Thanks for the Memories, Brooktree!
2009
PASDA Board of Directors
Tentative 2009 Officials Clinics
2009 PASDA General Membership Meetings
PASDA Bylaws
Committee
2009 Division
Alignments
THANKS FOR THE
MEMORIES, BROOKTREE!
Representatives of the Brooktree Swim Club confirmed at the
August 2008 general membership meeting of the Princeton Area
Swimming and Diving Association, that their swim club, barring a
totally unexpected – but welcome – turn of events, will have
served its membership for the final time after closing this past
Labor Day Weekend.
The Brooktree Swim Club has been a fixture in the East
Windsor/Hightstown area for over 30 years. Brooktree, an early
– if not founding – member of PASDA, has provided its membership
with a quality recreational summer-swimming facility, including
a spirited, highly competitive swim team for their children and
teens over that period.
Ed Fago, a longstanding Brooktree member and PASDA trustee, says
that there has always been an atmosphere of good affordable
family fun at the Brooktree Swim Club. Ed believes that this is
likely what initially drew prospective members to the club, and
what made Brooktree especially attractive to families with
children. In addition to sponsoring special events such as
movie night, teen night, camp outs, pizza night, and holiday
parties (with the best DJ in New Jersey), the club owners have
been incredibly supportive of the swim team, both financially
and organizationally.
For many families, Brooktree Swim Club was their first exposure
to the sport of organized swimming. Many Brooktree swimmers
have gone on from their first swim lessons or summer swim team
experience at Brooktree to join year-round competitive teams and
succeed at many levels, including USA Swimming, YMCA Swimming,
college swimming, and high school swimming.
The Brooktree Swim Team epitomizes the kind of enthusiasm and
involvement we all know keeps our children happy, healthy, and
safe. Each year the coaches were excited to compile the team
roster, whether it consisted mostly of returning swimmers or
those who were entirely new to swimming. Returning swimmers
would eagerly volunteer to take novice or younger swimmers under
their wing (or fin!) and pass along their own hard-learned
pointers for improving technique.
By the end of the relatively short summer season, the Brooktree
coaches have transformed a group of children who thought they
were there only to have a little fun, into a squad of cheering,
excited teammates who, without even realizing it, picked up some
pretty amazing life-lessons along the way.
Fago happily reports that at Brooktree everyone got the
opportunity to swim – athletes are not cut from the team.
Swimmers learned what sportsmanship is all about and were
trained to congratulate their competitors, regardless of the
finish order. At Brooktree the swimming was great, but this
club is about much more than swimming. Brooktree’s culture,
beginning with the club owners and continuing down to the
youngest swimmer, is something that is truly priceless.
If, in the end, it turns out that 2008 was Brooktree’s final
season of PASDA competition, Head Coach Beth Bright’s remarkably
energetic and talented squad wrote the final chapter of their
pool’s history in a manner that the Brooktree faithful won’t
soon forget.
In dual-meet competition, the club sported an impressive 4-1
record for the summer. Brooktree sandwiched a pair of
consecutive victories – against Country Pool (Chesterfield) and
Twin Rivers to open the season, and Ben Franklin (Lawrence) and
Bedens Brook (Montgomery) to close the season – around a defeat
by the slimmest of margins in the best, most exciting PASDA meet
in this writer’s recent memory to Ravine while on the road in
Ewing.
The Brooktree kids guaranteed that their membership would see a
brilliant sunset on their proud PASDA history by capturing the
Division III title at PASDA Swimming Championships at
Flemington-Raritan Community Pool in late July. Brooktree left
their closing mark on PASDA by defeating second-place Twin
Rivers by an notable margin of almost 400 points!
From their early years through a memorable summer of 2008, the
swimmers, coaches, and parents of the Brooktree Swim Club have
always exhibited the best that summer swimming competition has
to offer. Brooktree’s athletes and coaches have provided
spirited, yet sportsmanlike, competition in the water and
behavior on the pool deck, while the Brooktree parents have
always been gracious, welcoming hosts to their guests at their
home meets in East Windsor.
Over the years, the young athletes, coaching staff, and adults
associated with the Brooktree Swim Club have represented
themselves at PASDA competitions in a manner that would make
their families, friends, and neighbors extraordinarily proud.
Ed Fago’s closing comment is succinct yet revealing. “Being a
member at Brooktree was an incredible experience and fun for
all. We will miss it. Wherever the members end up it will
certainly still be fun but it will, no doubt, be different.”
Surely Ed’s fellow club members share his sentiments.
All of PASDA wishes the Brooktree families all the best as they
carry on their PASDA “careers” with a former competitor
somewhere close by.
[Many thanks to Ed Fago for his valued contributions to this
story.]
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2009 PASDA BOARD OF
DIRECTORS
At the August PASDA general meeting, the membership elected the
association’s Board of Directors for the 2009 season. The new
roster of officers and trustees can be found on the
Board of Directors
page.
The 2009 PASDA Board of Directors remains mostly unchanged from
2008. Jim Devlin, Co-Vice President, Ravine Swim Club, Hamilton
Hurricanes, has retired from the Board.
Returning Board members are:
·
President – Ellen Mace, Hamilton Hurricanes
·
Vice President – Lauren Hebert, Cranbury Swim Club
·
Treasurer – Pam Owens, Cranbury Swim Club
·
Secretary – Ed Fago, “Unattached” (formerly with Brooktree Swim
Club)
·
Trustee (Officials) – Jeffrey Mace, Hamilton Hurricanes
·
Trustee (Diving) – Kirk LeCompte, Lawrenceville Swim Association
·
Trustee, Percy Keith, Hopewell Valley Golf
We thank them for their time and service to our swimmers.
Special thanks is extended to Ed Fago who graciously and ably
served as Lead Clinician in Jeff Mace’s temporary absence at
this past season’s officials clinics.
Any PASDA member – parents, swimmers, and coaches – are welcome
to contact any members of the Board with their questions,
comments, or concerns.
Back to the Headlines
TENTATIVE 2009
OFFICIALS CLINICS
Swim officials are a critical element of any fair, well-run
meet. The association relies on member clubs’ PASDA-trained
parents to supplement the numbers of certified USA Swimming- and
YMCA-certified officials working in the association.
In support of the above, Jeffrey Mace (PASDA’s Official’s
Chairman), with the assistance of Ed Fago (as needed), will
again be running a series of officials clinics for PASDA’s
membership before the start of next season. Following is
information on these clinics:
·
Saturday, June 13, 9:00 a.m., Nassau Swim Club, Princeton
Township
·
Saturday, June 20, 9:00 a.m., Hopewell Valley Golf Club,
Hopewell Township
·
DATE AND TIME TBA, Penn Brook Swim Club, Pennington
·
DATE AND TIME TBA, Country Pool, Chesterfield Township
Please note that this information is tentative. A
finalized schedule will be posted on this website when these
dates and times are confirmed at the May 2009 general membership
meeting.
PASDA encourages EVERY CLUB to send at least one
representative if not more (see “Note” below) to one of these
clinics. It’s not too early to target potentially interested
individuals to send to next year’s clinics.
NOTE:
At the 2009 swimming championships, PASDA intends to strictly
enforce the requirement that each club will have on deck during
each session a number of officials equal to the maximum
number of relay teams entered for any single relay event during
that session.
For example, if Ravine has three relay teams entered in the
Girls 14-and-Under Freestyle Relay but has only one relay team
(or none) entered in all of the other relays in the
14-/17-and-Under session, then Ravine must furnish three
officials for that entire session.
Each clinic runs about two hours. Swimming or officiating
experience is NOT required, nor is a reservation – just show
up! Directions to the host pools can be found on the PASDA
website on the
Directions to Club Pools
page.
Questions? Please contact Jeffrey Mace at (609) 587-3628 or
purplemommy@juno.com.
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2009 PASDA
GENERAL MEMBERSHIP MEETINGS
Exact dates for the 2009 PASDA general membership meetings were
not determined at the August 2008 meeting. However,
following are the weeks during which PASDA have traditionally
been held. Exact dates will be published on the home page of
this website when they are determined next spring.
·
May Meeting – 3rd week.
·
June Meeting – 2nd week.
·
Final Meeting – Last week of July or first week of August.
Back to the Headlines
PASDA BYLAWS COMMITTEE
During the 2008-2009 offseason, a committee chaired by former
PASDA Vice President Jim Devlin will evaluate PASDA’s bylaws and
bring recommendations for appropriate changes to the PASDA Board
for their consideration.
If you have any concerns or issues that you would like to see
the committee address via the bylaws, please bring them to the
attention of one of the members, below. A final, Board-approved
set of bylaw revisions will be brought to the membership for
their approval next spring.
Bylaw Committee members are:
·
Jim Devlin, Chairman, Ravine Swim Club/Hamilton Hurricanes,
swwimdad@comcast.net
·
Percy Keith, Hopewell Valley Golf Club, pck_iv@yahoo.com
·
Mike Aversano, Flemington-Raritan Community Pool, cheddar88@hotmail.com
·
Cyndy Kornfeld Country Pool, cfwindyknoll@comcast.net
·
Jenn Mack, Bedens Brook Country Club, jmack@bedensbrookclub.com.
Back to the Headlines
2009 DIVISION ALIGNMENTS
The three PASDA divisions were realigned at the August general
meeting based on the results of the 2008 dual-meet competition
and factoring in the loss of Brooktree Swim Club, the 2008
Division III Dual-Meet Champions. For 2009, teams will compete
in PASDA’s three divisions as follows:
·
DIVISION I:
Community Park, Cranbury, Flemington-Raritan, Hamilton,
Lawrenceville, and West Windsor.
·
DIVISION II:
Cherry Valley, Hopewell Valley Golf, Hopewell Valley Tennis,
Penn Brook, Nassau, and Twin Rivers.
·
DIVISION III
Bedens Brook, Ben Franklin, Country Pool, Lenape, Ravine, and
Trenton Country Club.
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