WEST Blog

Donate Button to the Left

2010-02-17T07:24:00.000-08:00

We now have the capacity to receive donations via PayPal!!
Look for the “Donate” button in the left column of this page and click away!

Just in time for our upcoming Swim-a-Thon April 17th!!

WEST Rocks Area High School District Meets!

2010-02-15T14:33:00.000-08:00

Alec Barnard (15 SRI) not only won the 200 freestyle at his 2A District meet this past weekend, but his time of 1:50.21 was a district record! Alec also swam the 100 fly and placed second with a time of 54.7!

In local 4A action, Sawyer Stibre-Harris (15 SRP) and Hunter Cosgrove (14 SRP) both made finals in the 500 freestyle. Sawyer placed 7th in a tight race to the finish in the console final winning his heat and lowering his previous time 23 seconds! Hunter was 3rd in the C final lowering his time 5 seconds!

WEST was represented in 3A as well with 4th places finishes in the 100 Breast and 200 IM by freshman Kyle Christenson (14 SRP)!

Heidi VanderWel Finals at Nationals!

2009-12-05T05:55:00.000-08:00

WEST’s Heidi VanderWel (13-SRI) turned it up to “11” Friday at the USA Swimming Short Course National meet in Federal Way.
Her time of 55.99 in the 100 backstroke prelims earned her a spot in the “C” final last evening! In finals she swam a second ever lifetime best and moved up a place to 23rd out of 88 swimmers (mostly college)!

Congratulations to Heidi for an outstanding performance!

You may watch Heidi’s finals performance here.

Hard Times, Hard Decisions, Positive Outcome in the End

2009-11-25T14:58:00.000-08:00

To Our WEST Family,

It is with great regret that the board of West Coast Aquatics has tendered 30 day notice to vacate the St. Edward State Park Carol Ann Wald Memorial Swimming Pool lease. Despite our earnest desire to keep this facility running, the combination of a difficult economy and unacceptably high operating costs has not only rendered it impossible to maintain our presence at St Edward, but has put the entire West Coast Aquatics nonprofit organization financially at risk.

We have expended tremendous amounts of energy reaching out to all aspects of the local community, and while we have certainly received a gratifying level of support from many sources, we have not been able to achieve a level of support that comes close to covering the operating costs of this pool, which we find to be excessive relative to expectations. To make matters worse, the pool was handed off to us in need of significant repair work, which creates further financial burden that we cannot bear.

Our most recent months financials (October), which include the highest total revenues we have seen yet at St. Edward, still indicate an estimated loss in the range of $15,000 for the month. With escalating water, electrical, and gas charges, we estimate even higher losses (exclusive of repairs) in November and December.

We will continue to run the facility through the end of our 30 day notice, and will be out by the first of January. We believe facilities such as this to be a critical asset to the community, and genuinely desired to make this work for our organization, and the local community in the Kenmore area, however, we must as board members put the fiscal health of the greater West Coast Aquatics organization first and find that these two requirements are currently at odds. The financial requirements of this pool, coupled with the challenge of developing enough paying ‘business’ has caused two well managed organizations to fail to keep the doors open in the last year. The burden of costs from a water, energy and gas standpoint alone have drained our resources beyond our means, and repairs will only exacerbate the situation.

We are thankful to have had the opportunity to try and keep this important facility open, and are saddened by the fact that we are not able to continue to do so. We are reaching out to our current St. Edward pool occupants to offer the possibility of utilizing our Mill Creek facility for their needs. In addition, we are looking into the possibility of retaining as much staff as possible and moving them to our Mill Creek facility.

Our current situation in Mill Creek is very good as we are maintaining our present lesson and team numbers with programs for growth in the works. Overall swim team performance is still high and getting better with every meet we attend. We showed last weekend that we still run the best meets in the LSC (and one of the best in the country in fact) and have a very strong family/community based foundation.

We will now focus on one facility, one team, one WEST and the prospects for future success is great! WEST has one swimmer swimming in the USA National meet next week in Federal Way, another qualified for JR Nationals and 5 going to a Grand Prix meet (a national level meet with standards faster than Senior Sectionals) in southern California in January!! Our younger swimmers are not only showing improvement, but are showing growth of their desire to be a greater part of the WEST team and it's successes! The excitement is contagious and is growing!

Thank you for being part of the WEST family and participating in our continued success!

Peter & the rest of the WEST Board of Directors

Olympians Soni, Shanteau and Hoff Join WEST's Heidi VanderWel to compete at Short Course Nationals (11/24/2009)

2009-11-25T07:14:00.000-08:00

From USA Swimming:

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – Top American swimmers, including members of the 2008 U.S. Olympic Swim Team, will compete at the 2009 AT&T Short Course National Championships, December 3-5. Among the swimmers expected to compete are U.S. Olympians Rebecca Soni (Plainsboro, N.J.), Margaret Hoelzer (Huntsville, Ala.), Eric Shanteau (Lilburn, Ga ), and Katie Hoff (Towson, Md.). The competition will be held at the Weyerhaueser King County Aquatic Center in Federal Way, Wash.
Additional Olympians competing at Short Course Nationals include Olympic gold medalists Garrett Weber-Gale (Milwaukee, Wis.) and Peter Vanderkaay (Rochester, Mich.), World Championship silver medalist Tyler Clary (Riverside, Calif.), Olympic bronze medalist Caroline Burckle (Louisville, Ky.) and Worlds bronze medalist Kasey Carlson (Walnut Creek, Calif.). Jessica Hardy (Long Beach, Calif.), who just took home the FINA World Cup female title, will also swim in the meet.

Japanese Olympic gold medalist Kosuke Kitajima, who won both the 100m and 200m breast at the 2008 Olympics, will be back in the water in Federal Way. The swimmer, who did not compete at the 2009 FINA World Championships, is currently training with the Trojan Swim Club in Los Angeles.

Many top Seattle-area swimmers will also compete in Federal Way, including Olympians Nathan Adrian (Bremerton, Wash.) and Megan Jendrick (Tacoma, Wash.), and World Championship gold medalist and world record-holder Ariana Kukors (Auburn, Wash.), and Andie Taylor (Issaquah, Wash.).

The meet will follow the traditional schedule of morning prelims and evening finals with the morning sessions starting each day at 9 a.m. Evening finals begin at 5 p.m. Five to seven events will be contested daily.

Footage from the meet will air nationally on NBC on Saturday, December 12 from 2 – 3 p.m. ET. All three days of prelims and finals will also be available for viewing on-demand at http://www.swimnetwork.com/.

Pasta PIg Out!

2009-10-08T13:48:00.000-07:00

Get ready to swim FAST at our

First Challenge Meet of the Season

Pre-Meet Pasta Pig Out!!

FRIDAY – OCTOBER 16TH

5:30 PM - 8:00 PM

WEST Swimmers & Families Invited to attend!

Questions?

Contact Elaine … LarryLaurent@Verizon.net

White vs Blue Dual Meet

2009-10-04T10:14:00.000-07:00

Arrive at St. Edward by 11:30 AM for individual pictures.
Team picture will be at 12:30 PM.
After pictures, team will get together with coaches, new swimmers will be paired up with buddies.
Warm Up will start around 12:50 PM for the 10 & unders.

USA Swimming Announces Scholastic All-America Team

2009-10-02T07:32:00.001-07:00

USA Swimming has posted the list of Scholastic All-America Team members for the 2008-2009 school year.
Every year the challenge is put out to high school 10th, 11th & 12th graders to swim fast while maintaining excellence in academics.
This year about 1500 swimmers in the US met that challenge. The majority are from the Western Zone with 19 from our Pacific NW LSC.

One swimmer in particular should be of interest to the WEST team...
Congratulations to Lou Moores (SRI) for earning Scholastic All-America for her junior year!!

We look forward to many more WEST swimmers joining Lou in the pursuit of excellence in the future!

More story from USA Swimming here.

Peter

Meeting of the WEST Board

2009-09-29T13:53:00.000-07:00

There will be a meeting of the WEST Board on Wednesday September 30th at 6:30 PM.
The meeting will take place in the weight room at our Mill Creek pool.

Scholastic All-WEST Award 2008-2009

2009-09-25T11:15:00.000-07:00

Congratulations to the following WEST swimmers for achieving the first annual
Scholastic All-WEST Award:
Lauren Cooley (12- AGA)
Heidi VanderWel (13- SRI)
Cole VanderWel (12-AGA)
Ashley Carlson (12-AGA)
Danielle Holstein (17- SRI)
Austin Barnard (12- AGA)
Alec Barnard (14- SRI)
Anthony Mikhail (10- Age Group)
Clara Cannon (12- AGA)
Brianna Lucien (11- AGA)
Benjamin O'Neal (12- Age Group)
Mariah Williamson (15- SRI)
Demetra Laurent (12- AGA)
Kalena Laurent (14- SRI)
Kaitlin Taylor (14- SRI)

Fairshare Meetings

2009-09-20T15:28:00.000-07:00

Mon Sept 21st
6-6:45pm White l& Green I
7-7:45pm Blue

Tues Sept 22nd
6-6:45pm White ll & Green ll
7-7:45pm Age Group

Wed Sept 23rd
6-6:45pm Sr. Dev & AGA

Thur Sept 24th
6-6:45pm or 7-7:45pm Sr Prep & Sr l

Make Up Meeting - Tues Sept 29th
7-7:45pm All Groups

Scholastic All-WEST Award!

2009-08-04T11:06:00.000-07:00

Announcing the availability of application for the Scholastic All-WEST award.
files.me.com/sportdoc/mogm69

All swimmers with a 3.5 GPA or equivalent and the following should apply:

10 & under- 1 "A" National Motivational Time Standard
11-12- 1 "AA" National Motivational Time Standard
13-14- 1 "AAA" National Motivational Time Standard
15 & over- 1 Senior Sectional Time Standard

Any WEST swimmer may submit their application for consideration as a Scholastic All-WEST Award winner to Coach Peter by 29 August 2009.

2009-2010 Registration Packet Now Available!

2009-08-02T18:37:00.000-07:00

Please download, fill out and return registration for WEST Swim Team.

Present team priority registration until August 10th.

New members will have open registration beginning August 10th.