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Tuesday, December 10, 2013

Carlos Ceja, the swim coach who does it all

Swimming wasn’t Northside College Prep High School Aquatic Director Carlos Ceja’s favorite sport until he started swimming competitively at Roosevelt High School. Ceja said he was on the wrestling team at Gordon Tech College Prep before transferring to Roosevelt and joining the swim team. Ceja said the camaraderie of being on the swim team was important to him.

“It was a big aspect in my life without even knowing it,” said Ceja.

Ceja also serves as the head coach of the swimming and diving teams and women’s water polo at Northside. He is also the co-founder and head coach of the Northside Aquatics Club.

After graduating high school, Ceja joined the U.S. Navy. Ceja called himself a glorified lifeguard who worked as a rescue swimmer and swim instructor during his time in the Navy.

“I still had to help people learn how to swim and try to help people become better swimmers,” Ceja said.

After eight years in the Navy, Ceja said he decided to leave because he didn’t agree with the politics.

“I’m not a big fan of politics, but you have to deal with it,” Ceja said.

After leaving the Navy, Ceja started attending the University of Illinois at Chicago in 2000. While studying at UIC, Ceja became the assistant coach at Northside College Prep.

“My old swim coach in high school was the first swimming coach here, so when he found out I was getting out of the Navy, he asked me to help him out,” Ceja said.

In 2003, Ceja was called back into the Navy and had to leave his studies and coaching job. Ceja graduated from UIC in December 2007 with a Bachelor’s degree in kinesiology with a concentration in movement science.

Ceja uses his background in kinesiology to improve his swimmer’s technique, as well as preventing and treating injuries.

“For a long time here at Northside we didn’t have an athletic trainer. We just started getting one maybe four or five years ago and they’re only here maybe two or three times a week. So whenever someone got hurt I had to do something to help them out,” Ceja said.

Assigning good stretches before swim practice, having an easy warm-up that swimmer’s can ease into and teaching proper technique are all ways to help prevent injuries, Ceja said.

Ceja was born and raised in Chicago by parents from Michoacán, Mexico. He is the youngest of six siblings, and he is the only one in his family that became a dedicated swimmer. He spent his summers in the pool at River Park. Ceja worked for the Chicago Park District as a lifeguard at River Park for three years and 57th Street Beach for five summers.




When Ceja began coaching at Northside College Prep, he was surprised by the parental support the team received compared to the lack of support apparent during his high school years on the swim team.

“It’s completely different. I’d say the majority of my teammates were Latino. There was rarely ever a time there were parents in the stands. There were always friends, girlfriends and other students. I never really saw the parent support there. A lot of it is because the parents are working,” Ceja said.

Latino parents focused on working to support the family and keeping their kids off the streets, said Ceja. According to Ceja, parental support for Latino teams has grown.

“Curie High School is a big Latino swim team. It’s small, but their majority is Latino. I see their parents coming into the meets, even here at Northside. The kids that swim at the Chicago Park District, their parents are showing up to those meets. And it’s great,” Ceja said.

Ceja founded the Northside Aquatics Club to provide a stable practice facility for swimmers. He said promoting the sport and keeping kids interested in swimming during the year is one of his challenges.

“You need kids that are dedicated to the sport in order to become successful at it,” Ceja said.




Tuesday, November 19, 2013

UIC swimming coach Noelle Wilhite’s role in injury prevention


No pain no gain, right?

Wrong. According to Noelle Wilhite, assistant varsity coach for the men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams at the University of Illinois at Chicago, an athlete’s performance will suffer if an injury is left untreated.

Wilhite said there are ways to help prevent injuries in swimmers by designing creative training programs. Wilhite has coached swimming for 13 years and triathlon since 2003. She uses her triathlon training and coaching background as a way to cross train her swimmers.

“If I know today is an aerobic conditioning day, I can have some of that be dryland. Lets go jump rope and do some med ball stuff and plyometrics, and then get in and swim and then do a little sprinting,” Wilhite said.

 Wilhite said cross training not only avoids stroke repetition, but also helps prevent injuries and keeps athletes focused to counteract the burnout of swimming laps everyday.

“The more you do that one activity, the higher risk of injury. It not only keeps them mentally stimulated, interested, and also improves their athleticism. But it certainly prevents injury,” Wilhite said.

Starting the season with aerobic-based conditioning and slowly increasing the volume of swimming, introducing equipment and sprinting later on in the training programs to prevent injuries is important said Wilhite.

According to Wilhite, shoulder injuries are the most common problem swimmers face.

“The freestyle stroke can lead to shoulder injuries if the mechanics aren’t correct. I’d say that’s another thing we really try to be diligent about—stroke mechanics and skill and drill work because proper stroke technique leads to less injuries,” Wilhite said.

 Wilhite said head coach, Paul Moniak and her highly recommend athletes to condition and train during their off season to keep a high-level of physical fitness. Depending on the situation, Wilhite would tell an athlete who has a history of injuries to decrease their swimming and work on cycling, running and different dryland activities.

“We advocate a lot of cross training, so that maintaining fitness, even touching the water a couple times a week, the body gets a break from the repetitive movement,” Wilhite said.

 Wilhite said she encourages athletes to inform their coaches of any injuries or irritations they may have to treat injuries as quickly as possible to avoid lifetime injury.

“Living with chronic pain is no way to live,” Wilhite said.

Thursday, November 7, 2013

Dear Urban Swimming Chicago reader

Dear Reader,

Thank you for visiting Urban Swimming Chicago, I hope you enjoy reading about coaches' perspectives, athlete features and swimming tips. My goal is to provide a hub of information about swimming, focusing on high school and club teams.

Over the past couple of months I have watched the number of page hits increase on days where I have posted an article about an athlete or a coach. The majority of my audience is from the United States with 1,068 views from last month, Indonesia came in second with 23 views, and Ukraine is third with six views. Overall, readers from 10 different countries have discovered Urban Swimming Chicago.

The "Chicago swimmer Rebeca Martinez qualifies for Junior Nationals and Speedo Sectionals" article topped the popular posts with 144 views. This article may be the most popular because it is about a Chicago high school athlete with many state records under her belt. Martinez said she shared the article with friends and family who are active in the swimming community.

The "St. Ignatius swimming head coach David Stephens leads his teams to win IHSA Sectional Championships" is the second most popular article with 87 views. David Stephens is well known within the Chicago area as the head coach of St. Ignatius men and women’s swimming and diving teams, as well as founder and head coach of the Chicago Wolfpack Aquatic Club. He has been active within the swimming community in Chicago for 13 years.

I send a copy of the finished product to the interviewee to see my work before posting articles onto the blog and to make sure everything written about them is accurate. 

I hope, reader, that this insight of who my audience is has been helpful. I post an article every Thursday, along with pictures of my swim meet adventures and swimming tips. 

And remember: Just keep swimming!

Sincerely,
Monica Stabile
Urban Swimming Chicago









Wednesday, November 6, 2013

The Guide to a Perfect Breaststroke Technique


Speedo created a video, presented by ProSwimwear to help improve breaststroke technique. 
Let me know what you think!






Monday, October 28, 2013

 

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