Dive Team
Welcome back to all East Gate Gators! The long winter is over, and we are ready to start the 2012 East Gate Gators Dive Season! 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.
Kat Chen and Yolanda Faerber will continue on as dive reps. Both the Chen and the Faerber families are long-time members of East Gate, with all of their children diving for the team since they were very little. Kat can be reached at kchen@on-go.com, and Yolanda at yfaerber@comcast.net.
Meet Your Coaches!!
New Head Coach Wes Mattice: Please extend a warm East Gate welcome to our new dive Head Coach, Wes Mattice. Wes started diving in the summer of 1995 under Coach Joe Somma at Newfield Swim and Dive Club in Stamford, CT. Shortly after that, he was invited to the Whirlwind Dive Team, out of New Canaan, CT. He dove at Stamford High and competed in college at Southern Connecticut State University, graduating with a bachelors degree in Studio Art. Even as a diver, Wes continually found himself coaching, assisting at his summer club and with the club team at SCSU. In the fall of 2006, he started coaching for the Whirlwind Dive Team, working with all levels from beginner to the national team. During this time, he continued to learn from great coaches like Joe Somma and Sergey Meshcherskiy. He also trained and competed at Masters Nationals in 2007. Wes served as head dive coach at Greenwich Country Club, Stanwich Country Club, and the Tri-state team out of the New Canaan YMCA. He was also a gymnastics and tumbling coach for the New Canaan YMCA.
Wes recently moved to D.C., and joined the Montgomery Dive Club Staff in September 2011. Wes spends most of his time coaching all levels of diving at MAC. Off the pool deck, Wes is a freelance graphics designer, illustrator and artist. He has used his considerable skills to help develop the MDC web site and marketing materials.
Timothy Faerber: Timothy will be our Head Assistant Coach again this year. He started diving with the East Gate Dive Team at the age of 7. He is a nationally and internationally ranked diver, having competed in the last eight National Championships. He has represented the United States in Canada, England and Germany. He most recently qualified for the US Olympic Trials on Platform and has prequalified for Nationals again this year. Timothy was Captain of the Swim and Dive Team at Churchill High School for the past two years and coached the team each week. He also coaches the younger novice divers at Dominion Dive Club in Oakton, Virginia. Timothy recently won the inaugural Maryland State Diving Championships. Other than diving, Timothy loves music and art. His band, DEFicit, has performed at various venues throughout the DC Metropolitan Area. He will be going to the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, this fall on an athletic scholarship for diving. Timothy loves working with East Gate divers. East Gate has been his second home since he was born, and he is looking forward to working with our new Head Coach, Wes, and with Assistant Coaches Kali and Elaina!
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 dove in several Junior Nationals competitions. She had a phenomenal season with the Winston Churchill High School Swim and Dive team, placing first at Metros, helping the Churchill girls’ team take first place, first at Regionals and first at States, setting a pool record at College Park. Her interests include music and athletics. She has a great deal of enthusiasm and has excellent fundamentals that will help divers of all ages succeed again this summer.
Elaina Faerber: Elaina joins us again this year as an Assistant Coach as well. She joined the team at the age of 5 and also is a nationally ranked diver, having dove in several Junior National Competitions. In addition to diving, Elaina loves singing. She also has great core fundamentals and she is looking forward to working with all of the divers on the team.
Registration
You must register your child at least 24 hours before his/her first dive practice. The MCDL bylaws state that “no divers may participate in MCDL (Montgomery County Dive League) team practice or competition without first registering with the team. Any violation of this provision may nullify a team’s and possibly the entire league’s insurance coverage.”
If your child wants to try diving before registering, the insurance cost is $10 (check made out to East Gate). Please contact one of the dive reps at least 24 hours before your child’s first practice to sign up. You do not need to register your child until he/she joins the team, however the insurance payment must be made prior to getting on the diving board.
Practice Times
The dive team practice times are as follows:
Starting May 29:
Monday through Friday: 4:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. — Younger divers up to 10 years old
Monday through Friday: 5:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. — Older divers 11 years old and up
Starting June 13:
In addition to the daily afternoon practices, there will also be offered a morning dive team practice for all ages, Monday through Friday, from 9:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m.
Starting June 18:
Morning dive practice will run from 9 a.m. to 10:30 a.m.
TEAM SUIT INFORMATION
2012-13 East Gate Team Suit
TYR Northern Lights
color: Blue/green
Girls suit: $51
Boys jammers: $35
(must mention East Gate to get the team discount)
Available mid-May at Aardvark Swim & Sport
Wintergreen Plaza
831-D Rockville Pike
Rockville, MD 20852
(301) 309-3660
http://www.aardvarkswim.com/
DIVE MEET SCHEDULE
All dual dive meets take place on Sunday evenings starting at 5 p.m. Please plan your vacations accordingly as we need every one of our divers at our meets!
Meets:
June 17: East Gate at Tanterra
June 24: East Gate at Glenwood
July 1: Merrimack Park at East Gate
July 8: Old Georgetown at East Gate
July 15: East Gate at Mill Creek Town
July 20 at 3 p.m.: Robin Hood Invitational at Robin Hood
July 22 at 8 a.m.: Divisional Championships (location TBD)
July 25 at 3 p.m.: 12 and Under MCDL All Stars (location TBD)
July 26 at 3 p.m.: 13 and Up MCDL All Stars (location TBD)
Parent Volunteers
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 allw 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.
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 can’t wait until the summer!!
All our best,
Kat Chen and Yolanda Faerber