Update -- November 29, 2007

Dear Divers, Parents, and Supporters,

I hope you all had a restful and enjoyable Thanksgiving weekend.  I enjoyed 5 workouts in 3 days and had a blast :) (My idea of restful and relaxing is a bit odd).  

And even though the colder months have descended, we have been relatively blessed with a mild "winter season" so far...knock on wood.

The upcoming month of December sees the final Hawaii Diving Association sanctioned event of the year, the HDA Winter Championships on December 15.  I have the meet information posted here on the web, and will bring entry forms to practices next week.  December also sees the beginning of the high school season with the ILH (private schools) "Pre-Season" meet on December 8th at Punahou (there is typically an OIA pre-season meet as well, but I have yet to receive info about it).

Since the last update letter, I checked the USA Diving website and have not yet seen that the new "Competitive Blue" and "Competitive Gold" categories that I explained in my Convention Report  and my November 5 Update Letter are up and running yet, and to register for the upcoming year if they are.  

However, if you know you plan to try to compete on the Regional and above levels in 2008, you can go ahead and register ASAP with USA Diving as a "Competitive Gold" athlete and then be eligible to compete in this last meet of 2007 as a Junior level diver instead of a Future Champions diver.  If you are unsure of whether you ought to be considering competing on that level, talk to me :) 

More Welcomes:

To the newcomers on Kaiser High's Diving Team -- Pume, Calla, Malena, Cory, and Daniel (so far -- we may have some more joining!) and to Cristin, a diver at Iolani who used to dive with the UH Sunshine team until she got too old (the university prohibits the team from having high schoolers).  Oh, and my apologies to Khoral of St. Andrew's Priory, whose name I misspelled in the last welcome (having at the time only heard it and not having seen it in print).

We might have more welcomes soon as a set of brothers inquired about starting up next month :)  YAY 

High School Diving: 

Further info on the possibilities for home-schoolers to participate in interscholastic competitions:  I attended the ILH pre-season meeting last night and followed up on the Eaton's information that Mid-Pac allows home-schooled students to take one class and represent the school in interscholastic competition.

Kristy (Christy?  I don't know the spelling), one of the Mid-Pac/Pac-5 swim coaches confirmed that such is currently the case at Mid-Pac, and that some of the Pac-5 schools might also have such a policy (although IPA does not).

She said she would check further into this and contact me, but I wanted to pass the info along to you in case it is of any use in trying to get things moving on this front.

Also, The OIA looks as if it is going to be big this year, and will have separate events from the ILH.  I am going to have "open practice/mock meets" held either just before or just after the OIA meets, so there still will be weekly proto-competitive opportunities for those who are not able to be involved with interscholastic competition (i.e., public school middle schoolers, home-schoolers who do not get something worked out).

ILH Pre-Season Meet -- December 8 at Punahou School.  Warm-ups start at noon, competition starts at 1 PM.  So far, this applies to Khoral, Ashley, and Cristin, but who knows additions what the next week might bring?!

DECEMBER WORKOUT SCHEDULE

Sat, Dec. 1,  Noon - 2 PM at Kaiser High School

Mon, Dec. 3, 3:00 - 5:00 PM at Kaiser High School  

Tues, Dec. 4, 3:30 - 6:00 PM at Schofield

Wed, Dec. 5, 4:45 PM - 6:15 PM at HCDB (Trampoline)  

Thurs, Dec. 6, 3:30 - 6:00 PM at Schofield

Fri, Dec. 7, 3:00 - 5:00 PM at Kaiser High School 

Sat, Dec. 8, 9:30 AM - 11:30 AM at Kaiser High School

Sat, Dec. 8, Noon - 3 PM-ish ILH Pre-Season Meet at Punahou School  

Sun, Dec., 9, 2:30 - 4:00 PM at Schofield (Note Changed Time -- Coach Jeff must attend a meeting for the HDA at 4:30 PM)

Mon, Dec. 10, 3:00 - 5:00 PM at Kaiser High School  

Tues, Dec. 11, 3:30 - 6:00 PM at Schofield

Wed, Dec. 12, 2:15-5 PM at HCDB (Trampoline)  

Thurs, Dec. 13, 3:30 - 6:00 PM at Schofield

Fri, Dec. 14, 3:00 - 5:00 PM at Kaiser High School

Sat, Dec. 15 8:30 AM - 3 PM-ish HDA Championships at UH Manoa 

Mon, Dec. 17, 3:00 - 5:00 PM at Kaiser High School  

Tues, Dec. 18, 3:30 - 6:00 PM at Schofield

Wed, Dec. 19, 2:15-5 PM at HCDB (Trampoline)  

Thurs, Dec. 20, 3:30 - 6:00 PM at Schofield

Fri, Dec. 21, 10:00 AM - Noon at Kaiser High School

Sat, Dec. 22, 10:00 AM - Noon at Kaiser High School 

Break from Sunday, Dec., 23 - Sunday, Dec., 30 (Coach Jeff visiting family on the mainland)

Mon, Dec. 31, 10:00 AM - Noon at Kaiser High School 

ASL CORNER

As always, this reference is here so you all can learn to communicate with our deaf diver/s: check out the ASL Corner,  do the lessons as you want to, ask me for help as you need.

Okies, That's all for now! 

Jeff