Front Office Football Central - View Single Post - Swim Like A Champion (a real life journal)

Breeze · 12-20-2011, 11:04 AM

Bear
Age: 9
Birthdate: April 2002
Height: @53"
Weight: @66 lbs

Description
Bear is a super sweat kid, who wants to make everyone happy, and because of this he is a hard worker. He is also pretty sensative and has for a while stated that "I'm the worst swimmer in the family", "I hate swimming", and of course "I want to quit". His mother and I haven't forced him to swim, we tell him he may quit if he likes, but he'll still have to go to the meets to watch his brother and sister swim (no small thing considering each meet is a minimum of 3+ hours for both Saturday and Sunday). Bear also has some other sporting interests...he wants to play football and he does play golf (Brett plays golf too, but .

Resume

2009

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

This is noteworthy only because of the circumstances surrounding the results. Of the 4 people that beat Bear, the 3rd place finisher was also the 2nd place finisher in the 25 Free and he elected to swim the Free leg in the B relay at state rather than the Fly leg of the C relay team, and the 4th place finisher opted out of going to state, so Bear swam the Fly leg in the C relay (no individual events).

7/8 GRPA Championships - 100 Yard Medley Relay - 13th

Bear swam a personal best in his heat (of course the rolling start of a relay helps). He looked great as he was able to make up ground on several other teams during his 25 yard swim.

2010

7/8 Forsyth County Championships - 25 Yard Free - 8th

This qualified Bear to swim on the B Free Relay at the State Meet

7/8 Forstyh County Championships - 100 Yard Individual Medley (IM) - Champion

This was an unbelievable swim for Bear. His best time coming in was a 1:48.50. In the race he got out to an early lead with the fly leg (his best), then opened the lead with this back (2nd best stroke). He was up by about half a pool at this point, but his Breast is weak (not compared to his other strokes, but in general), however, he was able to hold the lead, then bring it home in the free. He ended up not only swimming a personal best, but he dropped his time by 5 seconds (1:43:55).

7/8 Forsyth County Championships - 25 Yard Butterfly - Champion

Bear swam a personal best in this race as well, and improvement of .6 seconds and he won by .8

7/8 GRPA Championships - 100 Yard IM - 8th

The GRPA Event is one where preliminaries are swum in the morning and finals for the top 8 qualifiers in the afternoon (I never mentioned it before now, because it wasn't necessary). In the prelims, Bear once again blew me away with his effort. Just like county Bear opened up a big lead in the fly and back legs, Unfortunately, unlike county he wasn't able to hold off all the other swimmers as 1 boy beat him in the heat. However, Bear not only swam another personal best, he improved from his 1:43.55 to a 1:36.12 (a huge 7+ second drop...meaning in his last two races he dropped 12+ seconds in this event). We sweated out the results and Bear finsihed 8th in the prelims, earning him a spot in the finals and in individual medal no matter where he finished in the finals.

Unfortunately, the finals didn't go as well for Bear. Fatigue really set in and he was unable to match is time from the prelims, swimming a 1:40.51, which placed him 8th. In all honestly though, even if he had matched his prelim time he still would have been 8th...and he honestly wasn't as good as the other 7 swimmers. I was thoroughly impressed he had even made the finals. He was disappointed however...in fact we have a picture of him sitting apart from the other swimmers before the medal presentations...(it is a great picture with him back lit by the glass walls of the facility). When he was handed his medal he was so upset he didn't look at it at first, but we snapped a picture when he peaked at it, finally accepting his accomplishment. In his eyes he had finished last...it took some significant explaining that he hadn't finished last but rather 8th in the State...

7/8 GRPA Championships - 25 Yard Butterfly - 10th

This one was a bit disappointing. The Fly followed the IM at this event, and Bear was still exhausted from the effort of his 1:36. He ended up swimming about half a second off of his personal best, had he been within .25 of that time he would have made the finals here as well. I will until the day I day, say that if the event order were different Bear would have made the finals here...

7/8 GRPA Championships 100 Yard Medley Relay - DQ

This was a heartbreaker...Bear was on the A Medley relay for the county, swimming the fly leg. In the prelims they killed it winning their heat by a bunch...however, the backstroker turned over going into the wall and was DQed. Making matters worse...the County's B team finished 2nd in the state only losing to the first place team by .22 seconds - and Bear's relay came in with a seed time more than 2 full seconds faster....ugh...

7/8 GRPA Championships 100 Yard Free Relay - DQ

Another heartbreaker. Bear was on the B relay team, but an unfortunate thing occurred right before the meet...one of the A swimmers broke his arm, so the 5th place B team swimmer moved up to the A relay and the 9th place county swimmer moved up to the B relay. This means the boys that had practiced their relay starts for several practices weren't together for the preliminaries...and as you can guess the swimmer moved from the C to the B team - left early and the team was DQed. This became more bitter with the county's C team (including inserting a swimmer into the relay that didn't even finish in the top 15 at the county meet to take the place of the swimmer that left early) finished 8th. The A team finsihed 2nd. Bear's team, based on seed time probably finishes 5th if they aren't disqualified.

Summer League Team MVP: 2007, 2008, 2010

Note
Bear just missed qualifying for the C Relay in the GRPA State Meet in 2011, similar to the way he qualified in 2009, but this time the swimmer that qualified in both fly and free elected to swim the fly...rather than the free (same swimmer as a matter of fact).

Bear's Summer League MVPs (listed above): in 2009, and 2011 he loses the MVP for his age group to Brett...he is second in MVP Points both years...

12-20-2011, 11:04 AM	#5
Breeze Grizzled Veteran Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Northern Suburbs of ATL	Bear Age: 9 Birthdate: April 2002 Height: @53" Weight: @66 lbs Description Bear is a super sweat kid, who wants to make everyone happy, and because of this he is a hard worker. He is also pretty sensative and has for a while stated that "I'm the worst swimmer in the family", "I hate swimming", and of course "I want to quit". His mother and I haven't forced him to swim, we tell him he may quit if he likes, but he'll still have to go to the meets to watch his brother and sister swim (no small thing considering each meet is a minimum of 3+ hours for both Saturday and Sunday). Bear also has some other sporting interests...he wants to play football and he does play golf (Brett plays golf too, but . Resume 2009 7/8 Forsyth County Championships - 25 Yard Fly - 5th This is noteworthy only because of the circumstances surrounding the results. Of the 4 people that beat Bear, the 3rd place finisher was also the 2nd place finisher in the 25 Free and he elected to swim the Free leg in the B relay at state rather than the Fly leg of the C relay team, and the 4th place finisher opted out of going to state, so Bear swam the Fly leg in the C relay (no individual events). 7/8 GRPA Championships - 100 Yard Medley Relay - 13th Bear swam a personal best in his heat (of course the rolling start of a relay helps). He looked great as he was able to make up ground on several other teams during his 25 yard swim. 2010 7/8 Forsyth County Championships - 25 Yard Free - 8th This qualified Bear to swim on the B Free Relay at the State Meet 7/8 Forstyh County Championships - 100 Yard Individual Medley (IM) - Champion This was an unbelievable swim for Bear. His best time coming in was a 1:48.50. In the race he got out to an early lead with the fly leg (his best), then opened the lead with this back (2nd best stroke). He was up by about half a pool at this point, but his Breast is weak (not compared to his other strokes, but in general), however, he was able to hold the lead, then bring it home in the free. He ended up not only swimming a personal best, but he dropped his time by 5 seconds (1:43:55). 7/8 Forsyth County Championships - 25 Yard Butterfly - Champion Bear swam a personal best in this race as well, and improvement of .6 seconds and he won by .8 7/8 GRPA Championships - 100 Yard IM - 8th The GRPA Event is one where preliminaries are swum in the morning and finals for the top 8 qualifiers in the afternoon (I never mentioned it before now, because it wasn't necessary). In the prelims, Bear once again blew me away with his effort. Just like county Bear opened up a big lead in the fly and back legs, Unfortunately, unlike county he wasn't able to hold off all the other swimmers as 1 boy beat him in the heat. However, Bear not only swam another personal best, he improved from his 1:43.55 to a 1:36.12 (a huge 7+ second drop...meaning in his last two races he dropped 12+ seconds in this event). We sweated out the results and Bear finsihed 8th in the prelims, earning him a spot in the finals and in individual medal no matter where he finished in the finals. Unfortunately, the finals didn't go as well for Bear. Fatigue really set in and he was unable to match is time from the prelims, swimming a 1:40.51, which placed him 8th. In all honestly though, even if he had matched his prelim time he still would have been 8th...and he honestly wasn't as good as the other 7 swimmers. I was thoroughly impressed he had even made the finals. He was disappointed however...in fact we have a picture of him sitting apart from the other swimmers before the medal presentations...(it is a great picture with him back lit by the glass walls of the facility). When he was handed his medal he was so upset he didn't look at it at first, but we snapped a picture when he peaked at it, finally accepting his accomplishment. In his eyes he had finished last...it took some significant explaining that he hadn't finished last but rather 8th in the State... 7/8 GRPA Championships - 25 Yard Butterfly - 10th This one was a bit disappointing. The Fly followed the IM at this event, and Bear was still exhausted from the effort of his 1:36. He ended up swimming about half a second off of his personal best, had he been within .25 of that time he would have made the finals here as well. I will until the day I day, say that if the event order were different Bear would have made the finals here... 7/8 GRPA Championships 100 Yard Medley Relay - DQ This was a heartbreaker...Bear was on the A Medley relay for the county, swimming the fly leg. In the prelims they killed it winning their heat by a bunch...however, the backstroker turned over going into the wall and was DQed. Making matters worse...the County's B team finished 2nd in the state only losing to the first place team by .22 seconds - and Bear's relay came in with a seed time more than 2 full seconds faster....ugh... 7/8 GRPA Championships 100 Yard Free Relay - DQ Another heartbreaker. Bear was on the B relay team, but an unfortunate thing occurred right before the meet...one of the A swimmers broke his arm, so the 5th place B team swimmer moved up to the A relay and the 9th place county swimmer moved up to the B relay. This means the boys that had practiced their relay starts for several practices weren't together for the preliminaries...and as you can guess the swimmer moved from the C to the B team - left early and the team was DQed. This became more bitter with the county's C team (including inserting a swimmer into the relay that didn't even finish in the top 15 at the county meet to take the place of the swimmer that left early) finished 8th. The A team finsihed 2nd. Bear's team, based on seed time probably finishes 5th if they aren't disqualified. Summer League Team MVP: 2007, 2008, 2010 Note Bear just missed qualifying for the C Relay in the GRPA State Meet in 2011, similar to the way he qualified in 2009, but this time the swimmer that qualified in both fly and free elected to swim the fly...rather than the free (same swimmer as a matter of fact). Bear's Summer League MVPs (listed above): in 2009, and 2011 he loses the MVP for his age group to Brett...he is second in MVP Points both years... Last edited by Breeze : 02-12-2018 at 07:47 AM.