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2010 Team North Texas Daily Diary

Here are pictures and commentary from each days' goings-on for the Zones team in Atlanta at the 2010 Southern Zone Championships.

Monday, July 26th

A great start to this trip.....it all began at the airport.  Everyone was on time (except Katie) and everyone managed to negotiate security with relative ease. Coach Brian's plane ticket got "lost" in the system and had to purchased again.  Flight delayed about 30 mins at DFW.  Many were in a zombie-like trance due to very late night at TAGS.  Plane ride was quite with most sleeping.

Bus picked us up and we went to lunch, followed by our hotel check-in and equipment handout.  We had a short swim at the pool, then dinner and games at Dave & Busters.  A good time was had by all.  Most of the team pooled their tickets together at D&B's to "buy" a giant stuffed bear - our unofficial mascot for the week.  You should expect to see the bear in several pics in coming days.

All of the kids are very tired from a long day(s) of traveling and we quick to go to bed.  Not a peep was heard in the hallways right after lights out.

Monday's pics were posted on the TNT FaceBook page.  Rodney Yanai, one of our officials, took these pics and posted them for us.  I'll have some pics from the pool tomorrow.

Tuesday, July 27th

We've started off really well today. Our distance swimmers have led off with a bang.  The pair of Aaron Cosenza and Neil Manning both shared our Swimmer-of-the-Day (SOD) with outstanding swims in the 1500FR.  In the same heat both boys dropped almost a combined minute, moving up significantly in their heat. 

Tonight was the social at the pool.  The kids ate pasta and watched Finding Nemo on the pool big screen.  Still hungry, we ordered pizza back at the hotel after our team meeting.

Before the social we took an opportunity to visit Centennial Olympic Park in downtown Atlanta, a short drive from the pool. The team "hung out" at the park and some even played in the fountains.

The first big day is tomorrow.  Almost everyone swims.   Below are today's pics:

Wednesday, July 28th

Today was the first full day of the meet with most everyone on the team swimming.  It was one of those eat, swim, eat, drink, sleep, swim, eat days.  Little time for anything else today.  Prelims this morning was really great.  Lots of best times.  We had two finalists tonight - Carly Straight and David Arredondo.  Carly made it back in both the 200FR and 100FL, David in the 100FL.

Lunch and nap this afternoon, then off to finals.  We had a great and wonderful thing happen at finals tonight.....Carly won the 200FR.  Actually she dominated the 200FR!!  Way to go Carly!!  David swam well again and placed 9th in the 100FL.  The results of Carly's 100FL are not yet official, pending the outcome of two protests that were filed during her race.

Dinner tonight was a traditional favorite....fried chicken, mac-n-cheese, corn, bread lemonade and cookies...all from Publix grocery store and all for $6 a person (all you can eat).  The kids devoured most everything in short order.

Today's pics:

Thursday, July 29th

More fast swims this morning.  Our percentage of best times continues to rise quickly.  We have two finalists again this evening - Carly Straight and Caleb Crowe.  The rest of the team is scurrying around the hotel this afternoon coming up with unique ways to cheer them on tonight.

This morning's pics:

Friday, July 30th

Tough day in the trenches today.  Our kids swam really well, but too many kids from the other teams did too.  Mostly best times weren't quite good enough to get into finals tonight.  Our relays did well, scoring several points.  Our SOD went to two swimmers again - Dayne Yanai and Aja Bilodeau.  Dayne has not only continued to swim really well dropping bunches of time in most events, but he has displayed sustained remarkable sportsmanship throughout the trip.  The staff has been particularly proud of Dayne this week.  Aja has consistently won her heats with remarkably fast and best times.  She's done a very nice job this week too.

The parade was great fun.  Our gorilla and banana tandem has been a huge hit with the crowd and swimmers. In case you haven't seen the brief video of them from last night, here's the link from FaceBook:

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=143920268968537

A late night at the pool meant pizza back at the hotel to get the kids in bed by 10:30pm.    Check out the TNT FaceBook site for more pics by other folks.

Saturday, July 31st

Today was the dreaded "double" - late night last night because of the timeline and early warmup this morning.  Kids were moving slow this morning at breakfast.  First two swims this morning, however were a nice 9 second drop in the 200IM by Annika Ittiruck and a 5 second drop by Tanyon Hejny.  A great start to the day.

Our mascot this year, the bear, was kidnapped for a short time by another team.  A frantic search was organized by our athletes not competing today.  The bear was found in a closet behind our friends from the Gulf.  Not surprisingly, none of the Gulf swimmers had knowledge of the kidnapping - er, bearnapping.  The bear had apparently been tortured while in the closet as he was found missing an arm and his swimsuit.

More best times were achieved by our swimmers this morning.  Unfortunately none made finals this evening.

Trade-day was a rousing success by all accounts.  All of our swimmers seemed very satisfied with their bartering.  After the awards ceremony at the pool we took the team to The Varsity - that famous downtown Atlanta drive-in.  Chilidogs, onion rings and shakes were very popular with the kids.  Movie night back at the hotel until the wee hours of the morning.

Sunday, August 1st

Most of the kids slept in.  A leisurely only breakfast and trip to the airport about 10:15am.  Most of the kids were disappointed that we could not participate in the open water meet this morning.  Only Abby Porter, who was staying behind with family, competed this morning at Lake Lanier.

Airport ticket counter, through security and all on the plane.  A trip well done.

I hope all those interested have had a chance to see the pictures that were uploaded throughout the week on FaceBook.  A special thanks goes out to all of our amateur photographers who helped in this effort.  Thanks to Rodney Yanai for spearheading this effort.

Epilogue

I want to thank all of my staff that were so very wonderful on this year's trip.  I certainly couldn't have done this again without your great assistance. The staff and I made comments all week that this was the very best behaved group of athletes we've ever taken on this trip.  North Texas always prides itself on well behaved athletes that have always displayed great sportsmanship, but this year was really special in that regard.  Thanks to everyone involved.

I have a challenge for all of you that are supporters of this great event.  My challenge is this - go back to your home clubs and tell everyone what a great trip this is.  Tell them how fast and well organized the meet is, how much fun the athletes have, how great they all perform, and what great "stuff" they get for being apart of the best team in the Southern Zone.  The Southern Zone Age Group Championships is an event strongly supported by USA Swimming.  I would like to see more of our North Texas  teams and athletes give this meet that same support.

See ya next year in Cary, North Carolina.