And now a message from Coach Gary
Hi Tempe Crew and Guppies,
I hope you all had a good time, especially newbie’s John S, Gwen, Chris S, Sala and Diane. Tempe Crew, thank you all for making the long trek to Tempe and for making our season opener race possible.
I know we all rose to the occasion, but if it was not for the help of San Diego, we would not be in the Division A semi-finals. We were very fortunate that we just made it into Division A. Many thanks to San Diego’s Crew. Please read other comments about the detailed race results as they have posted on Yahoo groups.
We had solid representation from LA. Lard had two full crews, Space Dragon had two full crews, DPW had two full crews, USC had two full crews, and our team, Killer Guppies, had ¾ crew with 5 newbie’s on the crew roster. What happened to the other ¼? Did we not want to come out and represent our team? What happened to team pride and spirit, did that change with the economy too?
I know we did well last year and as I have said, it’s harder to stay on top when you are one of the top teams in Long Beach. The upcoming teams are always trying to reach the top spot too. Once you are on top, it is harder to maintain the top spot. To stay on top, we must continue to do what made us successful. The hard work and dedication does not stop, it increases.
We had a late start this season compared to Lard and Space Dragons; they started their season practices as early as December not late February. Clearly, their early season practice schedule and aggressive recruitment campaign had paid off as the early results clearly indicated in Tempe. Space Dragons were in the last race of the day and we were not.
Guppies, I ask you all, what do you want to do? Be a recreational team again? Continue to stay competitive? What are you willing to do? What is your commitment? Will I come to all mandatory practices? How are we going to recruit more paddlers, where and how? If everyone can recruit one person, then our team membership will be double.
On May 2, 2009 Saturday, I would like to have a team meeting to discuss these matters and concerns if we want to continue our success from last year.
Thanks
Coach Gary