Quote of the Day

Discipline is the concrete that

allows you to be creative.

via The Herald-Dispatch

Verna LeMasters Gibson

2016 Call-Ups

Find this year's state meet call-up lists over at Texas Swim Meet Results

If you have region results for Scott, email him here

Quote of the Day

Being a socialist is easy because they

can give away what they don't own.

via YouTube

Gregory John Gutfeld

Quote of the Day

I think the climate has been

changing for billions of years.
 

via This Day in Aviation

Edwin Eugene "Buzz" Aldrin, Jr.

Quote of the Day

It's real easy to manufacture what

you think the people want to hear.

But that's not very honest.

via lifehacker

Edwin Eugene "Buzz" Aldrin, Jr.

Quote of the Day

Make the hard ones look easy

and the easy ones look hard.

via The Memorial Tournament

Walter Charles Hagen

Quote of the Day

How strange that the world
should change because of
words, and words change
because of the world.

via Southword

Louis de Bernières

Sometimes...

...I actually DO miss the AT...

Ponytail Paul:


Posted a few "found" pics from February of '15 over at the thru-hike blog here

Quote of the Day

I slow down when hiking.  The rhythm of

nature is more leisurely.  The sun comes

up, it moves across the sky, and you

begin to synchronize to that rhythm.

via inc

John Mackey

Madison's Turn

via Lubbock Online

Must be Longhorn week over at USA Swimming.  Read the Madison Cox feature here.

“College has also taught me about balance, and happiness is a big component of that,” Cox said. “So you have parts that almost catch you off guard, where the light shine through and you are so happy.”

A lot of that happiness comes from pushing herself to do things she has never done, and to embrace new challenges, which includes making new friends. Though she is from Lubbock, Texas, that is nearly 400 miles away.

Quote of the Day

One can prove or refute anything at all with words.

Soon people will perfect language technology to

such an extent that they'll be proving with

mathematical precision that twice two is seven.

via The Famous People

Anton Pavlovich Chekhov

Quote of the Day

I had chosen to use my work

as a reflection of my values.

via Movie Morlocks

Sir Sidney Poitier

Kubik Featured

via WETS

Eddie's right hand man in Austin, Kris Kubik, is featured in this week's USA Swimming Square Root of 400 Question Tuesday.  Read here

4. The Longhorns have quite a special place in swimming under you two -- what does all that history and the NCAA titles you have been a part of winning and creating mean to you?

Kris: Most of what has happened here is because of Eddie. Through Eddie, I have patterned the way I coach and teach to be much like him, though certainly I have -- and with his encouragement -- developed in my own way as well. As far as winning, our goal truly has never been to win a National Championship. The goal is for each individual on our team to improve every year. If we have the right blend of people and we do improve, then we are in the mix for a National Championship. But we preach weekly if everyone does their best and we end up 10th or 12th, we will shake hands with all the teams that placed higher than us and we will be very, very proud that we did our best.

Quote of the Day

Everybody looks at the negative effects of

global warming, but with the ice melting,

the Northern Passage has opened up.

via mySA

Paul Richard LePage

2016 State Meet Call-Ups

My excuse last year was "I'm a goin' hikin'!"

This year, it's "I gots ta coach!"

For the second straight year, Scott Scofield has volunteered to compile and post the high school state meet call-up lists for swimmers, coaches, and parents interested in finding out before the UIL posts their official list.

Thanks in advance for providing Scott with results and support.

Here's the site where he'll be posting that info (along with some other meet results):

Texas Swim Meet Results

You can contact Scott via email

Quote of the Day

 

I always felt that my greatest asset was not my

physical ability, it was my mental ability.

 

via The Oregonian

 

Caitlyn Marie Jenner, a.k.a. Bruce Jenner

Quote of the Day

To me, business is the ultimate sport.

It's always on.  There is always

someone trying to beat me.

via Parade

Mark Cuban

via Indexed

Quote of the Day

My songs grow on people - like warts.

via Eagles Online

Glenn Lewis Frey

Quote of the Day

We kind of made everybody aware that God's back

yard is something that should be taken care of.

via What ever happened to...

Dan Haggerty

via Indexed

Quote of the Day

The world is full of magic things, patiently

waiting for our senses to grow sharper.

via Cuadrivio

William Butler Yeats

Quote of the Day

Baseball has done more to move America in the

right direction than all of the professional

patriots with all their cheap words.

via National Baseball Hall of Fame

Monford Merrill "Monte" Irvin

Quote of the Day

While we are postponing, life speeds by.

via onlipix

Lucius Annaeus Seneca,

a.k.a. Seneca the Younger

Yes Sir/Ma'am!

via Indexed

Quote of the Day

I decided that adventure was the

best way to learn about writing.

via Lloyd Alexander Documentary Film

Lloyd Chudley Alexander

Quote of the Day

Fame itself...doesn't really afford you anything

more than a good seat in a restaurant.

via Doll Poupee

David Robert Jones, a.k.a. David Bowie

Quote of the Day

In fact, climate change is directly

related to the growth of terrorism.

via SALON

Bernard "Bernie" Sanders

via Indexed

Quote of the Day

Writers who have nothing to say always

strain for metaphors to say it in.

via RICOCHET

Florence Virginia King

Another Swim Dumper at A&M

via Seattlepi

The Aggies are hiring another athletic director.  He is Scott Woodward.  He was at the University of Washington, where he cut the men's and women's swimming programs.  More here.

This will make Woodward the second swimmin'-cuttin' athletic director at A&M.  Bill Byrne (dumped men's swimming at Nebraska) was Aggie AD from 2003 to 20012.

The Byrne hiring made A&M swim fans nervous.  Bringing in Woodward will make Aggie swim faithful have at least a little bump in their blood pressure, right?

Quote of the Day

A man's conscience, like a warning line on the

highway, tells him what he shouldn't do -

but it does not keep him from doing it.

via Wikipedia

Frank Clark

Quote of the Day

Ring out the false, ring in the true.

via The Sunday Times

Alfred Lord Tennyson

Bay City HS Swimming/Diving Alumni

Blackcat Swim/Dive Alumni,

First, I'm working to restore our program's history and am looking for the most recent copy of our "Top Ten" list.

Now that we're back in Bay City, I'd hoped to do a quick update.  I last updated in 2007 and left records with someone here in town.  Unfortunately, they're unable to find them!

Rather than sort through old meet results* and reconstructing the list from scratch, I'm hoping to get hold of a fairly recent copy of the Top Ten list and just doing an update.

Also, we're planning to start a Facebook page in the spring to help former swimmers/divers/coaches reconnect with the program.

Finally, we'd like to do a combined Blue/Gold and Alumni meet to start our 2016-17 season.  More info on that once we get that Facebook page going.

Thanks for any help y'all can provide in helping us recognize all the great kids that helped put Bay City Swimming on the map over the years.

Swimcerely,

Button



*Many of which have gone missing

Coaches, Swimmers, & Parents:

Another competitive swimmer has died in what appears to be a shallow water blackout incident.

Dartmouth's Tate Ramsden was attempting a 100 yard underwater in a YMCA pool when he passed out.  More here



Please remind swimmers of the dangers of shallow water blackout.  More info is here.

Do this TODAY!!

Thanks,

Button

Quote of the Day

We can easily forgive a child who is afraid

of the dark;  the real tragedy of life is

when men are afraid of the light.

via The Imaginative Conservative

Plato

Quote of the Day

Be who you are and say what you feel,

because those who mind don't matter,

and those who matter don't mind.

via WishesTrumpet

Bernard Mannes Baruch

Bobby's Back in North Texas

Bobby will be helping out with the Horned Frog swim program while working on his masters.  Story is here

Quote of the Day

A true champion knows how to overcome

doubts and manage those doubts and

turn them into motivation.

via SwimVortex

Misty Dawn Marie Hyman

AT Post

Found this just now.  '15 AT thru-hiker Nick "Click" Reichard took tons of pics on his six-month hike.  Click started a month later than us but, since he hiked at about the same pace, didn't catch us.

His Instagram link is here, his store link is here, and a short vid is below:

Quote of the Day

You can't measure the mutual affection

of two human beings by the number

of words they exchange.

via Vitro Nasu

Milan Kundera

Quote of the Day

If pigs could vote, the man with the slop

bucket would be elected swineherd

every time, no matter how much

slaughtering he did on the side.

via Wired

Orson Scott Card

Nope: That horse ain't dead yet!!

Okay, maybe I am beating a dead horse...so what?

Via last night's USA Swimming Coaching Connection:

“STOP LOOKING AT YOUR PHONE!” yells Tasha, a point guard on the 6th grade YMCA basketball team I was coaching.

Immediately, I smile and start to explain to her that I forgot my watch and I needed to make sure we were on schedule. Tasha rolled her eyes, clearly unimpressed with my response.

“No big deal,” I had thought to myself on the way to practice when I realized I forgot my watch, “I’ll use my phone.” Fifteen minutes into practice, I had pulled out my phone to make sure we were on schedule. Big mistake.

“Can you believe the nerve of that girl?” I thought. “Here I am, the volunteer head coach, staying up late watching videos on drills and strategy, planning practices on my lunch break, staying late for players who parents are delayed picking up their child…and now some kid is telling me to put my phone away when all I am doing is making sure practice is on schedule?”

Reflecting back on that practice later that night, though, I asked myself what did Tasha really want? What was she really asking for?

I realized that she was looking for the one thing kids crave more than anything else. She wanted me to be there, in that moment, in that drill, watching her and her teammates. She wanted my attention.

She didn’t simply want me to care for her, or love her, or teach her how to play the game. She wanted more.

She wanted me to see her!

The rest of this James Leath post is here

Fixin' a Screw-Up

Today's Seth Godin blog post is "When things go wrong"

A protocol for moving forward:

0. Double check the work to make sure that there are no other problems within it.

1. Alert the relevant parties

2. Take responsibility for what went wrong. This doesn’t mean that you intentionally did it wrong, or that doing it right was part of your job description. It means that you know something went wrong, you’re unhappy about it, and you accept responsibility for letting it get by you and you accept responsibility for making sure it won’t happen again.

 3. Apologize. Not because it’s your fault, but because the incident cost other people time or money or upset them, and you’re sorry that they have to deal with that.

4. Come up with a plan to ameliorate the impact of the problem. If you can’t come up with a plan, say so and ask for suggestions.

5. Come up with a plan to avoid the problem in the future.

6. Gather feedback.

7. Thank everyone for their patience and goodwill.

Either that, or you could hide, dissemble, blame, shuffle along, scowl, depersonalize and then move on.

via The Guardian

Missed your athlete's taper?  It happens.

A second time?  Okay, that happens too.

Over and over again?!?!  Enough already!

Kids and parents are tired of coaches that skip past steps 1 through 7.  They're also tired of those that stop at number 3...it's time to move on to number 5...

Quote of the Day

Democracy and socialism have nothing

in common but one word, equality.  But

notice the difference:  while democracy

seeks equality in liberty, socialism seeks

equality in restraint and servitude.

via Great Thoughts Treasury

Alexis-Charles-Henri Clérel de Tocqueville

Yup! It's gonna be another one of those...

...all-over-the-map posts.


Safety First!!  Texas Swimming does not endorse the use of firearms without ear protection.

Tim Bauer needs an ASCA Level V head age group coach at TWST

Great Hills Country Club needs a head coach

Corpus Christi TISCA

Texarkana TISCA

San Antonio TISCA

The City of San Antonio needs a Recreation Specialist (Aquatics)

The South County YMCA (Houston) needs a Youth Development Director - Aquatics

The City of Round Rock needs an Aquatics Manager

Coverage pages (race/interview vids, results, etc.) for this weekend's big meets:

Junior Nationals East/West (USA Swimming)

Junior Nationals West (Swimming World)

Junior Nationals East (Swimming World)

Duel in the Pool (USA Swimming)

Duel in the Pool (Swimming World)

NCAP Invite (Swimming World)

We laughed about fellow hikers nearing the end of the AT up in Maine (that's where them Maine-iacs lives) that whined "It's been so great - I just don't want it to end."  Really?  Y'all wanna keep on smellin' like butt fer ever?

Big Cat Invite

Klein Oak vs. Klein (JV)

Birdville/Denton/Guyer/Ryan

The Woodlands vs. Kingwood (JV)

Carroll/Coppell/Granbury

College Park vs. Magnolia

College Park vs. Cy-Woods (JV)

Klein/Montgomery/Clear Falls

Latest CSCAA D-I polls are here.  Texas men still #1.  A&M women at #5, follered by UT gals at #6.

More Earl Dibbles, Jr.:


AAAA Winter Wonderland (real time)

AQTX TNR (12/1)

LCA Winter Races

Dumbest headline of the day*:

US Intel:  ISIS May Have Passport

Printing Machine, Blank Passports

Ya think?

Southern Senior Champs

FCST Fall Champs

LSST Fall Champs

COR Winter Classic

MAC BB & Under

A&M vs. Rice (W)

Austin vs. McMurry (M&W)

Still ain't had enough Earl?


Cathedral Loretto Invite

YISD Border Invite

Hawkeye Invite

The City of New Braunfels lacks coordination.  They need an Aquatics Coordinator and an Assistant Aquatics Coordinator

The City of Round Rock needs an Aquatics Supervisor

The South Montgomery County YMCA needs a Youth Development Senior Director - Aquatics

The City of Pharr needs an Aquatics Supervisor




*This post excluded

Quote of the Day

What and how much had I lost by trying to

do only what was expected of me instead

of what I myself had wished to do?

via Famous Authors

Ralph Waldo Ellison

Quote of the Day

You measure a person by what

it takes to discourage them.

via The Sports Bank

William Francis "Bo" Ryan, Jr.

2015 Barbados Open Water Festival

Nitro's Taylor Abbott (#47) won both the 1.5k and 5k races in this year's Barbados Open Water Festival:

Quote of the Day

Tricks and treachery are the practice of fools,

that don't have brains enough to be honest.

via Wikipedia

Benjamin Franklin

Cash

Nope, not catching up on meet results...yet...

Enjoying learning more about Johnny Cash's comeback album from a couple of decades ago.  This is definitely worth a look:


Fascinating to see both his "light" and "dark" sides.  Speaking of the "dark", here's another version of Delia's Gone (posted an alternate version here):

Joe Friday vs. Barack Obama

Thanks, Dad!

Don't Know Jack

I don't know Jack Madden.  His troubles with USA Swimming are big news in the Houston swimming community right now.  He certainly has plenty of support from his former team.

Statement from Adam Stanford, President, Cy-Fair Swim Club:
"Jack Maddan is an exceptional coach, father, husband and role model. USA swimming banning him from membership will change none of that. Although Jack will no longer be able to perform the duties as Head Coach at Fleet Swimming, he and his family will remain in our hearts and always be considered OUR family. It takes but one meeting or conversation with him to understand his good character, love of swimming and love of the athletes us as parents entrust him with daily.

The entire basis of the circumstance that has now led to Jack being banned was based on an allegation from 1999 that we believe to be false. There are NO other complaints or allegations, past or present and those people that know Jack know he does not deserve the hand he has been dealt.

Jack as a coach has had the full and unwavering support of the Board of Directors throughout the process. Going forward, although he won't be our coach, Jack and his family will continue to have love and support from our Fleet family."

CFSC has removed Jack's bio, but here's what I found via Google (cached):

Jack was listed as an At-Large Board of Directors member for Gulf Swimming, but has since been removed from that position.

Channel 13's Jessica Willey did a piece on the (now former) FLEET head coach the other night.  Video, text, and comments are here.

I do have to wonder if Jessica did any research on the "gentleman" she interviewed for the story (naughty word warning):

Quote of the Day

We demand rigidly defined areas

of doubt and uncertainty!

via The Infocomicon

Douglas Noel Adams