Swim Championships

In our house sports are strictly optional. In fact they're a treat. You get to do them if you want to and if your behavior warrants it. Denis has stopped playing soccer, which is just fine by me. Liam was withdrawn from the Bball team one season because his behavior at school was poor.

There is only one exception to this rule - Swim Team. Swim team is a required sport for all the kids. Mimi and I both agree that the kids need to know how to swim. Whether they swim fast or not is up to them. But being on swim team is like having an entire season of swim lessons essentially for free. So we clued into that early on and have the whole family signed up.

At the beginning of the season neither Seamus or Tara could make it across the pool. They were still learning how to stay above the water. And the nice thing about the Evendale swim team is that there's no pressure to compete. If you can't swim, or even if you can, coming to the meets is your call. There was no question for either of the young ones. Since they couldn't make it 25m they wouldn't compete.

And then, 2 weeks back, Seamus had a minor breakthrough. With no obvious progression, he suddenly made it across the pool! You'd expect that he'd go 5m, then 10m, and so on until 25. But no. He went 2m, then 3m, then 25. It wasn't exactly what you'd call swimming, it was doggie-paddle, but he cleared a length. There was much celebration in the house at the news!

Since he made his length Seamus immediately started thinking of swimming in the championships. I think he had ideas of winning something. So he expressed a desire to swim in them. The problem was, to qualify for the championships you have to compete in 2 meets. And the second to last meet of the season was that night. We called the coach and quickly got him onto the roster. He was going to swim in his first meet!

Race time came, and Seamus was very excited! He just knew he was going to smoke everyone. After all, on his second day of playing Bball he was one of the best kids on the team. Why not swimming? As the race began it was clear that there were two camps of 6 year olds. Ones who could actually swim freestyle - with alternate breathing pattern and everything. And those who couldn't. And Seamus finished at the back of the second group. Yup - he came in dead last. He got out of the pool in tears. He said he didn't want to compete any more - he was done.

The last meet of the season was just a couple days later. After going back and forth several times, Seamus again agreed to swim. But this time he did a little better. He still got smoked by the real swimmers, but he came in in front of a couple of the doggie-paddlers. So this time he was just angry instead of crying. And again - no interest in the championships.

Until of course the championships came around, and every kid in the village was talking about them. Of course then he was back on the team! He had qualified, so he was good to go. When his event came you could see he was nervous. But excited also. There were tons of people cheering him on, and he ate that up. There were 43 kids in his event. The top 12 made the finals, but he had no fear of being in that group. He did his normal paddle and amazing came in 34th. He was unhappy until he heard that he beat 9 other kids. Then he was back to his normal happy, cocky self. It's going to be really interesting to see how he develops. I'm guessing eventually he'll be a very solid swimmer.

Denis' story is a bit different. He's been on the team for 3 years. And he puts a very good effort in. But his CP really holds him back. In a 50m event it's not uncommon for kids to finish before he's made the turn. But he has not given up. He's clearly not pleased, but he does see his times improve, and unlike in land-based sports, he's actually started to close the gap on some of his peers. But in 3 years of racing he'd never beaten another kid in a race.

In the championships he swam the 50 free. It's his best event as the leg-kick doesn't require much flexibility. Mimi and I were both there to watch the race. He was in the slowest heat. His seed time was actually almost competitive with the other boys. It was 7 seconds behind one of them and 9 behind another. Denis has really worked on his diving and you can tell. It's every bit as good as most of the other kids. As the race started and they got into the water he was even with 2 of the 3 other boys. That's not uncommon. What happens next is that the other kids quickly pull away and Denis is left alone. Only this time it didn’t' happen.

One boy pulled away, another had a slight lead, but the 3rd boy was just 2 feet ahead of Denis. You could see Denis recognize this, and really start to put his total effort into the swim. This had never happened to him before, and he was using every ounce of energy to stay close. Going into the turn he was just a bit behind, but coming out of the turn he had a lead! A lead! For the first time in his young life. The whole way back the pool every Evendale parent was screaming their lungs out for Denis to push, with his parents screaming loudest of all! The lead ebbed and flowed. Denis would pull away, the other boy would catch up. And so it went all the way to the wall. But in the end Denis touched first!!! He had beaten someone in a race! I couldn't believe it. He had never really even been close before, but he stuck with it and he finally had some success. Having someone to swim with clearly got him to push harder than normal as he bettered his best time by 8 seconds! That's a ton in a 60-second race. I was just so proud of him I can't even explain. It was a wonderful feeling. And for the first time coming out of the pool he really looked happy. It was one of those "life could have ended and I would have been fine with it" moments. Even thinking about it chokes me up.

It's funny, but Liam's swims were, in comparison, almost anti-climactic. There's now two ways about it, the kid's fast - on land and in the water. He's regularly 1, 2, or 3rd place in the dual meets. And with 9 teams in the finals we expected he'd do well. He could have placed in 7 events, but kids are only allowed to swim 4. So he was in 25 free, 25 back, Medley relay, and free relay. He easily made the finals in both his individual events, but his times put him in the B final.

The way they run things is 12 kids make the final. 6 in the A final, and 6 in the B final. If you're in the B final, and you swim the fastest time of all 12 kids, you get 7th place. Basically you're not allowed to move in front of anyone in the A group. I can see why. A kid could sand-bag in the prelims, get into the B group, then sneak out a win without the A group knowing about it. So they go this route. Liam seems to lack motivation in the prelims, but he always brings it in the finals.

So when final time came around, in his free event he came in 2nd in the B group. So he got 8th place. But his time was faster than 2 of the A-final kids. So really he should have been 6th. Similar story in the back. He won his final, and had a time faster than 2 A kids. So really he should have been 5th. Instead he was 7th. Oh well. He still did great, scored a lot of points, and set new PRs in both events.

The relays were more of the same. Most of the Evendale kids are near the top of their races. So they knew they'd be competitive. In the free relay they were right in the think of things, but were missing one of their fast swimmers. So they ended up a solid 3rd. In the medley relay they had one weak link that set them back, but Liam made up ground and they ended up 4th. So in his 4 events Liam for 3rd, 4th, 7th, and 8th. Not a bad day at the pool!

It's funny. They're all three very different kids. But they all had fantastic races, and I'm incredibly proud of all of them as a result. For different reasons, sure, but tremendously proud nevertheless.