Middle Atlantic Zone Team
Information
July 28,
2010
Summer Zone Hotel now
available for booking - Parents of summer zone swimmers,
please contact the team hotel ASAP to secure your booking.
The hotel this year is the Marriott Courtyard
Gaithersburg Washingtonian Center, 204 Boardwalk Place,
Gaithersburg, MD, 20878, (301) 527-9000. Further
information can be found on the
Zone Team page.
Information on the
MA Zone Team
Practice on August 8th is here
Due
to circumstances beyond our control this year's summer zone
equipment will not be ready for distribution at JOs. The
equipment will be distributed at a practice to be held on
Sunday, August 8th from 9:30-11am at Emmaus Community Park/
Pool. The address of this pool is 1401 Shimerville Road
Emmaus, PA 18049. At this time, swimmers will meet their
zone coach, practice with their fellow zone team mates, and
receive their equipment.
If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to
contact Zone Team Manager- Kate Scheuer at email@udac.us.
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Middle Atlantic Long Course Top 10
July 06,
2010
The first
release of the
Middle Atlantic
Long Course Top 10 is here. The meets included
are from September 1, 2009 and the swimmers ages are
calculated as of the date of the meet swum, therefore
several swimmers may appear in two different age groups. We
have moved to the
USA Swimming Single Age Groups for all age groups over
10. We have also included the Senior age group which will
include many of our college athletes. The USA Swimming
National Top 10
may be viewed here.
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Middle Atlantic swimming NEW Board of Directors
June 23,
2010
On Monday, June 14th, the
Middle Atlantic House of Delegates met at the Upper Main
Line YMCA. An informative presentation by USA Swimming
Program & Services Director Sue Anderson opened the meeting.
Included in the night’s business was the election of
officers to serve on the
Middle Atlantic Board of Directors
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General
Chair |
Matt
Sprang (GPAC) |
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Admin
Vice Chair |
Mike
Seip (EMAC) |
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Senior
Co-Chairs |
Glenn
Neufeld (UMLY) & Brad Bowser (JW) |
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Finance
Vice Chair |
George
Breen (JW) |
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Secretary |
Stephanie Rozick (UN) |
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Athlete
reps |
Ian
Clark (SSC) & Kelsi Worrell (STRM) |
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At-large |
John
Carroll (JW) |
Middle Atlantic would like to acknowledge several Board
members for their recent service to the organization.
Mike Seip has served as the General Chair for the
last four years. This is his second round in the position.
Under Mike’s leadership, Middle Atlantic has moved forward
in a manner consistent with our mission of supporting
diversity, innovation, education and a commitment to
excellence. Mike has always been willing to make the tough
decisions and has been a proponent of change for the
betterment of our sport. He was the recipient of the 2010
Outstanding Service Award. Mike will serve as the
Administrative Vice-Chair for the next two years. He is
replacing Fred Frank who will be leaving the
Board. Fred Frank was responsible for reinvigorating and
organizing the program for the annual House of Delegates
meetings. Fred Killian has been the Secretary
for MA for the last few years. Fred stepped up to fill the
position when no one was willing to commit and has done an
excellent job. Fred will continue to serve on the Board as
the Operations Vice-Chair. Stephanie Rozick is
the out-going Senior Vice-Chair. Stephanie has been
instrumental in returning short course MIDS to the Middle
Atlantic schedule and in making certain that the meets we
host for our swimmers provide the best possible competitive
opportunities for our athletes. She is responsible for
organizing a Senior “training day” in hopes that this will
expand into a training trip. Stephanie will assume the
duties of Secretary in July. And last, but certainly not
least, we would like to recognize Burt German,
former Finance Vice-Chair, not only for his last 4 years in
that position, but also for his commitment to Middle
Atlantic Swimming for the last 40+ years (even he may not
know exactly how many!) Burt has kept us financially sound
and fiscally responsible during his tenure in the Finance
seat. His work is usually behind the scenes, but many of you
would recognize him as one of the guys on deck in the white
shirts. Burt has served the organization, not only in the
finance arena, but also as an official, General Chair
(several times), Senior chair and a member and chair of the
Board of Review. He will continue his duties as the Rules
and Regulations Chair.
THANK YOU to Mike, Fred, Fred, Stephanie and Burt for a
job well done!
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MA Swimming Records UPDATED
June 23, 2010 The
Middle Atlantic Swimming Records
have been updated as of 6/11/10. New records
established during the 2009-2010
Short Course Season are here.
Please review the definitions below so that you may better
understand what each designation means. Corrections or
questions should be
e-mailed to our Records Chairman. If you
believe that a faster time has been achieved in a particular
event, please include a link to the meet results for that
time. The USA Swimming database (SWIMS) includes a
feature that allows Middle Atlantic to keep track of our
District and Resident records within the SWIMS system.
Thanks to our Records chair,
Bob
Platt, for spending many hours updating and correcting
the information in SWIMS so that, going forward, our records
will be accurate and timely. The records report is generated
directly from the SWIMS database; it is similar in looks to
the previous format for MA records, but the data is named
and arranged a bit differently. We are working with USA
Swimming to improve the format, but for now this is what we
have.
LSC Record
= MA Resident Record Page 1-4 MA Long Course Resident Records / Page 5-8 MA
Short Course Resident Records
LSC
Open Record
= MA District Record Page 9-12 MA Long Course District
Records / Page 10-13 MA Short Course District Records
District
Records (LSC Open Records) are achieved by any
registered swimmer at a USA Swimming-recognized competition
within MA geographic boundaries.
Resident Records (LSC Record) are achieved by
registered MA swimmers in a USA Swimming-recognized
competition in the United States or abroad.
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Club Travel Assistance - Financial Assistance for YOUR CLUB
June 15,
2010
The Middle Atlantic House of
Delegates approved a new travel assistance program at the
annual June meeting on Monday night. Middle Atlantic
will provide up to $600 in funding to clubs who send
qualified coaches and athletes to the national meets in
Irvine, California this summer. Clubs must have
achieved
Level One in the USA Swimming Club Recognition Program
to be considered for travel support money. The application
for Club Travel Assistance can be found
here and details about program requirements can be
accessed
here. What level is YOUR Club?
Search here
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Middle Atlantic well represented on 2010 USA Swimming
Championship Teams
June 10,
2010
Fran Crippen (GAAC) and
Joe Kinderwater (WSY) recently earned spots on the
2010
World Championship Team that will be competing in Roberval,
Québec, Canada for the
6th FINA World Open Water Swimming Championships, July
15-23.
Swimmers for this team were selected based on finishes
at 2010 USA Swimming Open Water National
Championships.
The top two finishers in the men’s and women’s 10K races
automatically qualified for the World Championship team,
while the rest of the roster was filled out by other top
finishers. Andrew
Gemmell (DST) of Middle Atlantic was selected for
the World Championship team, but declined the honor in order
to participate as a member of the Pan Pac team in early
August. Arthur Frayler (GAAC), and Taylor
O'Brien (PAAC) were selected for
the
Junior Pan Pac team. Arthur
and Taylor will compete in Maui at
the end of August.
West Shore
YMCA’s Mike Gobrecht will serve as the head coach for the
World Open Water Swimming Championships. This is Mike’s
second stint as a head coach for an International Open Water
team, having served as the head coach of the 2009 FINA Open
Water 10K World Cup in Roberval, Quebec, Canada. Mike also
served as an assistant coach for the 2007 Junior Pan Pac
team in Maui, and the 2006 FINA World Youth Swimming
Championships in Brazil and is the former Co-Senior
Chairperson of the Middle Atlantic Board of Directors.
Full story here.
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Congratulations Dr Cecil Gordon
June 1,
2010
Along with Delaware Governor
Jack Markell and Senator Margret Henry, Middle Atlantic’s
own Cecil Gordon
was recently recognized by the Metropolitan Wilmington
Urban League for his outstanding commitment and contribution
to the community. Dr. Gordon received the James H Gilliam,
Jr. Humanitarian Award in recognition of his “significant
contribution of both time and resources in support of the
community.” Congratulations, Cecil
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Are you a certified
instructor??
May 14,
2010
In an on-going
effort to better serve our swimming community, Middle
Atlantic Swimming is compiling a list of individuals who are
certified as instructors for one of the many safety courses
required for coach membership in MA/USA Swimming. [ A
complete list of the courses can be found
here.] This list of instructors will be published on
our website so that clubs and individual coaches will be
able to more easily fulfill the MA/USA Swimming
requirements. Middle Atlantic plans to offer certification
courses several times each year utilizing instructors from
this list.
If you have
someone in your club or if you utilize the services of a
local provider, please have those individuals who would like
to be on our list contact the
Middle Atlantic office with the following information:
Name,
Courses the
instructor is certified to teach, E-mail or phone
contact information (whichever the individual prefers),
Geographic area served (city / county, etc)
Information
submitted by July 30,2010 will be published for the 2010-11
season.
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USA Swimming Announces
7-Point Action Plan for a Safe and Positive Sport
Environment
May 13,
2010
COLORADO
SPRINGS, Colo. – USA Swimming announced today the immediate
implementation of a 7-Point Action Plan to address the issue
of child protection in the sport. The plan outlines seven
action steps to make certain the best possible safeguards
are in place for the organization’s 300,000 members.
More….
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The Splash Bash is Back!
May 5,
2010
Make use of your
USA Swimming team members and coaches to spread the word
about

swimming to
prospective members by hosting a Splash Bash! You will be
provided with all the tools to make the viewing party great
with a party host kit! It’ll be the perfect platform to tell
their friends/team members about how to get involved in USA
Swimming and encourage swim team sign ups!
Hosting a Splash Bash party will help you use the excitement
of the Mutual of Omaha Pan Pacific Championships to assist
you in your recruiting efforts. The events will be broadcast
on NBC. USA Swimming will provide party kits that will help
you host the ultimate watch party!
Kits will include games, prizes, giveaways and decorations.
There will be a fully dedicated website for hosts and a
sweepstakes micro site for your attendees! All materials
will be developed to enhance the event and to assist in your
recruiting efforts.
If you are interested in hosting a party for your club.
Click here to sign up!
splashbash2010.com
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Two MA swimmers chosen to represent USA at Youth Olympic
Games
April 30,
2010
USA Swimming today announced that a team of
eight U.S. swimmers will travel to Singapore for the
Youth Olympic Games, August 14-26. The swimming competition
will run August 15-20.
"We are excited to see these eight swimmers will represent
the U.S. in Singapore at the first-ever Youth Olympic
Games," said Mark Schubert, USA Swimming's National Team
Head Coach and General Manager. "The development of young
swimmers is extremely important to the future success of USA
Swimming and an international meet like the Youth Olympic
Games will provide a great learning experience for these
talented young athletes."
Middle Atlantic
Swimmers Allie Roberts, coaches by Eric Posegay at Parkland
Aquatic Club and Kaitlyn Jones coached by Bruce Gemmell at
Delaware Swim Team have been selected as two of the 8
members competing in Singapore. The Youth Olympic
Games are an international multi-sport event, held in
conjunction with the International Olympic Committee that
will be held every four years consistent with the current
format of the Olympic Games. The sport program will
encompass all 26 sports that will be featured at the 2012
Olympic Games.
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Middle Atlantic Short Course Top 10
April 30,
2010
The fifth
release of the
Middle Atlantic
Short Course Top 10 is here. The meets included
are from September 1, 2009 and the swimmers ages are
calculated as of the date of the meet swum, therefore
several swimmers may appear in two different age groups. We
have moved to the
USA Swimming Single Age Groups for all age groups over
10. We have also included the Senior age group which will
include many of our college athletes. The USA Swimming
National Top 10
may be viewed here.
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Clinics - Stroke & Turn Officials
April 17,
2010
Additional clinics may be scheduled. MA Clubs that host
meets are reminded that they are expected to have officials
within their club to support the meets. If your Club would
like to host a clinic, please contact Fred Killian at
FK42@aol.com
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USA Club Excellence Program
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Meet and Safety Director lists updated
February
19, 2010
The updated listing of all Middle Atlantic certified Meet
Directors and Safety Directors can be
found here |
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MA
WEB Club Portal access
January 28,
2010
Attention
Coaches and Team Administrators/Registrars: You can now
access your team roster 24/7 using your USA Swimming Club
Portal. This roster can be printed and used for proof of
registration at swim meets; it can also help you to be sure
that each member of your team is properly registered and
affiliated with your club. A list of affiliated non-athlete
members (coaches, officials and “others”) is available,
along with statistical reports about membership retention
specific to your team. Each club member of USA Swimming has
a club portal.
Click here for details on how to access yours.
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Scholastic
All-America team boasts 1500 members this year
October
1, 2009
Congratulations to the
58
Middle Atlantic swimmers who made the USA Swimming
Scholastic All America list. The Scholastic All-America
program is open to all 10th-12th grade USA Swimming members
who earn a 3.5 GPA or better and
achieve
a Junior National Bonus Time Standard or swim in a selected
disability championship meet or the Open Water National
Championships. The program begins each July 1st and
continues through June 30th of the following year. Four
Middle Atlantic teams - DST, LMOR, MSA and THY – placed
three athletes each on the team. Delaware Swim Team (DST)
led the way with six athletes on the team. We are
particularly proud of our scholar-athletes who have made the
list all 3 years – Andrew Gemmell (DST), Katie Murphy (DST),
Katie Steeves (DST) and Jessica Guro (LVA).
The
complete list from USA Swimming is here |
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Middle Atlantic Swimming Bulletin
Board |
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7/28/10 |
Mercersburg Academy recently
purchased new lane lines for our 25 yd. pool. We have 8, 25 yd. Competitor
Lane Lines that we would like to donate to an interested club, preferably one
that does not currently have lane lines or is facing significant funding issues.
The lane lines are old but in decent condition. The receiving party will need to
make arrangements to pick them up at the Mercersburg Academy (300 E. Seminary
Mercersburg Pa. 17236).
Contact Director of Athletics Rick Hendrickson (717.328 6151,
hendricksonr@mercersburg.edu) for more information. |
Lane Line
Donation |
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Importance of Volunteer Involvement
May
3, 2010
With the exception of the
office staff, Middle Atlantic is served entirely by
volunteers who give very generously of their time in the
service of our athletes.
The MA Officials’ committee is one of the most active in the
arena of volunteers. Clinic notices are posted on the MA
website and the dates and times are announced at the BOD
meetings and at swim meets. Meet host clubs are encouraged
to develop a core group of officials and experienced
volunteers are involved in mentoring new members.
The Age Group and Senior committees request volunteer
assistance directly from involved coaches and interested
parents. This usually produces a group of people who are
willing to help with specific tasks at the Age Group and
Senior levels, including running meets and assistance with
the Age Group All-Star team. Our meet directors, officials,
and committee chairs often express their appreciation to the
volunteers through “thank you’s” in the form of notes,
e-mails and web postings. In addition, as an organization,
Middle Atlantic provides some assistance to key personnel
(mileage, hotel rooms, meals, gift certificates) as a token
of appreciation for the time and effort involved in a job
well done.
The newly created Diversity Committee recently posted an
appeal for volunteers on the MA website which netted 8 great
volunteers to help with diversity initiatives in our LSC.
Our permanent office serves as a general clearing house for
volunteers. Interested parties are put in direct contact
with the appropriate committee chair or Board member.
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Structure of USA Swimming
May
3, 2010
Just
as Middle Atlantic is your local governing body, USA is the
national governing body for our sport.
Click on the link here to learn more about what USA
Swimming does and how the business side of swimming is
conducted. From this page, links to the USA Swimming Board
of Directors, the USA Swimming Committee Chairs and the USA
Swimming By-laws will give you an abundance of information.
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Backstroke Finish (USA Swimming Rule 101.4)
November 16, 2009
There
may be some misunderstanding and confusion regarding the
finish requirements for the Backstroke. The backstroke
finish rule (101.4.4) states that ‘…the swimmer must touch
the wall while on the back.’ The stroke rules (101.4.2)
include the statement ‘Some part of the swimmer must break
the surface of the water throughout the race, except it is
permissible for the swimmer to be completely submerged
during the turn, at the finish and for a distance of not
more than 15 meters after the start and after each turn.’
The question becomes 'when is the finish?' and 'may the
swimmer be submerged before the finish touch?'
USA
Swimming has addressed this
question here and the
response is here
USA
Swimming defines the 'finish' as the touch at the completion
of the race. Under the stroke rule for backstroke, the
swimmer may not be completely submerged except during the
initial 15 meters after the start and each turn; submergence
prior to the finish touch is cause for disqualification.
Please contact me at
officials@maswim.org if you have any questions about
this issue.
Fred Killian, MA Officials Chair
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USA Swimming Age Group
All-Time Top 100 complete through 25
November 16, 2009
USA
Swimming is in the process of compiling a list of Age Group
All-Time Top 100 times. The list is now complete through the
top 25. To see the complete list, go to our
All-Time Top 100 Times section.
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Middle
Atlantic Officials Clinics offered
October
8, 2009
The
MA Officials Committee will hold several clinics for new
Stroke & Turn officials. Anyone interested in becoming an
official is welcome to attend the clinics – advance
registration is not necessary. However, please drop a note
to
officials@maswim.org to insure that we will have
enough material at the clinic.
Contact the committee if you need directions or more
information.
Clubs that will be hosting MA meets this season are expected
to have officials within their club to support the meets. If
your club would like to host a clinic, please contact Fred
Killian at FK42@aol.com
Fred Killian, MA Officials Chair
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Scholastic
All-America team boasts 1500 members this year
October
1, 2009
Congratulations to the
58
Middle Atlantic swimmers who made the USA Swimming
Scholastic All America list. The Scholastic All-America
program is open to all 10th-12th grade USA Swimming members
who earn a 3.5 GPA or better and
achieve
a Junior National Bonus Time Standard or swim in a selected
disability championship meet or the Open Water National
Championships. The program begins each July 1st and
continues through June 30th of the following year. Four
Middle Atlantic teams - DST, LMOR, MSA and THY – placed
three athletes each on the team. Delaware Swim Team (DST)
led the way with six athletes on the team. We are
particularly proud of our scholar-athletes who have made the
list all 3 years – Andrew Gemmell (DST), Katie Murphy (DST),
Katie Steeves (DST) and Jessica Guro (LVA).
The
complete list from USA Swimming is here |
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MA Swimming IMX Rankings
released
September
24, 2009
The IMX
Challenge is a motivational program whereby swimmers will be scored and ranked
nationally [USA
National Database] on their performance in a combination of five or six
events. The purpose of the program is to promote versatility in age group
swimming while advocating greater participation and development across a range
of events that are integral to long term success in swimming. The
MA Rankings are here
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Top 100 rankings now complete
February 26,
2010
The
USA Swimming
all-time Top 100
times list, a ranking of the fastest times by age group,
event, course and gender, has been completed. See how you
stack
up among the best athletes in USA Swimming.
Read more....
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USA Swimming’s next big idea
February 23,
2010
The
search is on for
USA Swimming’s next big idea. Over the coming month we
will be conducting a public discussion about the future of
the sport and in the
process
be seeking to identify new ideas and projects to implement
to help our sport and USA Swimming continue to grow and
prosper. We will be using our swimnetwork.com website as the
discussion and
feedback forum and we encourage you to participate; and
ideally you will check the website every few days to follow
the discussion and provide your own input.
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Clarification of Rule Change
for Racing Starts
May
13, 2009
Effective
May 1, 2009, USA Swimming’s Board of Directors modified the
racing start rule, 103.2.2, to further clarify that racing
starts should only be taught under the direct supervision of
a USA Swimming member coach, and to expand the definition of
teaching racing starts to make clear that no swimmer who has
not been certified as proficient by his or her coach should
be performing racing starts into less than six feet of
water.
Please keep in mind that the only change to this USAS rule
is that there is now a requirement for a coach to document,
by means of a checklist, the fact that in their professional
judgment a swimmer has been taught how to properly execute a
racing start. The requirement to teach swimmers to properly
execute racing starts has been in place in our rules for a
long time, with or without a checklist. The procedures that
should take place at a meet are no different now than they
were before the checklist was implemented. Coaches should be
doing whatever they were doing in the past with respect to
swimmers who had not yet been taught to properly execute a
racing start. The checklist does not change a thing except
to require a coach to document the process and there is no
need to add any additional procedures at a swim meet as a
result of this.
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Attention Middle Atlantic
Coaches
April
22, 2009
Here are some answers to your questions regarding your
USA Swimming Coaches Membership. If your Lifeguarding
has expired, you must take the
25 question test here PLUS have an up to date
Lifeguarding (or safety training for swim coaches).
You only need to take the 25 question test after your
current Lifeguarding has expired. The Middle Atlantic
swimming office will NOT issue new coach credentials until
all certifications and tests have been completed. Here
are some other forms that may help all Middle Atlantic
Coaches:
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MA Officials Committee website
November
18, 2008
The Middle
Atlantic Swimming Officials Committee has launched a new
section of our web site. The link is
here. This side is also accessible from the
"Policy/Information menu" above. |
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2008 Olympic Games
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