THE MARSIAN MONTHLY
January 2016
Upcoming Events:
Mid-Cities Arlington Swimming
Email: officemanager@marswim.org
Website: marswim.org
Phone: 817-271-1537
Facebook: facebook.com/Mid-CitiesArlingtonSwimming
Coaches Corner:
Good morning and greetings from the pool deck!
This month's Coaches Corner will be mostly informational for our families. To begin, I'd like to again thank all of you who did such an outstanding job with the Pro-Am meet last month. The meet was fantastic! All of the swimmers, including the pros, were very happy with the meet. Officials and coaches were also quite impressed with our efforts to organize and manage such a large and prestigious event. Thank you MARSians!
As most of you know, MARS is hosting the TAGS meet March 3-6, 2016 in Lewisville. This meet is the state championship for all 14 & Under's. We're expecting approximately 1100 swimmers from across the state to attend over the 3.5 day format. This is the big one and we're going to need everyone's help to make this happen. Please mark your calendars! Job assignments will be posted by mid-January. We will need an army of volunteers. I'd like to challenge all of our families to work to get their entire 2016 volunteer commitment fulfilled at this meet. You can easily earn your 16 points at this meet. Pool supervisors and our parent volunteer coordinators will be contacting our families to get your support for this event.
I get asked all of the time about swimming in college. There's so much information and mis-information out there about collegiate swimming. We've been very fortunate over the years in getting 100% of our graduating high school seniors who want to swim in college, the opportunity to do so. One of the biggest obstacles is the reality of getting a swimming scholarship. There are very few swimming athletic scholarships available. Getting a "full-ride" to a Division 1 school on an athletic scholarship is super-tough. In most cases, it takes a swimmer with Senior National cuts, or even Olympic Trials cuts, to get that kind of an offer. I don't mean to be negative, but that's the reality. Instead, college coaches parcel out pieces of scholarships to their athletes. One might get partial tuition, while another might get books or fees, etc. So what is reality for the swimmer who wants to swim in college? Look at lower division schools. There are a large number of D2, D3 and NAIA schools that offer great swim programs, coupled with great academic programs. These schools don't have athletic scholarships, but have great flexibility in offering academic scholarships and grants to athletes. At the D1 level, schools will love to take swimmers with a great academic resume as a walk-ons. MARS has had several swimmers in this category over the years. What's the common theme here.....academics! Hit the books!! Here’s a link from Florida Swim Network about Swimming in College. It's a concise booklet covering swimmers' needs from elementary school through high school.
Championship season is right around the corner. Coaches will be making final preparations for their swimmers that include a taper-rest schedule during the final days/weeks, prior to the event. Please mark your calendars for your child's championship meet at the end of February or early March. We need everyone to attend their champs meet! If you have questions regarding which meet your child is attending please ask their coach.
Here are some important upcoming dates:
April 29-30. MARS Inter-Squad meet @ GV (BB times and Under)
March 3-6. TAGS @ Lewisville ISD WAC
March 7-20. MARS Spring Break - no practices
TBA - MARS Spring Parent meeting and Awards Day @ UTA
April 9-10. Fitter-Faster Tour @ GCISD
Coach Brian
Eat and Drink well….Sleep FAST!
Ask MARSian Mom:
Q: Do the service hours start over in January?
A: Yes, service hours are per calendar year (January 1st through December 31st).
Q: How many service hours will we owe for 2016?
A: We will each owe 16 service hours for 2016 per family that have swimmers in Bronze and above groups.
Q: How can I be considered a "Super Parent"?
A: Sign up as a Timer, Meet Runner, Safety Marshal, Concessions for our hosted meets. When you surpass 36 service hours you will get a MARS Super Parent tshirt.
Q: How can I see how many service hours I owe?
A: Login to the Mars Team Web Site.
Select My Account on the right.
Select $My Invoice/Payments.
Select the Service Hours tab.
If your number shows a positive value, then that is what you owe.
Do you have a question for the MARSian Mom? Email her at askmarsparent@gmail.com
Celebrating January Birthdays:
Anirudh Valluru, Angelica Le, Tyler Lane, Olivia Bright, Marley Frizzell, Emmerson McGowan, Luke Wilkerson, Zane Landry, Hope-Angelique Vargas, Blayne Bradford, Kayla Epting, Thaily Colon, Maggie Schlachter, Christian Reed, Dana Gibbs, Vanessa Garcia, Ejona Bajraktari, Jacob Nguyen, Katalina Lechuga, Hien Tran, Alexandrea Bent, Isabel Fischer, Brooke Smith, Branden Sadriniya, Allison De Weirdt, Bauer Ballweg, Shiwani Vivek, Ryley Martinez, Declan Ross, Randle Howard, Ian McArthur, Trenten Thigpen, Audrey Scholtyssek, Julie Wells, Katharine Tomancik, Lauryn Peterson, Scott Painter, Emma Jones, Catherine Rodgers, Benjamin Hu, Ian Stalzer, Grace Partin, Dianne Zhao, Eileen Zhao