Swimmer Speeches

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

Growing up, my dad made sure that my brothers were involved in sports. Because he thought that football was too rough for them at a young age he signed them up for baseball. From then on out, we became a baseball family. Everything we did, all of our family friends were because of the sport. Even though, I did not play the sport, I still loved the game. It was the beginning of my seventh grade year when my dad informed me that it was mandatory that I participate in an extracurricular activity and because my dad was the authoritarian saying “no” to him was not a question. It was then that I decided to join a softball team.

“Cheerleading is my favorite high school memory”, said senior Molly Dudas. Many of the cheerleaders would agree, it is a privilege and an honor to be a part of the tradition and school spirit that makes STA. The cheerleaders revelle their favorite parts of the long season “This is my second year cheering for the sta basketball team and every season is always a blast! There’s never a dull moment cheering for the best team around with your friends. Can’t wait to try out again for the squad!”,said sophomore Carli Brent. The girls are always encouraging each other to keep cheering even in the worst of loses on and off the court. “Cheering at STA is like having a second family”, said senior Emily Huard. “Being apart of something so uplifting

The school day ends, and while most students go home, swimmers still have one final practice to complete before heading home. In the time before practice starts, those who are participating in conference take a look at the psych sheet with all their times and competitors’ times with mixed emotions.

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.

A large number of swimmers don’t like it, whether that be because of the sheer difficulty, or because swimming makes them anxious, or because they’ve simply been swimming for so long that they are no longer entertained. The last option is the one that seems to hold true for most club swimmers who no longer find joy in the sport, the ones who have been doing it for five, eight, even eleven years. Those are the people who are simply tired of it. I, on the other hand, love swimming and the feeling of gliding though the water. People will tell you that no one, in any sport, really enjoys practices, but I can honestly tell you that I do. For at least the last five months I have looked forward to swim practice everyday. If nothing else, I know that I have an outlet for my anger, frustration, or any other emotion that I may have. At best, I know that I have a group of friends who are all working to achieve the same goal as I am and that I can always lean on them for support and they can always lean on me, if need be. The feeling of swimming a good race is one of the best feelings in the world. When you can tell that you're just flying through the water and you have everyone’s attention and you know that you're better than you were the last time you raced, better than you were yesterday. I guess maybe that’s the thing I like about practice, that everyday I’m

Between 1998 to 2001 there have been 10 school shootings involving 43 deaths and 60 wounded teachers and students (Hawley, 1). Based off of the Council of State Governments there were 33 states presented with bills related to arming teachers and staff but only Alabama, Kansas, Tennessee, South Dakota, and Texas passed laws (Murphy). These bills were presented after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Connecticut. In the States of Utah and Rhode Island any adult with a concealed weapon permit can carry a firearm on school grounds.

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.

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

When I was five years old, I joined the Carroll Aquatic Swim Team. I stuck with it because I loved being underwater, feeling the refreshing water all over and the sensation of touching the wall, finishing first hearing the people holler. When I got older I just didn’t have much care for it. So, I decided that I wanted to give up. Then, my mom told me that I should finish the season than I could determine, nevertheless, I did as I was told. At my last meet, my mom signed me up to swim the IM which is when you swim all four strokes. I was convinced that I couldn’t do it because I had never done it before. I told my mom that I couldn’t and I would fail, but my friend convinced me that I should do it. She told me that I would only disappoint people if I gave up; consequently, I swam and received first place. In conclusion, I ended up feeling the same exciting feeling as when I was five.

The right to an adequate education is a freedom every American child should have; however, that is not the case. Standardized testing reveals that students living in an economically stable neighborhood are more mentally developed than students living in poverty stricken communities. The problem with the educational system is not schools need to close and children need to be relocated to another one, it is inequality within the educational system continues to widen due to the expansion of the economic gap. One cannot fix issues of the broken system by closing public schools and endorsing charter school proliferation. One must first start with the economic situation of each school to ensure all students, teachers, and schools

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

Another swimming pioneer, Fredrick Cavill , helped further develop Trudgen’s stroke into an even faster stroke known as the front crawl (livestrong.com).

Support 1: Over Swimming- Excessive practice of swimming can cause damage to your joints such as tendinitis in the knees. It can also darken your skin because it requires minimum coverage of the body and since the body is always surrounded by water therefore you also don’t feel the sunburn. It can also cause infection of the ear and from viruses in case of using public pools.To avoid effect. Buy ear plugs to eliminate risk of ear infection as it is easy while swimming long periods of time to get infections. And for the case of sunburn you can use community pools to swim.

With the opportunity of a fresh start in front of us, I believe now is the time to make the changes this program needed five plus seasons ago. My first year on the team was both very exciting and intimidating. It couldn’t have been more than two days into the season before I was taken under the wing of senior captain Laura. She began to teach me the ropes of the program I would dream of leading myself one day. As a new captain, Laura explained to me her goals as a leader and what she hoped to bring to the Prior Lake Girls’ Hockey Team. As I look back to the very beginning of my high school hockey career, I have yet to see this team achieve the goals Laura set that year. What I will write about is what I have learned what makes some leaders more successful than other, and why