Pacific Masters goes to New England Team Model

Pacific Masters announces the a new model for teams in Pacific. After a lot of work put in by the Team Committee, The Pacific LMSC will go to the New England team model. In the model, there is one team for competing at National and worlds, but for local events, the teams will compete as workout groups. Except for teams trying to break a record (see below). At the XI FINA World Masters Championships, there were many relay teams that combined for the World Championships. In the 200 Mixed Medley relay 200-239 a combined Colorado team beat a combined Florida for the event and also lowered the World record by 4.5 seconds.- Walnut Creek, a team with a single practice location beat the WR by 1.5 seconds an came in a distant 3rd. Pacific Masters were disappointed. and I was asked as chairman what we could do about it. I appointed a committee of Barry Fasbender, Vice President of Operations, Kerry O'Brien of Walnut Creek Masters and Coaches co chair and Nancy Ridout, registrar and past USMS President to see what Pacific could do to be competitive in national and world records. The result was to implement the New England LMSC model in 2007. In that model, most teams will no longer exist except as workout groups. See page about teams). All swimmers will be registered as members of Team Pacific (TPAC) unless they formally opt out to be "unattached" or to registered with a team. Starting next year, Team Pacific will be the main team from Pacific Masters for US Nationals and FINA World Competition. Team Pacific will be able to draw from its over 10,000 athletes to compete in these prestigious events. Worlds and Nationals are such great events that Pacific wants to honor these events by allowing our best athletes to compete against the best athletes from other parts of the nation. Without being limited to just the local single pool team, Pacific can compete against the great teams of Team Tyr, Colorado and Florida. Kerry O'Brien will be the head coach, besides overall coaching management of the Team Pacific, he will be the mens head coach (Men's relays). Brian Stack will be assistant head coach and have charge of the women (women's relays). Scott Williams and Tim Sheeper will be in charge of the mixed medley relays. Brian said Pacific has always had such a strong contingent of women swimmers, I am proud to be the head coach. Imagine have a relay team of Laura Val, Leanne Crittenden, Debbie (Meyer) Webber and Suzannne Heim-Bowen as a 200+ relay team Next year is the XII FINA World Masters Championships in Perth Australia, Pacific will be picking up half the air fare for the four coaches. So that swimmers who know how well they are swimming, if they plan to go to worlds in Perth, USF is making a change in their Valentines day meet. For the first time in 16 years, USF will host a long course meet. Cathy Huang, aquatics supervisor, said that the having a long course meet at that time of the year will be difficult, but USF had so much fun at the Stanford meet, that USF is willing to help in the new model. For all those swimmers who will be traveling to Perth, Pacific is asking all to swim at the USF meet next February just to meet the coaches and to see how they are doing. Rich Burns who designed the mascot of the XI FINA World Masters Championships will be designing the Team Pacific Logo and Mascot. After discussion with NorCal Swim wear to become the exclusive dealer with Team Pacific. Pacific LMSC has spoken with Stu Isaacs of Speedo and Roque Santos of Nike about becoming the official team supplier of Team Pacific. The Pacific masters Short Course Yards championships will be held at the deep water pool in Pleasanton in late May this in 2008 after the World and USMS Championships in Austin. Team Pacific will be be going after all the short course relay records. Jody Smith of Stanford Masters has been working with the Athletic Department to have the Pacific Masters Long Course Championships at the Avery Center. Due to the use of the pool in the summer, the Belardi pool will be available either the last weekend in July or the first weekend in August, thus giving the athletes time to compete then rest before Nationals in Oregon. This will be the long course meet for those who could not travel to Perth. We have so many great swimmers that I think I have challenged the coaches to get half the short course records and 2/3 of the USMS Long course relay records. We've seen how well Masters swimmers have performed over the past 25 years., We know that masters swimmers, but getting allowing some of the top USMS swimmers to compete on a team, we can really show the world what masters swimmers can do. michael