If you do not keep a daily log of your training, you are missing an important aspect of Masters swimming. Use the 1998 Planner included in Swim to organize your days and months. Periodically, review your swimming efforts and evaluate your progress on the goals you have set. Paul has been keeping a swim log since 1965, and has all of them dating back to 1970. He reviews them frequently, to plan his daily and weekly workouts and to see what worked before a successful meet. Margie's logs, although not quite as consistent, date back to 1988. They have proven to be quite valuable as she notes the progress on her rehab. Times continue to drop as the rest intervals gradually get shorter. What a great motivator when you see progress, wherever your goals lead you.

Seven Mavericks competed in the Clearwater Valentine's Day Meet. M and P Hutinger, Prokopi, Maloney and Vijil won individual high point awards. Other swimmers were Olufs and newcomer, Luke. Our seven swimmers placed sixth out of 26 teams--only 30 points from fourth. After the meet on Saturday, we continued our year old tradition of having dinner, together. Six of us, plus guests from Dunedin, had a fun-filled dinner at Bennigan's in Clearwater. It doesn't matter what
the age, ability level or team, we are all in the same fraternity--we love swimming.

At the Gulf Coast Senior Games, on February 19th, six Mavericks competed in the relaxed atmosphere of the meet--P & M Hutinger, Luke, Maloney, Paintner and Prokopi. They combined for a total of 32 gold medals and 6 silvers.

Tillotson and Prokopi competed in the Polk Senior Games on March 9 & 10 in Lakeland. Between them, they brought home twelve gold medals. The local newspaper took Prokopi's picture and interviewed her for an upcoming article about outstanding seniors.

At the St. Pete SCY Meet on March 27-29, thirty two teams with 275 swimmers competed. Besides swimming, the eleven Mavericks enjoyed the camaraderie of being together over the weekend. Prokopi, MacDonald, Paintner, Tillotson, Starr, and P Hutinger won high point awards. (Although in years past, awards were given to swimmers only swimming 1 or 2 events, this year St. Pete was serious when they said you had to swim 5 events. Starr (88) swam 4, and didn't receive his award.) Saturday, after the meet, the Hutingers hosted the 2nd annual post-meet pizza party at their home. It's great to get together with teammates and other swimmers to share a meal and enjoy the company of others with similar lifestyles. Our team placed third among visiting teams and the award once again was a donation to your favorite charity. Since we weren't given our award, we decided to keep it within Masters swimming. We gave it to Tampa Bay Aquatic Club, a new, enthusiastic team in the area, who will have the freedom to decide how they wish to spend our donation.

At the Sarasota T-Shirt Meet in June, five Mavericks, P. & M. Hutinger, Olsen, MacDonald & Tillotson, swam at the first meet of the LCM season. MacDonald arrived with our new mascot--a bright, green, orange and yellow, 3 ft tall stuffed FROG. By the looks of his feet, he'd give our
breaststrokers good competition in the pool.

Our six swimmers finished eighth, out of 22 teams, at the July LCM meet. P. & M. Hutinger, Maloney Prokopi were high point winners. Vijil and DeTore completed our list of swimmers. Frog also attended, but didn't compete. After Saturdays last event, we continued the post meet
pizza party tradition at the Maverick Inn, aka Hutingers. Although small in numbers, we appreciated the company of teammates and friends.

Triathlon-M Hutinger has added running (actually, half walking) and biking to her rehab strengthening efforts. On September 12, she entered her first triathlon since the accident, Tarpon Springs, and won her age group. She was tired, but not wiped out. Paul says she's training smarter.

Orlando hosted their annual SCM meet, Oct. 9-11. Eight Mavericks took this opportunity to swim and socialize. High point winners were MacDonald, Maloney, Olsen, Prokopi, Tillotson and Kurtzman. M Hutinger and Ferradji also competed. After Saturday's events, we had a Maverick
and friends dinner meeting at Uno's. Doris supplied the hats to add to the Halloween atmosphere.

The FL LMSC meeting took place after Saturday's events. Paul attended as our team rep, plus six other Mavericks, who showed support for proposed changes in leadership. Vigorous discussion took place among swimmers whose interest was in promoting objectivity for Masters, whose goals should be the first priority in our program. Since officer responsibility was lacking, we elected four new people to the Board, including the chairman. Margie Hutinger was elected to the Top Ten and Records.

Several Mavericks are preparing for the Senior Nationals, which will be held in Orlando, next year. Maloney flew to New Hampshire to visit friends, and they swam at the state meet. Bond, M. Hutinger, Luke, Maloney and Prokopi swam at The Games for Life in Sarasota, Oct. 20-21.
In Nov., Prokopi swam at Temple Terrace. Would you believe, 25's and a 75 IM? Tillotson and Maloney drove to the Sanford meet. On Nov. 8, DeTore, M. Hutinger, Luke, Maloney, Prokopi & Williams swam at the Good Life Games in Clearwater.

On December 3 & 4, the Mavericks competed at the Florida State Senior Games, at Arlington Park, Sarasota. Pat Bond, Brud Cleaveland, Kathleen Fitzgerald, Mary Lou Lee and Jean Troy made their first Maverick appearance, joining teammates DeTore, M and P Hutinger, Maloney, Olsen, Prokopi and Williams. Paul swam as the one-armed bandit, debuting two months after shoulder surgery. He amazed the other swimmers, winning three events and placing second in two. Have you tried swimming breast stroke with one arm while following the black line on the bottom of the pool? How about a back stroke start with one arm? Life isn't what happens to you; it's what you make of what happens to you. All qualified for Senior Nationals, at Orlando, in October. Paul encourages participation in the Senior Meets, for newcomers with fresh
competetive goals as well as those striving for Top Ten Times.

GEO SWIM-P Hutinger competed in this "virtual meet". All eight events were named after an open water course in a natural lake setting. The challenge was to "swim" across the lakes, ranging in length from 500 to 3500 yards. He swam in the comfort of his own North Shore Pool, in St.
Pete, FL. He enjoyed the swims, which he was able to do as broken swims, as it provided another form of motivation for his training. Paul was the 70-74 Lake Challenge Champion, and received a swim cap, eight handsome medals, and a beautiful plaque. For winning all eight events,
he received a monogrammed, large Speedo swim bag.

ONE HOUR POSTAL-Two Mavericks competed in the One Hour Postal. Prokopi swam 2995 yards. M Hutinger knew she would never be able to swim for an hour without stopping endurance still lacking after accident). In November, she set a goal of swimming sets of 400's, hoping to swim 1600 yards. By January, she had built up to 3 sets, but needed 5 min. recovery between each one. She rethought her objective, and focused on a more realistic target--2000 yards. What? More? How can that be? She decided that by the end of the month, she would be able to swim 20 x 100's @ 3:00, with a pace time of 2:30. She gradually increased the number of 100's from 4 to 15. By the end of the month, she thought she could handle the 2000 yards. On the appointed day, with Tillotson as her counter, Margie exceeded her pace, and cut the rest to less than 30 sec. After 56 minutes, she looked at Frank, and said, "No more stops." She surpassed her goal, swam 2120 yards and was tickled pink (pre-accident, 3000 yds). In the final results, she finished 42nd out of 43. Realistic goals are important and need to be reevaluated to meet the ever-changing needs of our bodies through injuries, illness, surgery, aging, etc.

GOLDEN TORCH AWARD- Congratulations to Alan Maloney for winning the prestigious 1997 Gold Torch Award. The Good Life Games, presents this trophy to the outstanding man and woman in each age group who wins the most points in the events offered. In November, he earned his success in rifle shooting, volleyball, specialty golf (chipping & putting) and, of
course, five swim events. He has won this award three years out of the past five.

One aspect of Masters swimming that has always been important to Paul, is to recognize swimmers for their achievements. When we formed our Maverick team, we wanted to encourage swimmers at all levels and abilities to participate in meets. Many were able to achieve a Top Ten
Time as an individual, but for others, to be on a relay, especially a 400 or 800, was the route to go. We recognized the All Americans and Top Ten swimmers, at the first annual awards dinner. The first award was a large, green towel, monogrammed with Florida Maverick Masters and
either All American or Top Ten, 1997. Actually, there were two get-togethers. The first, met at Tina's Restaurant in Ft. Lauderdale at the Y Nationals, April 25. After dinner, we gathered at the Hutinger/Maloney room at the Royal Saxon, to present the awards. Dave Malbrough donated a case of champagne to celebrate Maverick accomplishments, and we toasted the occasion over
glasses of bubbly. (If you weren't there, we have plenty left for other parties.) Those attending were: M and P Hutinger, J Kurtzman, MacDonald, Malbrough, Maloney, Unger, and Aaron Kurtzman, guest. Individual certificates were given to all Top Ten swimmers. A special award was given to the world relay record holders--an 8 x 10 picture, with details of the event.

Awards dinner #2, was at the Hutinger residence, April 30. After a delicious dinner of grilled chicken, creamed broccoli and cauliflower, rice and raw veggies, we again presented awards to the swimmers, over a glass of bubbly. Those attending were: Hutingers, Maloney, D Prokopi
and Tillotson, and Bill Prokopi, guest. Other recipients, not attending were: DJ Johnson, Kenner, Luke, Olsen, E Prokopi, Starr, Corkins, Olufs, Poulsen, Schlegel and Vijil. It was a significant accomplishment for our small, first year team of 27, to have 20 swimmers achieve a Top Ten Time, with 4 achieving All American recognition.

YMCA NATIONALS, FT. LAUDERDALE, FL--Although they competed for four different Y teams, five Mavericks swam at this meet, April 23-26. P. Hutinger won 7 of his 8 events and crushed Y National 11 year old records in the 100 IM and 50 &100 back. The records were held by Albert Vande Weghes, an Olympic medal winner in the 30's. Malbrough powered through his new 85 age group, winning his 6 events, setting Y National records in the 50 and 100 back, 500 free, plus a National record in the 50 back. Kurtzman won 4 events, and placed 2nd in one. Maloney had a 4th, two 5ths, three 6ths, a 7th and 8th. MacDonald had 2 firsts, a 2nd, 3rd, and two 4ths. In addition, the Boca Raton 65+ men's relay with Hutinger and Maloney broke the 14 year old Y National 200 free relay. M. Hutinger helped time for three days.
Hutinger and Kurtzman were seeded side by side in the 50 fly and 50 breast, on day one. The night before, each tried to psyche out and intimidate the other. Hutinger won the 50 breast; Kurtzman the 50 fly; each by a touchout

SCY NATIONALS, INDIANAPOLIS, IN--Three Mavericks swam at SCY Nationals, in May. Overcoming the progressive muscle weakening disease, myositis, Elmer Luke, competing at his first Nationals, swam way beyond his early expectations of merely placing in the top ten. With only a year of limited training and National jitters, he finished 3rd in the 1650 on the first day. His finished 2nd in the 400 IM, putting together his best splits and beat several outstanding swimmers. His other finishes were 9th or better . P. Hutinger won the 50 back and was 3rd or better in the other. Three of his events were his best times in two years. M. Hutinger, competing in her first Nationals since the accident, was ecstatic to place 8th in the 50 back and 9th in the 100 back. In the 50 free, she dove off the block for the first time, another post-accident
moral victory. On the trip north to Indy, M. Hutinger got behind the wheel for her first driving experience in over a year. This became more of an adventure after breakfast, as Paul became car sick. Her trusty navigator was either sleeping or reaching for the plastic bag, for most of the 550 mile day, with cars and semis buzzing by at 80+, including the busy Atlanta bypass. Lucky for both, Paul recovered by morning.

LCM NATIONALS, FT. LAUDERDALE, FL, AUG.--After day one, the men's team ranked 3rd, out of 78 small teams. By day two, they moved up to 2nd place. On the third day, our seven men overwhelming climbed into first place, and never relinquished their dominance. LCM NATIONAL CHAMPS, two years in a row! The award, an exquisite wooden plaque, with a picture of the pool complex and an inscribed plate, looks magnificent. The five women received Honorable Mention, placing fifth, out of 75 small teams. The combined team of 12, also received Honorable Mention, placing fifth, in the medium division, out of 17 teams with more swimmers.
Kenner, 75 set three world breaststroke records--50 m-52.03; 100 m-2:29.81; 200 m-4:18.10. Malbrough broke the US record in the 50 back-53.24, and had a team record six individual gold medals. P Hutinger and Olsen rounded out the group of four individual National Champs, 12 gold medals, with their outstanding swims. Other swimmers competing included: Frank Havlicek (Paul's ass't coach from U of Iowa), Luke, MacDonald, Maloney, Prokopi, Tillotson, B Havlicek and M Hutinger. Every swimmer earned a medal in every event he/she swam. The seven relays entered in the 280 or 320 age group, finished either 2nd or 3rd. The youngest relay, at 240, finished 6th. "These are exceptional results from this small, enthusiastic team, who is competing in only its second Nationals," said Paul Hutinger, Coach, and one of the team founders. Next year, the LCM Nationals will be at the U. of Minnesota, in Minneapolis. How about a threepeat?
Eight Mavericks stayed at the Royal Saxon Motel during Nationals. The semi-privacy led to a relaxed and informal atmosphere. The first night, Chef Maloney cooked a spaghetti dinner, ably assisted by Prokopi. The Hutingers furnished the tossed salad and banana cake. Every night,
we feasted at "home" and were grateful not to be part of the hectic traffic and restaurant scene. Other favorites included deli roast chicken and Big Louie's pizza. Continuing the tradition we started at Orlando, last year, at our last dinner, each swimmer commented on his/her most memorable moments of the meet. All appreciated the camaraderie and friendliness of the
Mavericks, and being able to share in a successful Nationals experience.

After Nationals, Paul had an MRI on his painful shoulder. This indicated the supraspinatus muscle was completely torn from the tendon that inserts on the humerus (resulting from crash on bicycle). On October 7th, he will have arthroscopic surgery. The rest of 1998 will be devoted to rehabbing the shoulder in anticipation of aging up, FINA, on January 1.

FINA MASTERS, CASABLANCA-The Mavericks lone representative at Worlds, Joe Kurtzman, placed 1st--50 m and 200 m fly; 2nd--100 m fly; and it took nine swimmers to beat him in the 100 m breast. 2300 swimmers competed in the swimming, diving and synchro events. He reported the conditions so primitive, that he slept in a tent in the desert and rode to the meet on a camel. You're tuff, Joe!

WORLD GAMES, PORTLAND, OR- Kurtzman won the 50 m, 100 m, 200 m fly, and 50 breast and placed 2nd in the 100 m brst. The Aussie that Joe beat in the 50 breast told him, "But for you, I'd have all golds." Joe responded, "But for you, I'd have all gold's." Joe felt that the meet ran exceptionally well, and the medals were top quality. Gerry DeTore also competed.

CAPS-The LCM National team made a splash in the pool with our creative and unique orange caps, imprinted with white FLORIDA MAVERICK MASTERS letters, courtesy of Doris Prokopi. Our first team caps. The rest of the caps were sold for $3, profits to national relays fund.

SUITS-Now that we have team caps, what are your feelings about team suits? We received a catalog from TURBO swim wear. Margie got a turbo suit 5 years ago. She has worn it to meets, and this past summer, to practice. She always receives compliments on it. It has not stretched
out of shape nor lost the bright colors, like her other suits. The officers felt that completely custom dyed suits, with any design & color combination and limitless ideas, would be appropriate for the Mavericks. Other possibilities are team t-shirts, with the same logo. Since we already have orange caps, how do you feel about unique, colorful blue suits? How about a bright orange for the logo? Think about the Florida Gators uniforms. We want your input and would appreciate your comments. Please write or give us a call. Buying a team suit is NOT a requirement of Maverick membership. YOU are important to us, no matter what suit you chose to wear.

MAVERICK TAG (LICENSE PLATE)-Some of you have seen the front tag (license plate) on our car. Paul experimented with a simple colored enlargement, which we had laminated. It looked great on the license plate holder, however, didn't fare too well in the Florida sun (faded)
and rain (soaked). Margie decided to splurge and get a "real" one for Paul's Father's Day present, from Tags-R-U, at a local mall. The original cost almost $40, however, they keep the design in the computer for updates. While trying to decide on the design, Margie decided to
put the logo in the middle and 1997 on the left side. You guessed it--1998 is already imprinted on the right side. Planning ahead does pay off. If you are interested, we can order one for you at the bargain price of $22.42. Besides the Hutinger Honda, Frank Tillotson's Toyota and Bob MacDonald's Mazda are also wearing the Maverick National Champs tag.

NOTES-We sold all of the initial batch of Maverick notes, for a grand profit of $13.50, which went into the relay fund for Nationals. There will be another selection in the future.

This column is dedicated to Honorary Mavericks, everywhere. It doesn't matter what team you swim with, or even if swimming is your choice of exercise. We appreciate the support you have shown for our new, small and enthusiastic team, both verbally and financially. Four issues of
our Maverick Lane Lines have been sponsored by this special fraternity. You have joined us in social celebrations and shared in the camaraderie, cheered for us at meets and celebrated our victories and National Championships. Plan on joining us at one of our fun happenings in 1999.
The Future Maverick that sponsored this issue is looking forward to becoming a Maverick, this fall. THANKS, YOU ARE COOL!!!!

The Hutingers live in an evacuation zone, and spent several days with Paul's son in Tampa. Tillotson also spent several days with a friend. Luckily for them, the storm didn't head north in the Gulf as close to the coast as earlier predicted.

Thanks to all who called or sent in their ballots for our second election. Your officers are:

This year, we submitted our newsletter to the National contest. Nothing ventured; nothing gained; and perhaps, we would make the top 25. The FL LMSC Newsletter won the contest, and our Maverick Lane Lines reached the top eight semi-finalists. This is exciting news for our 2nd year
publication. Since there is no differentiation between state and club newsletters, our small-time computer operation competed with the Big Dogs and all their print shop capabilities.

THANK YOU!!!!!!! Year two of our Maverick existence has been equally, if not more, exciting than our first year. Another National Title, monogrammed towels for our Top Ten and All Americans, Honorable Mention for our newsletter, and continual moral and financial support from our members and friends. We extend our thanks to those who have financially contributed in 1998 to the success of our club which has allowed us to pursue our objectivties.

Out of your $30 dues, only $7 stays with our club. This, and generous donations, from $5 to $100, constitute our entire means of support. Part of the cost of printing the newsletters comes from specified donations. The relay fund is the club's contribution (donated) for those competing in National Relays. In order to provide the Top Ten and All American awards, costing over $400, we solicited donations to cover that amount. Overall, we received $550 in donations. Our checkbook balance at the end of the year was $136.