Coach Kelley's Weekly Update
Weekly Updates
July 13, 2009
Hi
Wow! I think we had a wonderful last home meet! We had some great swims! Congratulations to everyone and thank you to everyone who helped out so much!
I have some reminders of upcoming events
This Wednesday July 15- During evening practice (starting at
Saturday July 18- This is our last regular season meet versus 5parks and Columbine Knolls. It is at 5 parks pool in
Sunday July 19- This is the date for the Last Chance meet. If your swimmer has an A or B time and is trying to get that last minute qualification time for League or State then you want to participate in this meet. Please let the coaches know by Saturday’s meet at the latest if you are interested in participating.
Monday July 20- Water World Day! If you are planning on attending and have not contacted anyone about tickets please contact Brad Sanders (3035267437) as soon as possible and we may still be able to get tickets. There will still be practice for the
Wednesday July 22- This is a night practice you don’t want to miss. Starting at
Friday July 24- Sunday July 26- The league championship meet is this weekend. Only the 400 will take place on Friday evening. Saturday will start with the Medley Relays and Sunday will start with the Free Relays, other than the separation of days, the order of events are normal. Please talk to a coach if you are unsure if you have qualified or are participating in relays.
Thursday July 30- This night we celebrate the season and recognize all the swimmers with a banquet at Vista Clubhouse. Please try to be there!
Friday July 31-Sunday August 2- This is the State Championship meet. Again only the 400 will be Friday, however then the order of events does get mixed around. Only the 8-12 year olds participate on Saturday, and the 13 and Overs participate on Sunday. If you are unsure if you have qualified for this meet or are participating in relays please contact a coach.
Also all money for the swim a thon is due to the coaches by this Friday, July 17th. We have a full few weeks coming up! Please let us know if you have questions!
Coaches J6/27/09 Congratulations everyone!
Today was a fantastic meet! Thank you to all those who helped out we really couldn’t do it without you! Also Thank you to those swimmers who came to warm up. We had 51 swimmers entered in the meet and had only 20 in the water for warm up. The coaches are aware that we are asking you to get up early and the water is cold but a good warm up is necessary for a good meet. It allows swimmers to get a last feel for the water, get last minute tips from the coaches on their strokes and get a last minute practice for their events. We coaches feel very strongly about this and ask that our swimmers make a better effort at coming to warm ups. That being said we had a great meet and many wonderful swims. We have several things coming up.
Wednesday July 1 is Applewood Relays; thank you to everyone who signed up, it should be a really fun meet. Our warm ups are at 3pm, unless there are delays due to weather I estimate that the meet will end by 8:30pm. Please let us know if you have any last minute changes in your plans, it is very important at this meet because every race is a relay so we are depending on everyone who signed up to be there. I know there are many parents who are willing to carpool if you are having trouble getting a swimmer to the meet, please let us know and we can help you make plans.
There is no practice Friday July 3rd, for the holiday.
WE NEED VOLUNTEERS FOR THE KIDS GAMES on the 4th at vista. We need parents or older swimmers to help us run the games. They are all very simple to do and it shouldn’t take more than 2.5 hours in the morning. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE sign up to help out (Again the sign up is at Foothills on the bulletin board) WE NEED YOU!
Please pay attention to your emails and the website this week for information for the swim-a-thon coming up on July 9 during normal practice times. The forms will be posted on the website later this week for you to print out. The coaches will have a few printed out at practice if you need to pick one up. Please let us know if you have any questions.
Also coming up on Wednesday July 15th, we will be having an “odd events” meet during the evening practice time slot. Swimmers will be allowed to swim events of lengths that are not normally allowed for their age group (for example a 13-18 might swim a 25 butterfly, or an 11-12 might swim a 200 IM). If your swimmers are interested coaches will be asking them to pick events they want to swim during upcoming practices.
Again thank you for a great meet this weekend! The coaches are getting very excited about Applewood Relays and remember the swimmers even get to watch the coaches swim a relay at the end of the meetJ! Please email or check the website if you have any questions or concerns!
Thanks for everything!
Kelley
Past Letters From Coaches
Hi Team!
I hope everyone has had a great father’s day! I wanted to say congratulations again, we had a great meet this weekend and I think for our first home meet it went particularly smoothly. Thank you to everyone who volunteered! And just a reminder that we will need just as many volunteer this week.
Our meet this weekend is against
Also reminder please let us know ASAP if you will be around for the AAC Relays on the evening of July 1st (it is a Wednesday), we need as many families as possible.
Also let us know if you would like to participate in the pentathlon this Sunday June 28, as we need to get entries in soon.
Also, the sign up sheet for volunteers on the 4th of July is still hanging up at Foothills on the bulletin board and I believe only 3 people have signed up, we need at least 15 volunteers. Please sign up to help out!
Thank you so much for a great meet and I look forward to seeing you at practice this week!
Kelley
6//14/09
Hi Everyone!Congratulations on a second great meet! I believe this one went much smoother than the first one and we had some fantastic swims! I just wanted to make sure to send out a few reminders for the upcoming weeks.
Please make sure you get the coaches your events for the upcoming week as soon as possible so that we can enter you. If you won’t be at practice on Monday or Tuesday please email us your events so that we can enter them. Saturday is our first home meet! Please sign up to volunteer because we really need all the help we can get at a home meet! This also means that we have the pleasure of first warm up which means we need to be in the water at 6am!
Wednesday night at 7pm is our T-Shirt and Ice Cream night. We will be decorating T-shirts to wear as a team. Please bring your own neon/bright green t-shirt and decorating supplies to share! (Puffy Paint works well, as well as fabric markers). Ice Cream will be provided and you will be allowed to swim and play games during this time as well!
We have two important meets coming up. The AAC Pentathlon and the AAC Relay meet! The Pentathlon on Sunday June 28 is a meet directed more for the individual than the team and each swimmer swims a butterfly, backstroke, breastroke, freestyle, and IM event (in the length that is normal for their age group, i.e. 8 & Unders would swim 25s of the strokes and a 100 IM, while 13 & ups would swim 100s of the strokes and a 200 IM). To participate in the meet the swimmer must have an A or B time in four of the five events (A and B times can be found on the website or posted at the pool). I strongly encourage this meet, it is very fun. If you are interested in participating please let the coaches know ASAP so that we can sign you up. Also if you are interested please take into account the events you will need to swim at the upcoming duel meets in order to meet the requirements to enter the meet.
Also coming up is the AAC Relay meet on Wednesday night July 1. This is absolutely the most fun meet of the season. The swimmers swim only Relays and we race against almost every team in the league. They compete in Relays with just their age group and in Relays with swimmers from every age group. We are always in need of as many swimmers as possible to fill the relays so we can get points. (We often recruit swimmers from outside the team for just this one meet so we can fill all the relays). If you know swimmers of any age that are not on the team but would be interested in the meet please let the coaches know. Please try to clear your schedule for this night because it really is a very fun event and we need as many people there as possible! Let the coaches know ASAP if you will be there or if you for some reason cannot attend, as we need to start putting together our line up.
Again there is a sign up sheet at Foothills if you will be in town on the 4th of July as we need volunteers to help run the kids games. Please help out if you can!
Again, Congratulations on a great meet this weekend!
Kelley
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Congratulations Genesee Swim Team!All of the coaches agree this weekend’s meet against Columbine Knolls and Golden was a fantastic first meet. We had many wonderful swims and it was just good to see the swimmers get in and race for the first time (officially)! Thank you so much to everyone who came and participated and helped out with timing and volunteering, we really appreciate it. Just a few reminders about meets. Please let the coaches know by Tuesday of each week if you will be swimming in the meet and what you want to swim. When you tell us please either watch us write down the correct events or email them to us so we can be sure to put people in the right things J. We have to turn in the entries to the hosting team usually by Wednesday or Thursday and once we turn them in we can’t usually make changes. If you sign up for a meet and get sick or are not able to attend for some reason, please let the coaches know so that we can scratch you from your events. Also if you commit to a meet, please try to come, it is always disappointing to other swimmers if their relay has to be canceled because someone doesn’t show up.
Other reminders. This week we begin our practices based on the groups that the coaches created, please refer to the last email sent with the lists. We have another away meet on Saturday against Applewood Knolls. Our warm ups will be at 6:30am please be there ready to get in the water at 6:30! If you want to swim in the meet please let the coaches know as soon as possible! We have another swimmer breakfast on Friday so make sure you get to practice. Also a sign up sheet has been put up at foothills on our bulletin board about volunteering at the 4th of July games. Please sign up if you are going to be in town. Thanks again to everyone who helped out this weekend! See you all in the pool this week!
Kelley
Hi
Thank you to everyone who came to the BBQ this Sunday, I think it went very well! It was good to see all of the old families as well as our large number of new families! I know that we coaches covered a lot during our talk so I thought it might be helpful to give you guys a recap of what we covered.
First, this week Jessica and I will be assessing the practices and placing the swimmers into groups based on their ability level. We believe that by putting them in these new groups they will benefit more from the coaching staff giving them the right kind of attention. So this week we will have the normal age group practice times (which you can find on this site) and before next week we will be sending out an email with a list of each group and the swimmers we thought fit into that group. If there is a problem or you feel that your swimmer was placed in the wrong group please talk to us. We want the swimmers to get the best attention possible so if we aren’t sure we will likely put them in a group where they have the ability to move up to a different group if needed.
On Wednesday evening during our normally scheduled night practice we will be having an interclub meet to teach new swimmers and remind the old ones of how a normal meet will be run. We will be doing individual events as well as relays. It starts at 7pm and we are hoping to be done by 8 for ice cream sandwiches! If you will be able to swim in that meet please let Jessica or I know as soon as possible so we can get swimmers in events.
For all meets we would like to know if you will be able to be at the meet as soon as we can so we can get the entries in as soon as possible. We will be asking the swimmers about the meet and events they would like to swim on Monday mornings. If for some reason they are not at practice on Monday please email us with the events they would like to swim or let us know if they will not be there (geneseeswimteam@yahoo.com). Once the swimmers have signed up for events they will be posted on a bulletin board in the tent on Saturday morning. Please check for event numbers that correspond with your swimmer’s events and make sure you know them, there will be no cards this year swimmers need to go to the heating area when their event number is called.
For all meets the coaches would like the swimmers to be there at the correct warm up time. We know it is early and cold but it is really important that the swimmers get their bodies in the swimming mind set and get last minute pointers from the coaches before their races. Please be on time. Also we always need volunteers for our meets. Please contact Bev Conklin if you need to sign up for volunteer hours or are willing to help.
On the volunteer note, every year we are in charge of the children’s games for the 4th of July festivities at
Last, if you have any questions or concerns the website is a wonderful resource for you as well as periodic updates in the form of emails. Please check both on a regular basis (If we don’t have your email please make sure we get it). You are also welcome to email me or call me (303-921-4548). All of the coaches are also willing to talk to you when you have questions or concerns but please do not talk to us while we are trying to coach the swimmers. We want the swimmers to get the most attention we can give them and if we are juggling coaching and talking to parents the swimmers are not getting what they need.
Thank you for everything!
Kelley O’Dell
Head Coach Genesee Mountain Thunder Swim Team
Hi
I hope everyone has had a great school year and is getting as excited about this summer as I am! For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Kelley O’Dell. I have been the assistant coach at
Thanks!
~Kelley O’Dell
Head Coach:
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Summer's here:
Let me introduce myself. My name is Kelley O'Dell and I am the Head Coach for the Genesee Mountain Thunder Swim Team. I'm a graduate from the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma Washington. I'm a major in Exercise Science and will be attending Physical Therapy school next fall. I am captain of my swim team at UPS. I swam in high school as well as on a club team but always came back to Genesee in the summer. I have been a part of the Genesee Swim Team since I was five years old and doing belly flops off the blocks at swim meets. Swimming with Genesee was a major part of my life until I was too old to swim anymore. I have been the assistant coach for the last three summers. I love this team, the kids, the families and the atmosphere of a true summer club team where we work hard but love to have fun! It is so exciting for me as a coach to watch swimmers do their best at a swim meet after working hard in practice. I look forward to being the HEAD COACH at Genesee this summer and meeting a lot of new families as well as spending time with the returning families! I hope you have a wonderful spring semester and look forward to meeting you in May! The families, the swimmers and the coaches all work together as a partnership to make the summer swim team experience a personal achievement for each participant on the team, as well a fun and enjoyable pastime for the summer months. My fondest memories include the swim team BBQ's, swimmer's breakfasts after a challenging practice, and the age group outings to Elitches, Water World, movies and lunches following swim meets. Although fun, the swim team is not just fun and games. Participating as part of the Genesee Swim Team means learning proper stroke technique, good sportsmanship and a positive attitude toward individual and team growth and competition.
On behalf of the team, I would like to take this opportunity to invite you and your children to "take the plunge" this summer and join us for fun and excitement in the Genesee Mountains. Every participating family and their swimmers need to complete the registration forms, as well as the conduct codes, waiver and the goal sheets, prior to starting formal practices with the team on May 18th. Please contact me at 303-921-4548 or geneseeswimteam@yahoo.com with questions regarding the Swim Team.
On behalf of the Genesee Mountain Thunder Swim Team, have a wonderful summer and we hope to see you poolside! 
Best Regards,
Kelley O'Dell Head Coach
Genesee Mountain Thunder Swim Team
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Hi, my name is Jessica Berthod. This is my second year coaching the Genesee swim team. I grew up in Wheat Ridge, Colorado. I began swimming when I was 6 years old, but "retired" when I was 10. I came out of retirement when I was a sophomore in High School. I swam for 3 years at Wheat Ridge High School and was a diver my junior year. I swam for Applewood Knolls in the summers. I attended Colorado State University and received my Bachelor's in Health and Exercise Science. After working at a Velocity Sports Performance I decided to return to school to get my teaching license. I just finished all the requirements and now have my elementary education license. I am subbing for Jefferson County and Cherry Creek Schools. I am looking for a permanent teaching job. While subbing I figured I should get going on my masters and have enrolled at Walden University and will be done July of 2010. My goal for 2009 is to run both a half marathon and a full marathon, so I am busy training. I look forward to this summers swim team. Last year, I had a great time coaching and getting to know all the swimmers and their wonderful families. I really love Genesee and driving up there to see the deer. My goals as a coach is for all the swimmers to beat their times from last year, master a new stroke, swim something new in a meet, make friends and have a GREAT time. I want the swimmers to want to come to swimming because it is fun and they get their exercise.
Coaches Loving the Kids Performance
