Summer Swim League in the NVSL...Another Great Season!

Awesome Foursome Relay

If you've read any of my past summer blogs you know I love summer swimming and in part because of the incredible opportunity here in Northern Virginia with the Northern Virginia Swim League (NVSL www.mynvsl.com ).   This summer was no different and I was able to enjoy watching my 10 year old and her 3 relay teammates achieve the (before now) unthinkable in July.  They not only went out and won every time they swam their medley relay, missing the pool record by .08 hundreds of a second, but at Relay Carnival they won the 100 free relay too and qualified for All Star Relay seeded 15th out of 18 teams.  We were beyond shocked and so proud of them.  This was the icing on the cake since our team, Springboard Barracuda's went undefeated and also won the Relay Carnival!

Us posing and Brad working

Before the season began though, I had to attend a few official classes and qualified to work not only as a stroke and turn official but also a starter and meet referee.  Frankie even let me run one of our B meets as the referee! To be honest I thought for sure I'd be going to recurrent training two years from now never having worked a single meet as a referee, ha ha.  The picture on the right is me the night I did work as a referee, a better one would be Frankie (a good friend and someone I can work and have a drink with, all around good guy) and myself but it was just a crazy summer with a lot of rain. Not a great photo opportunity when you're just trying to keep the paperwork on your clipboard dry and the starting system too.  I do love working the meets, it keeps me calm while I wait to watch McB swim, if it weren't for that I would be a nervous wreck every Monday and Saturday...and sometimes Wednesdays!






 I think the Monday night meets were warm and sunny and all the Saturday A meets were rain and ponchos for us.  Despite that McB had her best times in everything but the 50 breast this summer and kept getting faster as the season went on.  She rocked her fly again and really, even though her Divisional meet wasn't what she wanted it to be and we were all disappointed for her, the swims she had in the relays and the All Star Relay meet really made the season the best ever.  I will say in this picture to the left, she is a mini me.  The swim suit, cap and ears out but most telling is her stance and her hands on her hips, exactly the way I've always stood prior to a race.  When I saw her standing like this that night it brought tears to my eyes.  I know she loves to swim and I can only hope she continues improve and enjoy the rewards that come from hard work in the pool.  




Around this time in July my folks were here to visit and honestly they came to see McB swim and compete.  They got their money worth because they flew in the day before All Stars, and left after seeing 4 meets in 4 different pools and getting to hang out at Raft Night at our pool too.  Here is my dad her McB after the IM Carnival Meet.  I'm so glad they get to see her do these things. I'm sorry we did have so many meets that we didn't take them to a Nationals or Potomac Nationals baseball game or down to sightsee but I think they got to do what they wanted to and that was to see a small slice of McB's summer and all her friends.  I will also add that all my girlfriends are my mom's too, I swear she has a very busy social life here in DC!



Let's get back to the Awesome Foursome 10 year olds.  Like I said earlier they were seeded 15th but at the All Star Relays but they dropped 3 seconds and jumped up to 8th overall! It was the first time a relay from Springboard had ever made the All Star meet and to get 8th was huge.  They were the only relay to qualify out of Division 14 and the lowest division to qualify at all.  It was so great to see them do so well. 

Before the race with Coach Kellee

They were cool and relaxed during the meet and I think really just enjoyed it and took it all in.  Meanwhile, I was a total mess on the inside and I think Vicky was too.  We appeared to be calm on the outside though and managed to keep the girls focused.  Tiffany did an awesome job of securing seats for us as well as the rest of the family members that were there.  (She had her folks, my folks and Kaitlyn and Erin- nothing says love like sitting in 90 degree heat on a pool deck to watch your girlfriends little sister swim for about 15 seconds and have a crazy mom screaming like a freak above her head-that would've been me).  Yuko and her family were over to the right from us and managed to get a normal video of the swim without a crazy mom screaming in it.  Thank goodness the moms all work as a team too!

The girls and Sarah and the Relay
Carnival Trophy

So there you have it, just a little snippet of our summer swimming this year.  It's hard to put into words the fun, laughter, races, workouts, movies, bowling events and all the victories we enjoyed seeing McB and her friends experience.  As an adult it's fun to relive our summers through our kids eyes these days and to really appreciate these beautiful days they are having.  I say it every year, I feel very blessed to spend these summers with these awesome parents and kids at Springboard Pool. 

 

So here, for a good laugh, is the video I referred to above.  It also shows why I'm better off being on the deck working the meet than sitting in the stands watching. 

Finally, you can't have summer without at least one picture of McB and Ry!