December 12, 2009 - This year's Gift-Giving Meet was a mix of holiday cheer, gaiety, frivolity, super food,  and some pretty good diving.  ZAP Divers donned their new suits and new tees....and suffice it to say, we looked maaavelous! :).  We also introduced the parent's tees..."For all my hard work....all I get is this t-shirt?" I was told an Elf showed up too!

Eight teams participated - covering three New England States:  Charles River Diving, Rhode Island Rippers, South Shore Diving, Central Mass Diving, Polar Bear Diving (Maine), Dolphin Diving, Infinity Diving and ZAP Diving.  We had 64 divers, 18 separate events with six AAU National qualifying performances.

THANKS TO ALL OF YOU!

First things first ~  Thanks to all of YOU who volunteered your valuable time.  YOU made the meet the success that it was!  I'm sure I will leave a few out, but those I remember who kept it running smoothly need mention:  Yan Li (Shawnae Ma's mom)  and whoever helped her out with check in - I never heard from you which is a good thing :); Stephanie Jarczyk with the nice touch of lighted trees for decorations; Erin McQuaid & family, Nancy Langway for coordinating the food and to all those who donated or baked some goodies, especially Charlene Pires for her super meatballs which were a big hit! Very tasty...do I see the meatballs as a staple for our future meets? Must mention the awards coordinators of Rene Burns, Helen Brady, Tracy Luther, and others, who slid right in and kept the ship running smoothly.  Keeping the ship unpright during a couple of new maneuvers was the always dependable scoring table-engineers - I was pleased to see a couple of new parents learning the puter program and very efficiently  I may add-nice job to Trish Richardson, Maria Bevacqua (any other newbie I may be forgetting), and old hands Karin Castro, Debbie Heller, Naeem Siddiqui, Beth Dushman, Vince & Kathy Scuoteguazza and David Eckhoff.  The 14-18 scoring table crew was especially great in keeping things moving during our double-event at meet's end!

CONGRATULATIONS & GENERAL ASSESMENT OF DIVERS

We will go over, analyze and scrutinize individual performances in person at the pool. Congratulations to our two AAU National qualifying performances - Michelle Higgins and Paige Richardson-who each won their events handily.  Other ZAP winners were Ethan Eckhoff, Matt Flynn and novice 10-11 year-old Francesca Singer.

Diving-wise, and very generally speaking, our younger divers did not have their best meet of the season. We need a lot of work.  We are not grasping the 'meet-mode' concept and you do not look prepared.  You CAN DO the dives BETTER and if you are to DO THEM BETTER IN MEETS, you all need to learn how to focus, repeat your buzzwords, visualize POT (Positive Outcome Thinking), and perform!  Diving is 90% mental!  TOGETHER, WE will work on that.  YOU will change how you approach competing and you will improve.  Our focus on the next month or so, will be on "how to practice", "how to compete", and to learn harder dives!  We will accept no whining. :)

PLEASED AS PUNCH!

Was greatly pleased to have all older divers in attendance, even if they couldn't dive.  great help and leadership from all, especially Katie Vogel, who had an early morning high school event and still showed up; Michelle Higgins who showed how to get into "meet mode" ; Ryan Shelley-still on injured-reserve list, but showed up and helped with coaching along with Matt Flynn who helped with coaching and is shuffling between high school practices and ZAP practices. Great leadership displayed by Lindsay, Audrey, Rachel, Nick, all diving in their high school season and still diving and showing support to their ZAP teammates! You are all important powers-of-example to your younger teammates...and a credit to yourselves, your team, school and parents!  Keep it up!

"Looking good is great, but diving well is greater!"  Jim

p.s. send my pics of the meet if you can, I was unable to take many and the ones I took are not that good. :(

Stay tuned for your next meet information.

2009 Christmas Gift Giving Meet Results

2009 Christmas Gift Giving Diving Sheets