NOVA News
October 16th, 2023
Last weekend’s Central District 13 & Over Champs wrapped up 8 consecutive weeks with competitions hosted at the NOVA Aquatic Center - Regency. We had ambitious goals planning for the opening of our Regency home to enhance NOVA’s meet hosting operations and 2.5 years after opening, we are realizing these goals. It takes a team of staff and volunteers to host 1 swim meet; it takes an army to host 13 in an 8 week span. Here are some numbers that reflect the awesome NOVA Meet Hosting effort (remember - this is just calendar year 2024 numbers!)
13: Total Competitions
6: USA Swimming NOVA Meets
7: High School Meets (including NOVA’s first VHSL Regional Championships and dual meets hosted by non-Henrico schools)
2,728: USA Swimming Total Entered Athletes
1,352: High School Total Entered Athletes
4,080: Total Athlete Count
10,160: Total Spectator estimate
40: Total Meet Sessions (including 3 dual course sessions - double the volunteers needed!)
43: Different visiting Teams (USA-S & High School) attending competitions @ Regency
464: Timing positions created for NOVA Families
117: Volunteer Positions filled by NOVA Senior Swimmers at the 3 District Champs meets
38: Individual Announcer Volunteer shifts
6: Meet Referees Anne Van Lenten (9 Meets), Glen West, Ben Ackerly, Bryan Wallin, Greg Owens (1 each)
302: Total Certified Officials
6: Meet Directors & Facility Managers (Lori Hopewell, Julie Farney, Wyatt Haas, Cabell Anderson, Will Myers & Drew Hirth)
3: Head Lifeguards (Cabell Anderson, Will Myers & Kayla Blaha)
160: Meet Lifeguards
37: Total Meal Sittings (Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner) served in Hospitality for Coaches & Officials
93: Cases of drinks donated by NOVA families
What an effort and there are many many others who contributed! We are so proud to provide a stellar venue for our athletes to thrive. It cannot happen without the collective effort of so many.
Thank you to all the NOVA Staff and Volunteers for a great 8 weeks but now we catch our breath and we will see you next time for the Short Course Send-Off March 22-24, 2024.
Drew Hirth
Director of Operations
New best times, new Age Group and Senior Champs cuts, and new experiences all around. Between the loud music, the raucous cheering, and the full dives into the themes of the meet, our swimmers carried the energy from Friday to Sunday!
The results speak for themselves and the stopwatch doesn’t lie, and I think the weekend was a testament to the hard work and dedication our swimmers have shown all year! AMAZING job on a wonderful weekend at District Champs!
#OneNOVA
- Coach Sean
February 23rd-25th NOVA's 13 and over swimmers took on Richmond area teams in the District Championship meet held at NOVA- Regency. Swimmers raced hard, won HOT HEATS, cheered and supported their teammates and took home the Victory! Congratulations swimmers and coaches!
Senior Dev. Bronze, Senior Dev. Silver, Senior Dev. Gold, Senior Bronze, Senior Silver
by Coach Mike Julian
Part 2 - Sleep
This week as we continue to look at how we can perform better we will specifically look at sleep. We sometimes have the mindset that more is better, which isn’t always true, but in the case of sleep, more can certainly be better! There have been more studies on sleep and the benefits it has on athletes over the past few years than ever before.
Why is sleep so important? - Recovery and Growth. Our bodies recover from the training of the day and grow while we sleep. It is important for swimmers to get the right amount of sleep combined with quality sleep.
There are four easy things swimmers can focus on right now to help them get a little more sleep and help improve performance in the pool.
Maintain a regular sleep schedule. We have a training schedule our bodies get used to, so it’s important for our bodies to have a regular sleep schedule. Going to bed at the same time every night lets your body know to release your natural calming sleep hormones.
Put away your phones at night! Try turning your phone off at least an hour before your normal bedtime. Phones and everything that comes on and with them can be distracting, not to mention the blue light phones have stimulate the brain.
Limit or stay away from your caffeine intake. Hopefully as swimmers no one is drinking a lot of caffeine. Caffeine can affect your quality of sleep as well as cause an upset stomach while you sleep. Caffeine also stays in your body longer than most people think, so even if you drink some at lunch or early afternoon it will stay in your body through bed time.
Eat and maintain a well balanced diet - more on nutrition next week, but for sleep purposes, try to eat 5-8 small meals a day. Trying to play catch up and eat a large meal at the end of the day will negatively affect the quality of your sleep.
Who doesn’t want to sleep more?! According to the National Sleep Foundation, recommendations for ages 6-13 are 9-11 hours, 8-10 hours for ages 14-17, and 7-9 hours for 18+. The coaches hope that focusing on sleep will help each swimmer sleep better and perform better in the pool.
Next week we will talk about nutrition.
Group coaches: Lead Mike Julian assistant Matt Bailey
How many swimmers are in Senior Dev. Gold? 39
What skills are SDG working on this week? Nothing particular, we are within 2 weeks of AGC so more race pace and getting the body to swim fast in 2 weeks. We will do a few more skills next week leading into the meet; Starts, Turns, Relay exchanges.
Mike what's your favorite part of work with SDG? My favorite part has always been helping and bridging the gap to upper level swimming. It's very satisfying to see a swimmer realize how good they can become and start looking at the next level (NCSA Junior National) and beyond (college swimming)
Matt, what's your favorite part of work with SDG? Witnessing the growth and development the kids make transitioning from age group to senior swimmers. It feels like at this age the hard workers really begun to stand out!
Mike, what's your favorite part about working with Matt? Matt is my stats and numbers guy, which I really like as well. I can see and understand we have very different personalities which brings balance to the group.
Matt, what's your favorite part about working with Mike? Mike’s has a lot of experience at this level and is constantly pulling out really cool drills or sets he’s come up with or done in the past. I really enjoy hearing his solutions to the various problems we come across in a normal swim season.
Mike, Which superhero would you be and why? Thor - (Only based off what I see in the movies) Nothing special about his power, I like the hammer, God like qualities but doesn't act like a God.
Matt, Which superhero would you be and why? I am gonna go with the Flash. Teleportation would be nice but seems super speed is pretty close to that, plus I can get just about everything done faster. I’m also pretty sure it's legal to run across the surface of the pool in the 50 free so maybe I could break :30.
Registration for Spring Clinics is now Open! Sign up deadline is March 1st!
Please help spread the word by sharing the attached FLYER
to neighbors and summer league friends who are looking to get a headstart on their season. Summer league teams will receive $25 back for every 10 swimmers registered.
**Current NOVA swimmers should not sign up**
