2023 Team Wisconsin Reminders and Information
Hello Team Wisconsin Families!
First, CONGRATULATIONS! Getting to represent our LSC at the Zone Championship level is an awesome accomplishment! Zones is a great experience for these athletes – it should be a really fun weekend!
Sorry for the information overload – I know you’re getting a lot about the logistics of the meet from Angela right now. I certainly don’t want to add to that, but we did feel it was important to tack on a quick message from the coaching staff.
My name is Jacob Johnson and I’m the Head Coach of the Team Wisconsin staff this year. This is the 6th Zone meet I’ve been involved with (going back to mid-2000s) and my third stint as the Head Coach (most recently last year). Instead of re-typing more of my bio or listing all of the other coaches, I’d urge you to check out the Team Wisconsin page that has a list of all of our staff. Odds are you’ll recognize a few! One particularly exciting thing about this year’s staff is that it covers a wide geographic range of the state; from Madison over to Milwaukee, and from Pleasant Prairie up to Wausau!
We had six main things that we wanted to communicate with our families as early as possible…
BONUS EVENTS
For the first time at the Central Zone Meet, athletes are allowed to enter in bonus events.
A swimmer qualifying in one individual event may swim up to two additional “bonus” events in distances 100 meters or less.
A swimmer qualifying in two individual events may swim one additional “bonus” event in a distance of 100 meters or less.
Bonus events have to be added manually- please send Angela an email at [email protected] designating any bonus events your athlete(s) would like to be entered in. Athletes that only have the Zone meet left, should email by Thursday, 27 at 6 PM. Athletes competing this upcoming weekend will have to decide prior to leaving at the end of the meet.
ZONE TABLE
The Team Wisconsin table will be open on Sunday, July 30, once the meet starts and remain open until the end of the final time trial. Please check in at the table to
update times and make changes to events. Team Gear pick up will be available at the Elsmore Store inside WSAC, all weekend. If your gear is not ready, we will
have it ready for pick up on Thursday, August 3. Please check the itinerary below for times.
TEAM WISCONSIN ITINERARY: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1N3Ft5C5dQEhDebFP2EPt3njNvbGunAKc3jiaTsxsVFk/edit?usp=sharing
"Team Wisconsin Day" is combined with the first day of the meet. Both will be on Thursday, August 3. Please take a look at the itinerary for Team Wisconsin events scheduled for that day, for arrival times, Team icebreaker, Team photo, Team Warm Up and events for each day. As more information is published, this document will conitnue to be updated. It is posted on the Team Wisconsin Website for easy access under the 2023 14&U Zone Team tab.
OVERALL COACHING PHILOSOPHY
Our aim is to promote the best possible meet experience for your athletes! We want to facilitate warm-ups, get swimmers prepared to swim fast, and be positive support and cheerleaders. We are NOT here to change your swimmer’s technique or how they swim their races. They got here under the excellent guidance of your club coaches – it would be quite inappropriate for our coaches (who are basically just ‘renting’ these kids for a long weekend) to try and change what’s made them successful. For swimmers that are used to in-depth feedback from their coaches before or after races this might be a bit of an adjustment, but hopefully the reasoning behind it makes sense.
TEAM WISCONSIN RELAY POLICY
This is the relay policy that we’ve used for the majority of recent Zone meets. No policy is going to be perfect in anticipating and resolving every potential issue, but we’ve felt policy has served us well at past meets.
Team WI will field the best possible relays to represent our state at the Zone level. Our default position is to let the times speak for themselves, and to select relays objectively using a swimmer’s best times* up to and including swims done at the Zone Meet. However, situations may arise where the coaching staff feels that an adjustment will lead to a better relay, and we reserve the right to select relays as we see fit.
*LCM times from a flat start will be considered, including relay lead-offs. Spots will be assigned based on a swimmer’s best time in an event, not how the swimmers may have placed in that event at either the State Championship Meet or at Zones. For example, if swimmer A has a best time of 30.20 and Swimmer B has a best time of 30.21, Swimmer B would need to go a 30.19 to be considered; simply beating Swimmer A at State or Zones would not necessarily affect the relay.
WHAT WE (PLEASE) NEED FROM YOU!
First of all, don’t hesitate to communicate any questions or issues you have – we would greatly prefer to handle a few extra emails than to have potential problems go unresolved. My email is [email protected], and if you need something more urgent during the meet my number is (608) 852-5727. During the meet I’ll be going back and forth from the deck to the stands a lot, so feel free to grab me if something comes up.
Second, we have a pretty short period of time to get to know over 100 Team Wisconsin swimmers! The staff has some great icebreaker activities planned for each age group and we do what we can to get the kids interacting. But if you have anything specific about your swimmer – swimming related or otherwise – don’t hesitate to share it.
The meet is still looking for officials. If you are interested please complete the application to officiate:
That’s all for now! Congrats on a great weekend of racing at 12-under, good luck at 13-over, and
GO TEAM WISCONSIN!!
