First Week of Practice I was remarking to Coach Erin who agreed---this is the *easiest* first week of practice I can ever remember. I don’t know if it’s super-skilled kids, super-amazing coaches, a lack of rodents in pools, or what---but everyone seems to be finding their stride really quickly this season! I hope you’re seeing it too--it’s made for a fun first week! Practice Woes Tomorrow We just got confirmation that Sun Prairie Schools are unable to staff both pools Thursday night. That’ll mean that anyone at SP West will...

Storm Forecast – Week Zero Eve - AKA Plan Bs Abound Week Zero We’re right on the cusp of Week Zero, and I’m already being given a reminder of the flexible nature of fall. Sun Prairie Schools management indicated that due to college kids leaving, they might have issues staffing some events. Boy, does that seem to be the case. I suspect that Week Zero is going to be cut in half. Tuesday, September 2nd - Week Zero – All Groups 6:20-7:10P at SP West 11-12 Tune-Up 7:10-8:05P at SP...

Fall Schedule Posted Given the limited cards we’ve been dealt for the fall (TPC Wisconsin getting some fall renovations, SP East Girls starting late), we’ve done a bit of adjusting from last fall. It means we do have ONE early PM group, Tropical Storm. We looked carefully at four different school district’s bell schedules, assistant coach staffing, group sizes, and other variables. So, Tropical will start at 4:20P daily at SP East; the rest of the groups going on after high school practices conclude. So long as *that* group isn’t...

On the Home Stretch We’re closing in on the final weeks of the season—already! We have SIX meets in the next 12 days, then we’re down to our state teams. If your swimmer is not participating at next week's Rising Stars Meet (Deadline today!!),McFarland, Regionals, or a state meet then their last practice of the season will be this week. Swimmers participating in Regionals or the McFarland Last Chance Meet will train through the end of next week. Storm Saves We’re continuing the annual tradition of offering a week of...

Meet Deadlines Galore In a short week filled with meets and holiday breaks, we have a LOT of meet deadlines this week. If you’ve not already wrapped up your meet declarations, you’ll want to handle them TONIGHT so that you don’t miss anything due to festivities. Grown Up Meet Recap 7 Storm swimmers and coaches took part in the 2nd Grown Up Meet on Sunday. It was a blast! Out of 12 teams, Storm finished 4th! There are two meets left in the season if you want to join. Highway...

Indy Mini-Camp Recap From sending canoes full of children down the river without a canoeing lesson to utilizing self-checkout at Walmart to managing time and sleep without parents, our Cyclone/Tsunami/Typhoon swimmers were thrust into a lot of “sink or swim” situations over the course of the last weekend. Thanks to Alina Punzalan & Bill Gebhard, there was always someone keeping an eye out for safety, but our swimmers did an incredible job learning how to handle themselves out in the world. They had 6 practices over the four days in...

Thankfulness As you read, I went off to Arizona State last weekend to coach the Central Zone/Western Zone Select Camp. It was 57 really fast kids along with coaches from Illinois, California, Nevada, Massachusetts—it was a big thing. Anyway, Arizona was Arizona—hot like I couldn’t comprehend; the kids were fast, but I quickly realized how lucky I was to coach a group of kids and families that show so much appreciation. Kids don’t exist like ours everywhere, and being around a different group made me truly appreciate ours! Congratulations! Congratulations...

Summer Session At the moment, we’re looking at 125 summer registrations, beating last summer’s record. We’re WAY up on our 11-14 swimmers, which is personally pretty heartwarming. Kids are coming in excited to put in the work necessary to improve, and that’s all a coach can ask for! We still have 2-3 more Masters swimmers and 2-3 more College swimmers that still need to sign up, which should put us over 130! Splitting Duties At the start of each summer, we always get a few emails from families that start...

Summer Session We are 38 summer registrations ABOVE where we were last year at this point—whoa! The session registration is now open to new and returning families. We’ve reactivated all the college accounts too, so if you’ve got a college swimmer you ought to be able to register them now. We’ll have a one pool "conflict schedule" from Memorial Day through the end of school, then we’ll jump into our summer schedule on June 16th. Practice Changes & Updates If you’ve not subscribed to your group’s calendar to keep current...

Scramble Results Congratulations to Jason, Nick, Joe, and Paul with a blistering 30 on the back 9 to win the golf scramble last weekend at Prairie Pines. It was a wonderful day with great prizes and camaraderie. A special thanks to Quamme Insurance for sponsoring the event. Time and time again, they’ve stepped up to support Storm Aquatics. Summer Session Believe it or not, we only have TWO weeks left of the spring session. These long course sessions go by so quickly! Returning family registration for the summer session will...