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General Update - Bear
It's been so long since I posted regularly in this thread I had to go back and re-read some to determine where I left off...
Bear will be changing teams in the fall back to SwimAtlanta (only a different location near us). He has really enjoyed his time with Gold and it was absolutely the right move to make when we switched initially but now things have significantly changed. Just 2 years ago Bear had a large group of friends that swam for Gold, but Brett, Daniel, and Charlie graduated in 2018, and this year Seth will be graduating, which was going to leave Bear with about 3 other guys to hang out and train with...Noah left the team about earlier in the summer because he lives too far away to take advantage of morning practices, so he found a team closer to home. Owen left a few days later because Noah wasn't going to be there, and he had quite a few friends at SwimAtlanta. Then Tommy (Coach Andy's son), moved to SwimAtlanta just a few weeks back - this move was facilitated by Coach Andy to try and spark Tommy's effort and interest in swimming following a long period of lethargy. This left Bear as not just the last remaining member of the group that hung our regularly, but 1 of only 2 boys on the entire team, and the only one in the elite lanes. So we were able to get him a spot at the same SwimAtlanta facility that Tommy moved to. It also is the facility where Owen is swimming. In addition, his high school teammate and friend Jake is at the same pool, and he is a distance swimmer so he'll provide Bear with a great training partner moving forward.
We hated to do this, as we are big fans of the Gold Coach, Ryan, but it was unquestionably in Bear's best interest. As I've said before, swimming is way to hard a sport to do if you don't have a support group that makes it fun. Bear was quite reserved for over a day knowing he was going to have to tell Ryan about the switch; I think mostly because there was some guilt weighing on him. Ryan, if you'll recall, is the coach that helped him train to break the team record in the 1000 a few years back. Thankfully, Ryan understood, even telling Bear that there were no guys left for him on the team, and that he understood the reasons behind the switch.
I really feel bad for Ryan. Numerous kids have left recently, and I think he's overwhelmed. They moved him up to head coach when Andy left, and he absolutely deserved that role, but they didn't back fill his position. Instead the owner of the club, in an obvious effort to save money has decided he'll start coaching some of the teams on occasion. Which means when he decides not to, Ryan is left to figure out how to get that team's practice covered. In addition, they hired recent graduates Daniel and Charlie to be summer coaches for the team. While they are both good guys, and undoubtedly can help, it does create an odd situation at times. Hopefully, Ryan doesn't get blamed for the exodus occurring because he doesn't deserve that.
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