Happy Fathers Day tomorrow to all HHBF fathers! Every one of you who has gotten up early to get your kids to the pool, driven hours to a meet, waited in line to get equipment and worked hard to pay the swim fees, your children appreciate you. I appreciate you too. Have a wonderful day!
Lots going on today. I started my day at 7am with a workout for the people going to provincials. We largely worked on recovery from a very tough workout last night, but did do 2 fast 100s from a dive which yielded very impressive results. These individuals are all VERY focused on their goals in 2 weeks at Provincials in Ottawa. Our motto for that meet is "We've Got A Job To Do". That job...? Aside from representing HHBF as a strong, respectable club, we are also there to compete... not just to participate. All of these competitors know what they need to do in each event they swim. This is quite probably the strongest team that HHBF has ever sent to a Provincial Championship. Stay tuned to my blog for day by day results. I will be posting them from July 1st - July 4th around 9pm (July 4th I will be traveling home... will likely be posted on the 5th).
I then stopped by Milton to check in at the second session of Halton Cup. I saw several good swims in the 40min I was at the pool, but I must say that I was a little disappointed with the turn out at our club's championship meet. I understand that individuals may have things to do on their weekends late in the season, but we need EVERYONE if we wish to win the Halton Cup. We honestly should have won that meet, but we were out numbered about 2:1. We really team mates to understand that we need a true team effort to win a dual meet. I get the feeling that we wouldn't have had as many no shows if it were a hockey or soccer game. I am hoping that we can come back revived and willing to compete against Milton next season.
I then stopped by to catch the last few events in Etobicoke at Central Region Team Championships. We had some decent races through the day including a great gold medal winning relay which featured Nick Levesque, Taylr Cawte, Alicia Lubja and Ryan Smith. HHBF currently sit at 11th place out of 17 teams, but once again suffered from a few no shows and 1 dropped relay as a result. CRTC is a good opportunity for people to race in Etobicoke one last time before the end of the year. It looks like our participants are making the most of that opportunity.
I finished the morning in the Etobicoke Coaches Lounge where I ran a meeting regarding exciting new changes for the GTA series of meets. I do not want to reveal too many details, but in short; we will not be driving 2 hours anymore to attend GTA meets. I'm sure many parents will be very happy about that! That is my Fathers Day gift to all you HHBF dads.
"Enjoy swimming for swimmings sake. We have to spend far too much time in the water to not enjoy the process challenging yourself of moving through the water".
~Jeff Rouse - Multiple Olympic Gold Medalist and World Record Setter in 100BK
Have a great weekend! Stay Tuned.
Mike Thompson
Head Coach
HHBF
