Championships are here!!!

The Arizona Regionals Championship swim meet is this weekend, March 2-4. The Yuma Heat is taking 18 swimmers to this event...8 more than last year!! Nice job everyone! Go swim FAST!!

I'll post pictures as soon as we get back!

Tate Family Update

For those that weren't here, Kwan Tate, an olympic swimmer from Thailand and just a super cool lady worked with the Yuma Heat Swim Team for over a year as a volunteer age group coach.

She was well loved, both for her generosity and for her culinary skills. Coach Kwan primarily coached the Reg Group swimmers, and was known for having epic sleepovers at her home on base while her husband was away in Iraq.

Her husband, Emerson, is with the marines and as is customary he received orders to go to Okinawa in December. So, we said goodbye to the Tate family but they remain in our thoughts and we hope to see them again someday. Thalia, Lalia and Eryton...we miss you too!! Swim Fast!

Kwan sent me these pictures...I hope you all enjoy them. She would love to hear from you! You can email Coach Kwan and the kids at: kwan4_pui@yahoo.com

Lost Dutchman 2007

For those that have never been to a "big" meet, the Lost Dutchman in Chandler is a great introduction to swimming at the next higher level. We witnessed some amazing swims this last weekend, several Dutchman meet records were broken and there was a World Record holder swimming in the senior pool all weekend! His name is Roland Shoeman, and WOW... he is fast!

Our own Yuma Kids did a great job too! With tons of best times and some really great swims it was an exciting weekend. Congratulations to Alexander, Jesse and Jessica for making the finals! And a BIG hug and congratulations to Alexander for earning medals in 7 out of his 8 events! Way to go kids!!

We did experience some inclement weather...our tent blew away during Monday's lunch break and then it rained on us during finals! But Audra Flores, Ryan Curtis and Leigh Kaba went to great lengths to create a cave...totally sheltered from the wind for all of us to hang out in. It was awesome!

The Lost Dutchman has become a very large event and many big swimming names attend this meet. For those of you who are ready to take your swimming to the next level, it's a fantastic meet to attend.

Coach Kwan...Alive and well in Okinawa!

I had a chance to talk with Coach Kwan for a little bit yesterday. She sounded great, and she misses all of you!!

She asked that I make sure that everyone has her email...so here it is: kwan4_pui@yahoo.com.

Please send her an email and let her know how you're doing.

We sure do miss you Coach Kwan!

And congratulations to Thalia and Lalia for making the Junior Olympic team in their region!! They are headed to Tokyo soon...GO SWIM FAST girls!!! =)

Mardi Gras...in February

While the rest of the country is experiencing snowfall and winter rains, we in Yuma are celebrating Mardi Gras! Go figure.

Thanks to Tammy Roberts, a great friend of the swim team, we secured a booth at this year's Mardi Gras celebration downtown. We decided to sell KABOBS, and Troy did a fantastic job, AGAIN, of getting all kinds of stuff for FREE to help us out. BIG thank you to Albertsons for donating ALL the vegies for our kabobs! Please shop there and tell them how much you appreciate their support for our great team!


The cutting and prep crews spent all day Thursday and all day Friday cutting up, pre-cooking and assembling nearly 300 beef and shrimp kabobs.


Friday night, despite some initial misshaps, the booth got underway. Ron was on grill detail with Coach David, Coach Andersen was in charge of the rice, and Jenny was checkout girl extraordinaire.













There were all kinds of colorful people out there, and we had a great time! Thank you to all that helped out, as usual our swim team is so lucky to have such a great crew of volunteers!













The Loynes family enjoying our wares...Cyrus swims in the Red 2 group with Coach David!

Building a playground...

The Yuma Heat Swim Team showed up in fine form last Thursday evening for our shift at the Stewart Vincent Wolfe Memorial Playground build! We were on the news and had a GREAT time. Thank you to all who participated!!




We were all given jobs to do, some more gruelling than others, and everyone did their part.

There were hole diggers...

Shari looks like she knows how to handle that pick axe, look out RICK!!

And Tyler and Nancy doing admirable work here on their 3 foot hole.

Post lifters...

Katie, Katie, Malinda and Robin working hard getting this post OUT of the hole.

The seniors did a GREAT job, working together and hefting around a whole LOT of fake wood.

Screw soapers...

...apparently a very important and under appreciated task.

Alexander claimed his hands bled profusely throughout the ordeal.

Fortunately those in charge of applying soap to wood screws

received a refreshing meal afterwards.

And of course, and as always, there are those officially relegated to hamming it up...

Good job everyone! =)