RICE Food Drive

RICE Fights Hunger 


The RICE Student Advisory Committee (SAAC) is sponsoring a food drive to help fight hunger in the Houston area. The Women's swim team is participating and in some friendly competition with ohter athletic departments to see who can get the most food donated. If you would like to contribute rice or canned goods to the cause the womens team has a drop off box inside the pool lounge for collection. If you can't make it to the pool your self you can send your swimmer with it in their swim bag and a coach will help them get it in the donation box. The drive is running November 5th - 12th.


Thank you for your support in the effort and with RICE Athletics.


See you at the pool,


Coach Jason 

Parents - With the season now in November we will start to have a few cold fronts moving in that will lower the out of pool temps. I wanted to pass on a couple tips to making sure your swimmers keep warm before and practice. The most important thing is to dress in layers. With many practices starting in warm weather and ending in cooler nights its important to come prepared for all types of weather. Packing a longsleeve shirt or sweater in the swim bag is essential. Parkas, Jackets and extra towels are a great option as well. A good option for swimmers in the younger groups that are still low in body fat is hot apple cider in a thermos. This is something they could sip on between sets or extended period on the wall. I will be posting sign ups for parents to bring in a large thermos of hot cider for groups as an option for getting volunteer hours. 


A couple notes regarding our recent gear order:
Items are beginning to role in to our screen printer but there are also some items that are back ordered. 


Items that should be ready for hand out on Monday 11.14.2011
RICE Sweatshirts all sizes
RICE Longsleeve Cotton T Shirts all sizes
RICE Towels


Items that have come in as of yesterday and currently getting "RICE" logo's printed on them:
Adult Warm Up Jackets
Adult Warm Up Pants
Select sizing of Youth Warm Up Jackets
Youth Warm Up Pants
Back Packs


Items currently backordered:
Legend Longsleeve and Short Sleeve shirts: Estimated Ship Date 11.7.2011
Parkas: Estimated Ship Date Week of 11.27.2011


See you at the pool,
Coach Jason

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