A Special Appreciation Blast for our parents...

FRST Family,

Following a long weekend, I’ve had a few moments (yes, just a few) to reflect on our “FRST Meet of Fall” and I want to share a great deal of appreciation for you all.  In my opinion, this was as seamless a meet as we’ve had from a logistics standpoint, as well as on the hosting front.  Simply put:  You all made it a success.

As someone that just stepped into the “family” chapter of my life, I have an entirely different appreciation for your time.  Spending time with my wife and my son has taken on a new priority and admittedly, I’m more appreciative of your time than ever.  Thank you for what you’ve given this program.

Whether it was food or drink in the hospitality room, or our ease at the admissions process, our parents were terrific this weekend.  The decorations were on point and positive comments were shared by a ton of coaches.  

Hosting meets is the lifeblood of this program and allows us to offset some of the costs for training trips, for travel meets, membership dues, for coaching pay, and even our equipment.  FRST aims to provide the best possible experience, training, and coaching that we can to this community and your efforts make the difference for our program.

On behalf of our kids and our coaches, I wanted to give a couple shout outs! (I hate doing this because inevitably I will forget some of the most important people.  If you are one of these, please know that I appreciate your efforts.)

• For the amazing decorations and making this meet festive, thank you to Rachel Beach and Aimee Alyea for countless hours of your time and energy.  The halloween decorations were incredible and the banner beneath the fort was one of the coolest things I’ve seen in my 11 years at FRST.

• For always coordinating the admission table, staying organized, and making sure that our guests are greeted with a smile, thank you to Heather Demaree, Kelly Stephon and Patty Booth.  They aren’t the only ones, but our admissions table is terrific.

• For executing a seamless meet on an admin side, thank you to Joe Small and Kevin Smith.  These guys are the brains and muscle behind making sure that our meets are attractive from start to finish.

• For putting in years of work, time, and energy to become our 1st Meet Referee within our program, thank you to David Schotting.  Without David, we’d be crawling across the state to find a certified referee to officiate our meets. He’s always volunteering his time, doing so with class and a positive attitude.

• For incredible food, quality meat, and always making sure our guests and volunteers are well-fed, thank you to the Holtz’s for always going above and beyond the call of duty to make sure our hospitality is stocked with delicious food.  I know there’s many more people that man the hospitality and please know that coaches often pick their meet schedule based on your performances!  We’re great at this.  (I know because I’ve been to a thousand hospitality rooms at this point.)

• To our longest running chair within our meets, who leads the charge on the concessions, thank you to Angie Thaine.  She cleans, she’s always organized, and she’s always the bright smile I can count on early in the morning. ;-)

• For the quickest turnaround in awards history, huge shout out to the Alyea/Helvie team for their outstanding work with ribbons.  I know the Myers family has their fingerprints all over this training!

• Lastly, but certainly not least of all, for the 20+ hours, countless emails, and coordinating it all… thank you to Staci Finney for being easy to work with, always a ray of sunshine, and seemingly always keeping your head above the water through stressful times.  You’re a pleasure to work with.

Paul Stockett, our meet director, puts a ton of effort into planning each and every meet.  He’s the foundation behind our equipment staying healthy and he’s always on top of entries, emails, and so much more.  It’s a thankless job and in many ways it’s like playing on the offensive line in football.  When he’s good, never will he get the recognition he greatly deserves.  When there are hiccups, criticisms will always be directed at him. It’s not easy, but he makes it look that way.  Thank you, Paul.

As always, thank you for your passion, patience, and support for FRST.  You all are the reason that this place is special.  Thank you.

ZD