Personal Narrative-Day One On The Tonawanda Titans

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

I have been part of the varsity swim team for four years now, which I am now a captain of it, reached cadet chief master sergeant in Civil Air Patrol, where I soloed a plane, and other; however, these two accomplishments are the foundations of my goals.

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.

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

My definition of community is a group of people, large or small who exhibit mutual respect, cooperation, and a shared sense of purpose. These attributes provide a connection between people and a sense of belonging to something bigger than yourself. The people involved in competitive swimming form a large community that is composed of many small communities, such as my club swim team. My team, Mt. Hood Aquatics has been a part of my life since I was seven years old, and has become a second family for me. I’ve contributed to this community in many ways over the years, from helping younger swimmers, teaching swim lessons, and volunteering at swim meets that I’m not competing in. There’s been two events that exemplify this close bond we share, and my desire to help others succeed.

“I can’t imagine where we would be in life if we were not happy with our experiences. I have never been one to be driven by anything other than an appreciation for life. That is the vision through which I run my life.” Staying happy and curious is a good way to keep going in life on a path to success. Prior to making a move to Tide Swimming in Virginia Beach, Jackson Roach was the National Youth Team Head Coach for the United States and previous to that National Team Coach’s and Athlete’s Consultant. Roach has more than 40 years of high level coaching experience, which includes mentoring and training olympic medalist and multiple national swimming champions (Roach, 2017). Jackson Roach can be credited for many notable success stories among many Olympians which has aided USA Swimming multiple times to Olympic victory. Roach’s history has proven that his strategy of applying past knowledge to new situations in order to succeed, along with understanding each individual is a perfect formula for attaining each swimmer’s full potential.

Joining a team with kids ranging from five to eighteen, it can be hard. It seemed as if everyone already knew each other. At first, I felt like an outcast, but not for long, once I proved I could swim fast. It took time learning names and getting used to the practices, but in the end my entrance into this group was easy compared to the practices I had to go through. The coaches, swimmers, the swimmers’ parents became my second family. We all believed in hard work, having fun, and racing when the time came. Our norms were putting in the effort when swimming and if you did, it would pay off in the meets. Slacking off was never rewarded and always sanctioned. Either the coach or your parent, or both, would yell at you, which distracted others, which could ultimately cause you to be kicked out of practice for that day. Although I never got kicked out of practice, I was given the infamous nickname, Snax. It was not necessarily a bad nickname, it came about because I had a habit of always having snacks. We all got nick names from something we had done or just because. My best friend was Yugi, because his younger brother had called him that, my other friend we called squid; it was just part of the culture of being on the

The Geelong College boys swimming season began in Term 4 2016, and it was evident within the first handful of Saturday competitions that it was going to be a good year with many successes. The season was filled with commitment and enthusiasm, with majority of our team attending many hard and physically demanding training sessions being set day and night, Monday to Friday. With the help and dedication of our coaches Dean Alchin and Mitch Norton the college swim team was ready to take on the GISSA swim competition where we competed against various schools from both Geelong and the Bellarine. The boys swam to the best of their abilities and gave it their all taking away second place overall. Numerous personal bests were swum and it was shown that the boys were ready and pumped to take their swimming to the next level and show what a strong team the college had produced this season at the APS swim finals set at MSAC.

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.

Sometimes I find myself wondering why I put in so much effort for this sport. But, then I remember what motivates me most to continue swimming everyday. I love the sport. I love to swim. It has been a part of my life for so long, and I have no idea what I would be doing without it. During the one week in December that I was out of the pool, I realized this fact the most. The girls I get to swim with during high school season are my best friends. And they all motivate me to work harder every single day. Personal goals push me along with team goals. The amazing opportunities and memories this sport has given me are incredible, and that motivates me to reach the next level of swimming. The swimming program is very difficult, and often times my body gets so exhausted that I cannot imagine swimming another lap. But the happiness I feel after every practice, my teammates that are always there to support me, my amazing coaches, and the family like feeling that both my high school team and club team have created makes swimming so fun. This motivates me to never give up on the sport that I have always

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

I would take my daughter to her swim lessons three to five days a week, and I slowly began to grow closer to the other parents who would watch the practices from an elevated deck above the pool. Friendships were formed

For the summer of 2017, I will be broadening my education on Athletic Coaching by interning for the Peters Township Swim Club as an assistant swim coach. The internship will be ten weeks long and twenty hours per week. The requirements that are necessary for this position are to provide instruction in proper stroke technique and to make corrections as indicated. The internship involves coaching the athletes thoroughly while they are training in and out of the pool. Coaching alongside the other instructors will demonstrate what it takes to lead the swimmers throughout a practice. The internship offers a chance to work attentively and diligently with the athletes while collaborating on certain swim sets with the coaches. Working closely with

This was the exchange between my swim coach and I just seconds before I swam my last fifty yard butterfly race of the year, at the biggest swim meet of the summer. With only ten people qualifying for a second swim, I narrowly made the margin with a time of thirty-one and one hundredths of a second, and was seated in last place. I was determined in all of my being to prove the ranks wrong. Not only this, I was also resolved to beat my previous time by three seconds, which is difficult to do in such a short race. Despite the confident air I had assumed when speaking with my coach, my nerves were rather restless. I could feel the butterflies in the pit of my stomach spread to the southernmost tips of my fingertips and toes. My breath was uneven. Contributing to this anxiety, I knew I was not in the best shape. This summer had been one of multiple trips to Grandma’s, filled with many eaten “Chips Ahoy!” cookies. Both my coach and I knew this, but only one of us had low expectations. For some reason, rooted in my competitive nature, it was imperative that I swam a personal best and score major points for the team. Even if it was against all odds, I had to achieve this goal.

When I think of my swim career, it’s these words spoken by Michael Phelps that I feel most sum up my journey with this incredible sport. My swim career is not a story that boasts of incredible talent or greatness, but rather one of how my constant sacrifice for the sport I love has contributed greatly to the place I hold in my swim career today.