IMPORTANT INFORMATION NOMAHEGAN SWIM TEAM 2007 COACHES Head Coach Molly Phelan 5 years Assistant Coach Josh Schoenfeld 3 years Assistant Coach Katie Morgan 2 years Assistant Coach Mike Fragna 2 years COMMUNICATION Contact the coach: Email Coach Molly: nomocoach@gmail.com Please do not speak to Molly or any of the other assistant coaches during practice since they must give their attention to the swimmers in the pool. Swim team information is sent out by e-mail. Most, but not all e-mails, are posted on the swim team bulletin board. Please be sure to check your e-mail regularly. TRY-OUTS New swimmers - Tuesday, June 12 th at 4:15 p.m. If you have a conflict with this date, please send an e-mail to Molly. We welcome any child 5 or older who can swim two (2) laps of freestyle in the deep lap pool and is comfortable in practice to try out. PROFILE FORM This form lists a swimmer s abilities, experience, and availability. Coach Molly uses this form to prepare for all upcoming meets. Swimmer availability for meets is mandatory in coordinating the meet line-ups. SWIM TEAM APPAREL Team suits are to be worn to all swim meets. Goggles should be worn and a back-up pair kept close-by in a swim bag. Please be sure that your child s goggles are sized properly before the practice and/or meet. Girls may prefer a one-piece suit for practice. Girls must wear a swim cap and/or they must have their hair tied back! This also applies to boys with
long hair. Nomahegan red/logo swim caps will be available for $5.00 at practice and/or meets. Team suits will be the same as last year. Swimmers needing a new one can purchase them on June 22 beginning at 12:00 p.m. Practice suits and other equipment can also be purchased from the vendor at this time. PRACTICE Regular swim team practice is from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. Monday through Friday starting on June 25 th. A schedule will be posted the week before June 25 th to let you know which timeslot each swimmer is in. Swimmers are expected to make at least three practices a week unless they are also practicing elsewhere. Swimmers must be at the deep pool 5 minutes before their scheduled practice and ready to swim with cap and goggles on. Missed practice time Swimmers are grouped based on ability. Please make every effort to have your child attend their assigned time in order to maintain the effectiveness and integrity of the practice. In the event of a conflict, please contact Coach Molly for other arrangements. Outside practices Swimmers who practice elsewhere should attend at least one Nomahegan practice a week. This should allow the swimmer to get meet and any upcoming information and to have the coaching staff work with them. We encourage older swimmers (12 and over) to help our younger swimmers at the earlier practices. If you are interested in helping out between 1:00 and 2:00, please e-mail Coach Molly. Stroke Clinics A different stroke clinic will be held every Friday morning beginning June 29 th. This is a perfect opportunity for a swimmer to learn and/or improve stroke technique in a smaller group setting. Clinic specifics will be posted on the bulletin board. Swimmers can sign-up for clinics. Swimming Lessons Swim team members who are not solid in all four strokes are encouraged to also participate in swim lessons. Group lessons are offered in the mornings
at the pool. Coaches and many of the lifeguards offer private swim lessons. Please look on the bulletin board for information regarding private lessons. Swim practice is a time to work on technique and improve strokes, but the large team size and the deep pool make it difficult to teach. All 10 and under should strongly consider lessons. Inclement Weather On practice days if the weather is bad we will hold earlier and shortened practices. Younger swimmers (8 & under) will practice from 1:00 to 1:30 and older swimmers (9 & Over) will practice from 1:30 to 2:15. If in doubt please call the pool. If a meet is postponed due to inclement weather, we will advise the gatehouse employees and we will also try to send out a notice via e-mail. Please call the pool and/or check your e-mail. Understand that there may be bad weather in one part of the town and sunny weather in another. We always do our best to advise everyone of changes to practices and/or meets which may, on occasion, result in someone not getting the information. Please try to understand, if you show up for a practice or meet and you had not received the change information we cannot always reach everyone on such short notice. MEETS Participation A minimum of two dual meets is required to be on the team. Swimmer availability/changes If a swimmer s availability for an upcoming meet changes, please notify Coach Molly THREE (3) DAYS before the meet. This pertains to either taking them out or trying to add them in. If your child is sick on the day of the meet, it is your responsibility to get a message to Coach Molly as quickly as possible, either personally or through another parent. Please understand that if your child is signed up for a meet and Molly is not informed that your child will not be at the meet, he or she will not be allowed to swim in the next meet. Meet line-ups Coach Molly is solely responsible for preparing the swim meet line-ups. Please respect the judgment and decisions made by the coach. The coach will put all swimmers in heats and events that she feels they are best suited.
Understand that we have a limited number of heats available in the Wednesday evening meets. The UCOSL has put a limit on how long a meet can run. Swimmer responsibilities at meets Arrival Swimmers need to arrive at swim meets 15 minutes before the scheduled warm-up. Swimmers should check in with a coach as soon as they arrive. Warm-ups We have only 30 minutes for warm-up, and over a hundred swimmers. Younger swimmers will warm-up first. If a swimmer misses warm-up, they will not be able to warm-up at all. Location Swimmers must stay with the team in the specified area. If they need to leave this area, they must first inform one of the coaches. This rule must be followed in order for the meet to run smoothly and to avoid having a swimmer miss their event. Due to the size of our team, the coaches will not have time to search for a child if they leave the designated area. A swimmer should not leave the meet without checking with Coach Molly. DQs (disqualifications) Coaches will never ever get mad at a swimmer for being DQed. Swimmers get disqualified when they are not swimming a stroke properly, don t touch with two hands in butterfly or breaststroke, or if they turn over onto their stomachs before finishing in the backstroke, etc. Have your child talk to a coach about being disqualified they should tell the coach what the official told them. If we know the reason for the DQ we can work on it in practice. If a swimmer is disqualified, they will not receive a ribbon for that event. Conduct All swimmers are expected to be respectful of their coaches, teammates, and opponents. Good sportsmanship will be expected from all swimmers at both practices and meets. Cheering for teammates is strongly encouraged and welcomed at all meets. All swimmers should remain in their lane in the water until everyone in the heat is finished. Relay swimmers are expected to cheer on their relay
teammates until the race is complete. The relay members should then walk back to the team area together. Please respect our other pool members and the pools at our away meets. We are expected to follow the rules and pick up all trash and belongings after a meet finishes. SPECIAL EVENTS and ACTIVITIES TIME TRIALS Time trials are an opportunity for the coaches to observe each child swim every stroke. This helps the coaches make decisions with regard to what skills to work on in practice. It is also an opportunity for Molly to record an early season time for each child. This way we can watch the swimmers times drop throughout the summer! SPIRIT NIGHT - Wednesday, June 27th at 5:00. Swimmers get together to show team spirit! All swimmers are invited to attend. The team is split into two colored groups. Each group will participate in our own fun Nomahegan Relay Carnival! Pizza, soda and cake will be served. Please come out and show your spirit! We want everyone to participate! Regular swim practice will be held that day. BANQUET - July 28 th at 1:00 p.m. End of season party for both swim and dive team members. Families will be asked to either bring an appetizer, salad or dessert to this event. Swim and dive team members will receive their team pins at this event. TEAM PINS given out at the banquet Team members are encouraged to draw designs for both the swim and dive teams. Please send entries to Michelle Lessner for consideration as this year s team pins. Entries may be submitted until May 31, 2007. If you have any questions, please email Michelle at MichelleLessner@msn.com. WORK ASSIGNMENTS Parental volunteers are mandatory at swim meets. You will be required to work at a minimum of two meets if you have a swimmer on the team.
Please sign up using the Swim and Dive Team registration form available online. A brief description of all necessary positions in order to run a swim meet follows: Timer: Timers will be given stopwatches. There will be at least 2 timers per lane. You start and stop the watch at the beginning and the end of the particular swimmer s race. Writer: Stand at a specified lane and record the name of the Nomahegan swimmer, event and times you will receive from the timers in that lane. Across the Board: Two individuals needed at every meet to record the placement of swimmers at the finish of each race by lane number. Announcer: Announce the swimmers, event and heats of the current event. Official: Officiate the meet for legal starts, strokes, turns and finishes. Notify timers of any DQs. Explain to swimmers the reason for the disqualification. There will be a UCOSL official clinic held on June 7 th at the FSPY in Scotch Plains. We encourage anyone interested to attend. Please contact Sharon Daniel at sharondaniel@comcast.net for further information. Starter: Start each race using electronic starting system. A starter must be an official. Averager: Averagers receive the time sheets by event and heat at the score table. The average time is taken by averaging the two recorded times with a calculator and recording it. If there are three recorded times, the averager circles the middle time. No experience is necessary! You can easily be trained.
Scorer: There will be one scorer from each team at the score table. An extra scorer can be used to read aloud the results of the heat sheets for faster recording. Scoring is done using the across the board blue sheets for placement. The scorer awards points for 1 st, 2 nd and 3 rd place based on the placement of the 1 st /official heat. A tallied score is kept. No experience is necessary! You can easily be trained. Ribbon Writer: Write ribbons for 1 st thru 6 th place at the score table based on results. Swimmer s name and official time is written on the back of the ribbon. Hospitality: Hand out ice pops to swimmers for both teams at the conclusion of the meet. This is usually done at the entrance to the gatehouse. DIRECTIONS TO OTHER POOLS To Cranford: Take E. Broad towards Nomo, but turn right onto Springfield Ave. Stay straight as it becomes Kenilworth Blvd. Turn left onto Country Park Dr. (a dead end). The pool is at the end of the road. If you reach Kenilworth you ve gone too far. To Highland: Take W. Broad toward Scotch Plains. At the end of W. Broad turn right on Martine Ave. Highland is one block up on your right. To Manor Park:: Go down Central Ave. toward Clark. Make your 2 nd left past the light at Grove St. onto Laurel Pl.. If you reach the light at Clinton St. you ve gone too far. To Memorial: Take South Ave. toward Scotch Plains. Turn left onto Scotch Plains Ave. Memorial is halfway up the block on your right. To Willow Grove: Take W. Broad toward Scotch Plains. At the end make a right onto Martine Ave. Make your 3 rd right onto Evelyn St. WG is at the end of the road.