Saturday Practice

We will have practice for the following groups tomorrow 8:00 - 9:30 am:


Group 3
Group 4 White and Navy
Senior 2 not attending the meet this weekend.


I would love to have a large group stay after the meet and watch the Miami vs RICE meet at 11:30 pm. The meet will run around 2 hrs in length. I am going to be running the computer system so I would like anyone under 16 to have an adult with them. This is a great oppurtunity to watch a collegiate swim meet. Dual meets go much more quickly than Age Group USA meets. 


On a side note: Volunteer hours can be earned by having your responsible older swimmers time at these collegiate meets anyone in Group 4 and above is capable of doing this ;)


See you guys at the pool,
Coach Jason

On Decking at Swim Meets

Parents - If for some reason you miss the deadline for a meet sign up you can still have your child swim in the meet. You are able to sign up the day of the meet in what is called an on deck. Here are a couple notes:

1. On Deck entries are taken at the clerk of course table at the pool. This is usually on the pool deck somewhere and sometimes is next to where heat sheets are sold and awards.
2. Entries are double the cost and must be payed directly to the host team with Cash or Check.
3. The host team has a form you will need to fill out with all of the important information. You will need your swimmers USA ID which is MMDDYYFFFMLLLL  Month/Day/Year/First/Middle/Last ( Example 010181JONPRYAN) If your swimmer has no middle initial or 3 letter last name an * goes in its place.
4. There is a list of events at the table to make sure you choose the right numbers and events. If you have your swimmers best USA swim time you will need to enter them at this time. Make sure to mark yards or meters depending on the meet.
5. Once entered they will be placed into these events at the meet. This is the same as circling them in for the events. If you enter them in Saturday and Sunday events they will not be on the circling sheets either day but will appear on the heat and lane assignments.
6. Make sure you have discussed the on deck with a RICE Aquatics coach prior to on decking them. 
7. Swimmers should not scratch events to on deck a different event unless they have coach approval. 
8. All swim meets have a maximum event number per day that can not be exceeded. If exceeded by an on deck this fee will be passed down to the swimmers account.

Typically the parents working at the Clerk of Course are very helpful with the whole process.

See you guys at the pool,

Coach Jason

Catch the Spirit Camp

Good evening (or morning by the time you get this).  I am emailing as head coach for the USA Swimming Gulf hosted Catch the Spirit Clinic on SUN OCT 16 for novice swimmers.

The deadline has been extended to MON OCT 10. 

Currently we have about 15 swimmers in each session. While this is a great coach-swimmer ratio, I would like to have at least 20 in each session to have that critical mass of energy. Will still be a great coach-swimmer ratio.  The cost is $25.00 and the swimmers get the USA Swimming Catch the Spirit T-shirt and other stuff (e.g USA Swimming temporary tattoos, wrist bands, etc.).

We have a nutritionist, Sarah Seppa, presenting an interactive 30 min nutrition talk for the 10&Younger session and more 'prep-for-training and competition' talk for the 11-14 year-old session.  

Please consider forwarding this email and/or application to your novice swimmers.   Parents can mail application to Clinic Manager Nicole Rembach (address on the attached application) or email her atnrembach@earthlink.net  or me at jamescrampton@hotmail.com.  

Also, I will be taking applications at the HSC meet this OCT 8-9. Hillary Martinez(FCST) and Andre Smith(SPA) will be taking applications at the FCST meet OCT 8-9 and Dakota Phillips (SSS) will be taking application at the BTA meet on Sunday Oct 9.

Please let me know if you have any questions, comments, concerns, suggestion, etc.

Jim Crampton

Here is the link for the application.

Thought for the Week

Inspiration can come from all different places and I rescently had some via a You Tube video. RICE recently bought an underwater camera, part of the companies promotional department sends out weekly videos using their products. This weeks was a couple that is base jumpers. In the video the man said "The key to happiness is having dreams and the key to success is fulfilling those dreams." I think with swimming Dreams/Goals are what drives us. These dreams are often not spoken but internalized within the athlete. By doing so there is no risk of let down or disappointment because they are never spoken or written. Go ahead and write down your 5 biggest goals in swimming. "Swimming in the Olympics" should not be the default make them more attainable and personal. Then take these dreams and go out there and do what it takes to make them happen.

USA Swim Meets Handout

Parents - Please follow this link for the PDF version of the handouts from our rescent parent meeting. If this is your first USA swim meet please read through the PDF prior to the meet. We will have many veteran parents at the meet to help if needed. If you are unable to open this link/pdf we will have physical handouts available in the expandable in the lounge area.

See you at the pool,

Coach Jason

Signing Up for Swim Meets

Parents and Swimmers - I wanted to send out a quick email regarding signing your swimmers up for swim meets. Prior to getting into the details a quick reminder that we will have a "New to USA Swim Meets" Parent Meeting on Wednesday, September 28th from 5:00 - 6:00 pm. This is a must attend for any parents with swimmers new to USA swimming. We have this meeting once a year so even if your swimmer wont be attending the first meet you will want to attend for future meets.

Many of you may have already received emails regarding the upcoming meets that have been posted on our website. As we get info on the meets and add them to our site an automatic email goes out by group for the meet. Because it is sent by group and not age you may recieve an email for a meet that your swimmer can not attend. Please disregard emails that do not apply to your swimmers age or current time standards. In this email there will be basic info for the meet. Start and Finish Date, Registration Deadline, Click able link to "attend this event", the event link for more information and a basic description of the meet.

To begin comtting your swimmer to this event click on the "attend this event" link. This will brring you to the event sign up page. You should see your swimmers name listed on this page. By click their name a new page appears with a drop down box and a comment box. You can eitehr select "Yes, please sign up ____ for this event" or "No, please do not sign ______ up for this event". Select which applies to your swimmer. It does make the registratoin process easier for the coaching staff if you select to "do not commit" instead of not selecting an option. You can also leave a comment in the comment box such as " we can swim on Saturday an Sunday" or "we can swim on Saturday but have to leave no later than 2:00 pm". Any additional information you leave will help the coaching staff when choosing entries. If you log in and commit your swimmer with a good lead time to the event it will allow the coaching staff to discuss entries with your swimmer. When no information is left the coaching staff will assume your child is swimming in every session of the meet.

Once you select to "commit them to the event" a new page will appear with event options for the meet. (If the meet file is not yet available this option will not appear.)  You can then select events from the ones available. These are used as suggestions from the swimmers when the coaches begin the entry process. The coaching staff will have select the events that your swimmer will swim in the meet. These may or may not be the ones suggested through the sign up process. If your swimmers events have been accepeted they will have a check mark next to them. If they have been rejected there will be a stop sign next to them. Any event with out a check mark should be viewed as not yet approved. 

More information will be covered in a litte more detail at the parent meeting as well as the actualy pre meet, day of and post meet process. 

See you at the pool,

Coach Jason

Practice Changes for the week of 9/12/2011:

Friday 16th: The Recreation Center will have an early closure due to staff meetings.

Group 1 Navy: No Practice

Group 1 White: Regular Practice

Group 2: No Practice

Group 3: Regular Practice

Group 4 Navy and Senior 1: No Practice

Group 4 White and Senior 2: 4:45 - 6:00 pm.

Masters: No Practice. Masters Social at Ragin Cajun. Check your email and the facebook page.