Final Day at 2008 Long Course Nationals/Positive Energy

Sorry for my lack of blogging about everything that happened on the last night (Friday) of Y Nationals. Actually I am not sure that anyone could have predicted what actually happened in College Park, Maryland. I go back and think about it now, and it is astounding every time I think about it of watch the video's. After the awards were presented (video), the team went to Dave and Busters. It was 10:45pm before we got seated and had our dinner. As I looked around at the 21 WSY athletes sitting at the table it really hit me what an amazing trip this meet had been. We had several athletes that were new to our team, three swimmers from our NYAC family, and several first time swimmers at a National level meet. The last 6 days brought this group closer as a team and gave everyone memories that will last a lifetime. Other than Leah and Harry all of these swimmers will be at 2009 Spring Nationals along with new WSY qualifiers to that meet. This 2008 National came together and worked as a team. This is the type of Positive Energy that must be present within our team at these meets. I know in previous years I have tried to explain Positive Energy, but there is no explanation better than what happened over the last 6 days. We were up at 5:15am each day, and finally in bed by 9:30-10pm, so I know the swimmers were tired. Ben and Jess were at the meet to swim one event on tghe very last day, yet managed to do their lifetime best times. Girls Relays - Out of the 5 relays, WSY won 4 of them AND set four new National YMCA Records, plus one new University of Maryland Pool Record. I can not tell you how many coaches asked me "Mike...How did this happen??". I can only go back to what I attempted to explain for 4-5 years now, the effect of Positive Energy. As a team we did not allow ourselves to get caught up in any drama within the team, we did not allow ourselves to get caught up in any type of relay disputes, when challenges came along, we dealt with them, and them moved on for what was best for the team. We had awesome attitudes, and worked together as a team. All 21 swimmers, no matter if they scored points or swam a lifetime best time, they were at the meet for one purpose......WSY. 19 of the 21 swimmers will be going into the 2008-2009 season with this meet fresh in their minds, and will be taking all of the experiences from this meet through 30 weeks of training with the outcome being 2009 Short Course Nationals in Fort Lauderdale in April. We will again take the power of Positive Energy and use it to accomplish team goals at that meet. We finally got back to the team hotel after Dave and Busters about 1:30am (Saturday morning), and I think everyone, including myself "crashed" as we were departing at 8am on Saturday. Now for what happened Friday evening in College Park:

Prior to our departure, we had our final team meeting of the meet where we talked about something new we learned about each other during the trip, and Leah and Harry gave their last "Thought of the Day" as a member of our WSY National Team. Over the years these team meetings have been alot of fun. One of the other fin parts of the trip is the WSY National Team Journals. Each of the athletes is given a Journal at the beginning of the week to write down their thoughts and any improvements they would like to see in the trip. The swimmers are asked to be honest and open as the only person that reads these journals is myself. Over the last 8 or 9 years we have been doing this, there have been some great journals. Some of the swimmers actually fill every page, and I actually get an inside perspective of their life. When we got to the pool, we had our normal finals warm up for all of the swimmers that were participating in tonight's events. Carly had to be extra careful with the amount of energy she had and to be sure she was warm ed up properly as she had the tough double of 1500 free and 200 fly (within 50 minutes). She seemed relaxed and ready for the challenge. She had a great mile and looked strong, and ended up 5th with a lifetime best time. She got out of the pool, got hydrated and was in the warm down pool to prepare of the 200 fly. She had Jess Burkett go to the awards podium to accept her award (Jess is really looking forward to swimming the 1500 free at Nationals after that experience). Up next was the 200 free relays. The girls were up first (video), and WSY showed their "sprint speed"......and after this relay all I keep hearing is the WSY are now sprinters. My response has always been that if you train for Mid Distance and Distance type events, you will always be able to drop down and sprint. A great example of the Positive Energy" within the team was this relay. Alie, Steph, Lauren, and Leah put together a great relay to not only win the relay, we set a new Y National Record, and new University of Maryland Pool Record(results). We had some happy swimmers after this event. The guys took this energy into their relay. The guys were in the "Consol Final" and had to show their stuff. (video/results). We won the Consol final, and I think the guys were reminded once again that you need to swim hast in the morning heats in order to make the Top 8 at night. That has always been one of our goals at the Nationals meet, place all 10 WSY relays in the Top 8 at night, but in order to be represented at night, you need to swim fast in the morning. 200 fly was up next. Carly was ready for the double (swam the mile earlier). She was in the consol final, and swam a very controlled race. I know Carly is looking forward to this double in future years, and with every experience comes new learning. Carly "passed the test", and I know is relay for Spring when she can perform this double again. I was very proud of the way she performed with this double. (results). Leah and Emily were up next in the final heat (video/results). This would be Leah's final race of her Y National career (attending Nationals since she has been 12). This race also represented a turning point in the meet. After Thursday evening we were 60 points behind Spartansburg YMCA (Middle Tyger) for the National Championship (WSY has never won a Team Title at the National Meet). We needed a 1-2 finish in this race. Leah was going to deliver a very impressive 2:09.96 (37th fastest time in the world this year) and Emily was right behind her with a 2:18.53 (Emily's previous best time had been 2:23.53). A 1-2 finish was what the WSY Girls needed to move into first place as we knew our competition did not have a relay in the 400 Medley (due to a DQ in the morning heats). Our WSY 50 backstrokers were up next. On the men's side, Eric and Kevin showed some great sprint speed (Eric - Results/Video) (Kevin - Results/Video). In the end Kevin was 3rd and Eric was 10th. It was important for the WSY guys to continue to score their share of points as were had a race in the Total Team race as well. The guys did not let down. They felt the positive energy as well. Stephanie "SK" Kinsey was up next. (video/results). Steph ended up 6th with a great improvement over her time from the morning.

We ended up the meet with the swimmers favorite, the 400 medley relay. The girls were up first, and other than the 200 free relay, the WSY girls had won and set new National records in every other relay of the meet, so this relay provided a bit of challenge for the girls. I remember telling Claire before she swam that there is a possibility that she would be in for a good race as the anchor freestyle leg of the relay and I had 100 percent confidence in her to "bring it home", and wow....did all four girls deliver. (Video/Results). This relay took a group effort from all four girls, and all four were better or right at their lifetime best times in this relay, which won, and cleared the Boyertown National Record and gave WSY their 9th National record for the meet. WSY guys were up next. (video/results). Kevin took in out very fast, and JB, Eric, and Harry finished it up in style for a 4th place finish ending what will go down as one of my most remembered National meets in my 18 years at WSY (trust me.....I do not remember any of the National Meets where I was swimming back in the 80's...as most times I was cheering my team mates, as I was not fast enough to me in the evening finals)

After all of the swimming was over, WSY Girls took the team title, the WSY guys were a very impressive 4th, and we were National Runner-ups as a total team (scores). As I am sitting here writing this it comes with sadness that we must see Leah and Harry depart this team, although I know both of them are looking forward to the next chapter in their lives and that is NCAA competition, and being a student/athlete at the next level. We wish them both great success, as I know both of them will be following our National Team in April. It also is with great happiness that I am looking ahead 35 weeks when we will again come together at Short Course Nationals in Fort Lauderdale and over 20 WSY swimmers will come together again and use Positive Energy to bring our team great results.

Thanks to everyone over the last week, from WSY parents to WSY Coaches Kim, Scott and Kristen, all of the WSY swimmers and parents back home that emailed or tex'd us well wished. I also have to thank Garrett at Floswimming.org . If you have never been to his website, it is great, and Garrett does all of this because of his love for the sport. He travels all over the World to get swimming video all on a very low budget. I know he is departing Tuesday for Beijing and he will get us some great video from the Olympic Games. Thanks to my buddy Jason at Swimming World Magazine for giving YMCA swimming such excellent coverage.

As always, thanks for following, and for all of the WSY swimmers that could not be with us, I look forward to you being with us in the next few years, and the WSY Alum, I look forward to you continuing to follow the team/family that you helped me build over the last 18 years. September 2nd will be here in a few weeks where we will again come together for some fun and excitement.

.....as we move forward........................Mike