TNT Newsletter
The New Team on the Eastern Shore of Mobile Bay
December 2007
ANOTHER YEAR BETTER
TNT made 2007 another breakthrough year, with advances on the national and regional levels, while continuing to transform competitive swimming at every level in Baldwin County.
By maintaining a positive, working relationship with the Bounds Family YMCA, TNT Swimming now provides year round instruction, coaching, and competitive opportunities to approximately one hundred swimmers of various ages and ability levels throughout the area, including the communities of Bay Minette, Daphne, Fairhope, Gulf Shores, Loxley, Montrose and Spanish Fort.
Through participation in the program, TNT swimmers and their families have enjoyed travel and competition to major cities throughout the South, including the states of Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee and Texas.
In terms of team performance, TNT swimmers reached new levels of achievement in Southeastern Swimming; a geographic area which includes the states of Alabama, Tennessee and the Florida Panhandle. TNT highlights from the 2007 Short Course and Long Course seasons are listed below.
1st Place Team 2007 Southeastern Swimming Short Course Championships – Small Team Division
1st Place Team 2007 Southeastern Swimming Long Course Championships – Small Team Division
Individually, special mention must be made of the 2007 performance of TNT swimmer, Kyle Simpson, including winning the 11 – 12 boys high point award at the Southeastern Long Course Championship Meet; his number one national ranking in the 100 meter butterfly, and his national age group top 16 rankings in the 50 fly, 50 back, 100 back and 200 back.
While there are too many TNT swimmer accomplishments to list individually, the following statistics apply for the 2007 Short Course and Long Course seasons:
191 New Team Records
403 Improved Time Standards
1,613 Improved Times.
In addition to outstanding swimming performance, more than a dozen TNT parents have become certified USA Swimming meet officials, contributing valuable time and expertise to meet operations throughout Southeastern Swimming, as well as to local summer league and high school meets.
TNT continued its tradition of providing fun and innovative “in house” specialty practice sessions. This includes hosting 1984 Olympic Gold Medal Winner and former World Record Holder, Rowdy Gaines, for a four hour swim clinic last summer. The clinic was attended by well over one hundred people including swimmers, parents and coaches from area teams. This year’s Not So Lazy River Swim, held July 4th at Waterville, USA, in addition to our annual Mardi Gras and Halloween practices added fun to TNT’s 2007 swim training program.
Our swimmers and their families also continued to enjoy annual TNT “Family Affairs”, including the 2007 Nutrition Seminar hosted by Thomas Wellness Center; TNT’s Short Course and Long Course Awards Banquets, held at Christ the King School; TNT’s Kick Off to Summer and New Family Pool Parties, held at Rock Creek Club; TNT’s Family Bowling Tournament, held at Strike City Lanes in Bay Minette; TNT’s Fall Picnic, held at Beckwith Camp and Conference Center; and TNT’s Christmas Party, held at CKCS.
Finally, our families continued TNT’s tradition of community service by combining time and effort to help people in need. Last May, TNT families raised money for the American Cancer Society by bagging groceries at Wynn Dixie stores in Daphne and Fairhope, donating all proceeds to the ACS Relay for Life. Our families also supported TNT’s Annual Holiday Charity Project, donating money towards Christmas gifts and dinner for a Baldwin County family in need.
SPECIAL THANKS
Several TNT parent volunteers deserve special mention for their efforts during the past year. As always, Debbie Anderson’s work has been vital to the success of the program. Her organizational skills can be seen in almost every aspect of the team’s success, especially fundraising, and almost all of TNT’s special programs. Thanks also to Terri Kinsey, who manages the books, keeping track of the credits and debits of TNT family accounts. Also, to Andrea Doucet who manages TNT’s USA Swimming registrations; Beth Rudat, who organizes TNT’s nutrition table at meets; Melanie Simison, who organized our Nutrition Seminar; and Laurie Simpson who donates her time by embroidering specialty team items and designing our team tee shirts.
NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCKS
A warm welcome to new TNT swimmers, Sophie (6) and Emily (10) Feldvoss. The sisters are in levels 2 & 3 respectively. Congratulations, girls! You are going to have a lot of fun and learn to swim really, really fast.
BIRTHDAY GREETINGS
Congratulations to TNT swimmers who celebrated birthdays during the month of December. Simon Boles, 12 on 12/13; Nicholas Szydel, 8 on 12/15; Chase Knapstein, 11 on 12/17; Will Anderson, 13 on 12/20; Jack Sledge 8 on 12/21; Rachel Holifield, 10 on 12/29; Adele Mantiply, 14 on 12/30. Another year older and another year faster!
EXTRA SPECIAL
Thank you to TNT parents who submitted the following extra curricular highlights for inclusion in this month’s extra special section of the newsletter.
Sarah Meehan participated in the 28th Annual Turkey Trot 5K run in Cape Coral Florida on Thanksgiving morning with her 91yr. old great, great Uncle. Sarah brought home a 2nd place trophy for the 9 & under age group with a finish time of 28:38. Uncle Cecil walked the entire course and brought home the oldest participant trophy.
Meghan Finney plays the flute in the Christ the King Band. She was selected to participate in the McGill Prep School Band and they performed their holiday concert at McGill Toolin H.S. and at St Pius, St Vincent and the Cathedral Place Apartments retirement home.
Thomas Kinsey was named a member of the 2007 All-County Swim Team and the 2007 All-County Cross Country Team for Fairhope High School. He also competed in the Alabama High School State Swim Meet in the 200 Freestyle and 500 Freestyle events.
Adele Mantiply and Ashley Kinsey wrote the script, designed and constructed puppets and performed a Christmas puppet show for the 8th grade at CKCS. Their puppet show was voted by their classmates to be Top 5 in the grade. Adele also wrote an essay to be published in "The Catholic Week" for Catholic Schools Week. Adele, Lauren Kinsey and Ashley Kinsey's 8A class collected the most donations for Sister Vera's Lantern Light Homeless Shelter in New Orleans in CKCS's November outreach program. The girls also went with their class caroling at several Baldwin County nursing homes.
Will Anderson won the Geography Bee for CKCS's 7B and will compete for the CKCS school title in January.
Chase Knapstein donated 10 inches of hair to locks of love.
IMPORTANT UPDATE
Good news about the GPAC Winter Invitational Meet, scheduled to be held January 12 – 14 at the University of West Florida. Due to the high level of interest in the meet, GPAC is modifying the session format in order to accommodate the number of expected entries and also stay within the four hour time limit for 12 & under swimmers.
Under the new format which differs from the one TNT families received with their meet notices, 13 and older age groups will swim in the morning sessions, divided by gender, competing in separate courses at each end of the pool. 12 & under age groups will swim following the morning sessions, divided by gender, competing in separate courses at each end of the pool. Warm ups for the morning sessions are scheduled to begin at 8:00 AM with the meet beginning at 9:00. Warm ups for the 12 & under sessions beginning sometime around noon.
If this new format alters your plans to attend the meet, please notify Coach Jan immediately so that he can send our corrected entries to the GPAC Meet Director.
SOUTHEASTERN QUALIFIERS
Ten swimmers from TNT have achieved QUALIFYING TIMES for the 2008 Southeastern Short Course Championship meet, scheduled to be held February 21 - 24 in Nashville, TN, including: Will Anderson, Daniel Doucet, Sahra El - Hamaki, Adele Mantiply, Haley Miller, Tyler Powell, Kyle Simpson, Ryan Simpson, Ashley Szydel and Andrew Szydel.
Twelve more swimmers are within 5% of making their cuts including. Simon Boles, Jordan Doucet, Griffin Fisk, Kelsie Quale, Gracey Kahn, Lauren Kinsey, Taylor Miller, Anna Ramsey, J.D. Powell, Madison Scharles, Ben Turnipseed and Boyd Turnipseed
AGE GROUP TIME STANDARDS
Motivational time standards are established by USA Swimming in order to measure age group swimming performance on a national scale. This scale is based on the 10th place time in the nation for each event in the following age groups: 10 & under, 11 – 12, 13 - 14, 15 – 16, 17 - 18. Times that are within 5% of 10th place are AAAA times. Times within 10% are AAA, 15% AA, 20% A, 25% BB, and 30% B.
Time standards are utilized by host teams to limit the size of certain meets. For example, because our LSC (Local Swimming Committee) encompasses such a vast geographical area (Alabama, Tennessee, and the Florida Panhandle), the annual Southeastern Championships are generally restricted to A – AA times as qualifying standards in order to regulate the length of meet sessions. Conversely, time standards are also employed at other meets like the South District meet, in order to limit entries exclusively to non – Southeastern qualifiers.
TNT recognizes the improved time standards of our swimmers by listing them in all post meet competition reviews and by awarding specialty, black and gold “Improved Time Standard” ribbons. TNT swimmer time standards can be viewed on the Best Times page located on TNT’s web site at: http://www.swimtnt.com/BEST_TIMES_MAIN.html
SETTING A NEW STANDARD
TNT Swimmers have accounted for 142 improved motivational time standards since our first meet at the end of September. Keep up the good work!
Will Anderson, 200 back AAAA, 100 back AAAA, 1650 free AAA, 50 fly AAA, 1000 free AAA, 200 IM AAA, 200 free AAA, 50 free AA, 100 fly AA; Riley Boles, 50 back B, 100 free B; Simon Boles, 200 IM B, 100 IM B. 100 free B; Megan Bradley, 100 back B, 100 breast B; Lauren Chastang, 50 back BB; Hannah Denham, 50 breast B; Daniel Doucet, 200 breast AA, 50 free A, 100 breast A, 200 IM A, 400 IM A, 100 fly BB; Jordan Doucet, 50 breast A; Sahra El-Hamaki, 50 free AA, 200 IM A, 50 breast A, 100 fly A, 100 IM A, 100 free A, 100 breast A, 50 fly A, 100 back A, 50 back BB; Griffin Fisk, 100 free A, 200 IM A, 200 free A; Connor Funke, 50 back B; Jack Heebe, 50 back B, 50 free B; Gabrielle Horst, 50 free B; Gracey Kahn, 200 fly B; Ashley Kinsey, 200 IM B; Lauren Kinsey, 100 free A, 200 free A, 100 back A, 400 IM A, 100 free A, 100 fly BB. Chase Knapstein, 50 back B; Adele Mantiply, 400 IM AA, 1000 free A, 200 fly A, 100 back A; Sarah Meehan, 50 back BB, 50 free B; Haley Miller, 50 back A, 100 back A, 50 free BB, 50 breast BB; Taylor Miller, 50 back BB, 100 breast B, 200 IM B, 50 fee B, 50 breast B.. Patrick Parish, 50 fly B,100 free B,100 IM B, 50 free B; J.D. Powell, 200 breast B; Tyler Powell, 50 back AA, 100 back AA, 100 IM A, 100 fly A, 50 free A, 100 breast A, 100 fly BB;; Kelsie Quale, 200 back BB; Amanda Rudat, 100 back B, 50 breast B, 100 IM B, 100 breast B, 200 free B; Madison Scharles; 100 back A; Kyle Simpson, 200 IM AAAA, 200 free AAAA;100 free AAA, 500 free AA; Ryan Simpson, 50 back A; Andrew Szydel, 50 back A, 50 free BB, 50 breast BB, 50 fly BB, 100 IM BB; Frances Sledge, 50 back BB,100 IM BB, 100 back BB, 100 free BB, 100 breast BB, 50 free B, 50 fly B, 50 breast B, 100 IM B; Ashley Szydel, 100 back AA, 50 back A, 200 IM A; Ben Turnipseed, 50 back BB, 50 free B, 50 breast; Boyd Turnipseed, 100 back, 50 breast B.
THE BEST IS STILL AHEAD
With the New Year approaching, so is the remainder of the Short Course Swimming Season. It should be noted that events for 8 & under swimmers are not offered at the Orange and Blue Classic in Auburn, although those swimmers may compete in 10 & under events. The South District meet in Pensacola also serves as the Southeastern 8 & under championships. Please plan to attend so that we can have our best team finish possible.
January 11 - 13, 2008
GPAC Winter Invitational
Location: Pensacola, FL
February 1 - 3 2008
Orange and Blue Classic
Location: Auburn, AL
February 1 - 3, 2008
PNY Polar Bear Invitational
Gulf Shores, AL
February 16 - 17, 2008
South District Championship Meet
8 & under Championships
Location: Pensacola, FL
February 21 - 24, 2008
Southeastern Championship Meet
Location: Nashville, TN
THE GOOD GUYS
TNT thanks those supporters who advertise their business on our web site. Proceeds from advertising sales help us with operational expenses and allows TNT to provide low cost, competitive swimming instruction to children of all ability levels. Please visit http://www.swimtnt.com/advertisers_page_07-08.html to learn more about the services our advertisers offer.
Americas EZ Mortgage
A-Safe Online Backup Service
Baldwin County Bonding Company, Inc.
Ben M. Radcliff - Contractor, Inc.
Bounds Family YMCA
Cricket Realty and Management
Daniel C. Deese, DMD
Fairhope Health Foods
Goodyear of Daphne
KONE, Inc. Elevators and Escalators
Mary Beth Mantiply, Attorney at Law
Sunflower Cafe
Sledge’s Custom Building, Inc.
Steven Kinsey, M.D. F.A.C.S.
T. Leavell & Associates, Inc.
Tameron Honda - Eastern Shore
Thomas Hospital Infirmary Health System
Threaded Fasteners, Inc.
Volkert & Associates, Inc.
Waterville USA, Inc
FEEDBACK
Please direct questions, comments, suggestions, or corrections regarding information contained in this newsletter to Jan Mittemeyer at swimtnt123@aol.com or by phone 599-1019.
