Dear Parents:

Happy Monday! Please read the following important information:

Shanghai Swim League Coaches’ Meeting
I will be meeting with all the Shanghai coaches this Wednesday to finalize the meet schedule for 2012-13. I will let you know by the end of the week of our meet’s for next year.

Attendance
Even though the MS students were back from China Alive last week, there were a lot of absences due to various ASA’s. Let’s hope that we get a much better attendance record this week from the Middle School students. Elementary students were great last week in keeping up their commitment to training. Well done!
I am trying to encourage the MS swimmers to come to their assigned practices, but they have been very lax last week. As they were away for China Alive the week before, I have not seen some swimmers for two weeks! Parents, please make sure that they attend as many practices as they can from now on.
High School students will be away all this week for China Alive.

End of the Year Swim Meet and BBQ, Thursday, May 31st, 3pm
Below is the volunteer schedule for our swim meet.
shift
I still have some spots open with question mark and the marshals will be working two shifts. If your name is not on the list, please let me know so I can put you down for helping out and to release the volunteers doing two shifts. As I said before, if you have not volunteered before, this would be a great time to help out as the pace of the meet will not be as intense as our other meets. My apologies for not knowing the full name of some of the volunteers……
Also, I am still waiting for the BBQ’s food orders. Please send in your money with your preferred meal in an envelope. This meet is a family affair, so all parents, relatives and friends are welcome to the meet and the BBQ.

Our last swim practice is on June 5th.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Dear Parents:

We hope you had a great weekend and we welcome back the Middle Schoolers who were away on China Alive!!

I haven’t received many offers of volunteers for the May 31st End of the Year Swim Meet and BBQ. If you have never volunteered before, this would be a great time as the pace will be a lot slower than our other meets. I am in need of timers, stroke and turn judges, marshals and starters. Please let me know how you can help out.
Also, remember to send 40RMB for each person attending the BBQ in an envelope with your choice of food.

Please fill out the attached form if you are interested in attending the Water Polo clinic on Saturday, May 26th. This is open for all boys GRADE 7 and up and girls GRADE 8 and up. Send the filled out flyer to coach George by email or hand delivery.
PoloReg.2012Flyer

As I mentioned in my previous entry, we only have a few more weeks until we finish up the season. Please make sure your child/ren do not miss any more practices and that they commit to their training sessions. Hard training will only make them faster and stronger and will make them ready for the summer and for next year’s season.

Have a great week!

The coaching staff hopes this entry finds you well. We are approaching the final stretch; spring is in the air and it’s only a few weeks until our summer holidays. Here are some things you need to know from now until our last practice on June 5th:

End of the Year Swim Meet and BBQ

The date has been set for Thursday, May 31st. Meet will start at 15:30 sharp with awards and the BBQ to follow. I will need timers, marshals, judges and a starter, so please let Coach George know how you would like to volunteer. This meet will be over in 90 minutes, so it won’t be as long as our last meet!
Awards and the BBQ will be right after the meet. Eurest has offered three choices for your dining pleasure each at a cost of 40RMB per person. Your choice is:

Burger set: 1 beef burger +crispy nacho chip+soda pop
Veggie set: 1 veggie burger+crispy nacho chip+soda pop
Hot dog set: 1 hot dog+crispy nacho chip+soda pop

Please make your selection and bring the money with your child labeled on an envelope for each person attending. We know MS students are away for China Alive, so they can bring the money next week. Deadline for this will be on Friday, May 25th. I will need to inform Eurest by then the number of meals they need to have ready for the 31st. There will be no practice on Friday, June 1st.

Water Polo

A Water Polo Coaching Clinic will be held here at Pudong Aquatic Center on Saturday, May 26th from 10am-1pm. This is open for boys GRADE 7 and older and girls GRADE 8 and older only. This clinic will be an introduction to water polo with some other teams from the Shanghai area and we will have time for a short mini game. Please write directly to Coach George if you are interested.

Keep it Together

Spring is in the air and it’s easy to get lazy. This is a good time to talk to your children regarding their commitment to the swim team and the positive effects of training. Swim season is far from over and we are expecting all swimmers to keep up their training. You would be surprised as to the number of swimmers who have stopped coming to training both in the Middle School and High School, for whatever reason. And even though we encourage the swim team members to train with a private coach, they are still expected to train with the team on their assigned training days.
Exams are coming up, but studies have shown that vigorous physical activity enhances learning and promotes long-term memory and the brain’s ability to function at its maximum. Please read March’s issue of the Eagle for more on training its benefits on learning.

Next year, 2012-13

If you know that you will be leaving us next year either by leaving the school or transferring to Puxi, please let Coach George know. All present 5th graders and 8th graders must try out next year for a place on the team. I will announce the dates for next year’s tryouts as well as next year’s meet schedule soon.
Have a great month of May!

With over 40 Pudong swimmers, the School Wide SAS Aqua Eagles won the High Point trophy at the Mantas Swim Meet in Hong Kong. This meet was represented by 18 schools and swim teams and there were over 500 swimmers in attendance.
Meghan Ingram won six gold medals to win the High Point Trophy in her 13-14 age group category! Swimming ten events is no easy feat, yet Meghan was able to win six events and medal in another two. Yuhan Lui swam in ten events in the 13-14 category as well. Another winner was Michael Lee who placed first the 50m freestyle in the 13-14 category. There were a lot of top 8 placings and heat winners and even though the meet was in a 50m long course pool, some swimmers were still able to PB. Please click to see results:
Mantas home meet results 2012
Thank you to the parents for all their support and the coaches for all their hard work. This international meet was a good way to finish off the year! If you did not attend any international swim meets this year, I am sure there was a reason. We had about 85% of our swimmers going to an international meet outside of Shanghai this year, which is a great achievement. Let’s try and have 100% international swim meet attendance next year!
Our end of the year BBQ Swim meet will be held on Thursday, May 31st with the first event starting at 3:30pm. This is now finalized and we look forward to seeing all swimmers, parents, relatives and fans to this Swim Meet/BBQ banquet. More information on that to be announced.

Dear Parents:

We hope that you had a nice spring break and that you have handled this week coming back!!

Here is an update for the next couple of weeks:

There is no swimming practice this Thursday and Friday (April 12th and 13th) due to Student Led conferences.

We noticed a lot of swimmers absent the two days we had practice this week. Please encourage your child/ren to come to practice. Perhaps you think your child is at practice but sometimes they do skip out. Contact Coach George if you have any concerns.

Mantas Swim Meet in Hong Kong is on April 21st and 22nd. All the swim coaches will be attending therefore there will be no practice on Friday, April 20th AND Monday, April 23rd.

Our end of the year BBQ and Swim Meet is tentatively planned for Thursday, May 31st. It will be right after school. Please pencil that in your calendar.

Our last and final practice will be on Tuesday, June 5th.

Coach Biros and I decided not to send a team to the Phuket Invitational Swim Meet on May 5th and 6th. It came to our attention that this meet falls on the May holiday week and all flights returning to Shanghai are fully booked.
We apologize if you had planned on attending this meet.
We have two meets remaining until we break up for summer. Entries for the Hong Kong Mantas meet are now closed and our last meet will be on May 31st (Thursday) for all Pudong swimmers only combined with a BBQ and awards event.
We want to wish you all a pleasant and safe Spring Break and see you back in training on April 9th.

There were 284 heats, 668 swimmers, 16 schools and many many parents at our meet last Saturday! And what a success the meet was! I personally never hosted so many swimmers before and I don’t think there has been any other meet with that many swimmers ever in Shanghai!
I want to personally thank all the parents for helping out; from gathering the volunteers, to selling items for the Booster Club to marshaling the swimmers to their events. This would not have happened without your help and support! THANK YOU! If you did not volunteer this time around, please make sure you do so for all our meets. These meets need the help from ALL parents.
Please click on below for the swim results, high point trophy results and team results:
Meet Results-Spring Sprints 2012-24Mar2012
spring sprints individua high points
spring sprints team combined scores

We will have practice this week on Monday and Tuesday as usual and Wednesday morning for the HS team and then we are off for Spring Break. Please try and swim during your break, even for a few practices!
See you all back after the break!

With over 600 swimmers, this year’s Spring Sprints will definitely be a fast meet and one that we are all looking forward to hosting. By now, all parents should have been contacted by Julie Parsons or Amanda Ingram (and a lot of other parents who have been gracious to help out!) to volunteer. Thank you to all parents for your help. This meet can only go smoothly with everyone helping out a little bit.

Luckily because of this meet being a sprint meet, we are looking to a 4pm finish (hopefully!).

Warm up for SAS-Pudong Swimmers is at 7:30am sharp. There will be two buses leaving at 6:45am from JinQiao outside the Starbucks across from Green Court 2.

All swimmers will be in the gym upstairs opposite the viewing gallery for the duration of the meet. There will be designated places for each team to sit at. I recommend you bring sleeping bags or mats for the swimmers to lie or sit on and a couple of towels for the swimmers to dry after their race. All swimmers should be wearing the RED SAS Pudong bathing caps. If you have lost your caps, they can be replaced for 50RMB.

We will be pre-marshaling the events in the upstairs gym. The swimmers will then go to the pool area downstairs where they will be properly marshaled and given their lane cards. After their event, swimmers can go back upstairs to the gym.

The Meet Program will be on sale on the day of the meet. Parents and fans can buy their programs for 10RMB from our Booster Club stand. There will be athletic and swimwear vendors selling their wares as well as other goodies. The Cafeteria will be open all day.

Congratulations to our 48 swimmers who participated in the International School of Bangkok Splash Meet and won the Overall First Place Trophy! To beat the home team with more than three times the amount of swimmers is an incredible achievement. Well done, swimmers!
Click on the full results:
Bkksaturday meet results
Bkksunday meet results

Entries are slowly filtering through our office for the March 24th, Spring Sprints Meet hosted here in Pudong. It promises to be a good one and information about volunteering will be out soon.

Apologies for not attaching the Hong Kong Flyer in the blog. Here it is:
HK.travelDetails2012

Lily Zhang, our travel agent, will be at the Pudong Aquatic Center on TUESDAY, March 6th from 2:00pm-4:15pm to collect payment. Please contact her if you have any individual questions or concerns.
REAL TRAVEL SHANGHAI
TEL: 0086-21-63078587
FAX: 0086-21-33010822
ADD: Room 537, No. 110, Huangpu Road, Shanghai, China
MOBILE: 13661880571

As the meet finishes Sunday evening, we encourage all swimmers to stay and attend the Awards Ceremony Dinner at the Hong Kong Football Club following the meet. This was a great event last year with delicious food, awards and lots of dancing afterwards. Tickets are HK$240.