Welcome back!  The 2010 East Gate Gators Dive Season is now here! We had a very successful season in 2009, finishing second in Division I.  We are looking forward to coaching all of your kids again this year.  For as far back as we can remember, the East Gate community has been a wonderful part of our lives and our family’s lives.  We hope to bring that same love and sense of belonging to all your children as we continue as the coaching team for our dive program.

New news!  Kat Chen will be joining our team as a dive rep, along with Yolanda Faerber and Faris Bandak.  Kat along with her husband Tom have been long time members of East Gate, and their children Alex and Jetta dive for East Gate.  We welcome Kat and know she will be a great addition to our team!  Kat can be reached at kchen@on-go.com, Yolanda at yfaerber@comcast.net and Faris Bandak at fb.md@verizon.net.

Meet Your Coaches!!

            Riyad Bandak: Riyad has been involved with the East Gate dive team since it began in 1998! He dove for several years before becoming an assistant coach under John Currie. He will be entering his final year as a Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering undergraduate student at the University of Maryland where he was also a member of the varsity Dive Team. This will be Riyad’s fourth year as Head Coach for the Gators. 
          Timothy Faerber:  Timothy started diving with East Gate at the age of 7.  He slowly progressed, diving during the winter as well as in the summer.  He is now a nationally ranked diver, having traveled to many international competitions representing the United States.  He will be starting his junior year at Churchill High School this fall, and plans on diving in college.  Other than diving, Timothy loves drawing, art  and music.  This will be Timothy’s third year as Assistant Coach.   

            Kali Becker.  Kali joins us again this year as an Assistant Coach.  Kali joined the team at the age of 7.  She also continued diving throughout the winter, and is a nationally ranked diver, having attended Jr. Nationals for the past several years. She will be an 8th grader at Cabin John Middle School this fall.  Her interests include music and athletics.   She has a great deal of enthusiasm and has good sound fundamentals that will help divers of all ages succeed again this summer. 

       As you may be able to tell, we like to “home grow” our coaches!  In addition to having all of us coach your kids, we are also excited to welcome Elaina Faerber as an assistant this year.  She will be helping in the mornings with the 8 and unders, working on fundamental skills and progressions.  This will be her first year as an assistant.  Elaina has been diving with East Gate since the age of 5, and also is a nationally ranked diver. We are excited she will be joining us this year! 

 A few changes this year from last year.  In addition to the afternoon practices, we will have morning practices after swimming for most days.  It will begin at 9:50 and end at 11am starting June 21st.  While not a change from last year, we would like to remind everyone that we have a 5-meet format, similar to the swim meets.  The meet schedule will be as follows for this summer.  All dual meets are at 5pm with the exception of the meet against Old Georgetown on Monday, July 5.  Old Georgetown has a very large team and their meets go on particularly long.  This meet will start at 3pm in the hopes that we will end before it gets dark.  Please plan your vacations accordingly as we need every one of our divers at our meets! 

Here is the summer dive schedule:

Monday   Tuesday  Wednesday  Thursday  Friday  Saturday  Sunday
 9:50-11am*

4:30-5:30pm

5:30-6:30pm

  9:50-11am*

4:30-5:30pm

5:30-6:30pm

  9:50-11am*

4:30-5:30pm

5:30-6:30pm

  9:50-11am*

4:30-5:30pm

5:30-6:30pm

  9:50-11am*

4:30-5:30pm

5:30-6:30pm

 Clinics: 3-4pm#  Meets

* Morning practices start on Monday, June 21.  No morning practices in the morning on July 8 and 9.  Also, the week of July 12, morning practice would be at 12-1:15.

#Saturday clinics will be held June 12, June 26 and July 17.  Additional clinics will be added at no charge as needed.

June 20:            Glenwood at. East Gate (5pm)

June 27:            East Gate at Tanterra (5pm)

July 5 (Mon): Old Georgetown at East Gate (3pm)

July 11:             East Gate at Flower Valley (5pm)

July 18:             Mill Creek Towne at East Gate (5pm)

July 23:            Robin Hood Meet (3:30pm)

July 25:            Divisionals – Location TBD (8am)

July 28:            All Stars 12 and under at Old Farm (3pm)

July 29:            All Stars 13 and up at Calverton (3pm)

           

  Finally, we really can’t do any of these meets without parent volunteers.  Again, we will need parents to be judges, work tables and help with running the grill.  These are all vital functions that allow the kids to have a memorable summer.  Please email Yolanda Faerber at yfaerber@comcast.net or Kat Chen at kchen@on-go.com.  if you can help with any of these. Here are the jobs descriptions of all volunteers needed to run the dive meets, in addition to the grill master. 

Table Worker.  There are several jobs at the table – score recorder, degree of difficulty calculator, meet secretary, and ribbon writer.  Each of these jobs is learned on-the-job.  East Gate provides three table workers for every meet.

Announcer.  East Gate provides an announcer for all home meets.  The announcer gives the name and team of the diver as well as the dive the child is planning to do and its degree of difficulty. MCDL publishes a guideline for announcing so the job is not particularly complicated.  However, it is the most important job in a meet as the announcer is responsible for keeping up the pace so that meets are not excessively long. Gregg Hand is currently East Gate’s announcer but would love some help!

Dive Judge.  The dives at all meets are judged by 5 parents – two from the home team and 3 from the away team.  The league provides a brief training in the basics of judging to standardize judging at the meets.  This training is mandatory and is held on three different dates at the beginning of each summer.  The dates for training for this summer are:

            Sunday, June 13th                  11:00 am Ashton

            Tuesday, June 15th                 6:00 pm Rock Creek

            Saturday, June 19th               4:00 pm Old Georgetown

            Tuesday, June 22nd               6:00 pm Glenwood

Dive Referee. East Gate provides the referee at all home meets. The referee provides guidance to the judges regarding maximum scores and failed dives.  The referee may also act as a judge during the meets.  Again, training is provided at the close of the judging clinics. See Yolanda if you are interested.

We want to personally welcome you or welcome you back and let you know that we are thrilled summer is now upon us! 

                                                            All our best,

                                                            Riyad Bandak, Timothy Faerber and Kali Becker

                                                            Coaching Staff, East Gate Dive Team