[Breeze]

Brett
Age: 11
Birtdate: August 2000 (this is important because the birthdate will impact how old the swimmers are for each season)
Height: @55"
Weight: @70 lbs

Description:
Brett is a very small and skinny 11 year old, who wears glasses is very intelligent. He also but suffers from extreme ADHD, and is quite possibly the most stubborn child I've ever met. Many things have come easy to him through his life...he learned to read music (and write music too actually) and play the piano really quickly, then lost interest and gave it up. He is a gifted artist (so much so he drew portriats of himself and his siblings for my mother for Christmas and he drew my niece for my brother...and they are phenominal), and he is a bit of a geek. He isn't really all that athletic, though he was a decent baseball player prior to giving it up for swimming. Unfortunately, Brett is also a bit of a loner. Due to his late birthday, Brett is by far the youngest and smallest in his class (in fact he's over a year younger than 3 kids in his class), and as I said above, not all that athletic, so the other boys aren't trying to buddy up to him. His intelligence, ADHD and stubborness also cause problems in making friends...as he doesn't relate well with kids around his age. He is very sensative and gets his feelings hurt easily, though it is hard to tell because he internalizes everything. Swimming is the one place where he truely feels comfortable...he really loves the sport and it is part of his idenity.

Resume:

2008

7/8 Forsyth County Championships 25 Yard Breaststroke - Champion

Brett was not a year round swimmer at this point (in fact, it was this win that started the entire swimmer family train down the track). He won this race by 1.25 seconds despite the fact he didn't even know how to dive.

7/8 GRPA Championships 100 Yard Medley Relay - 8th Place
Brett swam the Breast leg in the relay, and though he earned the spot by winning the county championship and there was no

one better in the county to swim in his place, he was the weak link on the team.

7/8 GRPA Championships 25 Yard Breastroke - 21st

Brett finished 21st in the state - not bad - especially given he still didn't know how to dive


2009

7/8 Forsyth County Championships 25 Yard Breaststroke - Champion

Brett defended his title winning by over 1 second.

7/8 Forsyth County Championships 50 Yard Freestyle - Champion

Brett battled neck and neck with a former baseball teammate in this event, but his year round swimming allowed him to take

a lead on the turn (due to being able to flip-turn) and then enabled him to out work his opponent to the wall.

7/8 Forsyth County Championships 25 Yard Freestyle - 5th

By finishing 5th in this event, Brett qualified to swim in the "B" Free Relay at the state meet.

7/8 GRPA Championships 25 Yard Breaststroke - 17th

Not his best swim, but posted a time similar to the one he won county with

7/8 GRPA Championships 50 Yard Freestyle - 14th

Good swim, but too many bigger powerful kids.

7/8 GRPA Championships 100 Yard Medley Relay - 5th

Good race for Brett here. His split was actually a personal best

7/8 GRPA Championships 100 Yard Free Relay - 6th

Swam the anchor and the team did well...the highest placing B team at the meet


2010

9/10 Forsyth County Championships 25 Yard Breaststroke - Champion

This was an amazing race. Brett's regular season this Summer wasn't particularly good. His times didn't improve much from 2009, and when the county meet rolled around Brett wasn't even in the fastest heat (the 10 fastest times swim against each other in the last heat - but the meet is run as a timed finals so every heat is factored into the final standings). Brett
swam an amazing race in his heat. Dropping 2+ seconds from his previous best. I was thrilled, I remember jumping up and down and running to the end of the stands (we swim our county meets at the Ga Tech Olympic pool - so we really have stands) to tell him I thought he probably did well enough to qualify for state (top 3 time qualify)...but I didn't think he would win. But before I could get there to tell him the final race had already started...and I starting watching it with 1 eye and watching the clock with the other. When the race ended, the winner was .8 seconds behind him. I yelled at him from the stands that he had won, and his face just lit up...(I had been preparing him for days that he probably wasn't even going to make the state team this time, telling him to do his best, but not to get disappointed. When he made it, seeing the joy on his face absolultely brought tears to my eyes.

9/10 GRPA Championships - 25 Yard Breaststroke - 22nd

Similar time to county, but we didn't have much hope it would be much higher in the final standings

9/10 GRPA Championships - 100 Yard Medley Relay - 4th

Just missed getting on the podium...sort of...2 seconds from 3rd...but only 1 spot which is what Brett remembered.


2011

9/10 - Georgia 14U Short Course State Championship - 100 Yard Breastroke - DQ
This is an event for year round swimmers and to qualify for this event you must swim a time that meets the event minimums (state cuts). Brett worked extremely hard during this short course season to get a state cut. He was very close all year to the 50 yard time but never achieved it. However, in the last chance meet (so named because it is your last chance to get a
state cut)...he dropped his personal best in the 100 breast by 3 seconds and qualified. This meet was in Savannah, but we decided he had put too much effort into this achievement to not be rewarded...so we took the family. It was expensive...hotel, food, entertainment. The day of the meet we get there for warm up...he does his prep work and we wait, and wait and wait for his event (the meet was running behind). Finally, his event is called and he gets in line. Then when it is time for him to step up on the blocks, he doesn't hear the whistle...so he's a second late getting up. The start says take your marks...then stand - another official walks over to my son, asks him to step down and DQs him for being late on the blocks. I WAS PISSED...in fact, I wrote a nasty letter to the Georgia Branch of USA SWimming. This was another moment where I got tears in my eyes. My son was devistated. Rather than being pumped up about swimming he was ready to quit. And to make matters worse we had a 6 hour drive home, where he would stew about what had happened to him.

9/10 - Georgia 14U Long Course State Championship - - 100 Yard Breaststroke - 18th

After a brief period of pouting we were able to get Brett refocused and ready for long course. He did great here. swimming a personal best at the meet. This 18th place is a MUCH bigger achievement than his finishes at the GRPA meets

9/10 Georgia 14U Long Course Stat Championship - 50 Yard Breaststroke - 22nd

Again a personal best and a great swim

9/10 Forsyth County Championships - 25 Yard Breaststroke - 2nd

Brett lost in this race by .04 seconds. It was a disappointment, but he took it pretty well.

9/10 GRPA Championships - 25 Yard Breaststroke - 9th

This was a huge disappointment for Brett. Coming into this season he really wanted to get to the state finals in breaststroke, which meant finishing in the top 8...and he would have had it if not for a bad dive. He was way too deep on the dive and he ended up finishing .04 seconds out of 8th. Had he swum what he was swimming in training he actually would have finished 6th...

9/10 GRPA Championships - 100 Yard Medley Relay - 4th

This time Brett wasn't a problem for the relay and they were just beaten by 3 better teams.

Summer League Team MVP: 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011

Notes

You may have noticed that most of Brett's achievements have been in Breaststroke. He is a very natural Breaststroker...in fact, he was swimming Breast in the relays on the summer team as a 6 year old because there were no 7/8 boy that could do it legally. His year round coaches constantlytell us his form is amazing for a young swimmer, and Brett sees himself as a breaststroker. This is good and bad. Good in that he has an identity and bad in that he has ignored the other strokes a bit. As you may have noticed...he hasn't gotten any other state cuts and he hasn't even qualified for GRPA events other than Breast. Some of that is because the breast causes him to have a sloppy kick when doing scissor kick or dolphin kick, and some of it is because he mails in the drills on those strokes. He is only now starting to try to get better in those strokes. Also so many of these Forsyth County championships have come really easily and he's just now learning how to work hard in practice.