FCST Newsletter - July 24th, 2017
News & Team Information:
Coach's Corner: Hello FCST Parents, Coach Dustin here, and I wanted to take the time to highlight some great stories from the Champs Meets we have had so far. If you weren’t paying attention, you might have missed a few very impressive things happening at the meet a week ago.
First I would like to mention that after talking with a few of the coaches who have been here for a few years and we all agreed that these meets were some of the best we had seen at FCST. Top to bottom, the kids were swimming out of their minds, and the overall feel on the pool deck was a very positive environment. We had kids cheering by the side of the pool with all the coaches, we had kids genuinely excited for the achievements of their teammates, and we had a few seniors have huge breakout meets. Here are a few storylines that you might have missed. Stories that show why FCST is the BEST team in the Gulf, not just competitively but also as good people and great teammates. Storyline #1: “The Team First Swimmer.” Every now and then during the course of a swim career, kids will hit plateaus where they stop dropping time for a while. No matter how hard they work, it just doesn’t happen. This is normal but doesn’t change how hard it is to go through. We had one girl who is a very hard worker go through this for three years. Three years and no best times, but this past weekend, something changed. She was noticeably more relaxed during warm ups and was joking around a lot. She was also one of the swimmers who was on the side of the pool cheering for her teammates as well, and it helped. All of a sudden, she is dropping in everything. It was like the huge wall that had held her back had a huge crack in it, and she just kicked it down. She swam outstanding, and it was because she stopped focusing on herself, and started putting her energy into her teammates. We as coaches see this effect happen a lot. When swimmers don’t drop time, it is easy to focus inwardly and question everything that is holding them back, but it blinds them to all the good that is happening around them. When these kids start celebrating with their teammates and learn to enjoy other’s success, we see them start to race faster! That is one of the big reasons FCST puts such an emphasis on Team First. Storyline #2: “The Littlest Voice Can Be The Loudest.” Before every session, FCST starts with a group meeting and then a Team Cheer. The Team Cheer is a big focus on our “things to do before the meet starts.” While we pride ourselves on always being one of the loudest teams, we are at our loudest when we get to Finals. This is because for the first time that day, we have both our younger groups and older groups together. Now the older groups can turn up the volume but they aren’t ever as loud as the younger groups’ cheer. So when we get them all together, the cheer is usually a pretty loud cheer. I wanted to give this Shoutout to all the younger kids on the team who led the combined cheer. Normally, we grab an older kid to start off our cheer, but we consistently went with the little ones and THEY DID NOT DISAPPOINT! Wow were those cheers loud! Great Job to FCST for making our cheer the loudest at the meet! Storyline #3: “The Gritty Swimmer.” Sometimes we can want something so bad that it can hold us back from getting it. Swimmers who “chase cuts” or time standards needed to get to their next champs meet, often find that when focusing on the result, their races don’t go as well as if they focused on the Race Plan. We had one swimmer who got her first Southern Senior Zones cut on the first day of the meet. She just needed one more and she would be able to go to Zones (you need two cuts (a cut is swimming a race fast enough to qualify you for a different meet) to make the trip). She had her next race (which was her best event) on Saturday and swam a great race, out touching another girl to win the race, but she missed the cut by .01 seconds. Instead of being happy for a big swim and winning the meet in that race, she was crushed because she felt her best chance at a second cut had just slipped through her fingers. After talking with her coach, she was challenged to see how Gritty she could be. For those of you who are not familiar with the term Grit, loosely translated, it can mean “the refusal to quit or give up, no matter how many times a person fails.” Sunday came around and she was relaxed and was just going to have fun. Fast forward to finals and she is swimming her last race of the meet. She ended up coming from behind again and out touching another girl to win that race as well, and this time she got her second cut. Take it from me, parents, there was so much joy on that pool deck with all her teammates jumping up and down for her, and so excited to celebrate with her. These are the best moments for us coaches, when we get to watch our groups genuinely be happy for one of their teammates. That girl showed us all what Grit looks like that day. There were so many other stories that happened at Champs, and we still have two more to go! What I love about FCST is that none of those stories were highlighting who won races and who didn’t, but highlighted character development. These kids were out there cheering on each other, learning to be great teammates, and learning how to beat their inner demons. This is why I am proud to be a coach at First Colony Swim Team! PS. A huge shout out needs to go out to Billy Parry (SR 2 group). Without going into too much details (it is a long story), Billy went above and beyond and blew away the coaching staff with a selfless decision that helped a fellow teammate achieve his goals. Like I said, there are great things going on at FCST! Don’t blink or you might miss them. -Coach Dustin |
Important Dates: Jul. 18 - 22: TAGS LC Championships Aug. 1 - 5: Senior Zones Meet |
Meet Entry Timelines and Information*:
| Meet Webpage, Dates, & Location: |
Athletes eligible: |
Prelim and Final entry deadline: |
Volunteer opportunities: |
|---|---|---|---|
| July 26 - 30, UT Austin |
Qualified Swimmers | July 13 and 20 | N/A |
| 2017 LC Southern Senior Zones Meet Aug. 1 - 5, College Station |
Qualified Swimmers | July 13 and 20 | N/A |
*Families are responsible for communicating meet entry issues with their athletes respective coach, as their primary coach is most responsible for their athletes training and competitive plan.
**Once the final entry deadline has passed, no changes may be made on FCSTs end. Athletes can deck-enter at the meet (if allowed by meet management) at their own expense and with coachs permission. This is not the most ideal way to enter a meet having schedules planned ahead of time is very beneficial to the athlete.
FCST Contacts^:
- FCST Office: (281) 969-8759; Mon.- Thurs: 9:00am - 5:00pm; Fri: 9:00am - 12:00pm
- Team Accounts & Billing: Hillary Martinez ([email protected])
- HR & Administration: Christina Hollar ([email protected])
- FCST Coaches & BOD: Contact Page
- Group Webpages: FC - Senior, FC - PreSenior, FC- Age Group, FC - Blue 1& 2, FC - Red & White, 7M - Age Group, 7M - Pre/Senior, New Territory, Beaumont, Masters, Synchro, Lessons/League/Tri
^If you are no longer affiliated with the team and would like to be removed from the distribution list, please email [email protected]
