April newsletter from Coach Zell.

April Tulip meet:

This was a huge success for Barracuda Swimming Athletes. Our athletes had 81% best times, with many new “A" cuts for the championship meets this summer. A Huge Thank You to all of our great coaches for preparing the athletes so well!

Money to operate club:

The dues only cover the coach’s wages & taxes. They do not go towards the operating expenses unless there is a surplus which rarely happens.    

Fundraising:

This is how we pay for all the things involved with operating the club. Effective May 1^st all High School maintenance will be responsible for Fundraising for the summer season in the amount of $125.00. if you do not plan to stay I need to know by April 25^th in writing to me. All Short Course season fundraising is due by April 25^th.

Equipment costs and investment in our athletes:

We purchase equipment that helps make our athletes better swimmers. That includes our own timing equipment for running meets. Underwater cameras, new underwater mirror that on their way, dry land equipment, and many others.

Help at meets:

Meets are for your swimmers. We need everyone to help out before, during, and especially after the meet to clean up. Just putting in a couple of hours timing or working in the concessions is not enough. Many of the core group of parents work the entire meet including weeks before getting ready. This puts allot of burden on very few parents when we have many more that could pitch in and help out. If you’re not sure of the jobs contact any of the ones listed below or email me and I will forward it to them. It takes me almost a day to get everything back into storage which includes at least 3 trips from the pool after everyone else leaves and goes home. So Please get involved. These meets are also what makes and keeps the dues and fundraising so low.

Dedicated parents:

I want to think Tonya Prewitt who without her help these meets would not happen. Also Beka, Julie, Cindy, Valerie, and other families who work countless hours to make this happen.

Officials:

We need new Stroke and Turn Officials, without them the athletes times do not count. Valerie Anderson & Beka Gomez (dedicated Officials) sets up on Friday night then works the entire meet, and helps break down after the meet. It would be nice to have more so they could get breaks during the meet.  

Woodburn Pool Closure:

Woodburn pool will be closed from April 27 thru May 10^th for maintenance and I will post practice schedules for both Silverton and Molalla when I have them.

Website:

The website is an informational tool. We have to pay extra for the billing program and a percentage for any money run thru it. It is not cost effective to do this as with the economy I would have to increase the dues to cover the cost for those who would pay online. Meets are entered on a meet sheet and coaches pick your swimmers events. Using the website would not help with this.

Checking the website is important as I and others post new information up when we have them.

Athlete’s times will be updated when I can do it. This is a complicated process which I hope gets easier in the future.

If anyone would like to help keep it current please let me know. If you have complaints please let me know and I will find a job for you to do to help us out.

I have watched this club go from non-existence (Oct. 2002) to a club who is growing in 3 communities today. This comes from hard work and thousands of dollars invested into it by Linda and I. We new when we started we were taking a chance and it has paid off. We have seen many athletes excel thru the years and out there in our group is National level swimmers being made. It doesn’t matter to me which pool they come from but that it happens. That effort & energy needs to come from the entire group and it could be your athlete who gets to go to college for free on a swimming scholarship or that gets to travel to a foreign country to a USA sponsored meet. I have had them in the past and it will happen again.

Sponsorships:

Linda and I have always tried to help families who were going thru hard times. We expect those families to fundraise & help out where they can more so as we are financially helping them. We are still willing to help families if they are willing to help us. If you find your family in this situation please do not quit because you can’t pay. Let us help your athletes and we can find you something to do to help us. We are currently revaluating those families to see what they can do to offset the moneys we cover for their athletes.

Questions:

Feel free to send me questions by email or leave them in my grey box at WMAC.

Fees:

Coaches are not to receive any fees, please mail them or leave them at WMAC in the gray box.

Thank you,

Coach Zell

04-06-09