Promoting Excellence by Providing Resources to Support and Empower the North Carolina Swimming Community.
See if you can pick out the NCS officials who braved the heat at the Southern Zone Age Group Championship meet in Tupelo, MS last week. Somewhere in this group are Jay Thomas, Rebecca Thomas, Mike Trexler, and Bethany Perkins.
Thank you, NCS officials!
Send in your nomination for the 2022 North Carolina Swimming Outstanding Service Award!
Below is the form for submitting your nomination for the 2022 North Carolina Swimming Outstanding Service Award. Each year North Carolina Swimming selects a recipient for this Award. The award is presented to a volunteer in recognition of service to swimming. Recipients of the Outstanding Service Award are selected by the LSC and receive the award and an Outstanding Service Award pin. Please email your completed nomination form to pfrith@mac.com by August 15, 2022. The winner of the Outstanding Service Award will be selected by the Awards committee and announced during the NCS Awards Banquet and at the HOD meeting the weekend of October 1-2.
2022 NCS Outstanding Service Award Nomination Form
Help recognize those who go above and beyond in their service to the sport of swimming.
The Triangle Aquatic Center (TAC) is extremely pleased to announce the opening of our brand new 50M Outdoor Pool. The event will take place on Monday, July 11th at 3:00pm. All are welcome and encouraged to attend. Festivities will begin with welcome speeches from four Triangle area dignitaries and follow with the “First Dive” at approximately 3:30. We will offer refreshments and guests are welcomed to tour the new pool and building.
This fourth pool on the TAC campus shows our commitment to the Triangle area’s requirements for additional aquatic spaces for the health, safety and competitive needs of our residents and guests. The increased lane capacity will go a long way to help make this happen. The pool features both heating and cooling of the water, a canopy over two sides of the pool to allow for covered swimmer instruction while in the water, new restrooms and a large pool deck. TAC plans to operate the pool year-round and will offer open swim times each day while there are no indoor events at the Facility.
Please join us for our Grand Opening and see the latest addition to our campus!
Jamie Bloom, head coach of the YMCA of the Triangle Area Swim Team (YOTA), was recognized as a PRIDE month trailblazer in the following article on the USA Swimming website. Congratulations, Jamie!
Swimming impacts individuals in different ways. For some, it is a fun hobby. For others it is simply a workout. For many it is a life skill. For Jamie Bloom: “It has been the foundation for who I am and what I do.”
Growing up in Lexington, Massachusetts, Bloom played multiple sports, citing their presence in her family’s home. Her parents played tennis and both of her sisters played sports at the collegiate level. Her siblings swam in the summer, but for Bloom, swimming was an all-year focus.
When the head coaching position at YOTA presented itself, Bloom transitioned into that title and stepped down from William Peace. She has been serving as the North Carolina Swimming’s Safe Sport Chair and is about to transition into the North Carolina Swimming’s DEI Chair as well. Bloom has spent many hours educating others on swim safety and is a huge advocate on club teams becoming Safe Sport recognized. In addition to these roles, she is also vice-chair of the Coach Advisory Committee, been on staff for multiple LSC and Zone camps as well as been both head manager and head coach at the National Diversity Select Camp.
One of her passions is getting younger coaches involved and helping create more representation among swim coaches. Bloom exclaimed, “Kids just need to see people that look like them.”
In order to create more representation, it is important to convince individuals why coaching is worth it.
“We need to talk about the sport. We need to talk about the benefits of being a coach, of all the great opportunities that you have to influence lives,” suggests Bloom.
Diversity is another topic that Bloom feels strongly about. “It’s never been a secret. I’ve never shied away from identifying myself. I certainly don’t introduce myself as ‘Hello, I am Jamie, I am a lesbian.’ But, especially at this point in my life, it is something that I am proud of.”
Thinking back to the beginning of her swimming and coaching career, “As far as gay and lesbian athletes go, there weren’t a lot that were out. Swimming seemed at the time to be a little bit of the last frontier,” Bloom explained.
Bloom suggested one approach to creating more representation is to go into communities where swimming isn’t present.
“Competitive swimming is scary to people who aren’t comfortable around the water; who don’t have access to the water,” she said. “I think that we need to do our best to make ourselves part of the communities that we want to be involved in our programs.”
Swimming can be crucial in not only saving lives but adding value to them. Bloom acknowledged, “Sports for me have always been stabilizing. It has always been something that I knew the structure of and could always go back to, could depend on.”
Bloom wants others to have the same access to the sport that has positively impacted her. “I think that sports should be for all. I think that we should be giving opportunities to anyone that wants to participate.”
Several athletes with North Carolina Swimming ties earned medals on the first day of the 2022 FINA World Championships in Budapest, Hungary. Ryan Held (formerly with NC State) and Justin Ress (formerly with NC State and Marlins of Raleigh) joined Caeleb Dressel and Brooks Curry on the gold medal-winning men’s 4x100m freestyle relay team. Erika Brown (formerly with SwimMAC) and Claire Curzan (TAC Titans) teamed up with Torre Huske and Kate Douglas to capture bronze in the women’s 4x100m freestyle relay.
Congratulations swimmers and good luck the rest of the way!
Beginning on Sept 1, USA Swimming will implement its new SWIMS 3.0 along with online registration for all members. Lisa Olack reviewed details of the program at the June NCS coach meeting. Below is a link to a recording of the meeting.
Topic: NCS Coach Meeting
Start Time: Jun 8, 2022 11:55 AM
