Frank Fiscalini International Swim Center • San Jose, CA | Sept 14-15, 2013

Hold yourself responsible for a higher standard than anybody expects of you. Never excuse yourself.
Henry Ward Beecher 

 Leadership Camp in San Jose with 

Kayla, Taylor and Jordan 

(photos by Jennie Ho)

ROSSI SPOTLIGHT: “PRESIDENT ED WOO”

Hi Everyone,

After such a wonderful and successful Labor Day meet where our team enjoyed food, sunshine, swimming and great success with a thrilling 2nd place win, I wanted to put everyone's mind at ease. With Ed's announcement that it was his last meet since Emily is leaving for UC Davis, we did not want everyone to worry about the leadership of the team.

Ed Woo, or “Uncle Ed” as he is affectionately known to all our swimmers, has kindly agreed to stay on as President of our team for at least another year. Maybe indefinitely? I say kindly since he enjoys telling everyone he is finally done. We all know too well he'd be sooo bored with nothing to do if he left us.

Ed joined the Rossi team when Emily was only 7 and has been with the team for 11 long years, 8 of them as President. It has been a great experience working side by side with Ed and he has made great contributions to our team. Be it encouragement, talking with the swimmers, handling questions and situations for and on behalf of our coaching staff to the extra little things, like otter pops and treats. He has always extended himself above and beyond to all Rossi members. Ed has sent out emails, given rides whenever needed, helped order t-shirts, sweatshirts and swim caps, ran Costco trips for Zone 3 hospitality and set up our 49er relays at Morgan Hill. What doesn't he do? He has been very generous not only with his time and energy but also with his wit, humor and sage advice! 

       Ed, we appreciate all that you do and will continue to do for our team!

Congratulations to our coaching staff, too! Our team roster is now the largest it's ever been with about 100+ swimmers. From what we hear our team reputation has gotten even better and stronger. On another happy note, to help out with all the extras, the Board and Coaching Staff have unanimously voted to bring on Irene Michaud, as Co-Vice President and Irene has, thankfully, agreed to help out. Irene is mom to our swimmers Kaitlyn and Emily and wife to Brian (need to give Brian some credit here.) We think she'll be a great addition to the Board. She is a real team player. Please join us in congratulating Irene!

Cheers to all!
Tina

Morgan Hill Swim Meet | August 30 - September 1, 2013 (Part 4)

Congratulations! Today is your day. 

You’re off to Great Places! You’re off and away!

You have brains in your head. 

You have feet in your shoes.

You can steer yourself in any direction you choose. 

You’re on your own.

And you know what you know. 

You are the guy who’ll decide where to go.

—Dr. Seuss, "Oh, the Places You'll Go!"

Wishing these graduate-swimmers off to a great start in college! Sorry if we missed some of the other graduates during the end of the meet. Check out this youtube LINK with more photos taken by Peter (Mr. Tran). Thanks, Peter, for capturing the last part of the Morgan Hill Swim Meet where they were supposed to be thrown out into the pool but instead they jumped in before getting mobbed!  

Morgan Hill Swim Meet | August 30 - September 1, 2013 (Part 3)

Individual commitment to a group effort - that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work. ~Vince Lombardi 

And each Rossi swimmer contributed to its 2nd place at the Summer's End Swim Classic. Great job, Manta Rays swimmers and families. Thank you, parents, for your unrelenting dedication and support to make things happen for our swimmers! You are awesome! That goes the same for our coaches!

Enjoy these photos by Mr. William Chen (Christopher's dad). Thanks William for capturing some of last meet's behind the scenes shots.

Morgan Hill Swim Meet | August 30 - September 1, 2013 (Part 2)

Hard things are put in our way, not to stop us, but to call out our "courage" and "strength." ~Author Unknown

We are SO privileged to have some awesome parent-photographers to document our meets. Check out these action-packed photos by Mr. Stephen Wong (Brandon's dad.) Please remember when sharing any images from this blog to please link it back here and give proper credit to the photographer(s).

Click HERE to see more. Thanks, Stephen, for such awesome photos!

Can you hear him calling out, "COURAGE!!!!"

Special Thanks to the TRAN Family

Gratitude is the fairest blossom which springs from the soul. ~Henry Ward Beecher 

Thank you SO MUCH, Tran Family (Duc, Thuy, Amberlynn & Derek), for the awesome embroidered caps with our team's logo on it! That's very kind of your family to think of our team even in your vacation. Such thoughtful gifts!

~the Manta Rays

Photo taken in Napa last February 2013

Check out these swimmers and Coach Mike sporting the caps

Photo taken in Morgan Hill by Peter (Mr. Tran)

AUTUMN BIRTHDAYS 2013

Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower. ~Albert Camus

WOW! We have a lot of FALL babies! Happy Birthday! Wishing you all an awesome celebration as you get older and wiser! 

SEPTEMBER

1  Tina Chiem

9  Monique Malone 

10  Daniel Yakovlev 

11 Calvin Luo (2012 graduate)

14  Aaron Lee

17  Samantha Lau

26  Christie Lum 

30  Brooke Vu

OCTOBER

3  Kyle Wang

14  Iain Paul

20  Justin Huynh  

20  Megan Nguy 

21  Samuel Hong (2012 graduate)

27  Lucas Cheung

28  Wendy Jian

29  Emily Gong (2013 graduate)

31  Kyle Wang

NOVEMBER

8  Justin Lee

7  Harrison Shalar

7  William Ju

11  Kyung Lee

13  Ethan Cheung 

15  Izek Avanessian

16  Winston Liu 

21  Victoria Wong 

21  Ryan Szeto 

23  Eric Chen 

26  Amanda Yee

27  Benjamine Liu

If we missed anyone, please email us.

Morgan Hill Swim Meet | August 30 - September 1, 2013 (Part 1)

The man who can drive himself further once the effort gets painful is the man who will win. ~Roger Bannister, 1952 Olympian 

Rossi Manta Rays did it again for coming in second place at the Morgan Hill swim meet. CONGRATULATIONS! Great job for driving yourselves beyond pain! All your hard work this past summer has paid off. Know that the winning team had triple the number of swimmers compared to our meager-sized attendance. Next year be sure to attend all mandatory meets. You're a big part of this team. 

Check out Peter (Mr. Tran's) great shots from this past weekend. Here's the LINK (music: Heart of Courage, movie soundtrack and We Own the Night by The Wanted.) If you took any photos, please share the link with us. We will post/link them here on this blog and our Shutterfly Share Site. Also, if you have Instagram, hashtag #rossimantarays and #morganhillmeet2013 to see other swimmers' photos. Please post photos that are only appropriate for viewing that will represent our team in utmost respect. Thank you. (cgLeong)