Update: 5-6-2022
Northside Aquatics Families,
Happy Friday, all! Looking back, my last update was 2-25-22. A lot has been going on, so let me try to bring everybody up to speed.
We have hosted some big events here this Spring so far and we still have a couple to go. Let me first thank all of you that come out and volunteer to make these events happen! The HS teams and our AAAA-NS families helping time at the USMS meet was a huge help, and, believe it or not, we probably got almost as many compliments on you timers as we got on our staff! Many athletes mentioned how thankful they were for the encouragement from the timers before, during, and after the race. We hoped you all enjoyed the experience as much as the athletes did. I know I did, as I timed the afternoon session on Sunday!
If you missed out on these last two events, look for opportunities to help with our next event, the water polo Welcome to Texas Shootout (USAWP), happening over Memorial Day weekend (Saturday & Sunday ONLY). After that, is our big USAS meet, the George Block Invite happening in June. And to end the Summer, we will host the AAU Diving National Championships in July (16th-23rd).
Tomorrow is the NISD Bond Election. Please, if you have not already done so, stop by and cast your vote.
UIL
Since my last message, all of our HS teams completed another successful water polo season - the final one before the inaugural UIL season this Fall. Congratulations to the Brandeis Broncos for capturing the girls and boys Alamo Cup titles this year. Congratulations to the Health Careers girls for advancing to their first final in program history. Congratulations to the Brennan girls for advancing further in the tournament than any other team in program history, as well. Those were just some of the highlights. From Coach Brothers’ and my perspective, the progress we saw in the quality of play each game day was encouraging. Congratulations to all of the coaches and players on that!
Our HS divers completed another successful synchronized diving season, too. I have to give credit again for the concept to Coach Libardoni and Coach Rios for adding this opportunity for our divers in the Spring. Once again, the positive peer pressure to attempt new dives produced results and athletes threw new dives which will pay off in the future. It’s amazing how just pairing up individual divers can bring all of those aspects of being on a team into an individual sport like diving. Good stuff!
We had a very productive HS Coaches meeting last night. We were able to hammer out a lot of details regarding next year’s plan. It was our first non-Zoom meeting in a very long time and I walked out of there feeling good about next year and feeling good about the team of coaches we have here. Coach Brothers and I will now piece together our notes and push out the plan to our coaches. Please, if you are a HS athlete’s parent, reach out to your coaches about specific questions regarding your HS team. They should always be your first stop when you have questions. I have gotten to know many of you, and I am thankful for the conversations I have had with you in order to consider your perspective and bring it into the coaches meetings. What cracks me up is some of the rumors you bring to my attention! Please, if you hear a rumor, reach out to your coach for the truth. Don’t let the outlandish things you hear live and grow. I will share one in the next section that I heard this week…
AAAA-NS
We wrapped up another successful short course season since my last message. Congratulations to our Age Groupers that competed at TAGS this past season especially. It is great to have kids going to this meet every season once again. Kudos to Coach Leigh Ann and her team of Age Group coaches!
Long course season has started! We had our Jelly Bean meet at GBAC, and this weekend we are over at NEISD swimming in the Cinco de Mayo meet. Good luck to all of our athletes!
Our annual team banquet is this Wednesday, poolside, here at the Swim Center. Our Boosters and coaches are putting the finishing touches on the preparations, but there is still time to reach out to the Boosters and see where you can help - not only with the banquet, but with all of the things they do! I enjoy the meetings with the Booster Board because the ladies (ahem, guys where are you?) fill the time with real conversations about how to make our team experience better - for the kids and the parents and the coaches. If you have ideas along those lines, step up, help out, and add to the conversations.
Oh, the rumor I mentioned earlier…Evidently, it has been circulating that we would not have AAAA-NS practices and training during UIL water polo season next Fall. That just floored me when a mom told me that. We were able to continue with USAS practices this Spring during water polo season. That will be the case next Fall as well. Rumor squashed.
NSDA
We have already had one or two travel meets this Spring and Coach Mike and his crew are gearing up for an exciting summer season. Like I mentioned above, we are hosting the AAU National Championships. I will reiterate my challenge to our divers and coaches - let’s get as many divers to this meet as possible and bring home some National hardware!
As always, if you have questions, reach out to your child’s coach, or, if needed, Coach Mike Freese.
Masters
What a fantastic showing our Masters team had at the National Championships! It helps to have the meet in the same pools you practice in! Congratulations to Coach Kim Hansen for getting the athletes prepared and for keeping it so much fun. Congratulations to our swimmers who keep on demonstrating that age is just a number. Coach Olvera stuck around on Sunday after he swam his events and timed with me. After each impressive swim, I would turn to him and say, “No excuses”, meaning, I want our HS coaches pushing our younger athletes to achieve the same goals and successes that our…more experienced…athletes did this Spring. Youngsters, let’s get to it!
Let me close with celebrating the most important people in the world - mothers. Sunday is Mother’s Day, so moms please enjoy this day as the rest of us say the two most important words, in a number of different ways - THANK YOU!!
Thank you all for being a part of what we do here.
Coach Plummer
Anthony Plummer
Asst Athletic Director for Aquatics
Northside ISD
San Antonio, TX
210-397-8988
