Holiday Weekend

I hope everyone has a great holiday weekend....I know I'm looking forward to a "little" break. This means that summer is right around the corner...literally. School will be out soon and we'll be in the outdoor pool practicing in the mornings. This is much needed and greatly anticipated - summer, here we come!

Baylor Meet

We had only a handful of athletes attend the Baylor meet this weekend, but those that went swam GREAT! We really had a fantastic weekend in the pool and I hope everyone had a good time....I know I did. It's certainly fun to swim fast! Results will be posted on our website soon as they are already posted on Baylor's website.

Sign Ups

Just a quick reminder that Summer team sign ups are this week, May 11th (yesterday) through Thursday, May 14th. Again, if you don't sign up within this period, you will NOT get a FREE team t-shirt. Also, beginning Monday, May 18th, you MUST be a registered summer swimmer in order to swim -- this is true for EVERYONE -- NO EXCEPTIONS. If you have questions or absolutely can't make this week....PLEASE contact me.

Couple of things: one, we just got news that sometime in the near future (eventually), the city will be putting down more gravel in our parking lot. Of course that will be probably happen AFTER the monsoon rains go away....but, it should happen.

Two, our summer season starts very soon. Sign ups are next Monday, May 11 - Thursday, May 14th from 3:30-6:00 pm each of those days. It's very important that you sign up during this time for two reasons; one, if you do not sign up during this time, you will NOT get a summer team T-shirt! And two, the only way you can practice starting on Monday, May 18th is if you have registered for summer swimming. There will be NO unregistered swimmers in the pool starting May 18th.....just wanted to make those 2 things very clear.

So I look forward to seeing you at registration next week!!

5k

So I've sank to an all-time low. Yesterday was the SMARM Rescue Run 5k and it was actually a perfect day to race. I haven't run a 5k (or any race for that matter) in 3 years and haven't seriously run (trained) since 2003. But do you think I had realistic expectations? Apparently not, because I thought I could go out and do close to what I did 3 years ago when I last ran a 5k without training for it...which was 17:20. Of course I really didn't take into consideration that I'm 3 years older, 20 pounds heavier, and the course being pretty hilly (there really aren't hills in Indiana where I last raced). So when we ran the first mile in 6:17 and I felt like we'd ran it in 5:17, it was like someone kicked me in the gut. And then when we turned around at the half-way point and climbed that first big hill I knew then that I was officially an old, fat man. O what a sad day. Final time; 19:54. My slowest 5k time before that was my first race as a freshman in high school in 1989 (yep, 20 years ago). Time then; 17:47. I'm going to stop talking now.

Actually, on a much more encouraging note, my wife Amy won the womens race. She ran a good race, probably one of her fastest ever. That won her a Dollywood ticket and $100 gift certificate to New Balance -- pretty good stuff. So at least it wasn't all tears at the Hawkins' house yesterday.

Feedback

I sure do greatly appreciate the feedback and compliments on the banquet from everyone! I'd have to agree; I thought the banquet was great and enjoyed it tremendously......we certainly have a good thing going at SAC. But it takes every single one of us to make it what it is.....so thank you to all of you for making SAC a very special place.

Now, about the books. I've heard lots of good stuff about the books....again, thank you for the positive feedback and compliments. But, like most things, I can't really take credit for it because it wasn't my idea. Here's the scoop on the books. My High School cross-country coach (who is one of the main reasons I coach today) put together books very similar to the ones we did. He'd hand them out every year at the banquet and it was one of the highlights each year. I still have all of mine. I still look at mine. They are incredible, inspirational, and motivational tools to me. And that's what I hope they are for our swimmers.

I've found that over the years that when I doubt or question myself, I look at those books. In those books I see that I did some pretty impressive things (just like all of our swimmers). Then I see what it took in order for me to accomplish those things (all the blood, sweat, and tears). I'm reminded by those books that when I set my mind to something, work hard to obtain that something, I CAN DO that something!

Again, I hope that these books can do the same for our swimmers. So, thanks Coach Deiwert for being a great coach and planting some great seeds!

Summertime

The weather of recent has totally been July type weather and I love it! It, of course makes me think of summer swimming....which I also love. I will be consistently writing here making shameless SAC summer swim team plugs, so bear with me. But summer swimming is our bread-and-butter. If it weren't for our summer swim season, we would really struggle and probably wouldn't have half the team we have.

So, I encourage you to get involved at every level this summer. It is a ton of fun and even more fun with more people. The old saying couldn't be more true when applied to summer swimming, "the more, the merrier!"

Trying Again

I'm going to try this whole blogging thing again. Sorry that I haven't blogged in forever. It seriously is a difficult thing to stay on top of....not to mention that it is often the last thing from my mind when I get home at night and after we get the boys put to bed. BUT, the more I think about it, I realize how effect it could be in my ability to mass communicate. I'm gonna keep it light and simple for now until I see that people are back to reading it and then I'll commit a little more time and effort into it.

So.......how 'bout this weather? It's been pretty awesome, hasn't it? I could go for this all year long....man it's been good.

Anybody reading this go to the USA banquet this afternoon? What were your thoughts if any?