Narrative Essay: The Conducted College Boys Swimming Season

The journey of competitive swimming started at the age of eight for my local `neighborhood team. I exhibited great potential for the future, for I won nearly all my races. This seemed like the sport

During this positivity mission, one of the most memorable moments occurred at the Niagara LSC Championships. A few newer faces joined us this year, which was a perfect opportunity to get to know some of the swimmers in other levels. Following one of the new swimmer’s races, I turned to him on the bench and complimented his excellent race. I will never forget the smile looking back at me when he asked in disbelief, “You know my name and you watched me?”. My answer was simple, “Of course, you are my teammate”.

When I first joined the North Attleboro Swim Team my freshman year of high school, I did not know what to expect. Prior to joining, I had never swam on a team before so it was a whole new experience to me. As the first week of swim started, I was apprehensive if I wanted to continue since I was not on the same caliber as my other teammates were. The practices were brutal but extremely rewarding, as I strived to prove myself and to my coaches. As my freshman season was under way, a couple of upperclassmen took

During the spring of 2015, I missed all of the time cuts to make Speedo Sectionals, forcing me to compete in a much slower meet at the end of the season. There are few things I have experienced that are more crushing than trying my hardest and falling short of my goal. Despite the heavy disappointment, I used the opportunity to harden my resolve and use my strengths to my greatest advantage. Along with my coach’s help, I used my ability to think strategically and hone my technique through focus on the smallest details from how I would approach a swim mentally to how I would warm up. My coach had many important and useful suggestions and lessons from his past experience that required me to be an active learner that could apply his information.

Over 1,075 of all the second graders in Citrus County schools took part in the School District’s water safety last year. In addition, from August through October nearly every day high school swim athletes, their families and spectators also took place in FHSAA high school competitive swimming either in practice or by competing or attending one of the near 20 high school swim meets last school year. This means that 1,000s of Citrus county school students visit the Y each year as part of school actives. As we both agree it is our hope that the new Aquatics Director is a proponent and supportive of Citrus County School District’s learn to swim program and High School

Competing in high school athletics was the highlight of my time at Sterling High School, If I could I’d go back and do it all over agin. It allowed me to learn basic life skills, such as time management, self-accountability, leadership, and teamwork. But the most important thing it brought me was a strong support system built up of teammates, coaches, competitors, and officials. My sophomore English teacher once joked that “the girl’s swim team is like a cult” which is pretty close to the truth. From early August to late November twenty girls, a diver or two, and a pair of coaches were inseparable. Together we suffered together through every practice and worked to improve not only ourselves but each other. It was these long hours that shaped

It was time for the swim and I hate to complain, but yet again, the company Spartan hired to keep racers safe while in the water did not have near enough rescue personal in the water and it appeared a lot of the team they brought with them just sat on the side of the water doing nothing. They had younger teens in kayaks that while at least I was watching them on both Saturday & Sunday didn’t seem to be doing a good job of paying attention to the racers in the water. I personally didn’t have to rescue anyone this year, but I did hear from at least one friend that she had to

“Come on guys! Get moving!” Sam yelled. “Regan focus on your kicks.” she told me. Feeling the looks of the others, not yet placed in lanes. I kept swimming. I skipped a flip turn to regain my breath, but I’d known I would pay for it later because the coaches punished us for not doing stuff we knew we should. At the end of practice

All the work paid off. During the 2016 national competition in May, I ranked in the top 9 percent of 1,308 competitors, the highest individual performance ever posted by Decatur High School. I’m now team captain and have coaxed a lot of promising freshmen to join.

AM: They are looking very good. We are proud of these kids. The ones who are showing up for morning and afternoon practice, we are very proud of. We have a few who have been not feeling well, or getting sick or have other things that they are doing, and we are missing them. But we still have a large team. We are really happy that there are a lot of kids who enjoy aquatics and swimming. Even if they don’t feel that comfortable with it, they are still out here pushing themselves to

All of their hard work payed off , all season they swam two hours a day three times a week. It was many of the girls first time at b-champs. It turned out to be a great success and experience." The season was a lot of work, but ultimately a lot of fun and I'm glad i joined," Sophomore Emily Saviano said.

To the coaches that I never had the opportunity to work with, I see how much the younger kids adore and respect you and that is very special. You all have done a fantastic job in creating the next generation of Empire senior swimmers. I’m sure you all would have been great coaches to have.

I recall this picture being taken after our first high school swim meet. We had practiced for only two weeks before this first meet, but for hundreds of hours in years past on non-high school teams. We each came from different teams: I swam for the Wallingford YMCA Dolphins, Connor swam for the Middletown YMCA Barracudas, and Colin swam for the Haddam-Killingworth CAT team. Despite this, we united under the Coginchaug Blue Devil team (though technically also the Lyman Hall team) and each did our part to ensure the best outcome for our team’s success. We didn’t win the meet that day, in part due to the lack of people on our team (3 compared to the 20+ the opposing team had), but the feeling of success was there nonetheless. That is what this picture

Everyone at the pool was excited, nervous, and jittery about the upcoming season. August 4th symbolized a new beginning and a new chance to succeed. I knew that day would be the beginning of me working really hard everyday in practice from August until the last weekend of October. So, that is exactly what I did. I worked harder than I ever had in swim for those two months. I would come to practice and focus everyday even when it was hard. I did not only get faster but, I learned some very important life lessons. I learned how to push through when I was exhausted, sore, and discouraged. I worked hard for the regular season meets that we had but, I knew I really was working hard for state

My parents tell me that I took to swimming like... a fish takes to water. It is a safe place where I can float free of worries. Driven by passion and dedication, I decided to begin swimming competitively. Competitive swimming requires an intense level of determination and discipline. Forcing myself to get out of my warm bed at 5:30 in the morning to put on a still-slightly-damp swimsuit and stand in 40-degree weather waiting for practice to start. Putting up with limited lane space and irritating swimmers who think they are faster. Making a conscious effort to work on my stroke form, turns, touches, and techniques. The water becomes a whirlpool of injuries, losses, wins, friendships, enemies, and sickness. The water becomes home.