Lots going on

I have been way too busy to post much. Between summer school and all of my other responsibilities I hardly have time to breathe, but still it has been a pretty fun summer. I spent the weekend at my first USA meet in over three years. I had fun even though it was in the high 90's all weekend. It was 10 lanes and prelim/final in Ft Smith, Arkansas, so it was very different from the summer league stuff I had been doing.

I like to tell the little guys on my teams that if they DQ, they have to buy me something from Dairy Queen... so it was a nice surprise on my weekly Monday field trip to the zoo when we came across the DQ mobile giving away free Blizzards. Maybe I can get them to come to one of my home meets and kids can turn in their DQ slips for a discount. Another surprise: one of the workers giving away the free Blizzards was a girl who was on the club where I took my first assistant coaching gig 14 years ago. She is about to enter her last season of swimming at the Savannah College of Art & Design, and is home for the summer and working out in the heat. As Steven Wright said, "it's a small world, but I wouldn't want to paint it."

At the zoo, I also got lucky and took this video of an otter with my phone. They are my favorite part of the zoo. They really put on a show today.

I feel bad that I haven't had time lately to post about the new "Swim Blogs United" effort. I am really excited about it. I have to hand it to Andy and Braden and The Swimmers Circle. They have been at the center of a really spectacular initiative to raise awareness to save college swimming programs. Read about it here. If you wish to donate, if you click on the SBU Logo on the right hand side of my blog, it will take you to a Go For 5 page that is set up to track donations made through us. Please give to the cause. I even put a two full page ad in the heat sheet of the summer league meet we hosted last weekend. If you are hosting a meet, go to the Go for 5 site and print their pdf's to put in yours! Help us get the word out any way you can!!

Wanna Work with the Viking?

I don't have all the details yet, but the club I founded will be looking for a head coach to start in August. If you are curious and want to hear more, let me know. Our part of the country is one of the cheapest to live in and even through we are not in a metro area we draw swimmers in from a large radius as well.

We will want someone who is a good communicator, is willing to learn the ins and outs of the Team Unify website and serve as an administrator, is willing and able to work with all ability levels, and can help to train assistant coaches to create a good system from beginners to the top. When we formally post the job opening I will put a link up. Spread the word if you know someone looking to move. We got a club to build!

The New SwimmingWorld.TV !

Has anyone else noticed that if you type SwimmingWorld.TV into your address bar, it takes you someplace different than where the link from Swimming World's site takes you? Go ahead, try it. You will be impressed. SWTV has been completely redesigned!

They aren't doing a grand opening yet as it is still under construction, but Jason Marsteller gave me a sneak peek and has finally given me permission to "Release the Hounds!" I have spent a little time browsing the site and I am very excited. It looks like the TV site is just the first phase of a complete overhaul of Swimming World Magazine's web presence. From the looks of what they have done so far, it will be a tremendous improvement.

Their flash on the main page has a great look. Their archives are much easier to search than in the past. My favorite new feature: when you are on an Event page, you can easily pull up any event you want to watch from their event list on the left side of the page.

Check it out!