ryan Logan Ryan is an awesome swimmer and is one of this month s Swimmers of the Month. Logan swims in the Black group, and his favorite stroke is breaststroke.

In his free time, he enjoys drawing and playing on his ipod. Logan has one sister and a dog.

Logan attends Dassa McKinney Elementary School and is in third grade. His favorite animal is a snake. Logan Ryan is a hard-working swimmer and we wish him the best of luck this season.

2 Swimmers of the Month Emma Plank Logan Ryan Logan Ryan is an awesome swimmer and is one of this month s Swimmers of the Month. Logan swims in the Black group, and his favorite stroke is breaststroke. His goals for this season is improve my times at every meet, Logan s favorite thing about swimming is having fun. Logan has a lot of fun outside of the pool too. In his free time, he enjoys drawing and playing on his ipod. Logan has one sister and a dog. His favorite food is pizza, and if he had a million dollars would build a pizza shop and donate money to poor people. When asked what his favorite movie character is, he said Godzilla. Logan attends Dassa McKinney Elementary School and is in third grade. His favorite animal is a snake. Logan Ryan is a hard-working swimmer and we wish him the best of luck this season. Chris Brunsgaard Chris Brunsgaard is a very talented swimmer, and is one of this month s Swimmers of the Month. Chris is in the red group, and his favorite stroke is breaststroke. His favorite thing about swimming is he loves to be in the water, Chris s goal for this season is to go under a minute in his 100 freestyle. Chris enjoys his life outside of the pool as well. He has three sisters named Becky, Bella, and Alyssa, a dog named Emma, and a cat named Ozzy. If he had a million dollars, he would donate half of it to cancer research and the other half he would spend on his family. He goes to school at Slippery Rock Middle School and is in sixth grade. Chris s favorite animal is a Egyptian Mau, a breed of cat. His favorite food is Quaker Steak and Lube s golden garlic chicken wings. His favorite movie character is Hawkeye, from the Avengers. In his free time, Chris does origami, video games, card tricks, and archery. Chris is an amazing swimmer, and we are lucky he is on our team.

Coaches Corner Natalie Carlantonio Coach Emily is an awesome coach!!!!!! She is a student at SRU. Her major is early childhood and special education, and she has a minor in aquatics.

Coach Emily hopes to still be coaching swimming in 5 years, and also have a Special Education teaching job. A little known fact about Coach Emily is that she loves to sew.

3 Coaches Corner Natalie Carlantonio Coach Emily is an awesome coach!!!!!! She is a student at SRU. Her major is early childhood and special education, and she has a minor in aquatics. Her favorite stroke is freestyle because I am very good at it, and I sing a lot of songs to myself when I m swimming it for a long time. Coach Emily hopes to still be coaching swimming in 5 years, and also have a Special Education teaching job. A little known fact about Coach Emily is that she loves to sew. She makes a lot of quilts for people, and t-shirt quilts are her favorite. I asked her what her favorite princess was, and she said Tiana. Coach Emily likes Tiana because of she never gives up. Coach Emily said, She never gave up on her dream, even when she got turned into a frog. She worked hard and kept her head up, and in the end all of that hard work paid off. She does not have any pets. Coach Emily has a younger brother, Evan, who is one of her best friends. Her favorite food is apples. She likes coaching because she loves seeing everyone s smiling faces who are ready to swim. Coach Emily said, I also love seeing the times of our swimmers drop as their hard work pays off in the meets. Coach Emily s favorite color is sea foam green. When I asked her what famous person she would like to meet, she said Ellen DeGeneres. Coach Emily s favorite movie is Finding Nemo. Her favorite vacation spot is Barcelona, Spain. She said, It s a beautiful place, and there are a lot of things to do there I would never get bored!. Coach Emily is a very amazing coach and we are very lucky to have her!!

This makes our lives much easier as we no longer have to haul left over beverage and paper products to and from home meets.

4 SRST Gives THANKS! We would like to thank Dr. Rich Filiaggi for constructing our concessions cabinet. He has donated the materials and his time. This makes our lives much easier as we no longer have to haul left over beverage and paper products to and from home meets. Thank you Dr. Filiaggi! Thanks also go out to our last home meet 50/50 winner. She wishes to remain anonymous, but donated her $ winnings back to the team. How generous! Thank you so much. Your donation will go far to ensure the ongoing success of our program.

Stroke Focus-Breaststroke Coach Parry First of all I would like to say I was never a good breaststroker, and that is putting it nicely. I swam it one time total in college and it was only as a joke!

To me it always seemed like you were either a backstroker or a breaststroker and most people weren't good at both.

5 Stroke Focus-Breaststroke Coach Parry First of all I would like to say I was never a good breaststroker, and that is putting it nicely. I swam it one time total in college and it was only as a joke! But since then I have put in many hours watching videos, picking brains of other coaches, and doing my best to analyze current swimmers to see what makes one of those "natural breaststrokers" so good! To me it always seemed like you were either a backstroker or a breaststroker and most people weren't good at both. But there are many things a swimmer can do to improve their technical skills and strength to drop some time, if not loads of time. Breaststroke, like fly, is one of those strokes where efficiency is key! Refer back to the running into the wall scenario over and over again, eventually you will just give up. But find a way around that wall or even hop right over it you can change everything. The first thing a swimmer must do in breaststroke is understand that timing is everything. Breaststroke doesn't consist of a simultaneous pull and kick and breath like you will see most novice swimmers doing at the community pool. It is an art form. From the beginning in a streamline position you swim the stroke in a pull, kick, glide fashion. Simple right? Wrong! In order to coordinate the right timing there are many drills that can be done but most importantly you want to separate out each phase of the pull kick and the eventual small glide which leads into the next stroke. When you can learn the proper timing and perfect it, that is only the beginning. When you take your breath during breaststroke is equally as important as the sequence is itself. A swimmer will often times take their breath after they have pulled all the way down and kicked, which almost brings them to a complete stop. The hips then sink and a large amount of drag (force of the water against your body) is generated. In order to efficiently breathe, as soon as the pull phase is initiated the body naturally lifts and the swimmer slightly lifts the chin to get an early breath. After breathing before the kick or shooting forward return the head back neutral to the spine, thus completing the breath. (Cont. on next page)

Community News By Anna Plank Thanks to all who donated loose change to Camp Lutherlyn s Fill the Pool campaign. We will be continuing this project at all of are home meets. So far we have raised $45.

Don t forget to bring them to the home meets to add to our big coin collection container. Thank you so much for your generosity and your willingness to participate in this community service project!

6 Community News By Anna Plank Thanks to all who donated loose change to Camp Lutherlyn s Fill the Pool campaign. We will be continuing this project at all of are home meets. So far we have raised $45.00 (after our first two home meets). Please consider having your own coin collection container at home. Swimmers can raise money by doing small chores at home. Don t forget to bring them to the home meets to add to our big coin collection container. Thank you so much for your generosity and your willingness to participate in this community service project! Stroke Focus-Breaststroke (cont. from page 4) Coach Parry Pullouts are also very important during a breaststroke race. Starting with efficient streamlines a swimmer is allowed to take one dolphin kick during their streamline and then a strong simultaneous arm pull. Then quickly bring the legs back and draw the arms up the body in a tight crossing motion to return ready for the first stroke. You can always tell who has mastered this when it comes to race time. One person surfaces about 3 feet from the wall at an almost stand still while another will surface with much more momentum 30 feet from the wall (realizing that is a distance for older kids but hey lets dream big!). It is more efficient to separate the kick and pull because it maintains more of the original momentum generated from the push off of the wall than kicking and pulling at the same time where there are dramatic acceleration and deceleration points. Complicated enough? Yeah. Worth it? Most certainly! Here are more videos to watch to show exactly what some of what I talked about looks like during race and drill scenarios. SRST Welcomes New Swimmers! Madison Emekter Megan Grezejka Zachary Hoehn

Volunteer Spotlight- Coach Will Gallagher Sarah Mrozek Will has been a coach for our swim team since October, 2014. He coaches the Black, Red, and the Senior Groups.

He swam for the Upper Dublin High School Swim Team and was the captain of that team. Now, he swims for the Slippery Rock University Swim Team and is the President.

7 Volunteer Spotlight- Coach Will Gallagher Sarah Mrozek Will has been a coach for our swim team since October, He coaches the Black, Red, and the Senior Groups. Will's favorite stroke is breaststroke and his least favorite stroke is backstroke because he likes to see where he is going. He has been swimming for 14 years. He swam for the Upper Dublin High School Swim Team and was the captain of that team. Now, he swims for the Slippery Rock University Swim Team and is the President. Other than swimming, he plays volleyball and runs. Will is currently training for the Pittsburgh marathon on May 3rd. It will be his first full marathon. He has completed two half marathons already! Will is from the city of Philadelphia and is a BIG FAN of the Philadelphia Eagles. He has his mom and dad, a younger sister named Sarah (like me), and a younger brother named Chris. I'd like to thank Will for taking the time to let us know more about himself and volunteering his time to be a coach for our Team!

Volunteer Spotlight- Coach Alaina Marshall Gabby Schwartz Coach Alaina is from Beaver Falls, PA.

$She coached for three years at Blackhawk, but SRST is the first team she has formally coached. She has been here since September. In her own words, she has a love\hate relationship with breaststroke.$ Even though coaches put a lot of time into helping the swimmers, she loves the rewarding feeling she gets when she sees the smile on the swimmers faces when they reach their goal.

Even though coaches put a lot of time into helping the swimmers, she loves the rewarding feeling she gets when she sees the smile on the swimmers faces when they reach their goal.

8 Volunteer Spotlight- Coach Alaina Marshall Gabby Schwartz Coach Alaina is from Beaver Falls, PA. She started swimming in second grade when her teacher sent home an add for the Blackhawk Cougar Swim Team. She coached for three years at Blackhawk, but SRST is the first team she has formally coached. She has been here since September. In her own words, she has a love\hate relationship with breaststroke. In the 200 IM she would be winning until it was time for breaststroke. Her favorite stroke is backstroke. She prefers meets over practices because she loves the great feeling the atmosphere gives her. Even though coaches put a lot of time into helping the swimmers, she loves the rewarding feeling she gets when she sees the smile on the swimmers faces when they reach their goal. A few tips she could give swimmers are that you should always trust your coaches even though they ask you to do some pretty crazy things. They just want you to achieve your goal. Another tip is that you should always have a positive attitude when it comes to swimming. It will make practices be more fun and go faster. Thank you Coach Alaina for volunteering your time to make us better swimmers! Coach Logan (left) and Coach Alaina (right) share a laugh after receiving a pie in the face at our Swim-A-Thon on December 5th.

Corporate Sponsorship Thank You! February Birthdays! 2nd-Heston Suorsa 25th-Thomas Somora And just because we missed her January Birthday in last month s edition.coach Rachel s birthday was Jan. 22nd.

9 Corporate Sponsorship Thank You! February Birthdays! 2nd-Heston Suorsa 25th-Thomas Somora And just because we missed her January Birthday in last month s edition.coach Rachel s birthday was Jan. 22nd. Happy Belated Birthday Coach Rachel! Upcoming Events Feb 7-8-USA Junior Olympics at Moon Feb. 14th at 11:59 pm-meet entries close for Eels meet on Feb. 21st Feb. 14th and 15th-USA Bronze Champs at ANSC Feb. 21st-Eels Meet at Hopewell Feb. 21st and 22nd-USA Silver Meet at CVSC Feb. 21st at 11:59 pm-meet entries close for Eels home meet on Feb. 28th Feb. 28th-Last Eels home meet! Vs. Oxford and RACE Do you like to write? How would you like to contribute to the Electric Eels Newsletter? Contact Emma Plank at jplank@zoominternet.net for more information. Silver Level Sponsors Coffaros Pizza David Gordley, DDS East Coast Chair and Barstool Slippery Rock Veterinary Hospital Bronze Level Sponsors Ainsworth Consulting Services Benbrook Gastroenterology Faull Fabricating Premiere Foot and Ankle Center -Dr. Brian Spenser Trimpey Consulting Services Friends of the Eels Mary Doran Lloyd and Carol Green Mr. and Mrs. Heinie Raupp Jr. Paul and Rosalie Plank Room to Grow Montessori S.R. Law, LLC Sculpture Studio Slippery Rock Family Medicine SRU Credit Union TMS Physical Therapy

Electric Eels News. SRCL Coin Drive. Editor: Enma Plank

Electric Eels News. SRCL Coin Drive. Editor: Enma Plank Electric Eels News March 2017 Editor: Enma Plank Contributors: Gabby Schwartz Anna Plank Mikayla Fleeger Natalie Carlantonio In this Issue Page 1: SRCL Coin Drive Page 2: What to Expect at Champs Page