Welcome!

Hello to all the USC families in the USC Nation! To those returning for another season, welcome back and to those new families joining us, welcome, we are glad to have you! I have been itching to get back ever since champs ended. I spent a week in Seattle (beautiful out there by the way!) at the US Open with Tommy Inwood (now a sophomore at the University of Virginia) and at Junior Nationals with Chris Corbett (now a freshman at Williams) and watching those meets got me very excited for this season. We had some great success and huge improvements over the course of the past year, and I am ready to build on all of that! We have swimmers that are on the cusp of breaking into that next level, whether that is making a Silver cut, a Gold cut, a Zone cut, a Sectional cut, or even a Junior National cut and I have been planning out the season to try and help everyone make it to that next level.

As most of you already know, Stephanie will not be with us this season :( . She has found a job in Indiana and is moving (or may have already moved) there. This is a big hit to our coaching staff. Steph was an amazing asset to our team and she will be dearly missed!

However, I do have a new helper! Actually she isn't brand new, she coached with me a little bit in the spring before returning to Columbus for the summer. I would like to welcome Lindsay Pickut back to the pool deck at the TFC. For those who have not yet met her, Lindsay is a Junior at John Carroll University and swims backstroke and freestyle for the swim team. She will be with us pretty much every day until the end of September when her swim season starts, and then she will be coming 3 days a week at least through December. I am very happy to have her coaching along side me on deck.

I am still looking for another assistant to fill in Stephanie's spot. Charlie and I have talked about possible options and we are searching for an apporpriate candidate as we speak.

I feel like I have so much to say, but this has been a rather long welcome message so I will cut it off here. I will post again later with more that I have to say. I can't wait to see everyone tomorrow!

Coach Matt

A "brief" look back to the future

Hello from Federal Way, WA! The US Open just finished up last night and Junior Nationals starts tomorrow morning. Tommy Inwood had best times in everything he swam and he made the C Final of the 200IM last night, so he got to swim twice. It was a very, very fast meet! Jessica Hardy broke 3 world records, the 50 breast twice (both times taking out a 100!) and the 100 breast. Amazing to watch! Perhaps the best thing, though, was watching the A Final of the men's 200IM. With all the controversy about the new tech suits that will be illegal very soon, there has been much said about the swims done in them. The 8 finalists paraded out in their warm-ups ready to swim, and when they got behind the blocks and took their warm-ups off, they were all wearing briefs! The entire aquatic center stood and clapped and cheered for each of them as the introductions were read. To me, this symbolized the start of a new era (actually an old one) in swimming. With the new rules to take effect January 1, 2010, this was one of the last meets where the tech suits could be worn. The 8 guys in the heat took us back to the future showing the past and future of the sport.

I hope everyone is having a great August and I will see you soon!

Long Course Champs

Congrats to everyone who swam this weekend! As a team we swam awesome. Lots of best times all around. Amber Kovach achieved two new AAA cuts in the 400 Free and 200 Back. She also lowered her own team records in the 50 Fly, 50 Back, and 100 Back, while also setting new team records in the 200 Back and 50 Free! Her 50 Free time of 28.81 was 0.02 seconds away from a USA Sectional time, which is very impressive for a 12 year old!

Michael and Matthew Flinchbaugh (the Flinchstones collectively) also had a great meet, having many best times each. Jackie Carman deck entered both days and swam very well for this being her first long course meet ever! Others who swam in their first long course meet this weekend were Elizabeth Schafer and Anthony Gasper, both of whom swam extremely well.

Amanda Knapp came off her trip to USA Sectionals in July to post best times in the 200 IM and the 50 Free, almost breaking the team record in the 200 IM! Amanda Marlow swam the 200 Fly for the first time (my choice, not hers) and did very well! I think we have found a new event for her to train for ;) . Kate Amicone also had best times in most everything she swam. Rachel Czerny and Rebekah Watson also had good meets, having near best times in most events!

I am putting together some suggested "off-season" training for anyone looking to stay active during the month of August. I would suggest that everyone keep doing something, whether it be running, biking, or some sort of strength training (for the older swimmers) and I will post some more thoughts and suggestions about this hopefully later tonight.

This marks the end of our summer season for most of us. Amber swims at Zones next weekend in Indiana, but other than that we are done until September 1 at Twinsburg. Thanks to everyone for making the first year of USC swimming at Twinsburg a success! I can't wait to get back and build on what we have accomplished so far! Have a great August. I'll see you in September!

Catching up...

So I am waaaaaaaaaaaaay behind in updating this, so there are a few things I would like to post about. First off, we have been swimming great at practice and at meets! There have been a few new practice records set, but my notebook that has them written down in it is in the car and I am just too tired (or lazy!) after this weekend at Freelander to walk out to the car to get it...so you will just have to know that new ones were set. When I remember to post the actual times, I will do so!

We have had some team records set at the past few meets by some of our Twinsburg swimmers! Amber Kovach broke the 50 and 100 backstroke records as well as the 50 butterfly record in the 11-12 age group. Jordan Delgross set the 800 freestyle record this past Friday at the Freelander meet for the 10 and under age group. She is the first 10 and under girl to swim the 800 for USC in our 40 year history! Congrats to both of you on your accomplishments and keep up the good work!

Thanks to everyone who came to the meet this weekend and celebrated USC's 40th Anniversary with us. We had a great time with current swimmers and some alums who came to join in the festivities.

A reminder that registration for long course champs is up and we would like to see everyone there. We train so that we can swim fast at the end of the season and the summer has been designed around the last weekend of July and first weekend of August for almost all of us. Come out and let all of your hard work pay off!

That's all for now. See you at practice!

Practice Records

Last night at practice, I was thinking that we should start keeping site records for different things that are only done at practice. We did a 100 where the swimmers got out at each 25 and dove back in and we had some new records set for that. Kate Amicone broke her own record for freestyle of 1:08.6 set back in October with a 1:06.50. Amber Kovach also set the IM record with a time of 1:17.15. Chris Corbett set the 100 breast record, but I forgot to write the time down and he didn't remind me what it was, so as of now, I don't know what it is! He also holds the freestyle record from back in October with a 1:01.0.

Other records that I have recorded so far are a 100 back with fins (Amanda Knapp 53.91 which is a World Championship Trials Qualifying Time!), 50 free with fins (Kate Amicone 23.98), and 100 free with fins (Amber Kovach 53.9).

If anyone has any other suggestions for records, feel free to let me know. I will keep track of them and we can use them as motivation during practices! Maybe I will make some kind of record board I can post on the USC board outside the girls locker room.

That's all for now. Check back soon!

CCS Meet

Congrats to everyone who swam this past weekend! I received updates from Charlie throughout the meet and it sounds like everyone swam well! Sorry I could not be there, but I was playing in a golf tournament. I did play fairly well, but I only won 1 of my 4 matches. :( I did however have one of my three best 9-hole scores ever on Sunday morning!

As a reminder, if you have not signed up for the Freelander meet on July 10-12, the event file is now posted and you can register via DirectAthletics. Entries must be in by this week so make sure you get this done! This is a fun meet and we are celebrating USC's 40th anniversary so if you can attend, we want to have a huge team there! I am already registered to swim 3 events on Saturday and 3 on Sunday, so if you want to see me make a fool of myself (in different ways than normal), make sure you are there!

That's all for now. Check back soon for more.

Coach Matt

MS 150

Hello USC swimmers and families! As I am almost done with my classes now (about time after 7 years of college and grad school!), I finally have some time to get my blog up and running like I planned to do months ago.

I will be posting more info specific to USC on here soon, but today I am posting about a bike ride that I am partaking in on August 15th and 16th. I will be riding 150 miles over the two days from Middleburg Heights to Sandusky and back. This ride is a fundraiser for the National Multiple Sclerosis Foundation and I am looking for support from anyone who wishes to help! I rode 2 years ago and raised about $1,200 for the MS Foundation and am trying to raise even more this year. My goal is to raise $2,000! Please consider helping me raise funds for this great organization which donates much of the proceeds to research to find a cure for MS and the rest to help those with MS get supplies they need for their every day lives. Click the link below to visit my personal homepage for the ride. You can make donations directly from this page.

http://main.nationalmssociety.org/site/TR/Bike/OHABikeEvents?px=3160895&pg=personal&fr_id=10830

Thank you in advance for any help you may be able to offer the many who suffer from MS.

That's all for now! Check back soon.

Coach Matt