TNT SWIMMING
2009 YEAR IN REVIEW
2009 marked TNT Swimming's sixth year of providing Baldwin County's Eastern Shore communities with a choice in professionally administered, year round competitive swimming programs. As we begin another year, the program continues to thrive, due to the loyalty and commitment of our swimmers, coaches and team parents, as well as our mutually beneficial relationship with the Bounds Family YMCA, the area's best swim training facility.
Although the team is still comparably young, the success of TNT's philosophy of long-term, gradually increasing degrees of commitment is becoming evident, as TNT age group participants now begin senior level training and competition. This approach emphasizes long term results by developing a love for the sport and technical skills early on, while introducing more demanding physical and psychological challenges in later years. This approach is based on evidence that failure to achieve maximum potential in senior swimming, is more often caused by "too much too soon," rather than by the opposite situation.
Competition highlights for 2009 include six TNT swimmers qualifying for finals competition at the Alabama State High School Swimming Championships.TNT finished 2nd place in the small team category and 19th place over - all at the Long Course Southeastern Championships among more than 40 participating programs from Tennessee, Alabama and the Florida Panhandle. At that meet, TNT swimmer Kyle Simpson, won the 13 - 14 boy's High Point Trophy, while also qualifying for the Southeastern All Star Zone Team. Earlier in the year, a team high twenty one swimmers represented TNT at the Southeastern Short Course Championship meet, accounting for more than 33% of the entire team.
Also of note was an invitation by the American Swimming Association to TNT Head Coach, Jan Mittemeyer, to speak at the 2010 World Clinic in Indianapolis next September. Jan will present Thriving in a Small Market: Making Your Program Special, as well as a "meat and potatoes" talk on Teaching Freestyle and Backstroke Turns.on the ASCA Age Group Track.
TNT's tradition of contributing to LSC, State and Area administration also continued during the past year, with TNT parents leading the area as volunteers in our sport, regularly working at various levels as deck officials at USA Swimming, Summer League and High School meet venues.
Finally, several families continued TNT’s tradition of community service by raising money for the American Cancer Society, bagging groceries at Wynn Dixie in Daphne and donating all proceeds to the ACS Relay for Life.
