Squad Speeches From 2013 Awards Banquet

BLUE Crest Squad

By: Katie and Heather Herbstritt

1. Team work is the cohesive bond that holds our team together no matter what group or level we are in, we are all connected by our love for swimming. Team work means sticking together and never letting your friends give up. It means when you feel as if you can’t go any farther you know that you have someone there to push you.
2. One time during dry land we were running around the lake and some of us were starting to get worn down, until one of us started singing Don’t Stop Believing and the rest of the group joined in. We finished running together. The point is that we helped our fellow teammates go on instead of letting them give up, we worked together.
3. Practice is hard, however, there are some fun moments. For instance, when we do the penguin drill, or when Coach Gabe tells funny stories and gives inspirational speeches. But the best part of practice is when you get out of the water and your muscles are sore, you are still catching your breath and you find yourself chugging the last bit of water from your water bottle. And you are proud of yourself for going on even when Coach Gabe pushes you past your limit, knowing that you improved is the most rewarding part of practice.
4. We are athletes and we are team mates but most importantly we are family, we are a team that cares about one another and helps each other out. We are a team that works hard together and train together. Through this team we have made friends, set goals and improved not only as swimmers but as people as well. Blue Waves is a team that we can all believe in because Blue Waves is our Family.
5. “Ohana means family, and family means no one gets left behind or forgotten” -Lilo and Stitch

GREEN Tide Squad

“H₂O, two parts heart and one part obsession.” ~Unknown

Hi everyone we are Green Tide. Before we say anything, we want to thank all the coaches at Blue Waves, especially Coach Mike and Coach Gabe. Without their hard work and dedication to our team, we wouldn’t be the swimmers and people we are today. They’ve taught us many lessons throughout our long, hard, and tiring practices. They’ve taught us to never doubt ourselves, to always put forward your best effort in everything you do, and how to tie your shoes correctly. And without our great coaches, we wouldn’t be able to reach the many accomplishments we’ve achieved today. Lizzie Mandrgoc, Rachel Mihalic, Holly Williams, Trang Dinh, Elise Nguyen, Taylor Harper in our group made the 2013 14 & Under PV Junior Olympic Championships. Elise also made Zones for the 100 butterfly during the long course season. In our group, 12 individual and 4 relay records were broken over the course of the short course season. We’ve been inspired by many of the quotes that Coach Mike takes the time to put on the Window of Wisdom every day. “The chief cause of failure and unhappiness is trading what you want most for what you want now.” ~Zig Ziglar. When we first came to Green Tide, we were afraid the practices were going to be too hard, but now we have learned to appreciate the hard practices because we know they will make us better. “Pain is now, glory is forever.” Green Tide isn’t just a group we swim with; it’s a family we live with.

Speech written by: Taylor Harper, Cassie Holstein, Elise Nguyen & Kaitlyn Pollock

BLUE Tide Squad

Hello everyone! My name is Kayla Snider and I have been a member of Blue Tide for two years now. This past swim season has a been a very different experience for me, mostly because of what I was able to accomplish with my squad. This year we have trained harder than ever before and our hard work paid of in the end. As a squad we have broken 16 records so far this year. We broke 12 records during short course season, two of which were joint efforts with girls from rip tide because we don’t have enough girls in our own squad to form a relay. The other four were broken during our past two long course meets. As a squad we hope that as this long course season advances we can break even more records! Another major accomplishment for us was an improvement in our sense of team. We used to be focused more on ourselves than our team/squad as a whole. We soon realized that there truly is no “I” in team and over the course of this year we have been able to overcome the many differences we have, therefore enabling us to bond and become more supportive of each other. With this new support of each other we saw our work ethic and dedication increase leading to our many accomplishments this season. Blue Tide is very excited to welcome the many swimmers moving up to join us this summer. We strongly hope that they can feel welcomed and are able to train harder with us, so that they may see much improvement. On behalf of my squad I want to wish the very best of luck to the two seniors on the team, Nick Kost and Justin Allen. We hope that you guys have fun exploring the adventures of college life and we will be looking forward to when you visit! I hope that as the years pass and swimmers come and go that the friendships we have made here, on Blue Wave, remain constant and never changing, I hope the lessons that we have learned and the values that have been taught to us never fade from our minds, I hope our bonds grow stronger and that we may never forget this dear old team, because to most of us, Blue Wave isn’t just a swim team, it’s a family, our second home.

RIP Tide Squad

RIP Tide Squad Speech by Justin Allen