Fwd: Nanook Swimming

[Joanne Wainwright]

FYI,

We have an Alaskan swimmer in need.  AKMS is donating $250.

Thanks.

Joanne

Begin forwarded message:

From: Andrew & Mia <andr...@gci.net>

Date: April 8, 2012 3:21:55 PM GMT-08:00

To: SWAM_...@googlegroups.com

Subject: FW: Nanook Swimming

Reply-To: andr...@gci.net

This is an email I received from the UAF coach. Margot Adams, a girl from Anchorage who now swims for the Lady Nanooks is looking to get her Trials cuts and she could use some help.

 

From: Scott Lemley [mailto:sgle...@alaska.edu] 
Sent: Saturday, April 07, 2012 6:06 AM
To: Andrew & Mia
Subject: Nanook Swimming

 

Andrew and Mia,

I trust life is good for you and your kids in Alaska's major city. As our season winds down I thought I'd bring you up-to-date on Alaska's only college swim team.

I recruited twelve freshmen last year, many of whom hail from the Anchorage area. It was supposed to be a "rebuilding" year after the graduation of eight time All-American Mariya Pavlovskaya and several other very fast seniors. Instead we had our best year ever.

We won the majority of our dual meets, finished 4th in our conference championship (out of thirteen teams) and qualified five swimmers for the NCAA national championships - one sophomore and four freshmen.

I told our girls we were just going to nationals to "have fun and learn from the experience" to take the pressure off them. They were all first time national qualifiers. We left Texas after four days of great swimming with a national runner-up (Margot Adams in the 100 fly), our first championship final relay finish (4th in the 800 free relay) and a total of seven All-American swims - four in individual events and three in relay events. Alaska ended up in 16th place overall, our highest team finish since women's swimming was instituted here seven years ago. I truly believe we have the best young team in the country and we're only going to get better.

Unfortunately, there's another side to this story and that's why I'm sending you this email. Our athletic department has some daunting financial problems. The Athletic Director has cut programs to the point where we have the bare minimum of contests each year. Most of the head coaches have been pared back to 11-month contracts. There's simply no money for anything over and above the essentials. At a time when our team is growing and showing so much promise the lack of funding is becoming a huge impediment. I could really use your help.

Freshman Margot Adams (former NLSC swimmer and graduate of the Frontier Charter school) was the fastest Division II freshman in the country this year and is very close to qualifying for the Olympic Trials (sound familiar, Andrew?). The NCAA allows coaches to continue to train college athletes during the summer for major competitions. Margot is entered in the Santa Clara International Invitational in June in an attempt to make her Trials cut in the 100 fly.

I'm taking two months off from my club coaching job to train Margot. We'll come down to Anchorage after the school year ends to use the pool at UAA for a couple weeks and give her some much needed family time with her parents and siblings. Since Bartlett won't be open this summer (again) we'll head down to San Diego in late May. With the help of some coaching buddies, I've secured time at UCSD's twin outdoor 50 meter pools to give her some crucial long course experience prior to the Santa Clara meet. If she makes her Trials cut in Santa Clara, we'll go back to San Diego to train for an additional month prior to flying to Omaha.

Even though NCAA rules allow me to train Margot outside the school year and then allows the athletic department to pick up the majority of our expenses, Forrest will only sign off on this venture if our booster club underwrites the entire enterprise. Even using the frequent flyer miles I've saved up over the years for the majority of our flights, our ground transportation, hotel and food costs will probably total over $5000.

I probably need at least ten BLUE level supporters to help with these expenses. I'm attaching our booster club membership form to this email and asking if you'd be willing to help me find some of those supporters in Anchorage. Margot was a three time state champion in the 100 fly and a standout swimmer at Service HS. I hope there's support for her even though there's probably not a lot of love for UAF in your neck of the woods (as we say in Fairbanks).

Let me know if you're interested and have the time to help me help Margot achieve her dream.

Take care and best wishes from your old coach,

Scott

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