Narrative Essay: The Conducted College Boys Swimming Season

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.

It was sometime around 6:00 p.m. on a Thursday night in the middle of January 2016. There was a swim meet going on and it was just about to start. The teams were warming up and getting ready for the meet that was due to start in the coming hour. I was warmed up and concentrating on the race listening to music in my newly acquired platinum studio beats. The music was loud and the nerves were setting as I walked into the locker room with my friend and teammate. As we passed I said good luck to our teammate who I was racing against in the 200 free style. Then out of know were he pulled my friend to the side and whispered something in his ear. I didn’t hear what was said as I had continued to walk. My friend came over to me and I asked what he had said and he told me. He told me

Imagine taking one step into a chlorine-filled arena. The humid air rushes onto your skin. An immense smile spreads across your face. This is because you know everything is about to change. In less than 24 hours you will be holding a glistening gold medal in your hand, standing up on the podium while the Star Spangled Banner blares for the whole world to hear and tears will stream down your face. Taking one look back at your coach, Teri McKeever, you realize if it wasn’t for her you would not be here. Graciously, you run up, swing your arms around her body, and embrace her in a powerful hug that says it all. Swimming is a very intense sport and consumes every second of a swimmer’s free time. However, putting in hundreds

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.

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”.

After another great year of running and training, Chino Hill’s Cross-Country team ended with an amazing season. Throughout all the hard-core training and rigorous races, both the boy's and girl's teams had successful results. Injuries had been a recurring problem, as some runners didn't train during the summer. Despite struggles and injuries that had occurred throughout the season, there were many improvements and achievements in the team. In League the Girl’s Varsity Team won first, and the Boy's Varsity Team achieved second. The Boy’s JV, Frosh/Sophomore, as well as the Girl's JV placed second. In Boy's Varsity the top runners were, Andrew Arvizu, Jake Bergmann, and Noah Rehfeldt, and the Girl's Varsity the top runners were, Rachele Sunagawa,

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

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

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

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

At Emory, I feel that I could most accurately be described as a student-athlete. Academic success takes priority while I’m at Emory, but swimming is a close second. Spending hours daily in the pool, I have become a part of a tight-knit collection of academically and athletically prosperous students. Struggling through difficult sets and disappointing races together makes celebrating success even sweeter. We lean on each other for strength when we feel as if we don’t have enough individually. This team is comprised of caring individuals who work together to make the whole better than the individuals. From this community I have become a better team player and now I can add to the uplifting environment by drawing upon some of my innate qualities that make me a good teammate: I am supportive, dedicated, patient, kind, and hardworking. One of the unique characteristics of the swim team is that we don’t only work on creating a great community within the team, but we try to spread that excitement and desire for success to other communities. The swim team makes great contributions the Emory community by hosting Special Olympics every week at our pool and making appearances at many events such as sporting events and freshman move

In 2009, my 9-year old daughter expressed an interest in joining a swim team. After researching the options available, I signed her up for a tryout with a local club, Vancouver Swim Club (VSC). Once complete, Meghan was assigned to the novice instructor, with the suggestion that she swim at least three times a week, and improve her proficiency with the required strokes. Over the next four years, she trained, and improved her skills, while I had the opportunity to grow in many areas in the larger VCS support organization.

For the next year, more tender aching muscles followed, more sweat, and longer days in the pool became the new normal. I yearned for the next season to prove that my painstaking training was enough and that swimming was still everything. Because it was everything. The next season came and went and my spot on varsity was secured. It was mine. I was