What a Memorial Day

It was so nice to see everyone that was in town over the weekend, and made a visit to BOH a part of your weekend.  For those of you that we have not seen yet it will be sort of like having a birthday just a few days after Christmas – two exciting days close together.  The pool staff looks forward to seeing everyone.  Regardless of where you and your family spent the Memorial Day weekend, I hope it was a fun weekend full of, what else, MEMORIES!

Our after school practices begin today.  The schedule is:

Mondays and Wednesdays     5:00 – 5:30 8 & Unders
5:00 – 6:00 9 & 10
5:00 – 6:30 11 & Up

Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays     5:00 – 6:00 9 & 10
5:00 – 6:30 11 & Up

Saturdays     9:00 – 11:00 11 & Up
11:00 – Noon 9 & 10
11:00 – 11:30 8 & Unders

Hello: Aiden, Arjun, Brent, Max, Jack, Tim, Johnny, Clark, Reagan, Isabell, Sarah, Andreana, Lisa, Virginie, Abby, Emily, Alex,  and Addie

Swimcerely,

Mark

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What a sight!

This morning, around 6:30, steam was coming off the pool water.  Don’t worry it is not that the water is so warm that we are wasting energy, it was just the combination of very cool outside temperature and the upper 70 degree pool water temperature.  Nonetheless it was a GREAT sight!  The returning pool staff is very excited to start seeing everyone again and meeting new families, while our new staff members are excited to meet everyone.  You will quickly see that, once again, we have a great pool staff that is committed to everyone’s safety and enjoyment around the pool.

Parker correction:  Parker will join us Tuesday afternoon, May 31 rather than Monday morning.

Swimcerly,

Mark

Coaching update

Returning swimming families will be excited for this information and new families will quickly learn that this is GREAT news:  Parker Watt will be back with the team for part of our competitive season.  Parker joined our staff back in 2007 while he was still swimming for Orchard Lake County Club.  The world’s greatest finals were hosted that year by, none other than, BOH where Parker won his two individual events and helped OLCC win their first championship in decades.  The following summer, 2008, Parker was BOH’s head assistant coach.  He quickly became a integral part of the Bullfrog swim team and has remained such while attending Indiana University.  Fast Forward to May, 2011.  Parker has graduated from IU and has accepted a job with American Airlines.  He begins July 18 in Chicago.  Parker will be joining us this Monday, May 30, and will stay until he has to move to the Windy City (hey, at least he should be able to get cheap airfare from Metro to O’Hare!)  There will be a couple of absences, for a trip to Europe and residency shopping, but otherwise we are excited to have Parker back with us for part of the season.  It will be a great transition for  a couple of our new assistant coaches during the month and a half.  This is the definition of a Win/Win scenario:  Parker has a REAL job, and BOH gets some more time with a REAL great coach and, more importantly, person.  WELCOME BACK PARKER

The pool warmed up 10 degrees between Tuesday and Wednesday, however, it will not be ready for practice until Saturday morning.  Those practice times are:

11 and older 9:00 – 11:00          9 & 10 11:00 – noon          8 & Under 11:00 – 11:30

Even if you can not make it to practice, try to stop by the pool for suit sizing.

Swimcerely,

Mark

MIA (Missing in Action) yesterday’s blog.

How is it the day I take off from school, and spend a great deal of time at the pool, I don’t get to the blog?  I guess I was just so incredibly busy I did not get to it!

The pool is looking great.  While the marciting took longer than expected, everything else is taking less time than expected.  This being said we are probably looking at our first practice being Saturday morning.  We will make the Thursday call tomorrow and the Friday call Thursday.  Please stay tuned.

The pool opens at noon Saturday, Sunday and Monday.  Please plan to stop by for a swim and see everyone.

One more thing regarding The Surf’s Up  Finals.  BCC has some great custom tie dyed T-shirts for each club (for purchase) like all clubs have the The Finals.  One difference this year is that they are asking all participants to wear them during the pre meet parade.  All the clubs agreed to work with their teams to make this happen.

Swimcerely,

Mark

Now that the great weather found us lets get that pool open :-)

The re marciting is completed and the pool looks brand new.  The pool is filled with water and we will begin circulating and filtering today.  Chemicals will be added this afternoon/tonight and will be added each day until the water is balanced.  While the heater will be turned on this afternoon, it will be inspected tomorrow.  We will then just have to hope Mother Nature cooperates and does not allow temperatures to dip too low each evening.

Please continue to check this blog to see when practices will begin.  It will not be before Thursday.

Last week I let everyone know about the Surf’s Up theme for The Finals at BCC July 29 and 30.  Did you know that the first SICSA Theme was back in 1989.  The theme was Up Up and Away and guess what club began this GREAT tradition . . . that’s right – BOH.

Swimcerely,

Mark

Surf’s Up, Dude

The theme for the 2011 SICSA Swimming Championships is

SURF’S UP

Gnarly, huh?  I knew I kept all of those Beach Boys records for a reason.  Hey wait a minute, RECORDS?  I don’t have anything to play them on anymore.  Well one thin is certain:  while BOH swimmers may not know what a vinyl record is, they certainly are no strangers to swimming records!  BCC has been very busy preparing for the BIG event on July 29 and 30 and it promises to be an exciting meet – full of records, most of which will be BOH ones, i”m sure.

Get your boards out, get them waxed and ready to go, catch a wave and be ready to Hang 10 all summer long.

Mark

PS.  Hi Ilye, Eva,Brooke, Andrea, Olivia, Paige, Rachael, Alexa, Kelly, Emma, David Mark, Kenny, Ryan, Pierre, and Matt

Christmas is in 220 days – if it were today my Christmas wishes would be: 80 degrees; sunshine; and a swimming ready pool . . . oh yeh world peace also.

If we wake up to anymore rain there will need to be an emergency meeting of the “ARK” committee.  We will meet in the overflow room and you should enter two by two.

Our summer swimming association is called Suburban Inter Club Swimming Association (SICSA).  The annual Spring meeting will be held this evening at Birmingham Country Club.  While there is sure to be much discussion over unimportant issues, the important thing is that BCC will announce their theme for The Finals (July 29 & 30).  Remember (former swimmers) and Notice (new swimmers):  While The Finals is all about swimming, The Finals Party begins with THE FINALS OUTFIT, and it is never too early to start planning and/or shopping for such!

Swimcerely,

Mark

Hey, I actually saw the sun (for a moment) this morning!

I saw, on the TV this morning, that we have had rain 70% of the days in April and May and that we have had significantly cooler temperatures during that same period of time.  Like I had to tell your that, right?

Despite the less than desirable weather, the pool crew has continued to work each day.  They have found that the shell of the pool needed more work than expected.  I am in contact with the crew daily and they are doing a superb job.

If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact me or Kelsey.  My e-mail is mark.brown@hazelpark.k12.mi.us and Kelsey’s is kelseyalyssa@gmail.com

Mark

I just checked the calendar and . . . summer is on the way – honest!

The labor intensive part of the remarciting is pretty much done.  It should take a day to plaster the pool and then we can fill.  Once filled, it will take a few days to get the water clean, heated, and chemically treated.  The end product will be like having a new pool.  It will look terrific.  In addition to the remarcitng, the filtering media in our three sand filters is being replaced.  You will also see new depth marker tiles along the perimeter of the pool.  We also had the 10 HP motor replaced last summer.  And I seem to remember something about our locker rooms having some work done last summer!

Swimcerely,

Mark

Rain rain go away . . . and don’t come back another day (at least not until after The Finals!

We will not have swim practice this week.  Even if the marciting was complete, we have learned that it is near impossible to heat the pool, to an acceptable temperature, when it gets down into the 40’s overnight.  Please don’t worry about conditioning or stroke technique.  We will have plenty of time to get all or our swimmers ready for our season.  Kelsey or I will be at the pool this afternoon at 5:00 in case anyone has not been checking this blog.  Also, if you were not at the kick off you could stop by at 5:00 to order a swim suit.  We probably won’t stay long, however, we can meet with you later this week to take care of the suit ordering.  Please call Kelsey at (248) 842-2858 or me at (248) 935-6451 to arrange a time.

Swiomcerely,

Mark