mattie g

Hanging out in NVSL All Stars tent city…and it’s toasty.

But they were hitting us flush with nothing in Maryland yesterday. We just can’t know.

Wow…absolutely screwed out of rain this evening. Pretty impressive, actually! We go again tomorrow?

It's probably only based on how "surprise days" feel to us, but it does seem like we produce better when there's less expectation. Kind of like corn dust.

I got over a half inch of rain the other day, but whiffed yesterday. I'd be happy with that little bullseye this afternoon/evening.

Sound like an awesome trip! Like you, I've flown over the GC plenty of times and would like to see it up close, but I don't see my wife wanting to hop in a car and make a road trip across the country...nor experience a huge (if cool) crack in the ground. Might have to make a quick trip out there on my own.

Been there in July-August plenty of times and I *know* it'll be soupy no matter what, but a few degrees can make a difference. I'm just looking for a small silver lining in all the tropical clouds down there this time of year!

If my aunt...

I'm honestly not seeing that. Maybe into the low 90s late in the week. Which forecast is showing 90s all week?

I just went outside and it didn't really feel all that bad. 92/75...we've had far, far, far worse.

Heading to HHI next week. Temps are forecast to stay in the 80s, which really isn't all that bad, though getting out in the sun will bake you pretty quick. Lows will be in the upper 70s, which sucks, but that's pretty normal.

Last two years has been pretty active in PA. Family in SJ has also gotten smacked around pretty good this summer.

I'd love to be an observer, but I fear I'm too lazy to stick with it.

Nearest CoCoRaHs to my location in Burke shows 0.6" for yesterday. That's a little higher than I thought it might be, but it does make sense since the cell blew up just enough to get us in north end of the reds as it passed. Since they don't always report, I'm not sure how reliable those CoCoRaHs are for the month, but they all show about 4" of rain. I think that tracks pretty well with what I would have expected.

The storms fired well southeast of your area, so it's not as though some local feature caused you to miss out this morning. Just the luck of the draw!

Thanks! I think once you create the culture, the expectations to act in a manner that can win you that award follow suit. Divisionals on Saturday was madness (though a blast) at our pool, and winning that award was the icing on the cake! I was shocked to see one of the "big three" win the award, but I can only assume they did *something* that led to the other teams voting for them!

All my co-NVSL peeps know what this is about. Suffice to say that this is what we strive for every season, and we’re so proud to be on this list. This makes it three years in a row for our team!

100% agreed that the kids can improve via coaching. We're lucky to have the coaching staff we have, but we might have one more year with the head coach we have now because he'll be graduating from college in a couple years and has plans and an "in" to coach at at a certain higher-level club. We just need to have a succession plan to keep us rolling! The vast majority of our kids come from the neighborhood our pool is in, but we're an open pool and can get families from anywhere. There's just never been an outreach program, but that's something we've started to do in the last two years and it's beginning to pay off. Honestly, though...I don't want to be massive, but I do want the coaches to be able to go into a meet with the ability to fill all the lanes and put together a somewhat competitive set of relays!

I totally get it - I think my post came across a little differently than I wanted to. I agree with what you say completely. Where I was coming at it was from the vantage point of how part of being in a lower division is because your team isn't all that good, relative to the other teams in NVSL. When the team gets better, it moves up, and with that comes a little more pressure, a little more snootiness, etc., and while the prospect of seeing our team get better is really enticing, I (like you) would fear losing the truly fun aspect of summer swim. HOWEVER, if we somehow rocketed up the table (which isn't going to happen anyway), I would find it tough to accept that "I wish we weren't as good now" even if deep down inside I knew that to be true. I know what I'm trying to say, but I don't think it's coming out right Last year was my first at All Stars. Our team had four kids there, so we went to support them, and it was a pretty cool experience simply because it was the first one for me. I didn't really follow a lot of other races except for the heats our kids were in, but if we go back again this year I'll keep an eye open for it.

I think NVSL does a great job, in general, of putting teams in the right divisions. There are some bad choices (some teams have been absolutely mauled week-in and week-out this season), but overall they get it right. I guess once you get high enough up in the league the prospect of moving can be something of a deterrent. It's easy for me to sit here and say I wouldn't want to be in a much higher division, but I think once that kind of momentum starts (see: certain teams who have rocketed up the league in the past few years) even I might find it hard to say "well...we used to be pretty bad but now that we're good I'd rather be bad again."

Exactly. I was a pretty competitive athlete, and I couldn't imagine being in intense training and competition nearly year-round and then coming out for what's supposed to a fun summer and being that competitive over the course an incredibly intense 5-6 weeks. I'd want to do well, but man...I'd need a break! We have a few kids who have made/make All Stars pretty regularly, but you would never know they were fairly accomplished swimmers based on how they conduct themselves. We're not perfect and we have our share of...difficult...kids and parents, but I like to think that we keep most of that from bubbling up.

Unreal that kids would up and leave by the time relays started. I mean...it sucks that they had kids missing to start, but you just have to suck it up and do your best. If you lose, then you lost knowing you gave it what you could...but to pack up and leave? Nah, not having it. Looking at your record and total points, and I can't see you guys not moving up. The only thing that could be done is that your reps make known in the post-season seeding survey that the final meet didn't reflect the actual quality of both teams. They definitely take those surveys into account, but sometimes they're going to do what they want. We host Divisionals this weekend, so we have a hell of a week coming up. I just don't know what I'm going to do with myself when it's all done! You hit on something that we've been discussing a lot the last few weeks. A lot of parents, my co-Rep, and one coach really don't want to move up next year, especially since we only came up to D15 this season. At 3-2, tying for 2nd in Relay Carnival, having two pretty close meets against the other top teams in the division, and in running virtual meets against other teams in the few divisions above ours, I have a feeling we'll go up to D14. If it happens, I personally think we should see it as a reward for the hard work the coaches and kids put in this season, and the way we age next year we should be even stronger than this season (and we are normally stronger in even years). I absolutely understand teams not wanting to go up but, looking at it objectively, if you think you might be relatively strong, then it's not fair for the other teams you might be grouped with should you stay in the same division. If it goes well, then great! If not, then you go back down and try again! The pools we swim against have generally been awesome. Even the team that came down from D11 this year (and got smacked this season) was a lot of fun! H2O and I have discussed this before, but I wouldn't want to be in a tier where we couldn't just have fun on an A Meet day and not worry about a protest or asshole pools or whatever. We want to grow and get better, but NOT at the expense of the culture we have now!

I was in Fairlington for that one. Can confirm that melting ensued quickly.

That we all willed north in the last 24 hours before first flakes...