July 30, 2002

Dear Friends:

It’s hard to believe how quickly State Championship weekend went – and how fast our kids swam. To look at the results you would think that the CT Swimming office screwed up the programs and put in all the wrong times. But of course Nan Cooper performed flawlessly as usual. It’s just that the athletes came ready to compete and swam faster – a lot faster – than their previous bests.

Congratulations to all our swimmers. Their dedication and achievement on display at Wesleyan was outstanding!

Many of you saw me walking around with camera in hand, and I hope you take a few moments to enjoy the pictures on the CSI website. The symbolic meaning of that camera is: "Everything’s going well, so the Meet Director has absolutely nothing to do." And that was the case most of the time. For that, I have to thank the many volunteers – as many as 60 per session – who worked very hard and very skillfully to make this event a success for the 750+ swimmers and 42 teams participating.

Let me single out parents from three teams who once again carried far more than their fair share of the burden, and did so with limitless good cheer. First there are my good friends from Cougar Aquatic Team. The CAT’s, led by Linda and Larry Prus, have a system worked out which runs like clockwork. The fact that you probably don’t know all the work that goes into what we call "office" is proof that they did a spectacular job. The aptly-named New England Saints under the leadership of CSI Awards Chairman Jane Moore made sure every medal and ribbon found its proper home. And the Water Devils from Cheshire kept our coaches and workers fed and watered at Murphy’s Cafe – a tough job that nobody does better than CDEV. All of these teams were the first to arrive every day and the last to leave, are terrific fun to work with, and have my endless gratitude!

Connecticut is blessed with a very high quality corps of experienced swimming officials, volunteers all. Ed Doernberger, our Meet Referee, is as good as they get, and it has been a privilege working with him. Like Ed, star Administrative Referee Carol Feeney was on duty every moment from the first whistle until the last results were in. Bill Repass, CSI’s Officials Chairman, provided his usual leadership, and we were fortunate to have a full complement of Referees, Starters, and Stroke and Turn Judges on deck to give our swimmers what they deserve: the fairest and best-run competition possible.

Did you notice that the sessions started on time and that results came out correctly? The credit goes to our high-voltage computer team: McCurdy, Jackwin, LaFrenierre, Garaffa, Green, Vitagliano and others, including guest appearances by Frost, Cooper and Griffis. No, that wasn’t James Earl Jones you heard; at the microphone were Casey Quake, Bill "Born to be a DJ" Loftus, former CSI Chieftain Mary Anne Condon and, for the "Boys 11/12 50 Meter Breaststyle", Mary Beth McCarthy.

I hope everyone had a chance to meet my hero, Olympian Josh Davis, who spent Saturday (and swam!) with us courtesy of Metro Swim Shop. Great job, Deb and Lou Cosme!

To our many talented and dedicated coaches, I thank you for all your encouragement, support, and thoughtful suggestions on how to improve the meet. (Try to stay out of the water next time, will you?) Special thanks go to the Wesleyan staff and particularly to our timing system guru and perennial MVP, Kevin Carneiro. Nan Cooper, we couldn’t do it without you. Wouldn’t even want to.

Best of luck to our All-Star Team as they go forth and show the Eastern Zone what Connecticut swimmers are made of.

Inspired by your enthusiasm and that of our swimmers, I’m looking forward to working with the Age Group Committee to make the 2002-2003 season our best ever. Get some rest this August, because we’ll be needing your help again soon enough!

Warmest regards,

Barry Silver

Meet Director