Varsity Conference Highlights!

Hi Team!

It was another great day for AW-K Swimming & Diving!  The Varsity girls took 4th place in the FVA, behind Neenah, North, and Fond du Lac.  There were so many excellent swims today!  I can hardly wait to see what happens next week at Sectionals!  I am so proud of the way the team competed today!  Here are our Top 8 Finishers:

200 MR A Relay:  Taylor Sunke, Hannah Beckwith, Rebecca Norum, and Meghan Harper,  6th Place

200 MR B Relay: Fabi Ehresmann, Amanda Harper, Lexee Funk, and Alexa Van Laanen, 8th Place

 200 Free: Rebecca Norum, 6th Place

200 IM: Hannah Beckwith, 8th Place

 50 Free:  Meghan Harper, 5th Place

 100 Free:  Meghan Harper, 5th Place

200 Free Relay:  Meghan Harper (sorry you got cut off a bit, Meghan!), Taylor Sunke, Hannah Beckwith, Rebecca Norum:  5th Place

400 Free Relay:  Amanda Harper, Fabi Ehresmann, Gabby LeCaptain, Haley Westphal, 8th Place

Thank you to everyone who came out to cheer us on today, especially all of our JV ladies! 

Congratulations, Ladies!  I am so proud to be your coach!

With AW-K Pride,

Coach Vicki

A Few More Thank Yous!

Hi Team,

Once again I am a little behind on saying thank yous to a few people who have really gone above and beyond for our team in the past couple of weeks.

The last two team meals were both led by the amazing Amanda Roth, and both nights were a HUGE hit with the girls!  On Monday, October 10th, Pete Schueppert, Gina Anderson, and Amy Sunke joined Mandy and provided a delicious lasagna dinner.  The girls (and both coaches!) loved this meal! Thank you, Pete, Gina, Amy and Mandy--your meal was super yummy!

On Monday, October 17th, Amanda, Cassie Lee, and Jody Karrmann whipped up a fantastic breakfast-as-dinner meal that was super delicious!  Amanda flipped dozens of pancakes for the team, and I'm pretty sure they disappeared way faster than it took to make them!  Thank you, Amanda, Cassie, and Jody for providing such a fun meal!

I'd also like to thank Jody Karrmann for picking up and delivering the re-done Nike shirts and for setting up our fantastically fun time in the Kimberly hot chocolate stand.  I'd like to give a big shout out to Judy Norum, Stacey Dollevoet, Maria Van Laanen, and Susan Harper for coming out to help Jody and I make and sell all kinds of hot chocolate.  I'm pretty sure we sold hot chocolate to every single person at the game that night, but this group made it a fun night!

Finally, I'd like to say a big thank all of the AW-K family and friends who stayed after last Tuesday night's meet against North so that we could celebrate our Seniors.  It was so great to see all of you in the stands supporting our graduates!  Thank you, also, to our fantastic juniors who did such a nice job organizing the gifts and speeches for our seniors!

The support from our parents and friends has been amazing this year! Whether you have timed, prepared meals, helped clean up after a meet, served hot chocolate, or cleaned Lambeau (or all of the above), please know you made a difference this season.  Thank you for giving so much of your time and energy to help AW-K Swimming & Diving succeed!

With AW-K Pride,

Coach Vicki

Congratulations, Fabulous JV Ladies!

 Hi Team!

How fun was Monday night's JV Conference??!!??  It was awesome to see so many of you get best times!  Almost everyone got at least 1 best time, and many of the girls got multiple PR's!  I love when hard work pays off!

 It was also fun to see so many of our team up there on the podium!  We had so many top 8 finishers!

 Our relays all dropped big chunks of time, too!

 As always, the ducks were a huge hit!

I hope when you look back on this season you remember just how much you have accomplished. Each and every one of you made a difference this year.

 I am so proud of this group of ladies.  I can't imagine this year without you!

Congratulations on a fantastic season, ladies!  You represented AW-K so well and you made me so proud!

Thanks for the memories!!  I miss you already!

With AW-K Pride,

Coach Vicki

Thursday and Friday Varsity Practices

Hi Team,

I forgot we moved Thursday and Friday's varsity practices to the morning because both schools have those days off.  The girls can either come from 8-9:30, or 9-10:30, whichever they prefer.

Sorry about any confusion!

With AW-K Pride,

Coach Vicki

Championship Season Begins on Monday!

Hi Team!

Check out Coach K as an Oompa Loompa! I especially like his orange face and green hair!  This year's Spirit Invite was so much fun!  The whole team did a fantastic job dressing up as the cast from Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.  There were lots of fast swims, too!  We took 3rd place behind Neenah and North.

Monday night is the official start of Championship Season!  On Monday all of the JV swimmers will compete at Neenah High School. The meet starts at 5 pm.  In order for us to get over to NHS for the 3:30 warm ups, the Kimberly girls will be released at 2:20, and the West girls will be released at 2:35. The bus will leave West pool at 3:00.  JV Conference is always a fun meet!!  The girls got to choose their individual events, so they will swim exactly what they want to swim at their last meet.  Awards will be given for 1st-8th place for each event.

The Varsity shifts into Championship Season training this week.  We are done with weight room training and morning practices.  The Varsity will practice with Coach K on Monday afternoon, and then they are invited to come over to Neenah to cheer on the JV.  Practice will go until 5:30 on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday.  On Thursday and Friday the Varsity has the option of coming from 8-9:30, or 9-10:30 because both schools have the day off.

On Tuesday, we will have a whole-team Captain's practice from 3:45-5:30.  This will be the last time the entire team will be together until the banquet on November 20th.  The practice will consist of fun/goofy relays, so make sure you bring your suit, goggles, and a cap.  All JV athletes will need to turn in their team parkas on Tuesday.

Next Saturday, October 29th, is Varsity Conference.  This year's meet is at North High School, so the girls will need to get themselves to the meet on their own.  All Varsity swimmers will need to be at North High School at 9:00 am for 9:25 warm-ups.  Varsity Conference starts at 10:30 am.

I hope to see a big bunch of you on Monday and Saturday!  Come out and cheer on all of our fabulous AW-K swimmers!

With AW-K Pride,

Coach Vicki

This Week's Adventures!

Hi Team!

Look how gorgeous the team looks all dressed up!  This picture is actually from a few weeks ago when we had our dress up dinner at Pullmans.  That was such a fun night!

Anyway!  We had another super week in the pool!  Our big win against Oshkosh West was definitely a highlight.  It was the first time AW-K has beat Oshkosh West in recent memory. Thank you to everyone who timed and helped out, especially Coach Scheulke, who filled in on running the Colorado system.  We couldn't have run the meet without him!

I am behind on my thank yous to those who have done team dinners.  A string of team health issues and a junior meeting have kept me from attending the last couple, but I can assure you that the girls are LOVING the Monday night team dinners!  The girls spend so much of the season with their face in the water.  It is so good for them to have the weekly team dinners so they can relax and connect with each other.   Thank you to everyone involved in the last three team dinners:

September 19th: Erica Blair, Tim Norum, Andi & Jason Woodrow, Jody KarrmannSeptember 26th: Maria Van Lannen, Elizabeth Gloudeman, Cynthia Piechur, Amy Funk, 
October 3rd: Tanya Armstrong, Stacy Dollevoet, Dan Angiulli, Marsha Kasper

The whole team appreciates you!  We have 2 team dinners left this year.  The meal team on October 17th could use a couple more volunteers.  Please let me know if you can help out, and I will connect you with those who are already prepping for that night.

This week is another big one for AW-K!  On Tuesday afternoon we will head down to Fond du Lac to take on the Cardinals, and then on Saturday, the Varsity will compete at the Natalie Bolin Spirit Invite at Oshkosh West.  All JV swimmers are welcome and encouraged to come on down to Oshkosh West with us on Saturday to cheer on the team (they can ride the bus to and from the meet).  This is a dress-up theme meet, and the team is busy gathering costumes and making props in hopes of winning the "Spirit" award.  

This week the team is doing a "Secret Santa" gift exchange.  Each day this week the girls need to bring a small wrapped gift for their assigned person.  The goal is to keep who has who a secret until the big reveal on Friday.  The girls are asked to spend a total of $10 on their Secret Santa.  Handmade gifts are encouraged.

The Kimberly Homecoming parade has been rescheduled for this Wednesday after school. In an effort to allow as many people as possible to attend, we will move Wednesday's practice to the morning, from 5:45-6:45 am.  The girls have actually done a fantastic job with the morning practices--I'm so impressed!  Thank you to all of the parents who have had to get up at the crack of dawn to get their girls to practice!

Finally, just a heads up that the end-of-the-season team banquet has been moved to November 20th.  The junior leadership committee is working hard at planning a special night for the whole team.  We will hold this year's banquet at Kimberly High School.  A formal invitation will be posted soon, I just wanted you to know that the date has changed.   I will get the practice schedule updated to reflect these changes ASAP.  In the meantime, please do not hesitate to contact me if you have questions.

I hope to see a big bunch of you in Fond du Lac and Oshkosh this week!

With AW-K Pride,

Coach Vicki

All Kinds of Good Stuff!

Hi Team!

Holy cow!  What a week, huh?  We swam all over the Fox Valley this past week: Neenah, Oshkosh, and Fond du Lac!  First up was the Neenah Invite, which was our only whole-team invite for the season.  I love this meet because everybody gets to come and swim.   It also gives us a chance to see where we are in relation to the rest of the FVA (plus some teams from our Sectional).

The varsity ended up coming in 4th place, one point behind DePere.  I was thrilled with what I saw in the water that day.  There were so many excellent swims that day!  In terms of the the FVA, we came in behind Neenah (first place), and North (second place).

The following Tuesday we headed down to the 20th Street YMCA in Oshkosh to take on Oshkosh North-Lourdes.  We had 7 athletes out sick at that meet, and we still managed to win every event except the 500 free and diving.  We also won the battle for the giant pear!  Thanks to all of you, we donated hundreds of items to the 2nd Annual Halee Fritsch Food Drive.  All of the items were taken to Father Carr's Place To Be in Oshkosh, where I know it will be put to good use.  Way to go, team! Come see the giant pear the next time you're at the pool!

This past Saturday the Varsity traveled down to Fond du Lac for the Fondy Invite.  The girls really stepped up and had some fantastic swims.  There was tons of talent at that Invite.  We swam against teams from the Milwaukee and Madison areas, as well as Bay Port, Fond du Lac, and Oshkosh North-Lourdes.  I am very proud of everyone, especially those who competed when they were sick. 

Tonight we are back home to swim against Oshkosh West!  The meet starts at 5:30.  Come on out and cheer us on!

With AW-K Pride,

Coach Vicki