Personal Narrative: My First Empire Senior Swimming

I would like to ask you about becoming a team captain for this coming swim season. I think that this year I could be helpful as a team captain because I have been on the team for a while and because I know many of the procedures of the team. If I need to do anything else just let me know.

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.

My name is Alauna Torres and I am a student in the eleventh grade at Inderkum. I work hard to maintain grades in the IB Diploma program and struggle, just as any other student does. Last year, I joined Inderkum’s first swim team in six years. After practicing everyday for two hours, I made a bond with many people on my team. As a team, we couldn 't wait to get out of school, huddle together in the atrium, share food, stories, jokes, and insecurities. We tried to get everyone involved, hoping they wouldn’t feel alone or unimportant. As peers around, our job can’t always be fulfilled if our teachers, staff, and coaches don’t do the same to their students.

Having the pleasure of being coached by you, I learned many things. Watching you stay calm in the tense situations has taught me to keep my composure. The way you keep the team together and united is an amazing attribute that I plan to use throughout my life. Your fungo swing is flawless; I hope to have that skill if I ever become a baseball coach. Your coaching abilities have made me the player i am today.

Over the past three years we have acquired many top players that have allowed our team to develop the skill and force we need to take down top teams. These girls have many unique qualities and skills that have allowed us to excel to another level that we could not achieve alone. Not only that, but the coaching staff, the strength and conditioning development staff, trainers, and athletic department have been working so hard for us all year and have provided us the resources, and means to be great. However, I stand by the argument that a major source of success this season came from the senior class. Every single one of the seniors has made a major contribution to this team on and off the field and I believe they are in the spirit and the heart of this group that stood as the foundation for the success of the

Once I was there I overheard all the stories about people making their team and how excited they were. Standing in the background, I was too embarrassed to even talk. Eventually I overcame the initial sadness and embarrassment as I remembered the coach's words of advice. I truly did love swimming and I wanted to continue. So I did, with more motivation than ever. In the process I made a commitment to myself, that I would make the team. Later I can to realize not making the team was a blessing in disguise. I moved up to a faster group and train harder than I had before, tremendously improving along the way.

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”.

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.

My most memorable baseball experience came not when I was eight, beating several of my friends on the opposing Little League team, not when I was 15, against our cross-town rivals pushing my school team into the JV playoffs, but just a couple weeks ago, marking the first win of the team that I helped to coach. It was just the second game of our season, and only an hour and a half long, but it was a representation of the backbreaking work applied by everyone involved. After my ninth grade year playing JV ball, I decided that I needed to focus on my school work, as it was tough to maintain my grades while juggling sports and other extracurricular activities. However, I continued to play club baseball, as my passion for the game never faltered. The trend continued in my junior year, as I needed to drop club baseball in order to keep up with the challenging courses I took. My coach, who I’ve been with since 6th grade, asked me to come back out whenever I was available so I could help prepare a team of the younger boys in the program for the upcoming season. One of my core beliefs is that it’s essential to give back to those who helped or supported you; the least I could do for all the years that my coach

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

“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.

Everyone says your team is your family, I never knew until Junior year when I joined the Elsik Varsity Swim Team. Everyone knew each other since Freshman year, I was the new bee who just entered “The Family”. Coming into that, I thought I was going to be the odd one out, I was wrong. Everyone was welcoming, I recognized some faces but just from walking in the hallways, not actually having a full blown conversation. Practices started at 5:00 A.M that year, it was terrible; when finishing practice everyone of us would go out and play cards or “I have never…”; it was crazy what some of them have done. Once season began our meets were the most exciting; that’s when others can see how we felt about our team. When one of our swimmers had an event

The team was ready, we had been working extremely hard for the past seven months for this. We were all in great shape and very rested. A few of the returning players were meeting me at my house to carpool to the final game of the state championship tournament. Everyone knew that the hard work had paid off when we won the semi-final game the preceding day.

By this time I had started to go through puberty and became taller which enabled me to swim faster. The morning group was full of dedicated swimmers who were crazy enough to get up every morning to go jump into a pool and practice. Of course I was no different, but during April of that season I had started to lose my motivation. I began to skip practices and gave my parents excuses, which then they told me to take it easy. After two months of periodic practices, I realized that swimming was an activity that I wanted to do and that I loved, and I decided that I would not allow myself to quit, no matter how hard it became. When the new season started, I started to push myself, trying to keep up to the faster swimmers. I became close with my team mates as people who go through pain together get closer. We started to have more fun together from going out, to having funny conversations in the locker rooms. I also began to do travel meets where we would spend a few days together, eating, sleeping, and swimming. I spent more time out of the pool with my friends and even became romantically involved with one. Now, swimming has become one of the most important things to me, it has been the activity that has the most influence on my life. From my work ethic, sleeping habits, to my choice of friends, all of them are tied to