The Coach's Notes, March 2002, Chuck Jacobs, Head Coach

Chesapeake Bay Aquatic Club
March 2002

Coach's Corner: Head Coach, Chuck Jacobs

Beth Dobson Competes at Sectionals
Beth Dobson's outstanding performance at ZQ's allowed her to make the Sectional cuts and gave her the opportunity to compete on St. Patrick's weekend at George Mason University. It was her first meet of this caliber and she was ready! Going in Beth was seeded 112th out of 124, but finished 55th overall! Nerves wanted to get the best of her, but Beth overcame them and swam her fastest times of the year. She won her heat easily in the 100 free and came close to a :53. She was seeded at 108 out of 113 in the 50 free but she managed to place 71st! One hopes that a first time competing in big-time swimming turns out well and provides a learning experience, but Beth exceeded my expectations. Great job, Beth!

Zone Qualifiers - What a weekend!
Where do I start? Maybe Jack Webb said it best, "Just the facts..." Well, hang on 'cause here we go. Nine CBAC swimmers made finals in 17 swims on Saturday night alone. Lindsey Mummaugh finished second in the 100 breast, earning a spot on the All-Star team. Emily Dobson was the top qualifier in the 100 fly and finished third securing her place on the All-Star team. Eric "Scrub" Skrabacz was not to be outdone. In one of the best meets of his life, Eric dropped two seconds in the 100 fly to finish a close 2nd and earn his spot on the All-Star team. I think I could have told Eric that the sky was falling and it wouldn't have taken the smile from his face. He finished 4th in 100 back, 3rd in 200 back, 5th in 200 fly, 6th in 200 IM, and 5th in the 400 IM. Will Richards jumped on the bandwagon with a third place finish in the 100 breast and shaved 7 seconds off his time in 200 breast, finished 6th in the 200 IM, also making the All-Star team. Beth Dobson dropped a ton of time and finished an amazing fourth place in the 100 fly. Natalie Morris also finished with a best time and an eleventh place finish. What a race!

Lisa Gabrelcik and Meghan Barber finished 12th & 13th in the 50 breast, respectively. Later in the weekend Meghan finished 10th in the 100 breaststroke. Lisa Gabrelcik finished 6th in 50 free and 4th in 50 fly.

Brittany Culpepper and Davi Clark finished 3rd & 4th in the 10 & under 50-yd breaststroke. Brittany later won the 100 breast, came in 3rd in 100 back, took 4th in the 200 IM, and achieved a 4th place finish in the 50 free. Davi finished 4th in 100 breast, 5th in 50 fly, and during the last individual swim of the weekend dropped 3 seconds off her 100 fly. Taelar Errington swam to a 12th place finish in 50 breast. Taelar and Jennifer Ray finished 12th & 13th in the 50 free. Jennifer also finished 10th in 50 fly.

Also participating in the All-Star meet were Ryan Barber and John Kitner, who both achieved best times in their respective events. Allison Davis (battling a cold) and Breanne Summers (coming off a cold) represented the team well with respectable finishes.

Representing CBAC on the 2002 Maryland All-Star team are:

Brittany Culpepper

Emily Dobson

Lindsey Mummaugh

Will Richards

Eric Scrabacz

They will compete next month in Cherry Hill, NJ.
Coach Chuck was elected by his peers to travel with the team as a coach. Congrats to all!

Junior All-Star Meet - Big Success
From March1st-3rd, blood, sweat, tears, hotdogs, and gallons of thirst-quenchers helped CBAC host one of Maryland's most popular meets. Technical difficulties did not stand in the way of CBAC folks determined to keep the show going.

Thanks to all CBAC parents and swimmers who contributed their time and effort to make this meet a continued success. Since our accomplishments are too numerous to list in this limited space, please check our website for a posting of all results! Two swims that will not be mentioned in the results, but deserve recognition are from Laura Cameron and Matt Koper. They swam their first 500-yd free events and achieved their distance medals.

Fabulous February 9 & Under Meet
The following swimmers did a fantastic job at the fabulous february 9 & Under meet:

Melissa Boughton	Natalie Hewitt
Jamie Branaman	Cole Kimble
Victoria Burrows	Kathryn Lydon
C.J. Culpepper	Lindsey Millen
Kelly Freer	Jennifer Pietsch
Anna Frowein	Keara Schmeiser
Krista Frowein	Jackson Slattery

96% of best times were achieved; giving this group the distinction of having the best CBAC meet to date.

------ REMINDER ------

Parents: PLEASE REMEMBER TO STAY OFF THE DECK DURING MEETS AND PRACTICES!

PARENT'S NEWS by Liz Richards

Jr. All-Star Meet- Another Great Home Meet! - Aside from a few "parking problems", the last home swim meet went off without a hitch! Thanks very much to the many Parents and other family members who worked so hard to make our meet successful. A special thanks to Mardy Millen, our Meet Director, for those awesome awards he organized and for running a super meet! Also, thanks to Joan Bauk and J.R. Brown who, along with the help of a fantastic Concessions Crew, made this Concessions one of our most successful to date!

CBAC Website - A valuable source of information for Parents! - Don't forget to check out the team website at www.cbacswimming.org for all the latest news and information. Linda Davis, the webmaster, does a superb job of keeping the website up to date. You can always find the current calendar, meet schedule and practice schedule, as well as team information such as the handbook, records, meet results and news. Linda has also added links to other sites (MD Swimming and USA Swimming) to make your search for information even easier. Please consider adding your name to our email list, if you haven't done so already, so that you can receive important announcements and team news. During the summer session, communication becomes more difficult because our "folders" and bulletin boards are not available. The website and email distributions will be even more important for team communication - so please get your name on the list!

Your Role As A Swim Parent

Last spring I attended a seminar for Swim Parents at the USA Swimming Swimposium, which took place in Baltimore. USA Swimming's Sue Anderson (Eastern Zone Coordinator) provided us with much information on how to help our child's age group swimming experience be both fun and valuable. The following is a summary of the Responsibilities of the Swim Parent, according to USA Swimming's SwimParent Survival Guide (published by Human Kinetics Publishers, Inc. for USA Swimming, 1997):

1. Encourage your child to swim, but don't pressure.

2. Understand what your child wants from swimming, and provide a supportive atmosphere for achieving these goals.

3. Put your child's participation in perspective. Don't make swimming everything in your child's life; make it a part of life.

4. Keep winning in perspective, and help your child do the same.

5. Help your child set challenging, but realistic performance goals, rather than focusing only on "winning or getting best times".

6. Help your child understand the valuable lessons sports can teach (good sportsmanship, team participation, learning to control emotions, abiding by rules and officials' decisions, being a good loser).

7. Help your child meet responsibilities to the team and to the Coach.

8. Let the Coach do the coaching.

9. Make sure the Coach is aware of any special health conditions that your child has.

The reason why kids participate in age group swimming is because it is fun. Studies done by USA Swimming show that kids stay in the sport when it is fun, but that they leave the sport when they no longer find it to be so. We as parents can help keep the fun in swimming by being supportive, positive, reassuring, and involved. Our team has a supply of Parents' Handbook and SwimParent Survival Guide booklets as well as a Peak Kit (Parent Education & Awareness Kit) for anyone who would like one. Please drop a note in my folder (Richards) or email me at richards@tqci.net if you would like to see a copy.