Swim Team

We really enjoyed the swim team this summer. Norah and some little girls would  play on the days they wouldn't have guppy practice. The boys really worked hard and had a lot of fun.  And I got to sit and talk to the other moms and made some new friends! 

Not all of the guppies always wanted to swim so the guppy coach would pick kids whose hands were up to go first.  Norah almost always had her hand up so she could go. 

Colin worked extremely hard. He would be the one pushing himself during practice and then want to go to the pool later and swim laps for several more hours. He really really wanted to make All Stars this year.

The way our division works is that each team sends the top two swimmers per event go to Divisionals. Then out of the three Divisional Meets they take the top 12 times from those. Its hard for just summer swimmers to make All Stars. Its usually mainly year round swimmers. But that was Colins goal and I've never seem him work harder. Joel worked hard in practice but could take it or leave it at this point.

Norah got to swim in the last meet.  They had a kickboard relay for the guppies and they even called their event to the zoo and Norah was lined up and taken to her event.  She was so excited.

They announced the Divisional team at the swim team party. Colin made it in two relays, free, back and breast.  He really wanted to swim fly but after looking at the All Star times he had a better chance of making it in back and free so he wasn't too upset after that.  He was really nervous about back because he had only swam it twice this season but I told him he was part Gouger and reminded him how fast Hannah was in back.  He dropped a second in back!   Joel made Divisionals in a relay and free. 

Colin and Owen were the fastest boys in their age group this year.  Owens dad is the team rep and his mom promised to text me when they got the All Star team information.  Joel's relay made it.  Colin did not.  It was nice to be getting that information from someone as disappointed as we were.  Colin was really sad.  His relay missed it by 0.03 seconds but we told him how proud he should be of that relay.  It was hard as a parent to be so excited for Joel and sad for Colin. Especially after how hard Colin worked this summer. 

Joel has made Divisionals and All Stars twice now!  He did say he would retire if he made them both next summer! ha!  But after a hard week of All Star practice and swimming All Starts yesterday he has changed it so I think he really enjoyed it.  Its also been really good for just Joel to make it.  He spends a lot of time in Colins shadow and to do well and make something that is really hard to make is really good for him. 

Joel swam event 1 in the All Star meet but we stayed several hours to cheer on friends and also for the boys to just sit and play games with their friends. There is a lot of downtime in a long swim meet.

These girls made swim meets and practices so fun for Norah. She played for hours with them.

She is very proud of her trophy.  It even has glitters and sparkles on it! 

It was a great season and we are looking forward to next summer. I was asked to be on the swim team board so we are definitely committed to next summer.  Our team is going to continue with winter conditioning practice. Colin is begging to do a year round team but doesn't want to give up basketball so we are exploring different options.  You know the kids love it when they go to the pool and instead of going down the slides or just playing they want to swim laps. Its been fun and good for me to get back to swimming laps too! I can still beat Colin but not for long!