Author: David

The Boys Varsity Swim and Dive meet was cancelled yesterday due to weather and has been rescheduled for Thursday night. NCST is shuffling some practice times around because the pool will be full!

Practice times are as follows for 1/24 only:

Bronze: Cancelled
Silver:  7:30-8:30  OPTIONAL
Gold: 7:30-9:00 OPTIONAL

IMPORTANT – READ THIS
We ask that swimmers come dressed to swim and put their bags on deck after the meet.  The locker rooms will be full.  It is possible the meet is not quite finished at 7:30.  Your swimmer should not go on deck until after the meet is complete.

The visiting team will be using the girls locker room and Northview is using the boys locker room. So please,  do not use the locker rooms before practice!

Did your practice just get cancelled and you are looking for something to do Thursday?

NCST Swimmers can come watch the boys swim Thursday for free!  Come show your support for the Varsity Team and cheer them on as they compete against Spring Lake!

Thank you Northview Athletic Department!

You asked for it, & we’re giving it to you!

This Friday from 6:00-7:00 pm, coaches will be at the pool to work on starts, turns and finishes.

Come in and get some specialized training on these important key factors that can really make the difference in your race.  Take advantage of this special practice to help fine tune your technique.

Thank you to our awesome coaches for giving up some of their Friday night!

1/24 – See above for practice time changes – Come watch the Varsity Boys Meet
1/25 – Starts, Turns & Finishes 6-7 pm
1/26 – Last Home Meet
1/28 – Opt out deadline for ALL Championship Meets
1/29 – No Practice – Come watch the Varsity Boys Meet
2/2 – Championship B Meet at Home
2/8 – Championship A Meet – Ages 11 -14 at West Ottawa
2/9 – Championship A Meet – Ages 10 and Under at Zeeland

Thanks for coming out in the snow this morning.

Like I said last week, it’s amazing to me any of this technology works in the warm, humid pool air.  We had to get full on technical support remoted into the scoreboard computer to fix it this morning.

We have a single lens from someone’s glasses in the pool office.  If your swimmer is struggling to see things clearly with his or her glasses on, we’d love to help out.  We can likely meet you during open swim tomorrow so Monday’s school day isn’t too rough.  Please let us know!

Besides all that… our meet was scheduled to end just before noon and we actually finished around 12:20.  Not bad considering we started 40 minutes late.  Huge thanks to all you parents and athletes for your patience and the volunteers for making the meet happen.

Oh, and Jake Heemstra broke another NCST record in the 50 Backstroke today.  That’s a 28 year old record he broke.  He also just missed the 200 Free record by a few tenths and I think he’s working Coach Adam to let him give it a try next weekend.  Should be a fun race to watch.  Hope you can make it next week to possibly witness this hat-trick for Jake.  Very cool Jake!  Congratulations!

Here’s the results, I hope your swimmer did well.  Only one more regular meet to go!

Download the 1/19/19 Meet Results

If you need a refresher on what the little abbreviations mean on the results sheet, check out our First Time Swimmers page.

A Meet Qualifiers

Congratulations to the following athletes who qualified for the Championship A meet.
Here’s a refresher on how Championships work:

• Your swimmer will compete in only one Championship Meet – either the A or B.
• If your swimmer is 13 or over, he or she will attend the A meet.
• If your swimmer is 12 or under and not on the list of A meet qualifiers below, he or she will attend the B meet.

Download the list of A Meet Qualifiers

1 – Unable to Participate

You must let us know if your athlete will not be participating.

Swimmers not showing up will affect relay teams (3 other swimmers) so it is imperative that you let us know if your athlete is not participating by 6:00 PM on 1/21/2019.  This isn’t like RSVPing to a family party, if we don’t have an accurate participation count, other swimmers will lose chances to swim.

By 6:00 PM on 1/21/2019, let us know your swimmer
is unable to participate.

We are unable to participate in the 1/26/19 Home Meet

2 – Concession Stand

NCST will not be operating the Concession Stand for this meet.  But we’ve been told the Northview Athletic Boosters will have it open.

3 – Volunteers

We have several volunteer needs to help keep our swim meets running smoothly.  Please consider signing up to help the team out on Saturday.

Never helped before? No problem, we will train you, help you and thank you profusely!

Clean Up Crew, Timers, Marshalers and Greeters… they are all easy jobs.

I can volunteer for the 1/26/19 Home Meet

4 – Actual Meet Information

Home Meet – Wayland at NCST
7:45 – Swimmers – Highlight your name at check in and report on deck to your coaches ready to swim
8:00 – Swimmer warm up begins
8:15 – Swimmers who have not checked in will be scratched
9:00 – Swim Meet begins

Good luck everyone!

Please Read – All Championship Meet Opt-Outs are Due Monday 1/28 at 6:00 PM

Time to focus on the Championship Meets.

How to determine which Championship Meet your swimmer is attending (read carefully – it’s confusing, we know!):

• All swimmers who competed in at least 1 regular season meet will compete in a Championship Meet.
• Your swimmer will compete in only one Championship Meet – either the A or B.
• If your swimmer is 13 or over, he or she will attend the A meet.
• If your swimmer is 12 or under and not on the list of A meet qualifiers, he or she will attend the B meet.
• A meets are away meets – see locations.
• The B meet is at home, and we will need more help than usual!  More information below.

Opt-outs for the Championships are
due Monday (1/28) by 6:00 PM ET.

Download A Meet Qualifiers

Here are the dates and locations for the Championship Meets.  If your swimmer cannot participate, we need to know by Monday 1/28 at 6:00 PM.

More Meet Information

• Because they include so many teams, the conference meets are run differently than regular dual meets.  We will be competing with 8 other teams in our half of the West Michigan Swim League.  This also means they run a little longer – so be prepared.
• At the B meet, there is no medley relay, only a freestyle relay.  Swimmers are allowed to swim 1 relay and 2 individual events.  However, each team may only enter 1 relay, so only 4 swimmers in each age/gender group will swim in a relay.
• Everyone will be entered in their 2 individual events.
• Swimmers may only swim events for which they have a seed time.
• Because there are several officials at conference meets, disqualifications will be called on the technical aspects of each stroke, i.e., illegal kicks (common in breaststroke and butterfly).  Therefore, most swimmers will be entered in freestyle and backstroke events.
• Generally, the Championship Meet signals the end of practices for your athlete – watch for End of Season Party information.

We Need Volunteers for the B Meet!

We need more volunteers than usual!  For the Championships we need twice as many timers (two per lane, so sign up with a friend!)

And the Northview Athletic Boosters is graciously allowing us to run the concession stand for the B Meet.  But… there are also other sporting events going on this day that may run later than our meet.  That means we will be able to sell concessions for these other events and all proceeds go to NCST.Never helped before? No problem, we will train you, help you and thank you profusely!

Clean Up Crew, Timers, Marshalers and Greeters… they are all easy jobs.

I Can Volunteer at the B Meet!

I can donate to the Hospitality Room

I can donate to the Concession Stand

1/21 – Opt out deadline for the 1/26 Home Meet
1/22 – No Practice – Come watch the Varsity Boys Meet
1/26 – Last Home Meet
1/28 – Opt out deadline for ALL Championship Meets
1/29 – No Practice – Come watch the Varsity Boys Meet
2/2 – Championship B Meet at Home
2/8 – Championship A Meet – Ages 11 -14 at West Ottawa
2/9 – Championship A Meet – Ages 10 and Under at Zeeland

We will be having a meet tomorrow. Snow or no snow.  We’ll be there.  We hope you will too.  If you feel it is unsafe to venture out, we understand.  If you aren’t there we’ll scratch you from the meet.  Please be careful driving and walking into the school.

Meet Information

Home Meet – East Grand Rapids at NCST
7:45 – Swimmers – Highlight your name at check in and report on deck to your coaches ready to swim
8:00 – Swimmer warm up begins
8:15 – Swimmers who have not checked in will be scratched
9:00 – Swim Meet begins

Good luck everyone!

Download the 1/19/19 Meet Entries

Hopefully, you have this down by now… please write events on your swimmers arm tonight and all the other stuff.  You know the drill.