News Alert: Please check the Coaches' Blog often because Taylor will be using this blog to post a lot of VERY IMPORTANT team related information that may not be available elsewhere on the web site.  Please STAY CONNECTED to STAY INFORMED!  Thank you!

Latest News

1. Each family gets 4 tickets. Tickets are $25 each and $20 from each ticket goes directly to the team. Also, 10% of all wine sale profits go to the team.
2. Tickets will be in box on the pool deck on Thursday, March 4. As mentioned earlier, this counts toward your family fund raising obligation and will be tracked by ticket number.
3. All un-sold tickets and ticket money must be turned in by Friday, March 19. This is so we can get a head count for the event. Please turn in to Andrea Burns or put in the payment box at the pool.
4. Additional tickets can be purchased in advanced by contacting
   Andrea Burns at burnshome@earthlink.net. Tickets can also be purchased at the door.
5. This is a great opportunity to have fun and raise some money for the team. So...invite friends, co-workers, neighbors, etc. and come out to Elliotts on Linden on Wednesday March 24 from 6-8!

Practice changes:

• Practices Mar 3rd – 5th All Taylor’s groups practice during Owens’s time.
• Practice Mar. 6th SR I & II 8-1030am

Please keep an eye on the website and your past/present emails for any practice changes. I want to thank all the swimmers for working so hard and getting ready for the end of this short course season. Thank you for staying motivated through one of the most physically/mentally demanding times of the year. Please come talk to Taylor or Owen if you have any questions.

Austin Grand Prix: Check the meets page for updated and new information.

We have 8 athletes ticketed

• Flight: Fly on American Airlines 1429, Wednesday Mar 3rd and return Sunday Mar 7th on American Airlines 2036
• Leave: We take the bus leaving from Coach Coopers house at 6:45am **Updated!**
• Return: to Coach Cooper house 10:30-11:00pm
• Hotel: $206.00
• Outfitting: $30
• Van rental: $125 (parking is expensive in Austin).
• Food: I will try to keep it about $30 a day; we will go to the market on the first day.
• There will be over 20 Olympians swimming at the meet...a great opportunity for any swimmer.  www.usaswimming.org  has results of the last grand prix...check it out
• www.utexas.edu/longhornaquatics/meets/index.html meet site
• Please fill out Medical Release form and turn in by February 25th
• Please make payment of ½ trip cost  180.50 before the February 25th

ECSL Meet: Posted on the board and web. Last year we took 57 swimmers to the meet...almost 2/3 of our team. I would like us to be over 70 this year; we are at 54 right as of today. Sign-up date ends Tues. March 16th. This is a great meet for all young swimmers. It is Always a lot of fun for all the swimmers & parents we will post the team hotel soon.

Open Water Sponsorship: Forms are forthcoming on the web site there, there will be a parent page for sandshark parents this year WATTH FOR IT. For information on sponsoring, we have many different to participate Contact Lindley Fleury lindley285@yahoo.com.

Word of the day: “Race” tell Coach Taylor and gets 4 points for your team. Only the first swimmer to tell Taylor gets the points.

Practice changes due to Meets

• AM practice Monday and Wednesday, February 15 ,17, 22, 24
• No Age Group practice Monday February 22
• Monday February 22 Senior I & II  Dryland 4-430pm Swim 4:30-6:30pm

The High School 4A State Swimming and Diving Championships Psych Sheet has been updated.

High School

• 4A Central Reg. Swimming & Diving Championships
• 4A Central Regional General Guidelines

The meets page has been updated.

We regret to inform our Sandshark parents and swimmers that we have received a letter of resignation from Coach Beth Field. Although she will be departing her coaching position this Spring, she will continue to play a vital role as a Sandshark parent! The team is very grateful for Coach Beth's years of hard work and dedication with developing Sandshark programs for the younger swimmers.

We will keep you posted as the new Coach search progresses.

SSS T-shirts: Click HERE for information!

SSS Swim Caps: Click HERE for information!

Attention Parents and Age Group Swimmers:

The Sandshark Coaching Staff has been approached with concerns about our swimmers and their behavior by the O'Neal School. Someone or a group of age group boys that attended Monday (Dec. 28) evening practice vandalized the boys lockeroom. They took wet paper towels and threw them on the ceiling; after drying this becomes a hardened cement-like material and is very difficult and time consuming to remove. This time they not only managed to paper the ceiling but also the thermostat which is very costly to fix, especially if it is affects the rest of the O'Neal heating system. The Sandsharks want everyone to understand we rent the pool from O'Neal and this pool is the only viable source for the Sandsharks to exist in this county (until we get our own pool of course). Even then, we want to instill more than just excellent swimming abilities into our children. We pride ourselves on the accomplishments of our swimmers in and out of the pool. Based on all other sports in the county, we send more students to college on scholarships than most of them combined. We want everyone to be proud of the team they are apart of and represent. Small instances, like the one Monday night, disgrace the team, coaches, parents and should embarrass the swimmers themselves. We understand they are children but we still hold everyone to higher standards of conduct and personal ambitions then other sports you might have been a part of. Parents if you could please talk to your swimmer (especially if they were their Monday night) and find out if they did this. Explain to them the importance of respecting themselves and other peoples' property, while being a representative of an outstanding organization with an excellent reputation. We don't want to punish anyone and will not pursue damages, but we need this to stop immediately. Please talk to Coach Taylor or Owen if you have any information regarding this matter.

Thanks,
Your Sandshark Family

The Team Records have been updated.

Shark-a-thon Pledges: Green | Blue

Contracts: If you have not received a contract please Marie Cummings mcummings95@gmail.com ASAP. If you are not on printed roster, we most likely do not have your swimmers information

Swim Lessons - Check the Swim School page for details.

Team Directory: A team directory is ready for distribution!!  If you DO NOT want your phone number/address listed in the team directory please e-mail Teresa Lattarulo at  tlattarulo@nc.rr.com by Friday, November 6th directing her to remove information.

Click HERE for a list of our best relay times to date.

Swimsuit Requirement Changes

2009 Swim Conference Summary

General information for the years start up August 27th 2009

• Outstanding bills: All out standing must be caught up by the end of August. Please send all payments to P.O. Box 1982 Pinehurst NC 28370
• 2009-10 Contracts: Contract will be coming out this week for retuning swimmers, please note that contract must be turned in by date designated on the contract. There will be a fine of 10% of the years annuals dues if the contract is not turned in or contact is not made with Marie Cummings 947-4876 by the contract due date. We do realize that money is always tight, if more time is needed please let Marie know your situation and we will work with you. From a team perspective, it helps to have an idea of how many returning swimmers we will have before we start tryouts. This insures we do not overbook the allotted slots for each group.
• Swim Camps: All swimmers from all MCSL teams are welcome to attend Sandshark swim camp without trying out. The $20 fee does not apply to returning Sandsharks. All MCSL summer league swimmers must pay the fee but fee will be credited to their annual dues if they join the team. Dates & times for the camp are posted on the calendar on the web site www.sandshark.org
• Please check changes for dryland training schedule for the Junior group (Tues. & Fri.)

Swim Camp and Skill Assessments are coming up.  Please check the details below:

• 2009 Swim Camp
• 2009 Sandshark Skill Assessment

2008-09 Top Ten Sandshark Swim Times

• Short Course
• Long Course New!

Congratulations to our qualifiers for the Senior Zone LC Championships!

Casey Cooper Ana Fish Kurt Wohlrab

MCSL Championship Results

• 11 new records set at the meet!
• Coaches can pick up medals Thursday before 1 PM
• Results
• Scores

For those of you that are subscribed to the Sandshark E-mail Alert and are NOT getting them, please go to the Contact Us form, enter your name, e-mail address and select Web Site for Send To:, and write "Not getting e-mails" in the comments box. The last alert e-mail was sent out the week of June 8th.  If you have already done this or are getting the alerts then please ignore this message.

New Web Site: The National Association of Swim Moms - www.NAOSM.org

Launching in Summer 2009 will be one of the most innovative websites designed specifically for the swimming family.  Read More...

Open Water:

From the Sandshark Board of Directors:

Thank you very much to all our parents who worked very hard to host our most successful Open Water race to date! We heard many positive comments from coaches, swimmers, and the visiting parents. We have the foundation for being even more successful next year!

There were many constructive ideas which we heard throughout the day from various Section Leaders and Volunteers. Please take a few moments to jot them down and email to Lindley at lindley285@yahoo.com. We hope to have a short wrap-up meeting to review them sometime in the near future.  This race has the potential for being our ONLY fundraiser in the future if we continue to step up the number of participants and sponsors each year.

The Hospitality Committee would also like to thank all those parents who brought in Fruit and Water. This was the first year that we didn't have to send someone out for an emergency grocery store run!

Again, SSS appreciated your hard work. We hope that you and your family ultimately enjoyed the day!!

Overall Championship:
Peking Wok
Dr. Michael Henry, DDS.

Race Sponsors:
5K: Pinehurst Surgical Orthopaedic and Joint Replacement Center
3K: Leslie Murphy, MD  Pinehurst Medical Clinic
2K: TYR
800M: Christa Duffy, CMD Properties
400M: SSS

Hospitality Tent:
Peking Wok

T-shirts:
Bell Tree Tavern
Waschusett Consulting
Victoria Spannaus (Wells-Fargo)
Pinehurst Medical Clinic
Carolina Behavioral Care
Pinehurst Radiology
Southern Pines Equine (Dr Jim Hamilton)
Comfort Inn
Bode Chiropractic
Scotland Medical Clinic
Holiday Inn Express
RentAWreck
Spartan Blades
Pinehurst Chiropractic (Dr Clewis)

Also thanks to our FRUIT AND WATER SPONSORS:
FirstHealth of the Carolinas
Fresh Market
Food Lion, Belk Plaza
Harris Teeter

We could not do this without your help!!!

The 2009 Sandshark Team Banquet Video has been posted on the Coach's Blog.

Alumni News: Watch Video (Greg "the Motor boat" is the 4^th swimmer)

Want to be a sponsor?
Contact us!