Time Trials

Apr 24, 2010 | Home   Heats     Results

It's blue skies ahead for the Strawberry Seals! The sun was blazing and the BBQ sizzled while our swimmers ripped through the aqua surface of our new pool. We really saw the results of a lot of hard work and great coaching with a flurry of best times and big smiles. Thank you all for coming out and making our inaugural meet a success. The list of volunteers is long but we would like to call out a few folks who really made the day!

Estelle Boo for hitting the high notes with the National Anthem. Marcelino Nogueiro for navigating the labyrinth of wires and cables. Veteran Seal parent Liz Tan for helping even with no kids in the pool. Kelly Haechler, Marjorie Bukowski and Lisa Carey for keeping our stomachs full and bodies hydrated...even with Nick Tarrant's BBQ casualty! Debbie Carney's raffle wizardry and for being a fund raising Diva!! Sloan Klein and Stacey Ciauri who worked their magic by putting the pieces together for the Seals version of Match.com - the Buddies really hit it off! Leslie Culhane for months of waiting in the cold for all those forms. Pete Towle for getting everything in it's place even though, this being our first meet at Tam, we didn't even know where that 'place' was. Julie Zener for making everyone look so stylish with the Seals apparel. Ron Chan for the diamond level tech support. Diane Hassett and Tomio Takeshita for herding all the volunteers and making it look easy. Of course, Jamie Firmage who always seems everywhere at once just when you need help. And last but not least the tireless coaches and swimmers who really proved that SEALS ROCK.

Swimarin

May 08, 2010 | Away   Heats     Results     Best Times     Photos by Jennifer Tenaglia and Tia Wu

Last week's Swimmers of the Week were Reese Dahlgren and Tessa Pares. These two work with such muscle and heart which makes coaching them a breeze. No matter how hard the set, they keep smiling through it.

Swimarin Recap
Thanks to Swimarin for hosting a fun and fast meet - special kudos for their yummy breakfast burritos. We worked on breaststroke last week and boy did it show. Typically breaststroke and butterfly are where most disqualifications are received. Our DQ's were negligible. YES, we are the IM team I was hoping we would be! Alex Mortimer shaved 5 seconds off his 100 IM and missed beating a 5 year old record by 2 tenths. Jada Andrews, Kyra Carney, Jackson Culhane, Ethan Zener, Trinity Dohoney, Alex Mortimer, Annie Whalen, Alexa Zener, Theo Andrews, Cameron Creath, Armani Roots, Alex Takeshita, Nicky Chan, Caitlin Firmage, Olivia Larocca and Daniel Patino collectively earned the team 58 points with their IM swims. The team had so many best times that we ran out of room on the Best Time Board. Obviously we need a bigger board. 72 All Star qualifying swims. Georgia Smith bravely swam her first meet ever. Mia Ciauri shaved 22 seconds in just 2 races. Dillon Schow swam up as a 15-18 year old and earned 13 points for our team. Thank you Dillon!

I am a proud Mama and Coach and can't help but gush about our Seals. It was a great first meet and proof Nick, Jeremy and I are training these swimmers right.

Next week we will be working especially on turns as well as starts and finishes. Check out the links below.

Backstroke Flip-Turn: Click here
Olympic Dreams for our Seals. Great footage of starts, still heads in backstroke, awesome stretched out breaststroke. Click here
The historical finish: Click here

Finally, I must have everyones stroke selections no later than Tuesday at 7:30PM I assume everyone is swimming. If your child is not swimming, I must know this by Tuesday evening at 7:30PM as well. Please notify me in person or via email. If by email, in the subject line put the swimmers full name, age group and stroke selection(or 'UNABLE TO ATTEND' with the date). All Pups will swim free and back until they are legally swimming breast and fly. They will have an opportunity to show me this in practice on Tuesday. The meet will begin at 8AM. Warm-ups will be at 7:30AM for Beginner 1's & 2's & Intermediate A. 7:45-8:00AM for Intermediate B and Advanced. .

Reminder: MCAL's Championship swim meet will be at Tam this Friday. Because of this, Friday practice will be held for the Intermediates an Advanced groups ONLY. This will all be held at Strawberry during the following times:

Intermediate A group	3:30 - 4:00
Intermediate B group	4:00 - 4:30
Advanced (Last names A-K)	4:30 - 5:00
Advanced (Last names L-Z)	5:00 - 5:30

If you are unsure of your group please click here

Coach Bella

Marinwood

May 15, 2010 | Away   Heats     Results     Best Times     Photos by Jennifer Tenaglia and Tia Wu

We worked on starts and turns this week and had splendid team results. Swimmers of the week were Quinn Culhane, Veronika Miller and Mara Pulgram. Although Quinn was moved from the lane with his buddies to a lane with bigger girls, he still managed to show his group a superb backstroke start with amazing under-water streamline. Veronika has been putting in outstanding extra effort in the pool for weeks. She often times finishes her warm-up before her group and gets to swim additional choice laps. Mara has enhanced her technique with arduous training. Mara listens to coach input and applies herself consistently.

Meet Re-Cap
Marinwood 250 - Strawberry 302
8U & 11-12 A & B Relays swept. 58 points came from all the relays. 57 points came from breaststroke. 21 All Star qualifying swims. 199 Best Times. Sabrina Ciauri shaved 2 seconds and took third overall from heat 3 in the freestyle. Jackson Culhane with Walking Pneumonia shaved 6 seconds and won the IM! Because Annie Whalen's birthday is Monday, I promised her she could coach the Advanced practice on on her birthday if she achieved 3 best times...I look forward to her interesting sets this Monday. Happy Birthday Annie & Taylor! As many of you know we had a bit of a problem with our seeding for this meet (which WILL be fixed for next week's big home meet) and so a big Seals thank you to all the parents and swimmers for their understanding. And of course, many thanks to our gracious hosts Coaches Kent, Aaron and the Waterdevils. They made all of us feel welcome, put on an amazing snack bar and treated our coaching staff like A-Listers.

Week 13
This week we will be working on our freestyle technique, flip-turns, open turns and finishes.

Opening Day
Our first home meet (ever!) at Tam High School will be this Saturday against Sleepy Hollow. Coincidentally, Tam High is also holding a city-wide open house celebrating it's completion of a years long renovation program the same day and we are helping to showcase the Tam Pool as an recreational resource for the community. However, to do our part, we must finish our meet by noon so that the pool can be open to the public at that time. There might be a lot of spectators who have never seen a swim meet before and so this is our chance to show our Seals spirit and let them know what the MSL is all about!

After the meet is over we invite everyone to enjoy the pool and fun activities planned by some very special volunteers. Our meet will begin at 7:30am sharp. Right after warm-ups (time TBD) we will have a team meeting and cheer behind the diving boards outside the fence. As we will be beginning early, it will be cool in the morning. Please be bundled up in your layers of Seals apparel. You're not ready if your not sweaty.

I must have everyones stroke selections no later than Tuesday at 7:30pm. I assume everyone is swimming. If your child is not swimming, I must know this by Tuesday evening at 7:30pm as well. Please notify me in person or via email. If by email, in the subject line put the swimmers full name, age group and stroke selection(or 'UNABLE TO ATTEND' with the date). All Pups will swim free and back until they are legally swimming breast and fly. They will have an opportunity to show me this in practice on Tuesday.

Are you missing your fins? I have several pairs of fins left behind at the pool. I will be bringing them to practice this Monday.

Coach Bella

Sleepy Hollow

May 22, 2010 | Home   Heats     Results     Best Times     Photos by Jen Tenaglia

Phew...Wow...OMG! What an amazing inaugural meet! The Seals crushed the incredible odds stacked up against us with grace and precision. Let's review: first home meet at a new pool under insane time constraints with new equipment, new faces and against an always formidable Sleepy Hollow team to boot. The result: We finished under our deadline of 4 hours as veterans and novices synched together like a Swiss watch. AND as far as we can tell this was the closet meet that ANY team has had against Sleepy Hollow in at least 3 years. A huge shout out to our amazing swimmers - both young and old - and our superfantastic coaches for leading the way.

A special Seals thumbs up to the entire Sea Lion team and families for their co-operation and good sportsmanship in putting up with our crazy requests in order to get out of the pool by noon. Remember, it takes two teams to pull off a stunt like this. Special thanks to Jock Christie from Sleepy Hollow for a great assist with the "rounding" problem with the Colorado.

Armed with bleary eyed volunteers the meet got off without a glitch (well... a few minor tech issues tried to slow us down but our trusted computer superhero Ron Chan would have none of that)! While the list is long, and quite honestly includes everyone at the meet, a few special mentions are in order.

Debra Carney, Melanie Victor-Smith and their posse for the tenacious raffle sales work. The entire morning crew for some serious 5:30 am dawn patrol. Jon Bontz, Craig Miller and the whole Starter team for keeping the meeting going so smoothly (Although with the crown that Craig was wearing how could it NOT run smoothly!)

Therese Vreeland and Nancy Slattery for their auctioneer-like speed on the mic. Our Seals Mascot for seeding the Seals' cheer and spirit. The high schoolers that defied the laws of sleeping in to show us what they're made of. Kelly Haechler and the snack bar crew for selling hamburgers at 8:45 am!

Chris Ciauri for the slick salesmanship in keeping a bunch of wind burned, tired kids swimming for another hour for the post meet TAM celebration. Marisa Schow for her awe inspiring vocals (I think flag sales went up in Marin that day). Diane and Tomio for not letting anyone clock out early! Lisa Andrews for the new and improved ribbons - up to 8th place!

And last but not least......Nick Tarrant for driving carefully :)

A huge belated thank you to Sloan Klein and Stacey Ciauri for the buddies and picnic. Ruth Rosenfield for putting together the roster (even though she didn't even know if Charlotte would be able to swim) and Bob Placak for all his behind the scenes elbow greasing to make the successful Olympian Clinic come together. The list goes on and on!

Lets keep up the momentum for the Novato meet coming up. Until then have a great weekend off and see you at the parade...

Novato

Jun 05, 2010 | Home   Heats     Results     Best Times     Photos by Jen Tenaglia

The Seals rack up more best times in and out of the water! A ginormous thank you to everyone who yet again showed our competition what a great meet we can run. As our swimmers continue to get better and better and have more and more fun, all of the land locked volunteers showed their Seals strength too.

A few special shout outs to name a few: Liz Tan stepped in as head timer-without any kids swimming-in fact both Jesse and Lucas helped her out as well! Our clothing sales force raised money for the team under blistering heat conditions with only relief of a few squirt gun armed 8 and unders. Diane Hassett whose charm (and formidable yellow vest) got people in their place. Kelly Haechler and crew for serving up the grits with a smile.

Our high schoolers for supporting the team with their show of excellence (although not so hard now that they get to sleep in!). And of course the cast of usual suspects that keep everything flowing: the Firmages (with a super amazing assist from Seals veteran parent Jay Parsons who just happened to be walking by at the Sausalito lot at 8:30am where our trailer is parked and was able to get the cranky hitch to work so that we would have equipment for our meet!), Ron Chan, Therese Vreeland (I think she can pronounce just about any Balkan name now!), our starters and set up/take down crew...the list goes on and on.

Thanks also to the Novato team for being great competitors and especially to their parents who always step up to give us a hand whenever it's needed.

Last, but most certainly not least, our amazing swimmers and terrific coaches!! Let's keep up the Seals Spirit for next week's big day against Lucas Valley. Bella's got all the secret intel on them so we should have a few silver bullets they're not ready for!

Lucas Valley

Jun 12, 2010 | Home   Heats     Results     Best Times     Photos by Jen Tenaglia

This weekend was indeed a nail biter, proof positive what an amazing team we are! Both in the water and on deck we continued our commitment to spirit and competition. While the swimmers and coaches were heating up the lanes (and holding down the tents), our fabulous volunteer crew, parents and sponsors kept things cool on deck. A special thanks to our raffle and Seals Splash ticket salespeople. Despite the heat and intensely focused spectators, they managed again to help rally support for this weekend's Seals Splash party and continued raffle fundraising! The generosity continues to grow with more fabulous donations from the Marin Theatre Company, High Tech Burrito, Child's Delight, Marin Brew Co. and, of course, the incredible Olympic Swim Clinic donation from Bob Placak.

Our Snack Bar folks kept us chilled and fueled up for the long day in the sun. As always both the set up and take down crew (with special kudos to Christian Forshan, set-up guru extraordinaire) worked behind the scenes without a hitch. Our starters and announcers kept things moving along while the Colorado Desk team set the pace. Last but not least we held heads high while Luke Klopfer got us started with the National Anthem on sax.

With the last of the schools getting out the summer is finally here! Congratulations to all the graduates!! This weekend we'll be in full force again as we start the countdown to our last few meets.

Tidalwaves

Jun 19, 2010 | Away   Heats     Results     Best Times     Photos by Jen Tenaglia

Once again we continued our grace both in and out of the water as guests of the Tidalwaves. Thanks to all the people who came and showed their Seals spirit to the end! It was great to hear to some veteran cheers from Wents, Satos and Cohens to name a few.

We continued our cheer into the wee hours of the night/morning at the Seals Splash party with a great mix of parents, food, music and wine. Congratulations to the Fee family for winning the beautiful framed Zener print and to Coach Nick who (with great embarrassment and a lot of good-natured ribbing) somehow managed to pick his own name from the barrel to win four cases of the Wine Wall! Special thanks to Adam Fox who spoiled us with his gastronomical goodies and wine pairings and to Studio 333 for providing us with such an amazing space. And a Super Seals Hats Off to Melanie Victor-Smith and Mary Waluk for hosting such a classy and festive night - all to benefit the team.

With barely enough time to recover from that big event was Raging Waters on Monday which saw over 80 Seals descend onto the water park in San Jose. Perfect weather and a great time was had by all. Thanks to Stacey Ciauri for putting the event together and to Lisa Andrews who oversaw the Seals during the event.

If that wasn't enough - our first ever Photo Day at the Tam Pool was held yesterday with flawless execution courtesy of veteran organizer Ingrid Sato.

Finally, don't forget to sign up Teen Campout! This fun event takes place right after the Scott Valley meet and will be at the Alice Eastwood Campsite. We encourage anyone who is interested in going to sign up ASAP so we can figure out how much food to buy. For more information or to sign up for the Teen Campout click here.

See you all this Saturday for the highly anticipated Seals vs. Serpents meet!

Go Seals!

Scott Valley

Jun 26, 2010 | Home   Heats     Results     Best Times     Photos by Tia Wu

It was Mill Valley vs. Mill Valley as the Scott Valley Sea Serpents visited the Strawberry Seals at the Tam Pool which both teams have called home this season (the Serpents have been practicing at Tam while their pool is being remodeled). A sun-splashed day, the meet saw a lot of fast times, an incredible Seals balloon 'sculpture' to help inspire the team, good-natured rivalry and a lot of laughs.

The one thing that has been learned over the course of the season is that the Tam Pool is much faster than the Strawberry Pool as record Strawberry times were constantly being broken at Tam and this meet was no exception. Above all the meet was LOUD as the cheering and spirit never stopped for both teams. But the highlight of the day was definitely the Golden Fin relay where swimmers from all age groups PLUS Coaches Paul and Jeremy participated in a massive freestyle relay (which included a running start dive by Taylor Gamboa) for Mill Valley 'bragging rights'. Scott Valley won the relay by a body length to keep the Fin for another year - which is a good thing because nobody quite knows where the Fin is! As for the regular meet, Scott Valley notched a win over the Seals 316-242.

Special thanks to Jim Asiano and Marcelino Nogueiro for stepping up to help the short-handed desk in their time of need. Kudos to Nick Tarrant for helping track down our wayward BBQs and to all the Seals parents and volunteers for making our last home meet the best one yet!

As the swim season winds down all Seals eyes turn to the MSL version of World Cup Soccer (hopefully without the vuvuzelas!) - Champs. The day before Champs there will be no practice but a ton of activities including Shavedown and another Seals event for those who are too young for that annual ritual and/or razor-challenged. Look for details next week.

In the meantime, have a fantastic (and safe) July 4th break, don't forget to order your team photos and get ready for Champs! Go Seals!!

Champs

Jul 10, 2010 | Away     Results     Best Times     Photos by John Carney and Jen Tenaglia

The Seals' last performance this season at Champs was another great success, exemplifying yet again the great spirit and skills of the Seals! The Banquet was full of cheer with proud swimmers and parents. As the weekend came to a close we said goodbye to some great veteran swimmers, board members and families as they graduate on to a new chapter in life. Everyone in the room deserved a big thanks! While many people were acknowledged that night, the exhaustion of the weekend kept a few neurons from firing when speeches were planned. A big shout out also goes to Jen Tenaglia, John Carney and Tia Wu for their great photography throughout the year.

We wish you all a great summer and look forward to seeing you in the Fall and next year (details coming soon).