2009 Annual Award Banquet Highlights

Swimmers, coaches and volunteers were honored for their outstanding achievements and contributions at the Annual Awards Banquet, held November 1, 2009 at the Aqua Turf. The banquet commenced with opening remarks made by Jeff Gray, General Chair of Connecticut Swimming followed by presentation of the USA Swimming ConocoPhillips Service Award to Pam Libertiny, Coach of the Year awards to Bob Shearer and Tom Behn and the Swimmer of the Year award to Alicia Mathieu. Over 1000 people were in attendance as 484 athletes were recognized for academic achievement and/or Top 16 swims, including open water swimming.

The entire Connecticut Swimming Board of Directors, extends its gratitude to volunteers Peter Boucher, Wendy Jackwin and Sue Husta-- for their efforts made this Awards Banquet an outstanding success.

Swimmer of the Year

Alicia Mathieu

Alicia Mathieu was named Swimmer of the Year by the CSI Senior Committee. This award is given to the highest-ranked CSI athlete for the 2008-2009 season. Alicia swims for SNCO under Head Coach Bill Ball. Alicia was ranked 40th in the 2008 FINA World Rankings for the 1500M Freestyle and currently holds 23 Connecticut Swimming records. Read more... Read Alicia's acceptance speech here.

Each year Connecticut Swimming has the opportunity to select a recipient for USA Swimming's PhillipConoco Outstanding Service Award. Sponsored by USA Swimming and ConocoPhillips, this award, is presented annually to a volunteer in recognition of outstanding service to swimming. This year' recipient is Pam Liberty. Presenting Pam's award was Mike Huffman. Read more....

Tom began coaching in 1990 with Stratford Y and then was hired as head coach of the Shelton Seals in 1996 when Shelton started a year-round program. Tom consistently grew the USA Swimming program over the years. Tom has coached numerous State, Senior, and Zone qualifiers.

Each year Connecticut Swimming recognizes those athletes demonstrating high ability in the classroom and in the pool. Connecticut Swimming Scholar-Athletes have completed 10th, 11th or 12th grade and have earned a minimum 3.5 grade point average as well as competing in designated CSI-sanctioned meets. Congratulations to this fine scholars and athletes!

Additionally, athletes achieving Scholastic All-American time standards and meet eligibility, National Open Water competitors and athletes competing in US Paralympic Nationals and Trials may apply for USA Swimming's Scholastic All-America Team. Congratulations to these fine scholars and athletes that have competed on the regional or national level.

Lauren Almonte	Ruth Hanson Logan
Victoria Arel	Hannah Lucca
Connor Beaulieu %	Katherine Lynch # %
Ed Becker %	Rebecca Maher #
Lauren Belak	John Margherio # %
Alivia Berg %	Kathleen Marrese
Lisa Bero	Samantha Marshall
Rachel Bohn	April-Ann Marshall
Brian Bollerman %	Gabriela Mayuri
Kelsey Boucher	Matthew Ian McDonald
Sarah Bradner	Victoria McGovern
Jonathan Burr	Katherine Meerman
Shannon Burr #	Melissa Merwin
Audrey Rose Butler	Colleen Moore #
Samuel Cagenello %	Kaitlyn Morio
Jillian Carter	Jillian Mullany
Erin Cohn	Tyler Naumann %
Conor Collins	Jennifer Noyes #
Keara Daly %	Lauren O'Kelly #
Alexandra Damon #	Catherine O'Leary %
Thomas DiGuglielmo	Katie Orem %
Shannon Dubay %	Kathryn Outlaw #
Derrian Duryea	Alex Pascal
Kristi Edleson %	Diana Pimer
Hillary Ego	William Plunkett
Jesse Evans	Tyler Pramer
James Forde	Jack Pretto %
Shelby Fortin %	Victoria Prokopowicz
Kelli Freer	Nicholas Purrington
Ellen Gage	Laura Reeves
Alexander Garneau	Ashley Reidy
Andrew Golankiewicz %	James Remigino # %
Christopher Granata	Margaret Rodney
Alysha Griffiths	Katharine Rohn
Jordan Grossman	Kevin Saunders
Robert Harder %	Kyle Savidge
Matthew Harding	Lili Shainis #
Julia M. Harris	Laura Shea
Kelly Heyde # %	Marisa Shields
Brian Hughes	Alexandra Skaperdas
Matthew Iassogna	Andrea Smelzer
Madeleine Irwin	Molly Smyth %
Andrew Jackwin #	Lauren Solernou %
Nora Jefferies	Amanda Steinfeld
Kim Jerome %	Colleen Stewart
Cooper Kearns %	Christine Suchy
Ann Ragan Kearns %	Sean Sutherland %
Justin Kenyon	James Szabo
Andrew Klutey %	Stephanie Ternullo
Matt Knapik	Andrew Thurston
Kerri Knippnberg	Alexander Tougas
Kevin Kozikowski	Catherine Treesh
Alyssa LaFrenierre	Phillip Treesh #
Emma Lamothe %	Carolyn Tusa
Jessica Langley	Lindsay Tyler
Andrew Lee	Christopher Weihs
Michael Lenkeit #	Caroline Winslow
Kelsey Linstrum	Michael Yanagisawa

Alicia has been a pleasure to coach. A very talented swimmer when she joined SoNoCo, Alicia quickly became one the Northeast’s best as not only did she qualify and swim in her first sectional meet the summer of 2005 She also placed in the top 3 in her very first swim that meet. One of the reasons she has become and remained so good is that she rarely misses a practice and never has a bad one. Her consistency in practice is second to none.

As an athlete begins swimming at higher level meets, much more information becomes available to that athlete’s coach allowing the coach to learn so much valuable information about how to assist other athletes to get to that level. Lactate testing, clinics and video analysis all things that Alicia’s experiences at National meets as well as national camps have contributed to the SoNoCo Swim Club and my successes as a coach. I cannot thank her enough for the opportunity to coach her and what she has allowed me to become. I truly believe she has the ability to become one of this country’s best, and there is no better place than the University of Florida for a distance swimmer to do so.

Welcome to the parents, grandparents, family members, guests, the Connecticut swimming board, coaches and especially the athletes that are here today for this special occasion. I would like to thank my parents, family, team members and especially my head coach Bill Ball who could not make it today because of a prior engagement with the CCSU swim team. I would also like to thank Connecticut Swimming for the honor of being chosen for the Swimmer of the Year. As I thought about what to say today, and what swimming means to me, I thought about swimming as being a journey. Greg Anderson, an American best selling author once said, “Focus on the journey, not the destination. Joy is found not in finishing an activity but in doing it.” I thought about my own journey and my own beginnings, from when I was 7 years old taking swimming lessons in Lake Teramoungous in Marlborough, or as my dad likes to call it Lake Terafungas. For those of you that learned to swim in a lake as opposed to a pool, you realize at an early age how disgusting touching the leafy bottoms of the murky water is. I quickly learned how to swim and not touch the bottom; therefore I promptly figured out how to develop my stroke. My first real taste of competition was when I was 8 at a local rec summer league program. This experience pushed me to join a USA Swimming team where I developed many close friendships numerous of which I still call my friends today. These humble beginnings were met with little achievement of winning, but my enthusiasm never dampered or wandered as I continued to focus on my strokes and determination to be a successful swimmer. It was a special experience to have my mom as an assistant coach whom helped and encouraged me every single day. With the enthusiasm of my parents and friends, I wanted to join a more serious USA Swimming team, SoNoCo, which I’m still a member of today. As I developed my skill, my journey continued and I would like to share a few stories with you. As some of you may know I began to specialize in long distance freestyle. I’ve had many accomplishments throughout my years, which have brought me to many great places and meets. When I was a part of the 2007 National Junior team, Bill, somehow convinced me to compete in the open water 10K. Many people probably would think this was a crazy idea, but as an eager 14 year old I thought this could be a great opportunity since it was a newly established Olympic event. It was a beautiful day in Maui, Hawaii, one that I would have loved to bathe in the sun and spend time with my teammates. Unfortunately, I found myself getting numbers drawn all over me and putting Vaseline everywhere in order to prepare for this grueling event. Before the race started, a local Hawaiian priest brought together everyone who was about to compete. We stood in a circle holding hands and she performed a famous Hawaiian prayer. At the time I thought it was pretty cool, but didn’t quite understand why she was doing it. As I was about 4 miles out in the Pacific Ocean, I began to realize why we she may have done the prayer. It might have been the fact that my shoulders were in excruciating pain, or that I was being scratched and pushed around by some of the others girls, or maybe that I could clearly see the bottom which to me only meant one thing; sharks. I pushed myself to finish the race as fast as possible in just over two hours for fear of my life. Somehow I found myself swimming the 10K for a third time at Olympic Trials at the Merimar Lake in Fort Myers, Florida. It was one of the many awful things that Bill somehow persuaded me to do. Instead of doing a prayer before this race, we were forced to sign a waiver stating that USA Swimming was not responsible for injures and injures caused by wild life. The officials and USA Swimming members convinced all the athletes there were no alligators in the water. I once again found myself swimming 6 miles terrified the entire time. When I later talked to someone who was from Fort Myers, she said that the lake is in fact infested with alligators, but they are nocturnal; thank god. After these very exciting experiences, I have officially retired from open water swimming. I can only hope none of my coaches force me to come out of my retirement. I will be continuing my journey to the University of Florida next fall, to be a gator (how ironic). I hope to achieve many goals there, placing first at NCAA’s in and making the Olympics. This is probably a goal that just about any athlete in any sport has, but believing in your goals and working hard every day at it can make any goal realistic. I’m not sure where swimming will take me in the next 4 years, but I do know I will look back on all of my experiences and realize that I wouldn’t have changed any of it. I will look fondly of my time spent participating in Connecticut Swimming. All the hard work and many of the great people I have met, has made me the person that I am today. In closing, I would like you to remember this Chinese proverb: “To get through the hardest journey we need take only one step at a time, but we must keep on stepping.” Good luck to everyone in his or her future and never lose focus, because it will eventually bring you great things. Thank you.

I’m here today with the privilege of introducing this year’s Connecticut Swimming Volunteer of the year. Before I introduce her, I’d just like to give you a brief history of Pam’s career in USA Swimming. To put things in perspective right up front, Pam began working as a swimming official before every athlete in this room was born. On the local level, in addition to working as an official for 20+ years, Pam has served Connecticut Swimming as the Program Operations Vice- chair, Administrative Vice-chair, She’s served on the Senior Committee, the Age Group committee, and the Officials Committee. She had a hand in training a number of our senior officials that are working today. Pam also served as the meet referee for numerous Age Group Championship and Senior championship meets.

Moving up to the national level, Pam was a bit of a ground breaker for Connecticut officials. She was the first female official from Connecticut to attend the Officials Conference in Colorado Springs and the first to be certified as a National Championship Meet Official, working National championship meets up to the level of Chief Judge. I arrived at my first national championship meet, understandably nervous, only to find the smiling effervescent face of Pam Libertiny as my chief judge ready to put me at ease. She was also the first female Connecticut official to receive the prestigious USA Swimming Maxwell Award for Excellence.

Pam has also been a member of the New Canaan Y Aquatic Club for 16 consecutive years and has served in numerous positions from Team Liaison up to Parents Association President. The New Canaan YMCA has held a meet in her honor , the Pam Libertiny Qualifier, although I understand she has turned down numerous requests to compete in it.

It is my honor and privilege to present the 2009 Connecticut Swimming’s Volunteer of the Year award to Pam Libertiny.

10/U	Phoebe Slaughter Bryce Murad
11/12	Sage Maggi Tommy Normoyle
13/14	Brynne Beneke Kaz Takabayashi
15/18	Katie Gardocki Alex Pascal and Matt Grippo

10/U	Erin Earley Bryce Murad
11/12	Sage Maggi Justin Liu
13/14	Emily Lajoie Jacob Dibella
15/18	Lisa Bero Christian Welsh

10/U	Phoebe Slaughter Erik Ryan
11/12	Mary Spillane Thomas Dillinger
13/14	Brynne Beneke Kaz Takabayashi
15/18	Molly Smyth Matt Grippo

10/U	Sara Ouellette Matthew Molnar
11/12	Mary Spillane Thomas Dillinger
13/14	Emily Lajoie Dylan Swanepoel & Brian Liang
15/18	Sam Berizzi Matt Grippo