Mandatory Parent Meeting Monday Night

There will be a mandatory parent meeting on Monday night at 6:30pm in the South Campus Cafeteria.  I will go over the team handbook, meet schedule, answer general team questions and then turn the meeting over to the booster club. 

Welcome Back!

 I would like to welcome everyone back for what I believe will be a great year for everyone! 

All parents should have received an email that included a team handbook and schedule for both August and September.  Please let me know if you did not recieve this and I'll add you to my email list.  We will have a mandatory parent meeting on Monday, August 29th at 6:30pm in the South Campus Cafeteria. I will address season expectations, and answer questions. We will then have our first Booster Club Meeting of the year. I will then stay after for a meet and greet time with new parents.

A little information you may need right now:

1- If your son, or daughter is NOT planning to swim this year, please let me know. This way I can help get their schedule fixed before the start of school.

2- All athletes are required to have a new physical EACH year (it used to be every other year, but has changed). This means that all athletes must have their athletic packet filled out, get a sports physical, and have this paperwork turned into the trainer’s office before the start of school. You can get the athletic packet online from the athletics page.

3- All athletes/parents must read and sign the Athlete Code of Conduct and return the last page to me on the first day of school (this is also found online at the athletics web site).

4- 1st period swim team is reserved for varsity level athletes and must have permission to stay in this class period. To be considered a varsity level athlete, swimmers must be able to complete 16x100 Free @ an interval of 1:30. This test will be done the first week of school. If an athlete is not able to make this set, they will be moved to 7th period swimming.

5- THE FIRST TWO DAYS OF SCHOOL: Monday morning, all students will report to their campus and go to an advisory classroom. They will be given a new schedule (some will have changed, some will be the same as the one they received at registration). After advisory, South Campus swimmers will report to my classroom (RM 1271) and the North Campus swimmers will report to the cafeteria (I will not be there on Monday because I’ll be at South Campus). 7th period swimmers do the same thing…South Campus will see Coach Willis in RM 1271, and North Campus swimmers will report to the Cafeteria (I will be there). Tuesday will be the same, but I will be on the North Campus Tuesday morning for 9th grade varsity swimmers.

6- On Wednesday, swim practice will start. 7th period swimmers must HURRY after 6th period to get on the bus that will bring them to South Campus and they then report to the pool. They will be picked up from the pool at 4:30pm (Parents may pick up students on the south side of campus by the tennis courts / NO Parents should be parked on the North side by the football practice fields).

Please let me know if you have any other questions before the start of school. My email is dhuffman@dpisd.org



Varsity Practice Schedule

Varsity Swimmers will maintain their current practice schedule until the end of TAKS week at the end of April.  It is as follows:

Monday - Friday 8:00am-9:00am (9:00am-9:40am = Change, and eat in the cafeteria)

Monday/Wednesday/Thursday = Dryland and Weightroom
Tuesday/Friday = Swim

If athletes need to miss off season conditioning for any reason, they need to discuss it with a coach beforehand.  Otherwise, the absence will be considered unexcused.  If they are ill, coaches will expect a parent email, or Doctor's note.  Skipping practice and then attending the rest of the school day is considered an unexcused absence from practice.

NO Board Meeting on Monday

The School Board has postponed our visit until next month b/c Ryan will be out of town at a Championship level dive meet, and they'd like for him to be there.

Updated Region Meet Schedule

This is the new schedule posted by Fort Bend ISD for the Region Championship Meet:

Swim Prelims is now Saturday February 5, 2011 at 2pm (OUR BUS WILL LEAVE AT 10:30AM)
Swim Finals is now   Monday, February 7, 2011 at 4pm
Diving is now            Tuesday, February 8, 2011 at 3:30pm.
 
THERE IS NO SCHOOL ON FRIDAY - - - This means there will be no practice.
DON COOK NAT. WILL NOT ALLOW SPECTATORS INTO THE POOL AREA UNTIL 1:00PM

2011 District 22-5A Champions!

Both the girls and boys won  by a large margin.  The boys won all 12 events and took 22 out of 27 top three medals.  The girls won 10 events and took 20 out of 27 top three medals.

We have 34 athletes moving on to the Region VI Championship Meet at Don Cook Natatorium next week.  Athletes will recieve an itinerary on Monday.

Thanks go out to all the parents who helped put together a great meet.

Freshman shows work does payoff!

Congratulations to Corey Duke for achieving the Men's Open Water National Cut for his excellent swim in the 1650 Free at last weekend's club meet with First Colony Swim Team.  This qualifies him to swim in National level meets this summer in California and Florida! 

Meet @ Clear Lake High School

Thursday's meet at Clear lake High School:

We will leave school at 4:00pm ( I will pick up AM practice 9th graders at the North Campus - they need to get out front as quickly as possible, they will be able to go to the locker room and change when we arrive at the South campus). 

The meet is at Clear Lake High School, 2929 Bay Area BLVD. Houston, TX  77058

It is a six lane pool, so events were more limited than normal.

All athletes should have extra food, water, towels, clothing.

NO PRACTICE WEDNESDAY

All DP ISD facilities are closed beginning Wednesday, 12/23/2010.  We will have our next practice on Tuesday, 12/28/2010. 

Friendswood Invitational

Looking for the Pool for Saturday's meet at Friendswood?

Friendswood Aquatic Center
1115 Falling Leaf
Friendswood, TX  77546
(281) 992-2505

The bus will leave from in front of the tennis courts at 7:00am.  The meet starts at 10:00am.  I would estimate that it will end around 1:30pm-2:00pm

Please make sure we have extra clothing and towels to stay warm and dry.  There is to be no junk food or drink.  I encourage a large portion of water and healthy snack foods.

Results: Gulf Coast TISCA Championships

Deer Park had a great showing this weekend in Conroe, TX.  All eight of our boys performed very well and showed the work they have put into this season thus far.

Ryan S. was the 3Meter Diving Gulf Coast Champion and placed runner up in the 1Meter diving as well.

Corey D. placed 12th in the 500 Freestyle with a school record time of 4:57.57

Our Boys 200 Medley Relay palced 10th with a season best time of 1:43.09

Remember that holiday practice starts with a swim-a-thon on Monday morning.  This is vital to maintain progress for this season.  I have only recieved a work out plan from one swimmer who is out of town for the holidays at this point.  She will recieve our weekly workout plan to complete while out of town.

Swim-A-Thon

Please remember that Monday's our Swim-a-thon fundraiser.  All athletes should have their paperwork.  This should be a great fundraiser for our team.  All proceeds go to the booster club.  We will use funds for things such as the new record board, team equipment, facility equipment, possibly a future travel trip, etc.

Next Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday we will have 1st period swimmers 700-900am, and 7th period swimmers from 900-1030am.  We will be off Thursday - Sunday for the holiday.

TISCA Itinerary

We have seven swimmers and one diver who have made TISCA Time Standards and will be traveling to Conroe ISD Natatorium to compete this Friday morning.  We will meet at the pool to leave at 6:00am.  The meet starts at 8:45am and will be over at approximately 1:30pm.

Athletes should bring extra towels, clothing, goggles, healthy food and drinks.  They can't have enough food and water. 

Anyone who makes the top 16 on Friday will be back on Saturday for finals (Same times).  This is a very fast meet.  Athletes will come in late on Thursday for a warm up swim at 8:30am (Corey at 7:30am).  They should get plenty of rest the next couple of days...eat right, go to bed early.

Contact me if you have any questions.

La Porte Invitational

The Meet Line Up has been posted for this Saturday's swim meet at La Porte.  The bus will pull out from the pool at 8:00AM.  The Meet will start at 10:00AM.  I expect to be back around 1:30-2:00PM.

Swimmers need to bring extra food and drinks, towels and clothing, back up goggles, cap and suit.  They will dress up Friday for school.

NO PRACTICE MONDAY 10/25/2010

Fort Bend Classic

So we finally got to race today!  I thought we showed real signs of improvement.  We had almost all best times, showed that we are beginning to gain some aerobic endurance, and COMPETED all day long.

I'm going to be focused on our turns the next few weeks.  We need to make a greater effort at attacking our walls.  A lot of us are breathing just before the turn, or gliding into the wall.  We need to excelerate in order to turn our feet to the wall quicker and carry momentum off the wall in our streamline kick. 

I liked that some were really working to push the pace faster at the beginning of their races.  100 yard races ARE sprints if you don't race the first 50 you'll probably be out of the race when you come out of your turn, and 200's are controlled sprints - Liesl had perfect splits for her 200 (31/34/34/34). 

I think timing looks good in our relay starts.  Some of you are really getting a great leap out into the race.  Remember, we swing our arms to get momentum off the blocks and we want to leave in a horizontal position, then the head goes into streamline - repositioning your body to enter fingers first...the rest of the body should follow the hole our hands make.  If we leave the blocks with a downward body position, we didn't finish our swing and drive off the blocks with our legs.

SATURDAY MEET

I made a mistake when scheduling the Fort Bend Classic.  Because it was held on Thursday and Friday last year, that is when I scheduled it for this year.  As most of you now know, Diving was today and Swimming is tomorrow.  The Aquatic Director was gracious enough to open the pool and let us get in a practice.  The athletes had a pretty good time, and I think it all turned out well with them.

I'm sorry for the confusion.  Here is tomorrow's timeline...
SATURDAY:
The bus will leave from the pool at 9:30am.

We will warm up at 11:00am, the meet will run from 12:00noon until approximately 4:00pm.  We should be back between 5:00-5:30pm.

Athletes need to wear team warm ups onto the bus.  They should have extra clothing and towels to stay warm and dry at the meet and on the way home.  They need to bring several waters snack foods and a sack lunch to eat during the meet (good lunch ideas include healthy sandwichs, dry vegetables, fruit, granola, trail mix, the more the better...we want them to snack all day).

School Wide Testing Wednesday

We will not have morning practice on Wednesday 10/13/2010 due to school wide testing.  All AM athletes should report to advisory at 8:45am.  There will be normal practice in the afternoon from 3:15-4:45pm.

Swim Meet Thursday @ Fort Bend ISD

The team will travel to Fort Bend's Don Cook Natatorium on Thursday, 10/7/10.  Athletes will be excused from 7th period.  They are to report to the Pool, change into suits, warm ups and be prepared to load the bus at 3:15pm.

I have posted the 20 guys, and 20 girls that will travel to this meet.  I wish I could take everyone, but the bus only holds so many.

The meet actually starts at 6:00pm, and should be over by 8:00pm.

Go Deer!

Order Form

Athletes were given spirit wear order forms today.  There is a firm due date of September 30th for orders to be turned into the coaches.

No Practice Monday

Holiday practice has been canceled for Monday, September 27th.  Our Teacher's schedule has changed to early in the morning and later in the afternoon than what I had expected.  Enjoy the three day weekend!

T-Shirts

Remember, any T-Shirt ideas must be reported to captains, or coaches by Friday.  We will make final decisions on Friday during "team" for the coaches approval.

Great Start!

We've gotten off to a great start.  100% of varsity swimmers are now in the water.  We just have a few JV swimmers who need to make a decision this weekend as to whether they really want to be with us or not.  I hope we were able to get a good grasp on the drills we will start the season trying to perfect.  Remember, at this time of the season it is PERFECT swim technique that will carry us when we are tired and pushed to our limit in November, December and January.
AM Practice is at 7:45am on Tuesday.  See you then.  Hope you have a great weekend!

First Week of Practice

At this point, all athletes should have completed DPISD's Athletic Participation Packet and should have turned it into the campus trainers.

We will begin swimming on Thursday, August 26th. Morning swimmers will splash at 7:45am, afternoon swimmers will be done at 4:45pm.

Welcome!

I want to welcome followers. I am very excited to be taking over the reigns of the Deer Swimmers and Divers this year! I have started this blog as a way to help our athletes and families keep up with news, updates and good swim information as our season progresses.