2024 Season Reminders

As the school year wraps up, we wanted to send out some final reminders about the upcoming 2024 swim season:

  • Try outs will occur August 12th to 14th from 7-11am with the time trial taking place on Wednesday, August 14th. Those 3 practices are mandatory and the final roster will be selected by Wednesday evening.
  • All athletes will need to try out again. No roster spots are guaranteed based on participation in previous seasons.
  • Training groups will be decided after the first full week of practice.
  • Preliminary calendar is posted on the website. Expect changes as we get closer to the season.
  • Finally, please be swimming this summer! It’s imperative that we start the season ready to train at a high level!

We hope that everyone has a great finals, a fun and safe summer, and is as excited as we are for the upcoming season!

Championship Weekend #2

This weekend we will have our 2nd championship meet: the CPL Championships! The competition begins on Friday at 5pm at Whitney Young with diving. We will have our 2 divers competing and we would love as many fans as possible cheering them on. Swimmers: please make an effort to get down to Whitney Young to watch the divers compete for the team!

On Saturday, we will have the swimming portion of the Championships. Competition will begin at 11am at Whitney Young. We hope to see as many fans in the stands as possible!

Championship Weekend #1

This Saturday is the first Championship meet of the season. The CPL Gold Conference will be the last meet of the season for about half the team. We hope that we can have as many swimmers and families as possible in the stands at Whitney Young this weekend. The City and Sectional group will be practicing at Lane from 7:15 – 9 and then immediately heading over to the meet.

The meet will began at 9am at Whitney Young. Please enter the Kenner Physical Education Building under the bridge. Good luck to all athletes competing!

Week 10 Updates

I wanted to send out some updates regarding this week as well as the rest of the season!

  • As you all know, the school is closed today for Indigenous Peoples’ Day. If you can find access to a pool today, please take some time to get in some easy swimming. 30 minutes or ~1500 yards of swimming will do wonders for your training this week!
  • We’ll be having another nutrition talk this week. We will break into 2 groups with the Conference team having the talk on Tuesday from 4-5 and then the City/Sectional group having the talk on Wednesday from 3:30 – 4:30. Please make sure to be attentive and engaged. As we approach our ultimate swims, nutrition continues to be a huge factor in performance. Schedule has been updated with this change.
  • We have two meets this week.
    • Thursday vs. Westinghouse is Senior Night! Individual entries will be released today. Relay entries will be released on Thursday.
    • Saturday will be the NISCA Power Point Meet at Highland Park. Entries for this meet will be released shortly (still waiting on an event file from the meet host). Those going to the meet will be practicing at Lane starting at 9am before heading to the meet. Those not going to the meet will have practice at 10:15 at Lane.
  • On the line ups page, we have the roster for all of our Ultimate Swim Groups. We will have 3: Sectionals, City’s, and Conference. If you are in the Sectional line up, then you are in the Sectional Group. If you are in any of the City line ups and NOT in the sectional line up, then you’re in the City’s group. Everyone else should be in the conference line up.
  • This week will begin what is known in the swimming world as “taper time” for the Conference team. This means that the intensity of workouts will slowly decrease in order to give athletes the necessary rest to swim at their best at their ultimate swim meet. As we go through these next two weeks, please make sure you are taking care of your bodies: getting enough sleep, eating well, and limiting strenuous activity outside of the pool.

With only 5 weeks left in this season (and as little as 2 weeks for some athletes), let’s keep up the great work and head into the championship season with lots of momentum. Looking forward to an amazing end of this season!

Week 8 Updates

We’ve officially passed the halfway point of the season! The final day of the IHSA State Meet is 7 weeks from last Saturday. Some of us will be finishing up our seasons in just 4 short weeks! I wanted to send out a few updates for this week:

  • Meets this week:
    • Thursday will be our dual meet against Jones-Payton at Lane. Entries are posted! Please take a look at the entries and let me know if you see something off. For example, if you’re signed up for the 200 IM and the 50 Free, that’s likely a mistake on my part.
    • For the JV entries, I’ve filled up entire exhibition heats with Lane swimmers, but there is a chance that Jones requires some of those lanes. Unfortunately, that means some of the exhibition swimmers would have to be removed from those events. I’ll do my best to make sure everyone still have 3 swims!
    • Saturday we will be going to Maine South’s Hawk Relays. Entries for that meet are also posted. For those not entered in that meet, you’ll have Saturday off.
  • Like we described at the beginning of the season, each swimmer on this team will have an ULTIMATE swim meet. We will have 3 different ultimate swim meets this season: CPL Gold Conference, CPL City Championships, and IHSA Sectionals. We have posted at the pool our current line ups for City Championships and IHSA Sectionals. All the athletes not selected for either of those meets will swim their ultimate swim meet at CPL Conference!
    • These line ups are chosen based nearly entirely on in-season performance.
    • If there is an event that you want to swim more of to potentially make either of these line ups, please let us know ASAP!
    • These line ups are very much subject to change. There are still many more opportunities to race and move into and out of these line ups.
  • I just want to reiterate the importance of continuing to take care of yourself and your body in these coming weeks. Stretching, eating well, getting enough sleep, staying healthy are very important to ensure the best performance in your ULTIMATE swim meets!

Week 7 Update

I wanted to send out a team update as we approach the halfway point of the season! Here are a few notes and updates:

  • Congrats to all of those that participated in meets last Saturday. Our team at Julian High School WON the CPL Relay Meet. At Fenwick, our team finished in 3rd place against great competition from all around the state. Special shout out to our new 500 yard freestyle team record holder, Layla! Congratulations to all!
  • We have 3 meets again this week:
    • Dual Meet at Northside on Thursday, meet starts at 5:15 with diving going first! Entries are posted. Everyone is expected to attend, even if you will not be swimming. We will need 4 bus volunteers for this meet!
    • Sandburg Invite on Saturday, meet for the bus at 8:30am! Entries are posted. We will need 1 bus volunteer for this meet.
    • Palatine Invite on Saturday, meet for the bus at 8:30am! Entries are posted. We will need 1 bus volunteer for this meet.
  • If you are not selected for either meet on Saturday, you have the day off
  • Reminder about bus transportation: we expect all athletes to take the bus to and from every away meet. If that is not possible, the coaching staff must receive an email from the parent or guardian of the athlete that will not be taking the bus. We need this email at least 24 hours before the meet takes place.
  • Friday is a non-attendance day for Students so we will be having practice for everyone in the morning. Varsity will have dryland from 8-9:30 and then swim until 11:30am. Both JV groups will swim from 8-9:30 and then have dryland until 11am.

Competing Again!

Now that we are back in a consistent competition schedule after a few weeks break, I wanted to send out some information about the meets this week as well as some general reminders regarding meets.

  • Preliminary entries for Thursday’s meet vs Taft are posted on the Line Ups page
  • Entries for Saturday’s meets (Fenwick Invite and CPL Relays) are posted on the Line Ups page
  • If you are not entered in Thursday’s meet you are still required to attend. Athletes will warm up and cool down with the team, so please be prepared to swim even if you are not in the line ups.
  • A reminder of our team policy regarding attendance and meet entries. If there is an unexcused absence (an missed practice without any notice), you will almost certainly not be entered in an upcoming meet. If you do give us notice of an absence, you may not be entered in upcoming meets. These decisions are made on a case by case basis.
  • All athletes are required to warm up and cool down with the team at every meet they attend. Swimmers should not change or leave after their last race. They should be staying on deck cheering on their teammates and then cooling down as a team in the pool.
  • There will be three groups attending different practices/meets on Saturday:
    • If you are entered in the Fenwick Invite, you will be warming up at Lane from 9:00am – 10:15am before taking the bus to Fenwick for a 12:00pm meet start.
    • If you are entered in the CPL Relay meet, you will be taking the bus from Lane at 7:45am.
    • If you are not entered in either meet, you will be having a 90 minute practice at Lane from 9:00am – 10:30am. Just like every other practice, this is required.
  • As a reminder, the expectation is that athletes will be on the bus to and from every meet. If this will not be the case, please make sure to email the coaches at least 24 hours before the start of the meet.

Saturday, 9/9 Practice Update

Tomorrow, September 9th, we will be taking headshots and class photos so we will be changing the schedule. We will start with photos at the following times:

First Years: 8am
Sophomores: 8:20am
Juniors: 8:40am
Seniors: 9am (yes you may be late to your practice, this is ok!)

Please wear your new team suit for the photos!

We will follow up pictures with the following practice schedule:

Varsity: Dryland 9-10, Swim 10-11:45
JV1 + JV2: Swim 9-10, Dryland 10 – 11:15

Nutrition Tips

Hi all,

We had a great nutrition talk with Kathy Castrejon, from Nourishment Works. Kathy gave our athletes time to write down what they knew about nutrition and they didn’t disappoint! That being said, there were a few myths to bust and throughout the talk it became clearer that many of our athletes are not eating enough!

Kathy is my current nutritionist and has helped me with my relationship with food tremendously. I, like most others, put morality on food, labeling them “good”, “bad”, “junk”, “healthy”, etc. which lead to restrictive eating, binging and lots of food guilt.

Kathy specializes in this area and encouraged our athletes to drop this behavior while listening to their body and what it needs. We discussed how to round out meals with protein, carbohydrates and fruits/veggies. Focusing on adding in foods that make us feel good and nourish our body instead of foods we should take away. Here is a document that discusses building a balanced plate that Kathy shared with us. For any of our vegetarian athletes, this document can help!

A lot of our discussion centered around properly fueling for the amount of activity that our athletes undergo. Here is a document that explains what is necessary for our athletes to be successful in the weight room, pool and during school. The biggest takeaway from our talk was that our girls are not eating enough. Many of them are struggling to get in meals after practice in the morning and do not bring enough to eat in between breakfast and lunch and lunch and swimming in the afternoon.

Brendan and I encourage our athletes to pack a full breakfast for after practice, a full lunch and two snacks that include some protein and carbs to have in between breakfast and lunch and lunch and afternoon practice. Even if they do not swim in the afternoon, they should bring a snack to have at the end of the school day. This may seem like a lot of food, but our athletes are constantly burning calories and often showing up in the afternoon hungry, tired, or not feeling well, all of which can be linked to under-eating.

We will have a follow up session with Kathy for all groups that I am really looking forward to! We’ll have an opportunity to check in about what we learned from this first session and go over other topics like body image and body neutrality.