We had a fantastic final week of January, both at practice and at the Winter Invitational in Ellensburg.  Champs is fast approaching—Junior Champs in Moscow is 10 days away, while Senior Champs in Ellensburg is 24 days away.  Keep working hard at practice, and we’ll be ready to roll!  Here’s what else is going on:

Winter Invitational Recap

Like we said, it was a fantastic weekend of swimming.  Read all about it here.

Junior Champs—Feb. 12-14, Moscow, Idaho

Entries for the Junior Championship Meet are due today!!!  Please, please, please sign up, even if you are only going for one day.  We would really like a large group of swimmers to go to the meet—right now we have 35 swimmers signed up (last year we took 47, so let’s get a few more signed up!!!).

IES Short Course Champs—Feb. 26-28, Ellensburg, Washington

We still have a couple more weeks to get those entries in for Short Course Champs.  At this point, if you’ve qualified, you should be signed up.  If you haven’t qualified, then I hope you are going to Junior Champs so you can get your qualifying times!

Shamrock Shake Up T-Shirt Contest

Our annual Shamrock Shake Up T-shirt design contest is in full swing again this year.  Show off your artistic abilities and create a great design for the shirts that will be sold at the meet.  You can win a free t-shirt and other prizes.  Please have your design into Ashley or Mathew Christoff’s folder by February 16.  Please make sure to attach your name to your design.  Good luck, and have fun!

Shamrock Shake Up and Triple Pentathlon

We are getting ever closer to March and April and we still have a lot of work to do to get ready.  Make sure that you have the weekends of March 12-14 and April 16-18 blocked out so you can participate and volunteer for the swim meets that we host.  These are a lot bigger and more complicated than our developmental meets, so we’ll need all hands on deck!  The on-line job sign-ups will be posted soon, remember that the family volunteer hours need to be fulfilled, and these meets are just about the easiest way to do it.

Volunteer Needed: Waves Store

Speaking of those volunteer hours, we are looking for a volunteer to cover the following shifts in the Waves Store at the pool: Monday 5:30-6:30 & 7:30-8:30; Wednesday 7:00-8:30; Friday 7:00-8:30.  It is an easy way to get your volunteer hours in!  If you are interested, please call Dede at 465-2786.

Swim-a-thon

Our only fundraiser of the year is coming up on Saturday, April 24.  We need all Waves families to participate in this huge team wide event.  From Ripples all the way to Seniors, every effort goes a long way, so please be ready to work hard for the future of the team!

Training Tip of the Week

Last week, we talked about intensity.  Intensity’s partner in crime is motivation: you must have both in order to be successful.  You can be highly motivated, but if you don’t bring intensity, it’ll be difficult to improve.  Similarly, how intense can you be if you are not motivated to achieve something?  Find what motivates YOU to achieve: is it to please your coach, your parents or your teammates?  Or is it the personal satisfaction of winning or beating times?  To truly be successful in the long-term, you must find what gets you excited: this sport is all about making yourself better, not necessarily doing it because other people want you to.  When individuals are self-motivated, this allows the team to work together to achieve common goals.  And when we work together, there’s nothing we can’t do!

There’s a lot happening, and we need your help to make it all come together.  Remember, YOU are the Waves, we are simply helping to steer the ship.  Thanks again for all the work you’ve done, and we look forward to the next few months!

Kevin & Keddy