|
|
|
Huntsville InvitationalAfter series of intense competitions all hosted by our incredible Ensworth Aquatics volunteers, our team is ready to travel for the first away meet in over a year! We hope to have a great showing at HSA's Long Course Invitational on June 25 - June 27.
If your athlete plans to compete and has not committed to the meet, use the button below to register. The deadline to register is TODAY!
| |
|
Registration for 2021-2022
Registration for the 2021-2022 season will soon open. We are asking that all families complete this form to let us know if you plan to register your child for the next season. This information will help us decide how many placement trials we will hold for new swimmers interested in our team.
Please be on the lookout next week for information from Cissy Fleet about open Registration.
| |
|
|
Officially Summer Write Up
There is nothing better than a swim meet with spectators! Our Officially Summer Invitational is always our first big meet of the summer. This year it took on special importance as the first meet since the January 2020 Frostbite Invite where spectators filled the stands of the Ensworth Natatorium.
Not only did we have spectators, but we had more teams (outside of championship meets like Southeasterns or State) at our pool than any other meet we have hosted in the past 15 months.
All in all, Ensworth Aquatics athletes did a great job! There were more than 30 best times for Stingrays and fewer than 5 disqualifications! Our 10 & Unders achieved 27 Southeastern Swimming cuts while the 11-12 age group had 61 SES Cuts!
Many athletes swam events in this meet for the first time since the summer of 2019, so there were more than a few best times. The challenge now is for our swimmers to use those times as benchmarks for improvement through the season. With our next meet coming up soon in Huntsville many will have the opportunity to reflect on those benchmarks as they make goals for the weeks ahead.
How is the Season Shaping Up:
Junior Group Shout Out by Coach Marli
The juniors swam well in our second long course meet of the season. Many swimmers had swum the same events in April and still went personal best times. We had multiple southeastern qualifying times as well.
Juniors are swimming great at practice as we move into the long course season. We had many juniors step out of their comfort zones and swim longer events. The following swimmers swam the 800 free: Lilly Robertson, Leah Jackson, Meagan Horne, Allison Henschel, Alex Johnson, and Cabot McKinney. Each of them went best times and it was a first for Alex, Megan, and Allison. Our younger juniors swam the 400 FR. Emma Emch placed 3rd and Elliot Emch placed 1st! Lilly Robertson came in first in the 100 and 200 freestyles, and Allison Henschel placed first in the 100 breaststroke. Another special shoutout to Megan Horne and Cabot McKinney for swimming the 400 IM.
Congratulations on a great job with fast swimming. We are excited to see what they can do in Huntsville!
Stingray Shout Out by Coach Victoria
Did you know a pack of Stingrays is called a fever? It is an appropriate term for our Stingrays because this fever was on fire at the Officially Summer Invitational. We had stellar swims (more than 32 best times), but just as important, we had LEGAL swims! Our mighty Stingrays had fewer than 5 disqualifications in the entire meet - that is a record! We are so proud of every race, but we're especially proud of our Stingrays who stepped up to compete in their first long course competition. These first-timers' nerves were no doubt put at ease by the incredible support of the "Cheering Station" that lined the pool, which was filled with other Stingrays, Dolphins, and Sharks. This is what it means to be a #TeamOfFriends
| |
|
Open Water Zones
Matthew Hughes, Anna Jackson, Jake Mason, and Lilly Robertson traveled to Chattanooga last weekend to compete in the 2021 Southern Zone Open Water Championships. We’re exceptionally proud of our teammates who represented our LSC and posted strong performances in what many might perceive as an intimidating venue: Open Water! Shout out to Matthew Hughes (4th place finish in the 15-16 division), Anna Jackson (7th place open division), and Jake Mason (4th place open division).
| |
|
Fuel for the Pool
Shout out to Coach Marli McIntire, who recently contributed to the Streamlineteams.org blog where she discusses her favorite topic, Athlete Nutrition. The blog is designed to help coaches effectively recognize and discuss nutrition with swimmers in a variety of common scenarios. Thank you, Marli, for sharing your expertise with the broader swimming community and promoting Ensworth Aquatics as a team that is concerned with the whole athlete, not just when they are in the pool.
If you are interested in reading Coach Marli's blog, click on the button below.
| |
|
High School All-Region Teams
We must congratulate all of the Ensworth Aquatics swimmers named to the All-Region Teams for their success during the high School Swimming and Diving Season. Athletes named to the First Team All-Region are Emily Harris, Morgan Carteaux, Lindy Hunter, Anna Jackson, Lexi Stewart, Rob McCall, Jake Mason, Oliver Pilkinton, Jonathan Henschel. Athletes named to Second Team All-Region are Julia Mason,
Parker Lynch, Hannah Neilsen, Christian McIntire, Gray Attmore
| |
|
Changes to Summer Schedule
We have added an early morning practice time for Senior and Senior 1 athletes who may have morning jobs that keep them from being able to attend our normally scheduled practice. We will also be moving two of the Marlins practices to the evenings to see if we get better attendance.
Beginning next week, the Marlins will have practice on Monday and Wednesday from 10:00 a.m. - 11:15 a.m. (as currently scheduled) and Tuesday and Thursday from 5:30 - 6:45 p.m.
| |
|
Long Course Meet Schedule
For detailed meet information, visit TeamUnify and look for the Swim Meets tab under the Events section, but here are the competitions Ensworth Aquatics will compete in this long course season:
- Huntsville Long Course Invitational on June 25 - 27, 2021
- July Long Course Invitational on July 9 - 11, 2021
- Long Course Southeastern Championships on July 15 - 18, 2021
- Futures Championships on July 29 - August 1, 2021
Short Course Meets
This is the plan for the short course meet schedule. Please note that “Likely” means those meets are ones in which our swimmers will participate and we expect to be held on the indicated weekends. Additional meets may be added for our Senior Swimmers as they are added to the USA Swimming Calendar.
- Sept. 18-19 - Invitational (At Ensworth)
- Oct. 8-10 - (At Ensworth)
- Late Oct / Nov - Travel Meet
- Dec. 3 - 5 Holiday Classic (At Ensworth)
- Dec. 10 - 12 Junior Nationals (TBA)
- Dec. 11 - Marshmallow Mini (At Ensworth)
- Jan 14 - 17 - Frostbite Invite (At Ensworth)
- Jan. 28 - HS Region (Likely)
- Jan. 29 - MS Championship (Likely)
- Feb. 11-12 HS State
- Feb. 19-20 - Region Champs
- Feb. 25 - 27 - SES Champs
- March - Age Group Zones
| |
|
Ensworth Aquatics Grand Prix Series
Our coaching staff is working on a schedule for what will be a “Grand Prix Series” for our team, inspired in part by the ISL (International Swim League). We will be splitting our entire team into 4 different teams and use selected Saturday practices as “Meet Days.” These will NOT be sanctioned until the final Grand Prix meet. Instead, we will use our practice time (7 am to 10 am for Senior, Senior 1, Junior, and 10 am to 12 pm for Stingrays, Dolphins, Sharks, Marlins) for the coaches and athletes to run the meets. We will keep a running score by teams and the champion will be decided after our final meet.
One goal is to utilize USA Swimming’s IMX and IMR programs to get all athletes to swim all of the events required to earn a score. A second goal is to use the sanctioned, final meet as a fun and exciting opportunity for many of our swimmers to have another chance to earn Southeastern cuts.
We plan to host the practice meets on these Saturdays: September 18, September 25, October 30,
and November 20. We plan to host the sanctioned meet on January 8.
We will provide more information on the meet formats, teams, and scoring towards the beginning of the short course season. We are also looking for Team Names and would like your athletes to be the ones to come up with them. Please have your swimmer use the button to submit ONE TEAM NAME. Once we have enough submissions we will let the swimmers vote on the best names.
| |
|
Payment Processing
A quick word on updating credit cards in TeamUnify. When updating credit cards on your account, please mark Use for Fees Associated With Your Account and Use for On-Demand Payments. Also, if a credit card expires or is compromised and you need to remove it from the account, please notify Cissy Fleet at eaqadmin@ensworth.com as it requires an administrator to make that change. Include only the last 4 digits and the expiration date of the credit card to be removed from the account.
| |
|
Seniors in Training
Our senior swimmers are in a Christmas Training mindset in the middle of summer. That means 9 practices per week (3 doubles), intensive weights and dry-land, and lots of long course.
It also means that those who are here consistently for practice will reap the benefits of the training. Our coaches always plan with the expectation that all athletes will be at all practices, which means we are not planning to modify it for the person who has work and has to miss or leave early, or the swimmer goes on vacation in the middle of the summer.
We know from decades of experience that while the hard work pays off, it does not do so without consistency. The athletes who will benefit the most from this summer’s training are the ones who are here every practice to take part in it. While things will come up that keep swimmers from the pool, our goal is for the swimmers not to schedule things that take them away from the opportunity to train for the goals they have set for themselves.
The work the kids are doing has been great. After two weeks of grueling training, while adjusting to the schedule of doubles, we have seen lifetime best swims and a collective desire to push each other. We are hearing swimmers at the end of sets turn to teammates to say, “One more. You can do it!” That positivity becomes contagious, and the more we are here to spread it the greater the reward will be next month.
| |
|
Shark Attack
The Sharks group has been doing a lot of fast kicking in practice and other coaches see the group and remark, “Those kids can KICK!” The Sharks have done modified versions of Senior group practice sets to inspire them to beat the seniors. These kinds of sets use an athlete’s best time so that results can be objectively appropriate no matter how old the athlete is. To put it plainly, our Sharks are doing a great job at practice and in meets! With 61 SES cuts from our last meet alone, many are improving at a great rate. A few things that parents can be helpful with are:
- Make sure your athlete has all of their own equipment every day: Fins, Snorkel, red Strokemaker paddles (or a similar size from another brand), buoy.
- Help ensure your athletes are on time for practice or, if they are not on time (which happens), urge them to hurry once they arrive on deck.
| |
|
Dolphins, Llamas of the Sea
The Dolphins group is doing a great job building skills and learning to train. Many of the swimmers took on new events during the last meet, from the 100 Butterfly to the 400 Freestyle. While many of these challenges appeared daunting, these Dolphins took them on with enthusiasm and learned that they can do it!
| |
|
Stingrays on the Loose
Following Saturday practice, our Stingrays took a half-mile nature walk to find a party waiting for them under Pavillion 5 at Percy Warner Park. Special thanks to the Stingrays parents who helped in making the party a success. In a year where our team has been unable to gather, it felt incredibly special to spend time enjoying lunch with these training buddies.
| |
| Official Training
You've heard it before, but what is one more plug: We Need Officials! If you have ever considered becoming an official, please follow this link to get information on how to get started. Please reach out to Cissy Fleet or Alex Hughes for more information on what is involved with this incredibly important position.
| |
|
Birthday Shout Outs
Big shout out to our Ensworth Aquatics teammates with June birthdays. We wish each of these fantastic athletes the Happiest of Birthdays:
- Daniel Stark, June 2
- Anderson Attmore, June 2
- Tyler Fernandez, June 4
- Cameron Davis, June 9
- Max Kohler, June 10
- Bryant Butts, June 10
- Addie Gill, June 11
- Brady Douglas, June 15
- Sarah Morgan Miller, June 15
- Emily McWilliams, June 16
- Emily Harris, June 17
- Naiya Patel, June 20
- Adeline Spears, June 24
- Emma Stephens, June 25
- Tyson Neff, June 25
- Ophelia Pilkinton, June 26
| |
|
GroupMe App
If you have not already joined your swimmers' GroupMe, please consider doing so. Parents, coaches, and staff use GroupMe to communicate last-minute updates, traffic issues, practice changes, lost and found, carpooling, and much more. Each practice group has its own group text, and we believe if you ask any returning team members, they will confirm that GroupMe is an invaluable communication tool as it enables them to ask specific questions and plan activities particular to their practice group. Use this link to download the GroupMe app.
Click on your swimmer's practice group to connect through GroupMe
| |
|
Parent Reps
Below are the Parent Representatives for each training group. Thank you to this dedicated group of parents for taking on this special role for the groups.
- Stingrays: Lindsay Sanford and Jessica Dye
- Dolphins: Moe Kolton and Jessica Horne
- Sharks: Fran Spurrier and Marcy Rehse
- Junior: Susan Emrhein
- Marlins: Stefanie Massey & Sheila Thayer
- Senior 1 & Senior: Claire McCall and Margaret Mason
| |
|
Team Website & OnDeck
We are confident that everyone on our team has visited our team website powered by TeamUnify. Beyond registration, it serves as the primary information tool for our team. Through our TeamUnify site, parents and athletes will commit to competitions, enter events, sign up to volunteer, access newsletters, review practice schedules, much more. Be sure to "Sign In" to the website to view all content. Go ahead and visit www.ensworthaquatics.com and bookmark it!
OnDeck is TeamUnify's supporting app that allows our staff to communicate through our website directly to team members' mobile devices. OnDeck also presents our website content to users with improved mobile device usability. What this means is you can enter into swim meets and signup to volunteer more easily on your mobile devices. Use this link to download OnDeck.
| |
|
Social Media
Ensworth Aquatics is on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Use the icons below to connect with the team on social media.
| |
|
|
|
|
