Page 2 Shark Attack
Coach Tuffy
Without whining, without hesitation,they went for it.Laurie Tucker led off the backstrokeleg without being able to get realbreaths. Danika Felix swam thebreaststroke leg with two bumshoulders, even though it’s not one of her favorite strokes. Tori Singley, whohad never swum a 100 Fly before in herlife, overcame that and her breathingissues to complete the third leg. CamilleMiguel brought home the freestyle. Although her ankle hurt on each flipturn, she still kicked home the last 25with more gusto than in any individualevent she swam that morning. After therace, two of her relay mates had tocarry Camille back over to the coaches’ table
.
As I saw the four girls groupedtogether, exhausted and nursing theirwounds though still somehow proud, Icouldn’t help but think that it was one of those moments that transcends sport.Four teenagers, from different highschools and different backgrounds, hadcome together and given each other anextraordinary effort. They hadaccomplished something great. And that is something everyone onour team can take pride in.
Reflections from the Deck
referred to as Seniors. These new groupnames are so much cooler than acoach’s name!Since our last newsletter, we’ve hadquite a few meets and several socialactivities: breakfast after morningpractices, our Christmas party, Zone 3Winter Championships, underwatervideo, Ice Skating, our own meet, and ateam movie night—whew!! I’d like tothank everyone who attended thesegatherings and everyone whovolunteered their time and energy tomaking them such a success. Theseevents and people are part of whatmakes VJO such a special team andfamily!Speaking of team and family, afterbig meets, the Senior Group has startedmeeting together to talk about thingstheir teammates did that wereimpressive. I’d like to share one of thecoolest, and most impressive, things I’veseen at a swim meet. At Zone 3 WinterChampionships, our 15-18 Girls 400Medley Relay team were havingproblems. One had a severely sprainedankle, one had injured shoulders, andthe other two were struggling to breathwell in the indoor pool…oh—and whowas going to swim the fly?
Coach Aaron Jon
Hello Sharks,First, I’d like to start bymentioning that we’ve giveneach one of our groups a shark-themed mascot/name. Tuffy’sGroup will now be called the “Hammerheads” and Lesley’sGroup the “Makos.” The AgeGroup will still primarily becalled the “Age Group,” but itsshark is the “Tiger Shark.” TheSeniors’ mascot, of course, isthe “Great
White,” althoughthey too will still be mostlyNOTES FROM THE TUFFGUY Things couldn’t be goingbetter. We just had one of the
most successful swim meets we haveever held. You, the swimmers, swamgreat. We had swimmers swim eventsfor the first time and get a time whilenot disqualifying! Good for you.Every one of you who had previouslyswam an event and swam it in our meetimproved at least one individual time!Good, Good for you!We had twice the number of swimmers we had at the same meet lastyear. Good, Good, Good for US!What you need to do next is to keeppracticing and encourage yourteammates to keep coming to practice;
practice hard daily and be a goodHammerhead! This will make all of youmuch better swimmers and Vallejo Aquatics a better team.I know that some of you could notattend practice at Solano College justbefore the Napa meet, but do not letthat be a distraction to you or yourswimming…just pick up the pieces andrenew your efforts. This will be Goodfor you and the team.
Go Sharks!
Leave a Comment