Swim Swam Reports:
Jack Collins from the Badger Swim Club in New York gave his verbal commitment to swim for Indiana University for the 2015-2016 season, adding another number to the Indiana distance group.
Collins’ best swims are his distance-freestyles, specifically the 1500 and 1650. This July Collins cracked the 16-minute barrier in the 1500 free with a 15:59.53 which displayed close to a minute of improvement in the race in under eight months.
Read the article on SwimSwam.com
A note from Badger Parent Advocate, Michael Conaton:
Thanks for your comments from last week’s letter.
As of the date of this writing, I have heard about Badger’s David Stewart and Jack Collins announcing their commitments to Notre Dame and Indiana, respectively. Congratulations to David and Jack and of course to their parents and families for their years of support and sacrifice! I’m sorry if I have missed others announced.
We are generally late in the recruiting cycle (can start as early as freshman-sophomore year) but early in the commitment and signing cycle (November, early signing, April-August regular signing, commit anytime) for this year’s seniors. It occurs to me that we can offer a quick review of what the broad timelines are for our high school swimmers interested in considering college swimming.
From the NCAA’s perspective, to be recruited and/OR to swim at the collegiate level, you must register and be academically eligible with the NCAA. One of this week’s attachments outlines the basic steps. Very generally, you can begin registering with the NCAA at the beginning of your sophomore year at www.eligibilitycenter.org. During your junior year (or whenever your child takes the SATs/ACTs) be sure and send results to the NCAA entering code “9999”on your test notifications. Finally your senior year you will have to have your school send your final transcript to be deemed eligible. This is the organized way to do it. I’m aware of all of this being done in a couple day fire drill before the first day of college practice, but this is not recommended!
From the coach’s perspective, visit this link to a good old article:
In short, fast swims can get on coaches’ radar screens as early as freshman or sophomore year but clearly this is not the norm. By September 1st of your child’s junior year, DI and DII schools can start to send mail. By July 1 before your senior year, coaches can start to call the kids. You can contact a coach or school at any time and they can respond. After September 1, up to 5 paid visits can be offered to seniors. During junior year, “junior days” are becoming more popular whereby larger numbers of kids can be invited by coaches to attend a tour and information session on campus as a group, at your expense. Parents are typically welcomed.
Having said all this – most kids do not get scholarships or even get recruited. I am not going to harp on the numbers as I do not believe in negativity. I believe every kid has a chance and should aspire for scholarships or to be recruited if that’s what they want. Of course it’s bloody competitive out there as we all know.
There is still a place for prospective collegiate swimmers out there if that’s what the kids really want. You just have to do a little more leg work (and swim fast, of course). Filling out online applications and questionnaires makes it a little easier to explore. Do it! – Preferably early your junior year to establish long term interest and get on the radar. Find schools and conferences that best fit your time ranges now and also your kids’ times with a reasonable improvement trajectory. Again, all of this is online. Visit schools and arrange meetings with coaches when you are there! Get your name out there and establish a dialogue and any hook you can (team or family legacy, school or curriculum affinity, etc.). Most coaches are very direct about your kids’ prospects. Some are more diplomatic with the delivery than others, but the candor should be appreciated. I’ll stop there in the interest of length, but can share more on all this if you like in a conversation. I may be able to help with some knowledge of certain schools and coaches or can try to put you in touch with the right folks. Obviously John and the coaching staff will also give guidance to your kids when the time comes. Make sure your kids ask!
Finally, let me conclude by attaching one of my favorite articles about “Walk-Ons” from The Stanford Magazine back in 2007. Again, not everyone can get a scholarship or even be recruited. The article describes all of the distinguishing characteristics possessed by those “true” walk-ons “who knock on a coach’s door out of the blue, and prove they have the chops to make the roster”. Many times those traits are incredibly infectious and very desirable for a coach to have on his/her team. And of course the swimmer benefits as well, being admired by a coach for his/her hard work and embraced by 25 teammates with unconditional acceptance – An incredible way to start a college experience away from home, if that’s what your kids want.
More articles to come…if you have any comments or questions about this or any other topic please contact me at mikecbadger@gmail.com to make an appointment or call.
Thanks,
Mike
A note from Badger Parent Advocate, Mike Conaton:
We will do anything for our kids – drive them anywhere, cook them anything at any time, buy them countless suits and goggles, and travel long and far for meets to name a few selfless (and expensive) things. We do it because we love our kids and want the best for them, plain and simple.
Please allow me to start this season with a pep talk – You, me, all of us parents are doing an awesome job!
It’s hard to be a swimming parent. Getting our kids to multiple practices a week, on top of helping them with school work and attending to other sibling’s activities while trying to keep our jobs – in and of itself is a huge accomplishment. The weekend meets and eventual morning practices are in addition to all this. It’s not normal!
I just want to say thanks to you all. Please take a step back and realize that you all are awesome and your kids are blessed to have your support.
Being a swimming parent isn’t easy. This week’s article asks the question “is it all worth it?” Of course it is. While the article is written from a baseball perspective, (please insert your own experiences), it reminds us about the life’s lessons our kids are learning through swimming. OUR jobs are to let them learn these lessons and support them as much as we can without interfering too much or getting too overwhelmed with the demands.
My take away from this article is to remember the proper perspective. Of course we want our kids to swim fast (and we will talk about that as the year goes on), but I just wanted to remind myself and hopefully you that we’re also trying to make sure our kids become awesome human beings too…like us!
More articles to come…if you have any comments or questions about this or any other topic please contact me at mikecbadger@gmail.com to make an appointment or call.
Thanks,
Mike
Read the article here: Parent’s Pep Talk– A .pdf article found on TeamUnify.com
Swimming World Magazine Reports:
LARCHMONT, New York, October 6.
There are some deep ties running between Badger Swim Club and the Indiana Hoosiers, and they are sure to continue as Jack Collins has committed to attend Indiana University after his senior season.
The University of Notre Dame has received a verbal commitment from David Stewart, a senior at New Rochelle High School in New Rochelle, New York. Stewart will join the Fighting Irish next fall. He must have enjoyed his recruiting trip to Notre Dame this weekend, as he made his decision today.
Stewart represents Badger Swim Club, specializing in fly and freestyle (sprint and mid-distance). As a junior, he placed second in the 100 Fly and sixth in the 200 Free at the 2013-2014 New York Federation Championships. He also placed 45th in the 100 Fly and 57th in the 200 Fly at the 2013 Winter Junior Nationals.
Stewart’s Best Times
(SCY/LCM)
50 Free: 21.36/24.91
100 Free: 46.47/53.17
200 Free: 1:41.45/1:57.89
500 Free: 4:44.14/4:16.30
100 Fly: 49.36/57.29
200 Fly: 1:52.59/2:13.58
200 I.M.: 1:55.80/2:15.36
He Is Improving:
Stewart’s best short course times were all achieved during his junior season, indicating that he will continue to improve throughout the next year and beyond. In the past two years, he has dropped five seconds in the 200 Free, nearly three seconds in the 100 Fly, and seven seconds in the 200 Fly. At the rate he is improving, he could be going 47-48 in the 100 Fly and sub 1:50 in the 200 Fly by the time he joins the Fighting Irish.
While his times are not at the ACC Championship scoring level yet, Stewart may be needed in the 200 and 400 Free Relay during his freshman year. The Fighting Irish will be able to tap into Stewart’s potential soon, but his final high school season may prove that he can arrive at Notre Dame as an immediate contributor.
It’s a Badger family outing for team swimmers, alumni, staff and their families. Meet the crew at Barton Orchards on Sunday, October 5, from 10am-2pm. We hope this will be a fun opportunity for our families to get outside, make some memories and enjoy the fall air.
Barton Orchards is a bit of a drive at just over an hour away, but their apple picking just can’t be beat! If climbing an apple tree doesn’t sound like fun to you, perhaps picking some pumpkins from a real pumpkin patch (not a pile!) sounds even better!
Barton Orchards has something for everyone including a corn maze, farm market, vegetable garden for picking, farmyard animals, a pedal kart race track, exhibits, play areas, a haunted house and so much more!
Information on prices, parking and more can be found on their website. www.bartonorchards.com
We are producing a limited supply of Badger T-shirts to mark this seasonal occasion. Selection of sizing cannot be guaranteed, but we will try! They will be $10 each and available in youth and adult sizes. Reserve yours using the RSVP link below!
Please click here to RSVP if you are interested in meeting us there and we will place you on the ‘Badger Takes Over Barton!’ email list.
HOPE TO SEE YOU THERE!
Head coach of the Badger swim school and Badger Swim teams, John Collins, announced the appointment of Mike Conaton as the Badger parent liaison and advocate.
Mike will serve as a resource to current and prospective Badger parents interested in learning more about competitive swimming more specifically the Badger program. Mike is a former accomplished competitive swimmer, and as a parent of three swimmers at various levels today, he has a unique perspective on a child’s swimming development.
USA Swimming is very interested in the comprehensive care of their swimmers. As a Level 4 US Swimming Club, Badger subscribes to this beneficial approach to developing swimmers. The USA Swimming website includes many articles and references available to help parents and their swimmers. Mike will help navigate and interpret the USA website resources for parents. Frank Busch, USA National Team Director and one of Mike’s former age group coaches, acknowledged his appointment.
“USA Swimming is committed to providing programs and resources to our member network. Swimming parents, and former swimmers, like Mike are perfect ambassadors for our message of long term comprehensive development”.
Mike is very interested in giving back and helping Badger families have the best swimming experience possible. Please contact him directly at mikecbadger@gmail.com to set up a call or visit.
Winter Registration will be first come first serve to allow all families, including those on the wait list, an opportunity to participate in the swim program. We are expecting classes to fill up very quickly and we will once again run a wait list and do our best to accommodate everyone.
Registration will take place on-line only and we will open registration the 3rd or 4th week in October. We are please to announce that we are enhancing our online registration tool to allow for registration and payment to take place in one easy step.
Winter dates: December 1, 2014 – March 2, 2015
We will send out an email with more information as soon as we have final details to announce.
Photo via Tim Binning/TheSwimPictures.com
Saturday was a big day for Badger at USA Swimming National Championships. There were five Badger swimmers competing in USA Swimming National Championship Finals.
The highlight of the night for Badger was the 100M breaststroke final. Cody Miller broke 1:00.00 for the first time and won gold in the 100M breaststroke last night with a time of 59.91.
Lindsay Vrooman placed 6th in the women’s 400M freestyle.
Anina Lund placed 21st in the 400M freestyle with a personal best of 4:14.91.
Ryan Feeley placed 7th in the 400M freestyle.
James Wells placed 8th in the 100M backstroke.
Sunday was another strong day for Badger at Nationals.
The day was highlighted by the women’s 1500M freestyle. Badger’s Lindsay Vrooman and Anina Lund finished in the top eight. Anina placed 8th in the event with a time of 16:36.89, and Lindsay Vrooman placed 3rd with a time of 16:22.83. Ryan Feeley went on to place 6th in the men’s 800M freestyle with a time of 8:01.96. Derek Toomey capped of the day by placing 14th in the men’s 50M freestyle.
Badger placed 11th in the combined team scores.
Congratulations to all the Badger Swimmers!
Congratulations to Badger Swimmer Cody Miller on being named to the Pan Pacific Championship Team!
SwimSwam.com reports:
The 2014 US Pan Pacific Championship team will feature the maximum 30 swimmers, with 26 in the pool and 4 in open water, after the conclusion of the 2014 U.S. National Championships. Read More and see the roster….