Quote of the Day

This country has come to feel the same
when Congress is in session as when
a baby gets hold of a hammer.



William Penn Adair "Will" Rogers

Quote of the Day

I was too heavy to be a jockey and too honest
to be a producer, so I became a writer.



Leon Marcus Uris

Quote of the Day

If I could I would always work in
silence and obscurity, and let my
efforts be known by their results.



Emily Jane Brontë

Quote of the Day

Never play a thing the same way twice.



Louis Armstrong

Quote of the Day

Find something you're passionate about
and keep tremendously interested in it.



Julia Carolyn McWilliams, a.k.a. Julia Child

Quote of the Day

It is better to fail in originality
than to succeed in imitation.



Herman Melville

Ladies & Gentlemen,

Please direct your attention to the Official Rules post.

It's my pleasure to introduce the newest member of the Comment Hall of Fame.

While most feel our new relay take-off judging protocol is a step in the right direction, we're concerned it doesn't quite go far enough. We can't use the automatic system to "save" relays. In the past, we were told this was the best reason to use the system.

He/she has done a great job of stating the reasoning behind our cautious optimism.

Without further ado, I'd like to present Anonymous: our third inductee in the Comment Hall of Fame!

At 11:41 PM, Anonymous said…

Another problem door has been opened by the "new" protocol.
Two judges say DQ, but the RTOP says "OK". Too bad, "you're outta there!" This part of the "new" protocol overturns the last 10 years of positive RTOP readings having the potential to "save" relays!

The whole problem was the malfunction of the touch-pads in the water. Nothing was ever really wrong with the RTOP. That malfunctioning touch-pad problem was, indeed, addressed by requiring at least one judge to confirm the DQ. Bravo, that was the correct step! To do away with the positive RTOP reading to "save" a relay was the wrong step!

The "new" protocol, also effectively says that even if the RTOP, which was never accused of wrong-doing, says positive, two human judges can over-rule it. There has NEVER been a single coach or swimmer or parent that has argued the positive reading of the RTOP.

Pardon me if I seem stupid, but how would one get a positive RTOP reading and actually leave the blocks early? I really do welcome anyone that could explain that to me.
Are there any officials reading this that can explain to me how the RTOP can ever read "positive" and the swimmer actually leave early for a DQ? The "manufacturer's starting point" for the RTOP begins when the touchpad registers. If no one touches the touchpad, how can the RTOP ever register a positive reading? If you do not touch, then the reading will be negative. It is the "close" relay exchange, in the area of +.00 to +.09 that would be at risk if the judges are not able to "judge" that exchange correctly. Again, isn't it the manufacturers that sold this equipment on the premise that the human eye could not, effectively, measure an exchange that close? Wasn't that the original premise of Appendix "B" in the NFHS rule book?

It is not the RTOP! It is the link between the possibly malfunctioning touch-pads and the RTOP.
One thing that was not at fault, the RTOP!
Leave the RTOP positive reading alone and just make sure that there are quality judges ready to over-rule a negative RTOP reading in case of a touch-pad malfunction on a relay exchange.

We back-up ALL final finishes with stopwatches and plungers. Why can't we just focus on the real problem with the touch-pads and leave the rest of the RTOP protocol alone? Again, is there ANYONE out there that really wants to see a positive RTOP reading over-ruled by two human judges? Who wants to be those two judges and contend with the angst and questions and arguments and official protests that will, assuredly, result?

Now we have another "interpretation" presented as a "move forward". The "new" UIL automatic relay exchange protocol is not a move forward or a move backwards, it is a "move sideways" to side-step the real problem.

Quote of the Day

Art has to move you and design does not,
unless it's a good design for a bus.



David Hockney

Quote of the Day

We don't see things as they are,
we see them as we are.



Angela Anaïs Juana Antolina Rosa
Edelmira Nin y Culmell, a.k.a. Anaïs Nin

Quote of the Day

I've dreamt in my life dreams that have stayed
with me ever after, and changed my ideas;
they've gone through and through me,
like wine through water, and
altered the colour of my mind.



Emily Jane Brontë

Official Rules

Ron has posted the official relay take-off protocol form the UIL. Read it here.

Article I addresses a concern both coaches and officials have wrestled with - consistency in positioning. Everyone should now be on the same page there.

As you begin reading Article II you may believe we're going back to the protocol of old. It closes, though, with this:

Moreover, a positive differential recorded by the electronic equipment does not overrule an early takeoff recorded by both judges.

Kind of takes one of the main reasons for using the equipment out of the mix, right? Makes many of us wonder why, if it can't be used to protect athletes from missed calls, we are going to use the system at all...

Quote of the Day

There are two things which a democratic
people will always find very difficult -
to begin a war and to end it.



Alexis-Charles-Henri Clérel de Tocqueville

The Flipside of Feminism:

What Smart/Conservative Women Know - and Men Can't Say

Get it at Amazon here.

Note how "smart" and "conservative" are interchangeable:



Feminists Hate Everything Masculine, by Phyllis Schlafly

I hope that one of the results of my new book The Flipside of Feminism will be to show the American people that the feminist movement was never about equality. It was always about interchangability, and when the facts of human nature are too overwhelming to make men and women interchangeable, feminists are determined to get rid of anything that is truly masculine.

A good example of feminist maliciousness toward men is the way they have used the power of Big Government in the Department of Education to abolish hundreds of men’s college sports teams, particularly the sports that are too masculine for women to play. I knew the congressional sponsor of Title IX, and she certainly did not plan it to be a sword to punish men or to enforce bean-counting quotas. She merely wanted equal opportunity for women. But the malicious feminists have used Title IX as a sword to force colleges to abolish hundreds of men’s athletic teams, so many, in fact, that they have discouraged large numbers of men from even attending college, and colleges are now nearly 60% women.

The anti-masculine efforts of the feminists is particularly evident in forcing the abolition of more than 450 college wrestling teams, one of the most masculine of all sports. The University of Nebraska at Omaha also just announced that it is dropping wrestling. The female athletics director at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro just announced that she is using Title IX to eliminate its wrestling team and cancel its wrestling camp scheduled for this summer. This University has fielded a wrestling team for 18 years, won a conference championship last year, and four of this year’s team have qualified to compete in the NCAA championships this year. The eliminating of wrestling isn’t a matter of money because there are only 35 wrestlers and two full-time coaches. It’s just a move to feed the anti-masculine meanness of the feminists.

Learn how the process operates:


Hate mail? Go ahead - you won't be the first...or the last...

Another Unscientific Poll

Results of the NISCA poll:

Question - Does NISCA membership meet your needs?

29% - Sometimes.
26% - Never.
21% - Most of the time.
16% - Rarely.
5% - Absolutely!
3% - What's NISCA?

New poll asks about your TISCA membership.

Quote of the Day

Nobody has ever measured, not even
poets, how much the heart can hold.



Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald

Mark Dent at DMN

Special thanks to Mark Dent at the Dallas Morning News.

He researched the issue carefully.

He presented it well.

He stuck to the story and followed up.

Pick up this morning's DMN for his latest (on 7C). Available online for subscribers only.

Quote of the Day

A major power can afford a military debacle
only when it looks like a political victory.



Friedrich Dürrenmatt

More on Relay Take-Off Protocol

The Dallas Morning News and Swimming World have posted on the UIL rule change. Read more here and here.

The UIL seems to have met us halfway.

Good news:

They're throwing out Appendix B, the optional protocol that allowed the computer to trump common sense.

Bad news:

We're not going back to the days when we were being told the equipment could save a relay.

Kind of makes you wonder why we're one of the only states that even bothers using automatic relay judging at all...

Kids Win!!!

UIL Rule Change

Quote of the Day

I never worry about action,
but only about inaction.



Sir Winston Churchill

Quote of the Day

Example is not the main thing
in influencing others,
it's the only thing.



Albert Schweitzer

How would you feel...

...if you were a former Rutgers male swimmer?

Seems they can't afford their men's swim team*, but they are able to forgive $100,000 of the football coach’s interest-free home loan. Read more here.

That can't be! They hired an athletic director who was going to put a stop to wasteful spending, right?

When Rutgers hired Tim Pernetti as athletic director in February 2009, the school made it one of his priorities to shrink the university’s support for sports. His contract provides for a $10,000 bonus in any year when the subsidy doesn’t increase and the amount also falls as a percentage of the athletic budget. Pernetti, a 40-year-old native of Wyckoff, New Jersey, has never earned the bonus, said University spokesman E.J. Miranda.

Oops!

This year's bloated football roster lists 113 athletes.

The staff numbers? You won't believe it!

Here's the breakdown:

Football Coaches - 13
Strength/Conditioning/Nutrition - 4
Trainers - 3
Video/Equipment - 5
Administration/Operations - 12
Academic Support - 11
Recruiting - 3

That's right, folks. It takes 51 people to run the 113-player Rutgers football squad.

Moreover, the subsidies to sports aren’t likely to pay off for Rutgers, says Catherine Lugg, a professor in the graduate school of education.

“We’re told that at some day in the future we will see the pots of gold made by football,” Lugg said in an interview. “When someone says that, I say ‘Yeah, and I’d like a pony for Christmas.’ It’s just not going to happen.”

Nothing new there, right? Athletic directors often categorize sports as "revenue" and "non-revenue".

It's hard to understand their math, though.

How is it the revenue sports end up further in the red than the non-revenue ones?

On the subject of foosball, we still have openings for this year's Texas Swimming fantasy football league.

It's free to join. Yahoo! League ID# is 134116, League Name is Texas Swimming, Password is titleixsux, and League URL is http://football.fantasysports.yahoo.com/league/texasswimming

League Champions:

2005 - dirtybuttcrackheads

2006 - dirtybuttcrackheads

2007 - The Slum Lords

2008 - YouAllSuck-JustQuit

2009 - YouAllSuck-JustQuit

2010 - sugar hiccups

Edited 8/18: League had been showing "full". Fixed settings and still have room for seven (7) teams. If you tried earlier to join league and couldn't, please try again.

*They couldn't have been cut due to Title IX quotas, could they?

Quote of the Day

Through others we become ourselves.



Lev Semyonovich Vygotsky

Where will we be...

...when the summer's gone?


2011 TAAF Summer Games


Life for competitive cheer? Read more here.

The NCAA Committee on Women’s Athletics will watch for continued growth and development in a new sport that combines elements of gymnastics and competitive cheerleading after two different groups requested emerging-sport status for slightly different versions.

In a letter sent to both organizations, the committee asked the two groups to join forces to submit a single proposal for consideration by the NCAA membership.


2011 LC Masters Nationals Results

We were lucky enough to witness Lone Star Geyser erupt while in Yeller Stone:


What's new down in Bait Camp? A while back, Matagorda County Sheriff Gary Mathis wrecked his car. Read about it here. Last week, he wrecked his relationship with county commissioners. Read more here.

David Woodson, Commissioner pct. 4, asked Mathis to explain how many patrol deputies living in the county were driving their vehicles home.

Mathis said he would have to check the numbers at his office and report back.

In an attempt to understand where Mathis wanted the extra $114,000 added to the budget, Dan Pustka, Commissioner pct. 1, asked for the total to be broken into line item requests.

Mathis again said he would have to obtain the figures from his office and report back.

“Can you get it right now? Because we can’t make any decisions until we know where you want to put it,” said Pustka.

And we’ll just wait on you if it doesn’t take too long.”

When Mathis left to retrieve the information on the line item amounts he was requesting to the budget, he never returned.

Instead, he called James Gibson, commissioner pct. 3, on his cell phone and told him that the commissioners already had those figures and he wasn’t coming back to the meeting.

Read more on Brendan Hansen's comeback at Swimming World here.

For having such strong feelings about the absence of a future in swimming back then, it's quite a turnaround to where he is now. Hansen says that his biggest strength now is the knowledge of where he came from. He's on a mental peak, loving how much he loves the sport again.

"I'm about as excited as I was as an 18-year-old freshman at Texas – 10 years ago," he said.

And even though he's happy now, he has no regrets. He left at the right time, and he knows that leaving was the only way he was ever going to get his passion for swimming back – even though that wasn't the intention at all.

Longhorn Jimmy Feigen to take spring waiver:


World University Games results and more video from Swimming World here.

2011-12 NISCA All America swim standards are here.

Want to sponsor Pam LeBlanc in got2swim for COLIN'S HOPE? Check it out here.

Chugging down Lake Austin between the Pennybacker Bridge and Walsh Boat Landing last year with Alissa and her crew was about the best way to spend a September morning I can imagine.

That it benefitted Colin’s Hope, which works to prevent drowning, turned the experience into more than just a cool swim in the river. It meant a little zap of attention focused on something completely preventable - drowning.

This year, I’ll be jumping in at City Park, swimming 8 miles instead of 4 in an effort to raise money for Colin’s Hope and increase awareness about how to recognize and prevent drowning.

The NCAA may add another member from outside the U.S. Former NAIA powerhouse Simon Fraser University was the first. Read more here.

“We know about the proceedings recently initiated by Canadian universities,” wrote de la Garza Herrera, “and Mexico would like to follow up in this pilot program.”

In case you missed the live feeds, videos from Nationals and Junior Nationals are on the USA Swimming YouTube Channel.

Quote of the Day

Talent hits a target no one else can hit.
Genius hits a target no one else can see.



Arthur Schopenhauer

Quote of the Day

Everyone has talent at twenty-five.
The difficulty is to have it at fifty.



Hilaire-Germain-Edgar De Gas, a.k.a. Edgar Degas

Quote of the Day

For my part, I consider that it will be found much
better by all Parties to leave the past to history,
especially as I propose to write that history.



Sir Winston Churchill

We're Team Gold!

Quote of the Day

The possession of arbitrary power has always,
the world over, tended irresistibly to destroy
humane sensibility, magnanimity, and truth.



Frederick Law Olmsted

Quote of the Day

I never give in to the temptation to be difficult
just for the sake of being difficult.
That would be too ridiculous.



Jacques Derrida

Quote of the Day

It is very nearly impossible to become
an educated person in a country so
distrustful of the independent mind.



James Arthur Baldwin

Quote of the Day

Four steps to achievement:

Plan purposefully.
Prepare prayerfully.
Proceed positively.
Pursue persistently.



Dr. William Arthur Ward

Quote of the Day

Rebellion is the only thing that keeps you alive!



Marianne Evelyn Faithfull

Quote of the Day

I owe a lot to my parents,
especially my mother and father.



Gregory John "Greg" Norman

Quote of the Day

Never turn down a job because you think it's
too small; you don't know where it can lead.



Julia Morgan

Quote of the Day

Pressure is playing for ten dollars when
you don't have a dime in your pocket.



Lee Buck Trevino

Quote of the Day

We've lost seven of our last eight matches. Only
team we've beaten was Western Samoa. Good
job we didn't play the whole of Samoa.



William Gareth Davies

Quote of the Day

If you're going to say anything
filthy, please speak clearly.



Victor Anthony "Vivian" Stanshall

When it's this close,...

...shouldn't we give the swimmer the benefit of the doubt?


via The Daily What

Trotter Family YMCA in Houston needs a swim coach. Contact Michelle Lopez

If you're a long-time reader of this site - there must be at least a couple of you, right? - you know my beef with Bait Camp has a lot to do with the pool "renovation" project that was an absolute disaster.

Things worked out for us - we escaped.

Unfortunately, city leaders have continued to squander tax dollars. The pool was just one of several mismanaged projects. It looks like folks have finally had enough.

The "consultant" they hired to oversee these projects has finally been canned. Read more here.

A city contractor who directed several major public works projects was fired by city council in a unanimous vote at its regular meeting Thursday night.

The termination of Jerry Naiser’s contract — placed on the agenda by Mayor Mark Bricker — was made by a motion from councilman Clarence Fenner and seconded by council member Patti McKelvy.

The unanimous vote came swiftly and without further comment from council members.

A local activist named Eric Schroeder had been a real thorn in the side of the former mayor and city council members. Turns out, he was right to question their dirty dealings! Here's his letter to the editor from today's issue of The Tribune:

Dear editor,

Most people in Bay City know that Nile Valley Rd. has been closed because the road is unsafe for public use. City council terminated a contractor for substandard work.

Every project he touched has problems including the new extension of Nile Valley Road, the hospital parking lot, Hardeman Park, even the walking track at the high school.

The sad part is that local taxpayers are stuck with the bill to repair these problems which will cost millions while the contractor walks away.

At Thursday’s city council meeting after my public comments one council member said we should move forward, “we know we’ve made mistakes.”

The truth is that older council members knew that Nile Valley was built wrong before it opened, but sat by while millions of our tax dollars were wasted even when they were told the repairs would not fix the problem and they were wasting money.

If these members of council were employed in the public sector and allowed this kind of money to be wasted they would be fired or arrested.

Next May we can fire two of them even though at this point they do not deserve to sit on council and should resign. I have been looking into filing a petition for removal with the D.A. I am also looking at several other charges that can be filed.

We the citizens of Bay City will move forward but not with leaders we can’t trust that have misinformed the public for years.

We have new faces in our city government and it’s time for more we need leaders that want to improve Bay City for everyone not just a few special interest or for personal benefits.

I urge people to become involved in what our local government does, remember this is our town and it operates using our money.

Eric Schroeder

Bay City

The comeback's on track. Real time results from nationals are here. More nationals info - including video - is here.

Quote of the Day

Playing it safe is probably the most
unsafe thing in the world.
You cannot stand still.
You must go forward.



Robert Collier

Nationals

Watch nationals here.

Results are here.


Swimming World's calling David Salo the Pied Piper of swimming. Read more here. Didn't that Pied Piper story end badly?



Get your dolphin wireless mouse here.


The NCAA & USOC will partner to save sports like men's swimming. Read more here.

“One significant objective we share is to sustain as many sports and sport opportunities as possible,” Comstock said. “We have seen the loss of many programs on NCAA campuses over the last few years. This is an area of common interest.”

Bradley-Doppes encouraged emotional and financial support and “the energy required to keep these sports active and our competition level high.”

“This is a great way to pool resources – our staff, our intellect and our talents, collectively – to help the NCAA in its mission and the USOC in its mission,” she said.

Quote of the Day

A throne is only a bench covered with velvet.



Napoleon Bonaparte

It's about time...

...for a little vacation. This week, posts will slow to a trickle.

Once the real vacation begins, only new quotes will appear.

Comments/emails won't be moderated/read, so hold off on the hate mail for a while.

Just let it build up until you're a raving lunatic. If you're already a raving lunatic, check yourself in right away - you're not going to make it through this on your own.


Don't worry about finding other ways to waste time, the internet's loaded with sites like this one. If you're on the road and can't remember the blogger address, www.texasswimming.org will get you here.

Why you'd bother is beyond me...

For you educators getting ready to return to the classroom, it's time to prep for in-service week:


Once your meetings begin, you'll want to keep your Teacher In-Service Bingo card handy. Almost naughty word warning! Print your card out here.

Button Dominates in Hungary!

I know what you're asking: "Yeah, but can he win in the states?" We'll find out next year. Read more here.


The English Channel's been swum 1,000+ times. If you're looking for a bigger challenge, you might want to try swimming Lake Ontario. Swimmers have only crossed it fifty-six times. List is here.

World University Games Official Site (be patient)


ASCA boss John Leonard has a Twitter feed featuring "one coaching thought per day!". Follow it here.

Nothing irritates me more than when y'all won't listen when I'm interrupting. Tips to improve yourselves are here:

Quote of the Day (thanks MS)

One man with courage makes a majority.



Andrew "Old Hickory" Jackson