Florida Swimming, Inc. - 2003 On-Line House of Delegates Book

To view and/or download some sections of this website you will need Adobe Acrobat Reader. Click on the logo below to download your free copy.

This was a transition year for Florida Swimming, and I want to take this opportunity to thank the Board and our Office Staff, Kiki Cook and Helen Kelly, and all those others who helped to make the year as smooth as possible.

On the “Dry Side” of our sport, this year, Florida Swimming has relocated the office to once again, however this time just around the corner. Implemented a Florida Senior Circuit Program in conjunction with Florida Gold Coast, revamped the entire Florida Swimming All-Star Selection Procedures, and is completing the paper work to change the corporations tax status to 501(c)3. These are only a few of the projects tackled over the year outside of their normal operations as a Board.

At the USAS Convention, held in San Diego, Florida Swimming had eight voting delegates in attendance, all of whom gave of their personal time to represent Florida Swimming. This year’s convention was a bit calmer than last year and a complete listing of all the Rules and Legislation changes are available on the USA Swimming Website.

At the Southern Zone Meetings, the Zone Meet was awarded once again this year to Ft. Lauderdale, which should once again help us financially as we will not incur any airfares this coming year. The 2004 Meet was also bid out and it will be held in Houston. In the election for the Coach Zone Director, Duffy Dillon of Florida Gold Coast, won and will serve a two-year term on the USA Swimming Board of Directors.

On the “Wet Side” of the sport, it was once again a good year for our LSC, with very successful Junior Olympics, Senior Championships and B-Championships. The B-Championship Meets were great developmental meets once again, although still not as well attended as we would like. I would strongly encourage all programs to try to make arrangements to participate in this year’s meets to be held December 6th, in Daytona and Dunedin. We also had our third Sectional Meet, in March, and it was better attended than last year possible due to it being placed in March versus February. This coming year’s meet will be held in mid-January and be long-course, due to the Olympic Year. There were also number of new JO, Florida Swimming and National Age Group Records established by our swimmers and many more achieving National Top 16 Rankings.

The Florida Swimming All-Star Meet Team once again defeated Florida Gold Coast to remain undefeated in the Annual Dual Meet Series, soundly defeating our neighbors to the south. The Florida Swimming Zone Team improved tremendously over the last few years, finishing 4th at the Zone Meet, picking up some new Zone Records, US Open, and National cuts in the process. This due in part to the attitude many of our coaches took toward the meet, using it as the focus of their training for the long course season and the new selection procedure, where athletes new in the spring if they would be on the team instead of just a few days prior to the meet.

We had a number of great performances by our swimmers at the National and International Levels this year, and also had a number of swimmers with ties to our LSC named to the USA Swimming National Teams:

World Championship Team	Scott Tucker, Maritza Correia
Open Water World Championship Team	Briley Bergen
Pan Am Games Team	Eric Donnelly (GSC), Ryan Lochte (DBS), Robert Margalis (SPA), Jamie Reid (HIGH)
World University Games Team	Maureen Farrell (UF)
National A Team	Ryan Lochte (DBS), Scott Tucker
National B Team	Maritza Correia
Scholastic All-America Team	Sherah Aiken (CFM), Christain Baker (ATAC), Denise Bear (TPA), Ashley Carusone (NCFY), Carly Cavalieri (CVST), Chris Caywood (SEA), Natalie Davis (CVST), Mallory Deighan (BSS), Jacqui Dempsey (SCS), Katherine Donohue (TPA), Jennifer Frazier (CBSC), Colleen Healy (SWIM), Leeann Laing (WFLA), Dustin Keeney (LAKE), Katherine Kerfoot (SWIM), Lindsey Largo (SYS), Katie Maaske (BSS), Kristan McIntosh (HIGH), Dustin McLarty (DBS), Veronica Medina (CVST), David Michelson (TPA), Bruce Milburn (SCS), Allison Miller (YTO), Joel Milov (TPA), Laurie Moreau (WFLA), Amanda Nunez (SWIM), Maureen Quinn (SWIM), Amanda Rice (BSS), Caroline Robertson (CFM), Heather Roka (GCST), Krystina Sarff (BSTC), Oriana Schwindt (TPA), Annie Shinn (TPA), Cory Smith (NCFY), Desiree Stahley (TPA), Taylor Stallings (SCS), Abby Strang (BSS), Chris Sullivan (SWIM), Jamie Taaffe (BSD), Russell Wilder (NCFY), Chelsea Woodcock (BSTC)

Finally, as this is my last meeting a General Chairman, I would like to thank all those who have served on the Board over the past four years, those others who have given of their time to help me in my duties as Chairman and especially our office staff, Kiki and Helen.

Florida Senior Circuit in cooperation with Florida Gold Coast was implemented in 2003 with the goal of increasing competition at the senior level in the state of Florida. It was extremely successful and will be continued to be developed in 2004.

YTO host team did a very nice job running the meet. The time line was much better than previous summer.

Head Coach—Bryan Welter, Assistant Coaches—Todd Mann, Helen Ryan, Ben Swinehart, and Nancy Hennessy.

4th Place overall—40 points out of second place. 11-12 Girls and 17-18 Boys won their age group divisions. Great format with 2 pools and great time line. No 17-18 Girls! Felt this was due to High School season being moved 3 weeks earlier. (Definitely the point spread difference from 2nd place to 4th.) New selection process seemed to work well filling all the events with depth. Wild Card selection to fill the last spot on the team was discussed. Coaches that prepared their kids solely for Zones, because of the early selection process, their athletes swam great! Noticeable difference in these athlete’s performances. Doubletree Hotel—right across the street from the pool, very convenient. Chaperones—Mitch Norton and Mike Craddock. Collected $100 at the beginning of the trip and kept running calculations and reimbursed any monies left at the end of the week. Great plan. Equipment for athletes—3 T-shirts, 1 hat, 2 pair of shorts, cap. Zone Camp—Good idea, planned to late. Want to incorporate Zone Camp in closed “camp weekend”, in April, 2004.

Zone Meet—Rave reviews for Stu Marvin and FLST. 2 pools and time line much aplauded. Changed format to 4 1/2 days for 2004, location, in Fort Lauderdale, because the only bid to host. Combined 15-16 and 17-18 athletes and limited to 10 athletes per gender in this age group. Reasons—17-18 slower than 15-16 in most cases and hard to fill a full slate in both age groups. Discussion that our LSC would still choose five (5) 15-16 and five (5) 17-18 athletes in each gender to fill this age group. Added an additional athlete to 11-12 and 13-14 age groups totaling 7 athletes per gender in each age group, number of athletes still totaling 48. 2004 dates in Fort Lauderdale—August 3-8, 2004. In finals session swim number of lanes available and score same number. Winning team gets banner and each athlete is awarded a t-shirt, the same for Open Water Champions.

Retention of Boys—Hot topic. NBAC, Alamo Area. Separate boys from girls—ratios have gone from 2:1 (girls to boys) to 1:1 almost evenly.

2003 Age Group Female & Male “Athlete of the Year”:		2003 Age Group Female & Male “Athlete of the Year”:
Short Course		Long Course
10 & Under Kaitlin Frehling	10 & Under Tommy Gutman	10 & Under Jenny Yazbec	10 & Under Matthew Thompson
11-12 Chelsea Franklin	11-12 Austin Detra	11-12 Chelsea Franklin	11-12 Ryan O’Shaughnessy
13-14 Chelsea Nauta	13-14 Alex Forbes	13-14 Kelly Gillis	3-14 Skylar Stroman
15-16 Julie Carusone	15-16 Yi Khy Saw	15-16 Stephanie Carr	15-16 Yi Khy Saw
17-18 Ashley Carusone	17-18 Chris George	17-18 Anja Carman	17-18 Ryan Lochte

First, I want to say congratulations to all of our swimmers and teams that lowered records during the past swim season. One new thing for this season is that I tried to put all new records in bold red text so it should be easier to locate them when going through the records file on our Florida Swimming web site. When next years Florida Swimming book is printed the new records for last season will be bold only (not in red color).

I want to say thank you to the teams that submitted Records Applications and I do try to catch the new records that are not submitted by looking through results and the Florida Swimming Top 10 list, but there is still a chance that I miss some of the records not submitted (applications and my mailing address is available on the web site).

National Records have to be submitted to USA Swimming on the appropriate applications as I’m not able to send in an e-mail stating that a NAG record was established; regardless of what meet the records swum.

Chelsea Franklin (GCST) 11-12 Girls 800M Free, 1500M Free, 1000Y Free, 1650Y Free

Patriot Aquatic (PA) 11-12 Girls 200 Medley Relay, 200 Free Relay (Kaley Michael, Kristine Gu, Samantha Sherdel, Lauren Lundberg)

Florida Swimming had LSC records lowered in 45 different events; 9 new Sectional records were done by swimmers from Florida Swimming to go along with 40 Junior Olympic/Senior Championship meet records.

The Florida Swimming Top 10 is done using Hy-Tek’s Team Manager. Most of the meet results were turned in on disk in either an SDI or Comlink format, which made tabulating the Top 10 more efficient. The database includes 105 short course and long course meets with approximately 89 of those meets on disk. Every swim of a meet submitted on disk are in the database. In order for a meet to be included and to have a more accurate FS Top 10 and USA Swimming Top 16, your Meet Directors must send a hard copy of the meet results and a disk to the Florida Swimming office.

The Florida Swimming Top 16 and NTV’s have all been submitted to USA Swimming. Thank you to all of you that submitted results on the appropriate forms and meet disks.

2003 saw a higher number of coaches becoming members and being involved in the FSCA than had participated in 2002. However, it is nowhere near the level of participation and support we need to further develop our sport in Florida. Not much has been done on behalf of the FSCA for our coaches, which is a major goal in 2004. However, we did hold a coaches’ meeting at the Long Course Junior Olympics that was very well attended, and look forward to holding more of these sessions at other meets. We will be focusing our efforts on a yearly clinic and family day each spring for our coaches and their families, hosting a coach social at both Junior Olympics, restarting a quarterly newsletter to keep the coaches up to date with important information, maintaining constant information on the Florida Swimming website, as well as encouraging ALL coaches in Florida Swimming to become a member of this association. I hope to not only provide information for all of the coaches, but receive useful information from all of the coaches as well.

I would like to thank everyone for their help this past year and look forward to a great 2004.

Adapted swimming in the United States is in full swing with many championships to look forward to. Mikhael Keyser from Lake Placed, Florida is a member of the National team for 2003. He is the only member on the Paralympics team from Florida. He competed in June at the Canadian Open Championships for Swimmers with a disability. Congratulations to Mikhael on his excellent season.

Now on a different note. I am asked the question often so I want to clarify what an adapted swimmer is. These athletes have a disability that could be physical, visual or hearing impaired. A special Olympic athlete is mentally handicapped as their primary label. I was selected last year as an aquatic coach for the Special Olympic World Games held in Ireland, in June. It was an absolutely unbelievable experience. There were 7,000 athletes from around the world. Our four women swimmers from Florida brought home seven medals between them.

Anyone interested in how to start either an adapted or Special Olympic program, please feel free to contact me, my number is in the Florida Swimming book. I am always looking to add to our programs.

“One of my goals for the years I have had the privilege of serving as the Junior and then Senior Athlete Representative to the FS Board of Directors is to improve communication. When Grant was on the Board, we worked on a web page and distributed a survey to our co-swimmers. The feedback we received was helpful and allowed us to better represent other athletes.

This past year, I hoped to take improving communication to the next level. I e-mailed many of the coaches in an effort to get a swimmer contact and his/her e-mail address. The goal here was to have a direct way we could communicate with swimmers throughout the state, get their input on important issues and then pass on their suggestions to the Board. I currently have names and addresses for approximately ten teams and will continue getting more.

It has truly been a honor to serve on the Board. Julie will soon assume Senior rep responsibilities and I know she’ll do a great job. As I start to look towards college and continuing my swimming, I realize how much this sport and all the coaches and friends I have made mean to me. Thank you to everyone who helped me along the way.”

Before I report on what I did at the USAS Convention, I would like to thank my Florida LSC for giving me the opportunity to participate.

During the second week in September, I was able to attend the USAS National Convention held in San Diego, CA. I arrived on Tuesday night, but there were no meetings until Wednesday morning. My first meeting was The Early Show for new Delegates. There I learned who to find when I had a question, needed help, or got lost. The next meeting I attended was an athlete’s meet and greet where I met many swimmers from all over the country. Later in the afternoon, the first athlete’s meeting was held where we did a mock run of what was to happen in the House of Delegates meeting.

On Thursday morning, my first meeting was a Southern Zone Meeting. There Kimie was elected to be an athlete representative on the Southern Zone Committee with along with a swimmer from Mississippi. Kimie and the boy from Mississippi met after the meeting and discussed possible changes to the zone meet format and age group points, which were voted on at Friday’s meeting. Next was an athlete’s meeting. I had to sit on the floor in the back. Because of that, I had difficulty hearing, but heard bits and pieces of discussions about some rules and regulations. That same afternoon, there was another athlete’s meeting where the Co-CEO’s of USA Swimming came in to speak to us about what they do and then entertain any questions we had. The entire meeting was taken up by the adapted swimmers arguing that they don’t get enough funding. Their opinion was that USA Swimming doesn’t follow it’s mission statement when it comes to adapted swimmers.

On Friday morning, I went to the Tool To Be A Successful Swimmer meeting where there was a panel of six athletes to whom we just asked questions about their journey to their successes. The panel consisted of Tom Wilkens, rowdy Gaines, a swimmer fro the University of Arizona, two small college swimmers, and a 16 year old

Zone Meeting where several proposals from the day before were passed. The meet will now have a 4 1/2 day format because of time management concerns if there is only one pool able to be run. There are 7 people in the 14 and under age groups per gender. The 15-16 and 17-18 age groups are combined into 15-18. Ten swimmers are in this age group instead of 7. This still makes a total of 48 swimmers. There will be no 11-12 200’s swum. All teams can enter unlimited amounts of swimmers in each event, but still must follow the rule of 6 events per swimmer in the entire meet and maximum 3 events per day. All lanes in the meet facility will be swum in finals, with all lanes scoring. Zones for the summer of 2004 will be held in Ft. Lauderdale, Fl. Again. In 2005 it will be held in Houston, TX. You are now able to bid two years in advance to host the meet.

The first House of Delegates meeting was held Friday night. It mostly consisted of the State of USA Swimming address, award presentation, and videos on promoting USA Swimming and its athletes. The final House of Delegates meeting was held on Saturday morning from 8 a.m. to around 1 p.m. In it, many proposed amendments were passed, with a few being pulled for argument. A couple main arguments dealt with starts, coaches supervision at meets, election times of certain delegates in accordance to the USAS National Convention, and recruiting as a violation of the Code of Conduct.

In the up coming year for Florida Swimming I would like to see a raise in the number of senior swimmers. Many ideas have been taken into consideration in order to make the Junior Olympic meet the best it could be. Taking out the 10 & under finals will help with making strides to a better and faster meet.

Thanks again to the Florida LSC for allowing me to attend the USAS National Convention.