PAY Swim Team News- 7/11/2024

PAY Swim Team News - July 11, 2024

We are more than halfway done with our short summer season and we are anticipating some amazing meets ahead over these next 3-4 weeks! And the OLYMPICS at the end of this month!! There is a lot of news and updated info so please scroll down to the end.

PRACTICE SCHEDULES:

Please refer to the following link for our Summer Practice Schedule(unless weekly edits are communicated via email): 

2024 PAY Practice Master Schedule for the Summer - Google Sheets (gomotionapp.com)

COACH NOTES: 

WELCOME Coach Ethan Gerlach to our coaching staff! Coach Ethan has been competitively swimming since age 7 and coaching for various swim teams and age groups since 2010. Ethan moved to PA after finishing his Master’s degree in 2022 and currently works as an Intelligence Analyst for ViaPath Technologies. Ethan and his wife live in the Audubon area and in his free time, Ethan enjoys

listening to music, watching hockey and soccer, and running.  Be sure to say hi to Coach Ethan! 

Read His Full Bio Linked Here: https://www.gomotionapp.com/team/mapay/page/system/coaches

Kudos to so many fast races and awesome sportsmanship acts from so many of our swimmers at our dual/tri and invitational meets so far this summer! And we are so proud of the swimmers who competed in their first ever swim meets! Keep up the great work! We coaches love seeing all the smiles!

Congratulations to Nate Deeney and Lucille Obenski for qualifying for the Long Course Nationals meet in 3 weeks, both of whom qualified in the 200 Backstroke! 

Congratulations to Brynn Lewis and Macey Speakman for qualifying for the Futures Meet being held in VA 2 weeks!

Best of luck to Maddy Deeney, Nathan Deeney, Kyle Kruppa, Walker Hungarter, Brynn Lewis, Lucille Obenski, Logan Seiss, and Macey Speakman representing PAY this upcoming weekend at the Middle Atlantic Long Course Senior Champ Meet.

Best of luck to Cecilia Bryant, Collin Byrne, Michelle Figueroa, Chase Hungarter, Natalie Kibalo, Campbell Knecht, Ellen Le, Shreya Modi, Lane Shearer, Mara Shearer, Peter Verderame, and Ryan Whitlock heading to the Middle Atlantic Long Course Junior Champ Meet next weekend! 

And finally, for all our swimmers– 

Final Summer Dual Meet - PAY @ UMLY (AWAY) Jul 16, 2024 [NEW DATE at 5:30pm-8:30pm (warmups at 5:30pm) at Upper Main Line YMCA 1416 Berwyn-Paoli Road, Berwyn, PA 19312.  Volunteer Job signups are posted under the event.  RSVP for your swimmer is July 13th.  Register HERE.  Go PAY!! 

And our culminating meet for all our swimmers- YMCA Summer Championships (Short Course Yards at the York YMCA) -Jul 27, 2024 - Jul 28, 2024 at Graham Aquatic Center - York YMCA. 

^^IF YOU HAVE NOT REGISTERED FOR THIS MEET YET, PLEASE CONNECT WITH COACH DAVE

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OTHER ITEMS FOR FAMILIES:

THANK YOU to all the volunteers who helped at the past few away meets and our home meet.  We can’t attend or host meets without providing volunteers so thank you! #PAYProud.

SPECIAL SWIMMING Q&A EVENT-We are honored to have PAY alumni, Ms. Anya Mostek, coming to our YMCA on Monday, July 15th from 6:30pm-7:30pm in the room past childcare to talk with all our swimmers/coaches and to answer any questions about her experience at the US Olympic Trials and her journey to get there from PAY Swimming to the Harvard Swim Team to the Trials! Please RSVP for your swimmer using the Attend/Decline button within this event HERE  so that we know how many chairs to set up (and there is plenty of floor space too).  No question is too small and no swimmer is too young or old to attend. Let's welcome Anya back with lots of PAY enthusiasm and questions and hugs.

MENTAL HEALTH SEMINARS for our PAY Swimmers/Families- The Phoenixville YMCA Board of Advisors Community Impact Committee, in conjunction with Open Minds Psychological LLC, are excited to announce the first of 3 mental health seminars lined up for this summer/fall. These sessions are custom built for our in house athletic teams, starting with our largest group of athletes, the PAY Swim Team! Join us for the first session, led by guest speaker & former competitive swimmer, Dr Brianna Matey. Dr Matey will be speaking to our team about building resilience through sports, how to manage the ups and downs of competition, goal setting and more. This session will take place on Monday, July 22nd at 5:30 for our 12&U swimmers in the AOA room (located at the end of the hallway behind the child watch area) and should last around 30 minutes with extra time for questions.   The 13&O session will begin at 6:30pm with extra time for questions as well.  Parents are welcome and encouraged to attend!  Please be sure to sign your swimmer up under the Event so we have an accurate head count prior to the event! If you have any questions please reach out to Kelly Miller: kelly211miller@gmail.com. Thanks and hope you see many of you there!!

SWIM TEAM PARTY- Thursday, July 25th at 7:30pm- Pool Party Time!! We have lifeguards set so now please join us for some fun and food at the outdoor pool as we relax together prior to the culminating summer champs meets. Swimmers should RSVP via Commit/Decline within the Event HERE  and families should RSVP via the Job Signup Tab within the Event HERE noting the number of adults attending -other than your swimmers- along with any dessert or snack you can bring to share.  We'll set up tables to spread out the food by the pools and we’ll use the RSVP numbers to know how much pizza to order and waters to buy.  

PHONE APP- Parents, we have heard from many of you that your phone app isn’t working at times, preventing you from signing up/committing to meets or volunteer positions.  We do not have a solution for that yet but please know our website www.payswim.org, Phoenixville YMCA swim team Home (gomotionapp.com)or HERE is working for you to commit/sign up to Events.  Sorry for the inconvenience.

NEW PARENTS- Please feel free to email Kate Baganski at kbaganski@verizon.net with your non-coach questions.  We will set up a Zoom Q&A soon or point you in the direction of a fellow parent.  For any technical coach questions, please email Coach Dave at david.rue@philaymca.org or Coach Kate Deeney at kathryn.deeney@philaymca.org.

SUMMER SWIM TEAM’s PURPLE TSHIRTS - Our PAY Swim Team’s purple tshirts have been handed out. We haven’t seen a few swimmer so be sure to inquire if that is your child. There are four adult XL sizes leftover and available for parents to purchase for $8.00 if you want one.

BATHING CAPS- If your swimmer ordered a personalized bathing cap, they are in.  Reach out if they didn’t receive their order yet.  We can always file them in your family folder.

BIRTHDAY ROUND-UP Happiest of Days to our teammates AND COACHES who have or had birthdays this month!  CHECK OUT ALL OUR JULY BIRTHDAYS!!!

Shaurya Agrawal turned 13 on 7/1!

Eskander Bierman turned 19 on 7/5!

Sahasra Mettupalli turned 13 on 7/2!

Mila Mazzoni turned 15 on 7/6!

Aubrie Wilson turned 17 on 7/6!

Anna Shishkov turned 16 on 7/7!

Cillian Jennings turned 8 on 7/9!

Brynn Lewis turns 16 on 7/16!

Clayton Pan turns 8 on 7/23!

Miles Beechner turns 10 on 7/25!

Ivy Carey turns 10 on 7/26!

Christopher Merrell turns 14 on 7/26!

Nicholas Zinn turns 15 on 7/28!

Gabrielle Metry turn 16 on 7/31!

TYR PORTAL - If you need a team swim suit apparel or equipment, please visit our TYR team portal. To register on our team store, visit TEAMS.TYR.COM , click on create account, and use the access code "16659". Once registered you will receive your PAY team's discount as well as any additional promotions etc!   The portal is also linked on our team website: https://www.gomotionapp.com/team/mapay/page/documents/apparel 

KINETIC PHYSICAL THERAPY AT OUR YMCA for swimmers or family members: Please visit their website and watch their “YMCA partnership video” at the bottom of their homepage at the following link: https://www.kineticptpa.com/  

TEAM PHOTOS  THANK YOU TO Leo Cuevas Riego de Dios’ dad for uploading so many AMAZING photos for us to enjoy!!!  Remember to download/upload PAY swim team photos as you wish-Please feel free to view their photos on our Google Share Drive   https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1fkNMmnNFJqtXvDchWaRIGXXGGDqe1L3u

FACEBOOK-Come follow “PAY Swimming” on Facebook to celebrate the achievements of all of our kids.  Even better, text or email your child’s photo and “brags” from our swim meets to swim mom Donna Hungarter to share on the PAY Swimming page at (484) 686-3156 or  dmhungarter@gmail.com. And, we have a private “PAY Swim Parents” Facebook page that will be a parent-share page for quick questions, etc.  Search for PAY Swim Parents then you’ll be instructed to type in your child’s swim practice group and someone will approve your request if your swimmer is on our PAY team this year.  This private site will be monitored for content and is not meant for photos.  We will still have our public PAY Swimming FB page, noted above, for sharing photos through parent Donna Hungarter.

“I believe that success of a program is not judged by the number of individual national qualifiers or Olympic hopefuls, but by the culture and dynamic within the team….Being a swimmer on PAY means that you are part of a much larger family where the little members have bigger members to learn from and admire….You can swim forever, don’t quit if it is difficult.  It can get better.  Enjoy it.  Take time to smile during harder sets.  Feel the water as you swim.  Remember why you are doing this. And continue. Be happy with yourself in good times and not so good times.  You are the reason people like me coach.”  -Coach Dan