West Coast Aquatics
Zones Issue: January 2011
Inside This Issue
* Gold in the WATER…
*Zone Championships 2011
*Crab Feed Information
from Coach Sam
A few of the WEST girls
having some camera
time in between events
*My Zone Champions
*Calendar of Events
Coaches Corner
*What Type of Swimmer are
You?
.
Coach Danica
Gold in the WATER…
Both Gold groups have been extremely
busy over that last two months. They took
a few days off after their focus meets in
December and then got right back to work.
Senior Gold ended their Fall season with a
very successful Sectional meet. West
qualified 8 swimmers for this year’s
Sectionals; Paul Huang, Chloe Rasmussen,
Victor Tamayo, Ian Ordes, William
Curtin, Andrew Bui represented WEST at
the meet.
Shortly after taking a few days off for
the holidays, Gold swimmers and a few
Senior Silver swimmers got back to work
on December 27 for their holiday training.
The Seniors had 10 practices in 5 days and
covered close to 70,000 yards. They also
completed the WEST Coast traditional
Gauntlet, 100 x 100’s, and many more
difficult sets and practices they should be
proud of. All of this work will not only
help their physical strength in the pool but
also their mental game. The Gauntlet,
which is like a mini triathlon for the
continued on page 2
Coach Veronica
Zone Championships 2011
Swimming at Zone Champs is one of
the highlights of every year. The meet is
usually freezing cold, way too long, has
tons of people running everywhere, kids
missing events or getting DQ’ed, and is
just a major stress out for everyone. This
meet has been this way since anyone can
remember. Danica and I swam in this
meet and it was much the same back then.
But this year was a year of change. The
sun was out on Saturday, there was no rain
on Sunday, there were fewer kids entered
in the meet, and only three events were
missed by West kids the entire meet.
That’s what I’d call a successful Zone
Champs.
Age Group Bronze had 24 swimmers at
the meet, 6 of which were on West Relay
Teams. Congratulations to our relay
swimmers, Apryl Chiem, Denise Tabilas,
Denton Hu, Curtis Nguyen, Serena Pham,
and especially Maggie Truong who beat
out two other swimmers to earn her spot
on the relay team. Thank you for
representing the best of West.
*Successful Zones for
both Silver Groups
*Swimming Joke of the
Month
Coach Vern at the 1998 Zone
Championships. The look out over
the Santa Clara pool deck is
much the same as it is today!
continued on page 3
Zones Issue: January 2011 * Page 1
continued from page 1
Fins and buoys and paddles…oh my!!!
swimmers included running, swimming,
and dryland activities. They snaked their
way through both pools, three times,
starting with the slowest swimmers first
and moving through to the fastest
swimmer. This way each swimmer has to
move up through people in order to move
up in the ranks. This year’s overall winner
was Paul Huang, with an awesome overall
time of 53:20 and the fastest Age Group
Gold swimmer was Christopher
Ruiyantoro, with a time of 58:28.
After getting the great boost from the
tough holiday training, the Gold group was
looking forward to their upcoming new
year meets. Senior Gold went to the CAL
Berkley Invitational while everyone was
at Zones.
With 7 healthy swimmers competing at
the CAL Invite we had many great
swimmers for this time of year. The boys
relay won the 200 Free Relay with a
strong performance. This was a very good
training meet that will have a strong
positive effect on the Seniors ability to
swim well and improve their overall times
in May during taper.
Age Group Gold did a great job at
Zones and representing WEST.
Christopher Ruiyantoro had an awesome
swim in the 100 Free going from a :58
high to a :56 low and he’s just 13!
Ashley Cam had many great swims but
did very well in the 100 Free going a :58.
Megana Vasu dropped 2 seconds and
went a 1:15 in the 100 breast qualifying
for JO’s. Overall both Age Group Gold
and Senior Gold are swimming very well
for this time of year and we cannot wait
until the taper and rest meets.
It is important to remember that at this
time of year we are looking for the
swimmers to swim well even when they
are tired. This time of year it is more
about building your toolbox and learning
how to perform than performing at your
peak. We call this competitive
development. Later, when the swimmers
are rested and have a strong foundation,
they can take all of their lessons learned
and can expect strong and fast
performances.
Go WEST!
Coach Danica
Coach Sam
Dear WEST families,
It’s February, which always means it’s time for our annual
fundraiser! This year, we want to take this as an opportunity
to celebrate with your family and thank you for your
dedication. We are happy to announce this year’s fundraiser
will be a crab feed! On Sunday, March 27th, 2:30-5:00pm, we
will all celebrate with all-you-can-eat crab legs, bread, and
salad. Instead of previous years minimum donation, all
families will be required to sell 4 tickets. Each ticket sells for
$40, and prizes will be given out to every swimmer that sells
more than 4. Some prizes include $50 gift cards to Sports
Basement, movie tickets, electronics and more! The crab
feed will be held at the Independence High School
gymnasium where we will eat, sing and dance. Please
contact Coach Sam to help with the planning and participate
in the fundraising committee. Thank you for all of your
continued support, you and your family’s commitment to this
team is what keeps it running so well!
Quick Facts:
CRAB FEED
Sunday, March 27th
2:30-5:00pm
Tickets: $40, must sell at least 4!
Dominique Duong, Sarah Pham, and Brandon Nguyen
swimming fast and having fun!
Thank you,
Coach Sam
WestCoastCoachSam@gmail.com
Zones Issue: January 2011 * Page 2
continued from page 1
Calendar of
Events
Meets
WEST C/B/A+
February 19th & 20th
Team WAVE C/B/A+
March 5th & 6th
Pacific Zone All-Stars
March 5th & 6th
(selected swimmers)
Clovis Travel Meet
March 3rd-6th
(all qualified Gold
and Senior Silver)
Important Dates
WEST Clean Up Day
February 12th
Crab Feed Fundraiser
March 27th 2:30-5pm
Desire is the most
important factor in the
success of any
athlete.”
-Willie Shoemaker
We had 6 New B Times in the group: Ryan Li in the 50 Free, Raina Patel in the 50 Fly,
Nicole Walsworth in the 100 Free, Don Le in the 50 Free, and Diane Tabilas in the 50 Free and
50 Back. Nice work, guys! In the A Time category, we had 8 new cuts: Maggie Truong in her
50 Free, Ryan Li in the 100IM, Serena Pham in the 100 IM, Isabelle Osuna in both the 100 Free
and 100 IM, and Brian Chong achieved 4 New A Times in the 50 and 100 Free, the 50 Breast
and the 50 Fly. Excellent swimming, everyone! Finally, we can’t forget our New Junior
Olympic Time Cut made by Denise Tabilas in the 100IM. Congratulations, Denise! Can’t wait
to see you race at the next JO’s.
Our next bit of big news is about Group Move-Ups. This season we have 5 swimmers moving
up to Age Group Silver. Raina Patel, Ereca Sarpolio, Serena Pham, Gabrielle Cabebe, and Max
Shiau have demonstrated the discipline, speed, technique, and dedication needed to move up to
the next level. It has been wonderful to work with each one of you and I look forward to seeing
what you can do in Silver.
Moving into Age Group Bronze are a few promising new kids. Abida Diep, Xavier Liu and
Ethan Ly have all moved up and are working well in the group. Each one of them has proven
that they have a desire to work hard and to learn as much as they can to get faster. I am very
happy to say they are a part of my group. Thank you, Coach Kristin for preparing them for
Bronze.
Way to Go Bronze!!!
Coach Kristin
My Zone ChampionsPre-Competitive Swimmer Maegan Duong
took off a second in her 50yd Freestyle and
swam her Butterfly and Breaststroke events
without any Disqualifications!
Michelle Komet, our youngest Super
Swimmer, got 3 new A times and several
ribbons at Zones. Megan Nghiem swam 3 solid
races with no Disqualifications! Julie Qian
improved 3 events getting B times across the
board. Jason Li also improved 3 times with
solid B times. Angelina Aguilar improved 4
events with an A time in the 50
Breaststroke! Catherine Ly swam 4 events for
the first time and improved one event with
mostly B's in all her events. Katelyn Tran
swam 4 new events and improved 2 of her
times. Ethan Chan swam 3 events for his first
time. Deven Navani improved 1 events time,
but improved all events, as he got no
Disqualifications and did his flip turns! Claire
Wong swam 2 events for the first time and
showed improved technique and grace in her
strokes. Eric Chau showed good attitude
swimming his events on Saturday. Justin
Quach swam the 100 Fr for the first time. He is
always a group leader up to any challenge.
Erick Tram got a new best time in his 50
Breaststroke.
Abida Diep got 3 new best times and a new
A time in the 100 IM. I am very proud of
Abida's excellent CAN DO attitude and terrific
effort. She has been promoted to Bronze!
Ethan Ly swam 3 events for the first time. He
improved his 100 Freestyle time and challenged
himself swimming the 200 IM and 100 Fly.
Ethan's efforts have earned him a spot in the
Bronze group! Xavier Liu improved 3 times
Hanging out in the WEST Team area,
1998 Zones
with good technique and great competitiveness. He
has happily been promoted to Bronze due to his
efforts. Linda Ngo improved 4 events and swam a
new B time in the 11-12 age group for the 100
Freestyle. Linda has also been promoted to the
Bronze group, as well, where she will continue to
work hard and excel! These swimmers have come to
practice regularly, always asking for advice to
improve, and always swimming their best!
1 Pre-competitive swimmer and 17 Super
Swimmers chose to compete in this meet. The Zone
Meet is one of the 2 large championship meets that
West participates in. It is a long weekend, and very
crowded. We lucked out this year with decent
weather. I appreciate those who gave all their effort,
checked in with me before and after events, and
swam the entire weekend. I am happy with all the
swimmers results! Congrats again to the 4 swimmers
who have been promoted to Bronze!
Zones Issue: January 2011 * Page 3
What Type of Swimmer Are You?
By Coach Danica Burge
The early season is beginning to take shape. As I watch
workouts, I see many things. I’m going to talk about
one aspect of those ‘many things’ today.
I could call that aspect, ‘focus’ or ‘intent’ or any
number of words that are related to athletics or even
business. To me, those terms get so over used in
situations that the intent of using them gets lost through
commercialization or even simple repetition. The idea
gets washed away. Watered down… watered down to
the point where the words themselves turn into
representations of the actions which they are meant to
counteract: mediocrity and contentment.
So, I’m not going to use those words. I’m just going to
tell you what I see. I’m going to tell you what works or
doesn’t work and hopefully give you the awareness to
either change or continue your actions. That’s the
beauty of our country and our lives. We have the power
and opportunity to change or evolve for the better.
What actions or observations? There are too many to
list, but I’ll give you the first couple on my list to avoid
for beginning any endeavor, any challenge.
What doesn’t work:
The overanxious:
There are always swimmers every season on every team
who begin the year with an incredibly high energy and
intent on making this THE year. The problem with the
overanxious occurs when the day to day gets harder and
harder. That high emotion is hard to maintain when
you’ve practiced every day for a month or when it gets
dark at 4pm or even when you have one bad workout.
Think of swimmers in a race who go out as hard as they
can and just ‘know’ they’re going to finish well (I can
do it this time!). That strategy works for a
50; sometimes you can survive for a 100. But, what
happens after that? Anything longer than a short race
and it’s simply a struggle to get their arms out of the
water and finish.
I’ve seen many an overanxious swimmer (who also like
to tell you over and over again how great they are going
to do) turn into people who can figuratively barely lift
their arms out of the water by the end of the season and
are usually very discouraged. ‘I tried so hard’, they
say. And, they probably did-for a period of time or
when it was convenient.
Coach Shannon
Successful Zones for both Silver Groups
Being that this was my very first Zones meet, I thought
it was amazing all around. I was told horror stories about
how long and cold this meet has been in the past, and was
a little worried that we would not have too many fast
swims and cold, unhappy swimmers. Boy was I excited
when it was sunny and warm on Saturday and not too bad
Sunday as well! I was also wrong when it came to the fast
swims, there were so many it was hard to keep track of!
What I do know is that every swimmer had at least one
best time in a race. On top of all of these best times, there
were many new A and B times, as well as some new JO
times.
Between both Silver Groups, there were 48 new A
times! Some of the swims that stand out in my head where
by Senior Silver swimmers, Priyanka Signh, Sarah
Giovannini, and Christian Aguilar. Priyanka took off
about 2 seconds in the 100 Free, swimming a 1:00.46.
Sarah had a great 100 Breaststroke, breaking the 1:30
mark, swimming a 1:28.92. Christian shaved off some
more time in the 100 Free and broke the 59 second mark,
swimming a :58.94. Some of the Age Group Silver swims
that stand out for me were by Vivian Luong, Jonny
Lung, Tommy Truong, and Minh Le. Vivian had some
great swims this meet, especially in the 50 Free, 100 Free,
and 100 IM. Jonny also swam great in the sprint free races
and 100 IM. They both made some 10 and under JO cuts,
but unfortunately turned 11 a couple weeks after the meet.
Jonny also made a Far Westerns cut in the 50 Free in the
10 and under age group. Tommy had 6 new best times at
the meet, 5 of them being new A times! Minh also had 4
new A times, but it was his 100 Backstroke that took the
cake; swimming a 1:11.15.
In addition to all of these new A times, there were many
new B times as well. According to my calculations, there
were 35 new B times. Great job swimmers!!!
Lastly, there were new JO Cuts by 4 different
swimmers…6 if you count Jonny and Vivian before they
aged up. Ethan Luc received new JO times in the 50
Backstroke, 50 Breaststroke, and 100 IM. Nathan Chiem
had a new cut in the 100 IM. Dylan Luu in the 50
Breaststroke and 100 IM, this not long after he turned 11 a
few months ago! And Cassie Nguyen in the 100 Fly.
I was very impressed by the level of swimming at this
meet and I think that it’s a great start to 2011! We can only
get faster from here and I’m looking forward to meets and
swimming in the future!
GO WEST!!!
continued on page 5
Zones Issue: January 2011 * Page 4
continued from page 4
On a positive note, the overanxious swimmer is in a much better position than our next person, the ho-hum swimmer, because at
least they try, have a high intention of doing something better than they did before and are usually pretty optimistic. They are
simply misdirecting their energy and usually expecting things to happen too fast (but get discouraged easily when they don’t).
Suggestions for the overanxious: Pace yourself. Realize that it’s sometimes better to walk down the hill than it is to run down
the hill. Try to start the season with the same excitement level that you perceive yourself having on the hardest day. If they are
relatively close, then you are on the right track.
The ‘ho-hum’:
The ‘ho-hum’ swimmer goes day to day with no exciting goals in mind or has reached a plateau in how much they are willing to
exert (physically or emotionally or intellectually). From what I’ve seen, the second half of that statement usually follows the
first.
If you don’t have any exciting, specific goals, if you can’t think of any accomplishment that will make you proud, your level of
exertion will reach, approximately, a ‘ho-hum’ level.
The ‘ho-hum’ swimmer occasionally has a day or week or a race or a meet that reveals a glimpse of their hidden potential. That
occasional success allows the ‘ho-hum’ to justify the trouble of doing however much they are doing for a little while longer
(and also those around them).
If I had to guess, the ‘ho-hum’ was rarely held to high expectations. They may have been surrounded by the thought of ‘oh,
that’s just (fill in the name), that’s good enough for them.’ Or, they were given the easy way out when things got hard (dare I
say, parents stepping in where the child might stand up for themselves and solve a problem or live with the consequences?).
What to do for the ‘ho-hum’? Don’t underestimate their potential! Allow them to try and fail and understand
consequences. They are not just ‘fill in the name’. Always remember, they are people with amazing capabilities who will have
to deal with the real world someday.
The ‘tried and failed’:
‘Tried and failed’ is often an overachiever or someone who overachieved for a very specific period of time and didn’t reach a
specific goal that usually had to be met by a specific date (or else).
The ‘tried and failed’ is usually very critical of oneself. That trait has usually allowed for a significant amount of success and, to
some, can be seen as a positive force. The problem arises when a failure event, like the one described above, rears its ugly
head. The result is often a deep emotional distress resulting in a lack of motivation and a questioning of their abilities.
The ‘tried and failed’ are, more often than not, very attached to what has made them successful. As such, they are very
uncomfortable with change or with changing certain things. Unfortunately, it is change itself that will enable them to surpass
the hurdle that knocked them down.
continued on page 6
Group Picture in the Crazy Stands
Where are the “warm feet” beads?!
Zones Issue: January 2011 * Page 5
Winter Candy Sale
Congrats to everyone that helped sell candy for our swim team this past winter. Because of
your efforts we were able to buy new clocks for our pool deck, new training equipment,
t-shirts for our kids winter training and for the 10 & under champs swimmers. We also plan to
get some more things for the team and help support our scholarship program. Thank you
again for all of your efforts. We couldn't do it without the help of each and every one of
you.
The West Staff and Board
continued from page 5
‘Tried and failed’ are usually more interested in changing after failure, which is good. But, if the change is accompanied by a
lessened motivation brought on by perceived failure, where the potential improvement of the change itself is negated, it often
leads to a continued downward spiral.
What to do with ‘tried and failed’? Remind them of how good they are. Don’t encourage closed goals (calendar
wise). Understand that they beat themselves up enough when they don’t accomplish things. Remind them about the big
picture. Encourage change – even if it makes them slower for a while.
Dealing with these three ideas should get you on your way in attempting to avoid pitfalls during the season.
Lastly, there are some very important things to remember when considering these thoughts:
 No one fits any description 100%. We all have variations of these thoughts.
 Every one of us has periods of dealing with these problems if we ever try to accomplish anything.
 Because you have (or you have a child that has) some traits, it doesn’t mean that you will always be bound by them.
 It is a common misconception that we ‘are who we are’. Actions can be changed with the right motivation and
support system.
 You have the power to change how you perceive anything: the events around you, your success level, your potential,
anything which can result in changing traits that lead to success or not.
To the point:
If, in the beginning of this year, you find yourself in the middle of any of these categories, get out of them. You have time to
make a difference for this year and for the remainder of your swimming career.
The people who I’ve seen have significant breakthroughs in swimming (and in life) have learned to manage these three
situations very well. They’ve learned to manage their energy during light times and busy times. They’ve learned to find a
significant motivation through good goals and by surrounding themselves with people who have similar interests and
expectations. And, possibly, most importantly, when they’ve reached a certain amount of success and encountered a failure,
they’ve been able to recoup and grow and change for the better from that experience.
Swimming
Joke
of the
Month
What is a polar bear’s favorite
stroke?
Blubber-fly 
Zones Issue: January 2011 * Page 6