Monthly Archives: September 2017

Monday – Sept. 18th,

UPDATE!!!

1: The preliminary rosters for the Red Team and Black team can be found here: Red&Black Teams

Update 2:The coaching breakdown goes as follows:

• Red Team Coaches: Makenna, Hannah, Kat, Emma, Mike, Finley, Harvey
• Black Team Coaches: Elizabeth, Dylan, Katie, Mary Kathryn, Alexandra, Jonathan, Martin

Update 3: Here are the Big Dawg Mentorship pairings: R&B Bid Dawg Mentorship Pairings. Couple quick notes about the mentoring:

• We decided to utilize all 13&older swimmers as mentors based on need.
• On the girls side, some Older girls have 2 Little Dawgs to mentor.
• On the boys side, some Little Dawgs have two Big Dawgs to help!
• All 10&Under swimmers received a mentor
• This mentoring responsibility is to last for the Red&Black meet only, but obviously it would be great if the relationship carried on throughout the season!

With the season now underway, the swimmers back in the water, and the coaches laying the groundwork for the season ahead, it’s finally time to start looking at our first meets of the 2017/2018 season!

This year’s edition of the annual Red&Black Meet surely won’t disappoint.

As usual, we will divide the team — both the swimmers and the coaching staff — into two teams for this dawg v. dawg battle. There will be a Red Team and a Black Team like always. The roster of coaches and swimmers for each squad will be provided next week.

In 2015, the Red Team broke a 7-year (!!!) losing streak to the black team, making some ABSC history. Not to be outdone for too long, the black team reclaimed their throne in 2016. The story promotes itself really, but if that intrigue isn’t enough for you, there’s going to be a new element to the Red&Black that we’ve never had before!

This year, ABSC is unveiling it’s new “Big Dawg” mentoring component of the meet! What this means is that all high school-aged swimmers will be paired with a 10&under teammate for the meet, and given the job of helping show their little Dawg the ropes. They will help the younger athletes understand where to go for their events and keep an eye on them in between races. They’ll mentor and befriend that athlete and show them what it looks like to be a part of our team.

Assignments will be posted when rosters are posted.

As another feature, and 11-14 year old swimmers that are new to the team may be assigned a peer partner to help them familiarize themselves with ABSC meets as well. This is all dependent on numbers and availability.

So make sure you come on out to the Red&Black meet on Friday evening, September 29th! This is one of three meets that we ask all swimmers to attend, along with the Classic City Quad meet in December and the Northeast Divisional Championship meet in March.

To see the meet information for the Red&Black meet, as well as the ABSC versus Marlins dual meet which takes place 2-days later on Sunday, October 1st, click here: http://athensbulldogs.com/meets/info-results/

Emails will be going out later today to sign up for both meets!

Mike

Due to the passing of now “Tropical Storm Irma” through our region, ABSC is cancelling practice tonight (Monday, September 11th), and tomorrow (Tuesday, September 12). The University of Georgia has decided to close on Monday and Tuesday for safety purposes, both before and after the passing of the storm. As such, ABSC will hold off on practice.

We will resume practice Wednesday, September 13th.

The New Family Orientation Session has been rescheduled for Wednesday the 13th as well! Our team vendor will still be on site that day as scheduled to perform our second and final team outfitting of the fall.

As always, the safety of our families will be our team’s first priority.

Thanks everyone for your patience, and we look forward to seeing you at the pool on Wednesday!

-ABSC Coaching Staff.

ABSC’s own Simon Casey is exemplifying the type of character we hope our swimmers will always possess by participating in an open water race this September 23rd in Atlanta.

The race is hosted by Swim Across America (SAA), an non-profit organization that exists to “…Unite the swimming community by hosting benefit swims that raise money to fund life saving cancer research and clinical trials,” according to it’s website.

Casey, who will be a member of the Dawgs group this fall, is inspired by several family friends that have suffered from the disease, including a young Athens child named Hodge Rivers that Casey writes about in his bio. To read about Casey’s motivation, and to DONATE TO HIS CAMPAIGN, see here: http://www.swimacrossamerica.org/site/TR?px=1495399&pg=personal&fr_id=4377

See also this message from Simon below:

Every 15 minutes 50 Americans are diagnosed with cancer. The good news is that every year millions of Americans are beating cancer through advancements in treatments. I am swimming in a Swim Across America benefit swim to #FightCancer and hope you will support me. Money raised from my swim will go to SAA doctors and researchers pioneering new cures to beat this dreaded disease. My personal page shares my story and how you may donate. Your support would mean a lot to me. http://www.swimacrossamerica.org/site/TR?px=1495399&pg=personal&fr_id=4377

Go Dawgs, Beat cancer!

On Wednesday, September 6th, ABSC will be hosting it’s first ever Safe Sport training through USA Swimming. Read about Safe Sport.

Ceci Christy — the Georgia Swimming’s LSC’s resident Safe Sport representative — will be coming to Athens to meet with our high school aged swimmers and their parents. She will be offering a training session on bullying, peer pressure, and social media, to help maintain a safe and team-oriented environment on our club.

Ceci is a consummate professional who comes to us with rave reviews. Most recently, she spoke to the Georgia Swimming Zone Team (of which ABSC’s own Charlie Logan and Jackson Harvin were a part) and trained them over similar topics. Here are a couple bullet points of what you need to know.

• All high school-aged athletes are required to attend, regardless of practice group
• 7th and 8th grade swimmers can optionally attend
• One parent/guardian for each swimmer should be present
• Training begins at 5:30 PM, lasts until 7:00 PM
• First 30-40 minutes for swimmers and parents, remaining time swimmers only
• Short practice upon the conclusion (7-7:30 or so)

If you didn’t happen to see Coach Jonathan’s email from last week on the topic, please see below: