Swim Like A Champion (a real life journal)

[Breeze]

Bear - College Swimming

Today is Bear's signing day. However, with quarantine in place, it's going to be a virtual signing. I'm not exactly sure what's going to transpire, but the school is putting something together. He's having to make a video, and I think they are going to do a drive by to honor him this afternoon. It's a nice sentiment on the team's part. Bear's mostly indifferent about the whole signing thing, and he was even before it became a virtual experience, but in the long run, i'm guessing he'll look back on this fondly.

[Breeze]

Originally Posted by Breeze

Bear - College Swimming

Today is Bear's signing day. However, with quarantine in place, it's going to be a virtual signing. I'm not exactly sure what's going to transpire, but the school is putting something together. He's having to make a video, and I think they are going to do a drive by to honor him this afternoon. It's a nice sentiment on the team's part. Bear's mostly indifferent about the whole signing thing, and he was even before it became a virtual experience, but in the long run, i'm guessing he'll look back on this fondly.

So it was about 30 cars that drove by honking and cheering for Bear. (we live on a dead end street, so the actually went by twice ) He got some balloons, signs, and some cookies with very detailed icing of the Berry logos. It was a nice effort by the South Forsyth swim team committee to make Bear's "signing" feel special in this surreal environment.

On a funny side note, Bear was bit irritated. This whole thing was a surprise to him, so he wasn't exactly dressed for the occasion. The wife did get him to put on a Berry shirt (for a different reason), but he was wearing a dark blue Berry shirt and dark blue sweatpants (looked a lot like their football uniform). Plus he was barefooted.

[Breeze]

Bear - College Swimming

As part of the Spring Signing, South Forsyth put together a signing video with comments from the kids coaches and a video of the kids thanking their coaches, parents, etc. The local paper did a little synopsis of the video. You can find it here:

https://www.forsythnews.com/sports/s...dent-athletes/

(I'll post a link to the video later...have to find it)

[Breeze]

General Update - Bear

SwimAtlanta is rolling out a plan to get the kids back in the water. Later this week, Bear will start practicing again for the first time in about 7 weeks. This is the longest period of time he's been out of the pool since he was 6 years old. He's worked pretty hard to stay in good condition alternating between running, rowing, and stationary bike, along with some lifting and a bunch of ab work. However, I'm sure it is no where close to enough and he will struggle with the swim workouts when they start up.

As for the plan SwimAtlanta / Coach Landon has in mind...There will only be 2 kids in each lane, and the odd and even lanes will start on opposite ends of the pool. So in theory there will be just 1 swimmer that Bear will be exposed to, that won't be social distanced. Also, the locker rooms will be closed, and the swimmers will be instructed to come into the facility, get in the water, and when practice is over to leave immediately. We'll see how that goes...

[henry296]

Originally Posted by Breeze

General Update - Bear

SwimAtlanta is rolling out a plan to get the kids back in the water. Later this week, Bear will start practicing again for the first time in about 7 weeks. This is the longest period of time he's been out of the pool since he was 6 years old. He's worked pretty hard to stay in good condition alternating between running, rowing, and stationary bike, along with some lifting and a bunch of ab work. However, I'm sure it is no where close to enough and he will struggle with the swim workouts when they start up.

As for the plan SwimAtlanta / Coach Landon has in mind...There will only be 2 kids in each lane, and the odd and even lanes will start on opposite ends of the pool. So in theory there will be just 1 swimmer that Bear will be exposed to, that won't be social distanced. Also, the locker rooms will be closed, and the swimmers will be instructed to come into the facility, get in the water, and when practice is over to leave immediately. We'll see how that goes...

Are they going to create more practice windows so they only have 12 or 16 kids. Not sure how many lanes the pool has. My daughter swims and they probably have 20-30 kids in each practice group in a six lane pool. The club has at least 100 active swimmers from 6-18. I'm interested in your experience as our club starts to think about starting practices again.

[Breeze]

Originally Posted by henry296

Are they going to create more practice windows so they only have 12 or 16 kids. Not sure how many lanes the pool has. My daughter swims and they probably have 20-30 kids in each practice group in a six lane pool. The club has at least 100 active swimmers from 6-18. I'm interested in your experience as our club starts to think about starting practices again.

Henry, thanks for checking in...my understanding is that they are going to create additional practice schedules, and the ones they do have will be shorter. Bear's group is one of the smallest that SwimAtlanta has, but the college kids are home now and will be working into the rotation as well. I'll let you know what i find out after Bear starts...

Love knowing there is another swimmer connected to this board.

[Breeze]

General Update - Bear

Bear had his first practice today, and here is how it was conducted:

- the team was split in half, so only 28 kids in the pool, about 2 in each lane on each end.

- practice was cut to 1 hour (down from 2.5 hours), so mostly just technique work initially

- no locker room access

- kids instructed to leave immediately after practice (in fact they were run off by the coach, after hanging out in the parking lot, albeit with social distancing in place).

Unsurprisingly, despite his best efforts, he said he's way out of shape. It's the breath holding aspect that is difficult to replicate when you train outside of the water.

[Breeze]

General Update - Bear

Bear's practice time increased to two hours today. He was hoping the coach would take the second hour easy and allow the swimmers to ramp up to the increased workload, but he didn't. It was full throttle the entire time. Maybe he'll be in decent shape when/if his college season starts.

[Breeze]

Here is an interesting article on how Covid19 has impacted swimmers...

https://www.si.com/olympics/2020/06/...er-coronavirus

[Breeze]

Bear - College Swimming

Bear finds out his roommate and dorm assignment tonight. He was originally set to room with another swimmer, Ryan, who he was aware of didn't really know, but that guy pulled out of the agreement when he found a high school "buddy" (more likely someone he knows a little bit) who as going to Berry. Then during orientation a few weeks ago, Bear learned that one of the other swim recruits, Ross, also one he knows of, but isn't really close to (but who his buddy Tommy knows pretty well and likes) was without a roommate. The two tried to get a last minute request in to room together. It will be interesting to see if they pulled it off. It will also be interesting to see what happens with Bear's first roommate, as he was slow to change the request paperwork and may not have gotten his change in on time.

[Breeze]

Originally Posted by Breeze

Bear - College Swimming

Bear finds out his roommate and dorm assignment tonight. He was originally set to room with another swimmer, Ryan, who he was aware of didn't really know, but that guy pulled out of the agreement when he found a high school "buddy" (more likely someone he knows a little bit) who as going to Berry. Then during orientation a few weeks ago, Bear learned that one of the other swim recruits, Ross, also one he knows of, but isn't really close to (but who his buddy Tommy knows pretty well and likes) was without a roommate. The two tried to get a last minute request in to room together. It will be interesting to see if they pulled it off. It will also be interesting to see what happens with Bear's first roommate, as he was slow to change the request paperwork and may not have gotten his change in on time.

Bear didn't end up with Ryan or Ross as his roommate. Which wasn't totally surprising, given that Ryan pulled out and by the time the request was made by Ross it was extremely late in the process. Bear is actually rooming with an offensive lineman on the football team. The guy is Brett's age, and played for the team as a Freshman in 2018. However, it looks like he took time off immediately after that, and we suspect it was due to his mother's health (I'll provide more details when I can confirm). Bear has reached out to his roommate through the school supplied contact information (the guys Instagram account, and school email), but the guy isn't terribly active on social media and obviously hasn't bothered to check his school email yet, because Bear hasn't heard a word.

[Breeze]

General Update - Bear

One of the girls that Bear trains with Mon - Sat. tested positive for Covid. Apparently, the mother contracted it and the daughter caught it. She received the news of the positive test this evening and reported it to the coach, who relayed the information to the rest of the team.

In response, the pool has shut down practice for her training group and two others that overlap her practice time for a week. The coach has asked each swimmer to get tested in the next few days. At the end of the week he'll reassess based on reports from those test.

Thankfully, Bear isn't around this swimmer very often, but he is frequently around the swimmer that shares her lane. We will be keeping our fingers crossed that we are clear and can remain that way. Though Bear did nothing wrong, he feels terrible about potentially bringing the disease into our house. In fact, we were at the grandparents for dinner when he found out, and he was ready to leave to try and protect the rest of the group (though at that point it would have already been too late). He also, immediately upon returning home, grabbed a facemask and headed down to the basement to isolate himself as much as possible.

[Breeze]

Bear gets his Covid test today...fingers crossed...

[Breeze]

Bear had the instant result test yesterday and he described it as nose rape, and one of the worst experiences of his life. The good news is the test came back negative. We were a little concerned about the accuracy of an instant read test, so we asked around, and the medical people we know all stated that the test is much more likely to result in a false positive than a false negative, so we are extremely relieved.

[Breeze]

So with the outbreak of Covid on the team, Coach Landon suspended practice to see how things play out. Today Bear has decided he's going to run to stay in shape, only he's decided to run to Dunkin Donuts. I find this hilarious, but America does run on Dunkin...

[Breeze]

Tomorrow marks Bear's last practice of the season, and final practice before becoming a college swimmer. Because the team hasn't had any meets to attend the coach is having the swimmers "suit up" and he will time them in 2 events. Bear is unsure right now which 2 he'll swim, but it will almost certainly be some combination of fly/free.

[Breeze]

Bear decided to race the 200 Fly and 100 Free. He managed to swim a 49.9 in the free, which is just off his personal best of 49.3 tapered. The 200 fly wasn't as good as he posted a 2:02, and his personal best is 1:56.4...

Now he'll be off until Berry swimmer run practices start. No idea when that will be, but he moves in next week.

[Breeze]

Surprisingly, Bear decided to get up at 4 and go to early morning school schedule practice today. He wanted to go, because it will be a last chance to say goodbye to his buds. They spend most of the back half of the summer playing sports: basketball, baseball (yeah, they'd get between 14 and 18 together to play), tennis, fishing or whatever they could come up with as long as they were doing it together. Unfortunately, with a bunch of the kids starting school today, this will be his last interaction with them. The number of interactions in the "bubble" will increase exponentially for the ones that are still in high school, so Bear will have to isolate himself tomorrow and Wednesday morning before moving into school.

[Breeze]

We moved Bear into Berry College on the 12th and it was an adventure. We got there no problems, and he went into the rec center to get his student ID and paperwork. While he was in there, we noticed lighting moving in. He finished and we drove to his dorm to unload, but before we could park it started raining sideways. We were told we would have 1 hour from his check in to get him into his room before we would have to leave - so...we swam his stuff to his room. It was a pain - masks were required and with the hard rain moving stuff was like being water-boarded. The mask would stick to your face and breathing was extremely difficult, especially for an out of shape old dude like me.

Eventually, we got all of his stuff into the room and started setting up. He tried to reach his roommate to determine what they wanted to do together to maximize space but he couldn't get him on the phone. About half way through the set up the roommate called to inform Bear that he wasn't going to be going to school this semester (claimed it was scholarship related, but could also be Covid related). So the good news is Bear has a room to himself, but he was looking forward to having a roommate. Also, the roommate was bringing the refrigerator - so I had to make a special trip the next day to get him a fridge.

His room looks good - he lofted his bed to it's highest setting (which is what he's used to - that's the way his bed was at home too), so that provided him a good amount of space. The second bed he lofted high enough to get his fridge and a 3 drawer plastic storage container under. He has a bunch of Braves stuff on the wall and a poster of a Bear playing beer-pong. Classic dorm room look.

Also, after moving in, Ross, one of the swimmers Bear was trying to line up as a roommate may be switching to his room. Ross is currently living in a dorm on the mountain campus (which is significantly removed from the main campus), and he wants to move. Bear and Ross have started the process of requesting the change.

[thealmighty]

Ah, memories of moving my oldest daughter into her freshman dorm at Texas A&M... a LONG time ago.

[Breeze]

One of Bear's good friend's Alex (who's been mentioned throughout this journal) graduated this year and signed to swim with Iowa. It was just announced that Iowa will be shutting down their swim team. This is the second swimmer Bear swam against, who Graduated this past year, that signed to swim in college only to have the college shutter the program (the other was Dartmouth).

[rjolley]

That's really unfortunate. Have they said there are plans to bring the team back once we're past this issue? Are they still honoring any financial commitments that were made?

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by rjolley

That's really unfortunate. Have they said there are plans to bring the team back once we're past this issue?

I read this the other day, so I happen to know it's quite the opposite in fact.

“Our decision to reduce our program offerings is final. While we are grateful for our many loyal and generous donors, private support has not met the escalating and compounding costs of supporting excellence across the board.”

[Breeze]

Originally Posted by rjolley

That's really unfortunate. Have they said there are plans to bring the team back once we're past this issue? Are they still honoring any financial commitments that were made?

Pat Forde at SI, who's son was a swimmer at UGA so he has an appreciation for the sport, had a really good article that broke down the financial impact of the sports cut (it's not as much as you'd think) and the human impact of the decision to kill the programs.

https://www.si.com/college/2020/08/2...nastics-tennis

[rjolley]

Thanks for the article. It seems like Iowa is using the pandemic to do away with those sports. Seems like there should be a way to keep the programs afloat.

Hopefully, those young men and women are able to recover and find a place to continue their academic and athletic careers.

[Breeze]

And another swim team bites the dust:

https://swimswam.com/william-mary-to...ter-2020-2021/

Before his shoulder issues, Bear was hearing from UConn, and was interested in Dartmouth and William & Mary. All 3 have announced they are shutting down their swim teams. I wonder how many more teams that Bear was directly involved with or a swimmer he knows is on a roster will shut down before all this settles?

[thealmighty]

Is there any chance that Berry could find itself in a similar situation and have to shut down their program?

[Breeze]

Originally Posted by thealmighty

Is there any chance that Berry could find itself in a similar situation and have to shut down their program?

TA,

There is always a chance...there have been a number of D3 schools that have cut swimming programs recently. However, generally speaking D3 doesn't depend on football revenue to generate income for other sports the way D1 does so that helps. Bear also had a frank discussion with the coach about the stability of the team and the likelihood that the team could be cut prior to signing, and he was assured that Berry was committed to the team (I'm sure all coaches probably say this).

Basically, with the current D1 sports environment the way it is, Olympic sports are going to continue to struggle to survive at that level. I hope I'm wrong, but I believe these cuts are just the start of what will be a significant bloodletting. Olympic sports were constantly on the chopping block before Covid, now school officials have an excuse, and I expect a bunch will take the opportunity to make the cuts now. The truth of the matter is: with the exception of a few big D1 swim teams/conferences (PAC 12 & SEC mostly), and a handful of other programs, I'll be surprised if swimming isn't basically a D3 sport moving forward.

[Breeze]

Berry Swimming - General Update

Bear's college career starts this evening, as practice is schedule for today at 5 P.M.

Apparently, there is still no definitive answer on if there will be a season at all, and if there is one, how it will be conducted. But until something is set in stone, the team will proceed with business as usual.

[rjolley]

Good luck to Bear.

[thealmighty]

Originally Posted by rjolley

Good luck to Bear.

+1

[Breeze]

Berry Swimming - General Update

Berry College announced late yesterday they are shutting down all Winter Sports. Though the school currently has only 12 Covid cases (9 students and 3 faculty), they have a large number currently in quarantine. Given the probability that some of those in quarantine are infected, the school wanted to take precautions now before it potentially explodes on them. Nothing was stated regarding the status of this move (is it permanent or temporary), or what sort of results they are looking for to open the sports back up. I'll provide updates when they are available.

[thealmighty]

I'm sure it says somewhere in this story, but aren't conference championships next semester? Is there time to get up to speed if they start back, say, in January?

[JonInMiddleGA]

[Breeze]

Berry Swimming - General Update

Right now the school has decided the winter sports hiatus is going to take place for 2 weeks, at which point they will reassess to determine if they feel comfortable ramping backup up.

Fingers crossed...

[Breeze]

Berry Swimming - General Update

From what Bear has told us, the school leadership and the coaches will be meeting sometime this week to discuss the possibility of resuming Winter sport's practices. Bear said they could hear something as early as Wednesday, but he doesn't expect to hear anything until Friday, because the school is not very forthcoming with information.

Fingers crossed they can get going again. It really seems bizarre to think college football is playing where kids are grabbing each other every play, and yet swimming, where your face is underwater the majority of time you are competing, and each swimming is basically social distanced by being in their own lane (not to mention that you are swimming in chlorine which is supposed to kill the virus) can't compete.

(Note: to be fair - Berry's football isn't competing this year so I guess i'm not comparing apples to apples. Also, I do realize the exposure risk isn't just while you are competing).

[thealmighty]

How is Bailey doing at school, sans swimming?

[Breeze]

Originally Posted by thealmighty

How is Bailey doing at school, sans swimming?

TA,

Thanks for asking. Bailey has been really busy. She rushed, which she said was a very odd experience due to Covid limitations, and during the rush process made several new friends in her bid group. Kappa Kappa Gamma is where she ended up, and she's super excited about it. She's currently in the process of getting her big sister.

However, during the rush process she contracted Covid (along with a BUNCH of USC students). She ended up quarantining at the home of one of her bid group, along with a couple of her new friends. She only ended up with mild symptoms, and was back on campus in about 10 days.

She said classes have been hard, especially with most of them virtual. Moreover, she said a couple of teachers aren't doing a great job teaching in the virtual platform. The tough classes isn't all that surprising given Bailey was basically a sophomore this year due to all her dual enrollment classes in high school. The grades she's reported to us so far, most have been good, a couple have been ok, but for the most part I think classes are going well.

So overall, she's enjoying it a lot and making a bunch of new friends, which in this environment isn't easy.

[Breeze]

Berry Swimming - General Update

The school has finally come to a decision about swimming. They will be starting back up on Thursday. At this point the swimmers have been out of the pool now for close to 2 months, so it's going to be a rough go getting back in meet shape. Bear seemed excited about the fact they were going to be swimming, but also a bit concerned about the grind he was facing.

[Breeze]

Berry Swimming - General Update

Unsurprisingly, the start of practice has been delayed again. Now the team will start up on Saturday. Not sure what triggered the move, to my knowledge no explanation was provided to the team. They were however told that practices would be limited to 1 hour initially. This is interesting in that, i'm not sure if that's a way to ease the kids back into swimming, given their time out of the water, or if this is somehow supposed to limit potential exposure to Covid? My belief is the school is making these decisions based on all winter sports, and not taking into account the individual aspects of the sport (i.e. the fact swimmers are face down in the water the majority of the time they are working out).

So the team will start practicing for 1 hour about the same time they should be starting their dual meet season. Extremely disappointing and frustrating for me, and I was only interested in watching, I'm sure exponentially worse for the swimmers. Also, I'm sad for Bear. While he's loving school, he was looking forward to swimming with Dylan White and Michael Bemis, both are excellent swimmers, and both are seniors...

[Breeze]

Bear - General Update

Practice did start on Friday, but the idea that it would be an "ease into things" practice because it was just 1 hour was blown out of the water when the opening set was a 500 all out kick with fins on. Wuff...

Bear said practice was hard, mostly because he was out of shape. Unfortunately for him, prior to practice starting, the pool was only open for a couple of hours in the middle of the day, and he had class at that time. Making it impossible for him to swim on his own. Moreover, Bear really struggles to find his stroke after he's been out of the water for an extended period of time, so I'm sure it'll take a while before he feels comfortable again.

However, this weekend Bear confirmed what I suspected for a while, the school won't be swimming any meets in 2020, and will reassess the situation in January. At least he'll have time to round into shape before it matters.

[rjolley]

Glad to hear they are getting back in the pool. Hope they are able to compete in the spring.

[Breeze]

Berry College - Update

Bear finally received his team swag earlier this week. In it was:

- Joggers
- Jacket
- Shorts
- T-Shirt
- Golf shirt
- Swim Bag

That's what he told us about. It may not be a complete list, but glad to see things are starting to pick up a bit.

[Breeze]

Berry College

Berry will have an intrasquad meet this weekend. Unfortunately, no spectators are allowed and I don't believe they are planning to televise the meet either. I have to admit, I'm going through a bit of withdrawal, this is undoubtedly the longest I've gone without watching my kids swim since they started back in 2007.

Berry has also announced their tentative schedule for this season. They are looking to swim 6 meets including the conference championship. However, Bear said he's not getting to excited about it yet, because it could change or be cancelled at any point.

[Breeze]

Yea! the intrasquad will be broadcast online...

[Breeze]

Berry College - Blue & White Time Trial @ Cage Natatorium - 11/14

There were some technical difficulties with the streaming of the meet so we missed Bear's fly (along with 2 other events). All in all, it was fun to see swimming again, but clearly the team is no where close to in shape. Times were pretty slow across the board and the team will have to work hard to get ready for the rest of the season in 2021.

Bear

#2 100 Yard Fly - Bear's personal best is a 53.3 so anything close to that time was going to be excellent under the circumstances. He finished with a 55.61...so not terrible. He finished 3rd, behind Jr. Noah Brand and fellow freshman and roommate Ross Valdez (who's gone sub 50 in the 100 Fly).

#7 500 Yard Free - This event was going to be a slog. When you aren't in shape, swimming 500 yards is brutal. Bear is also working on breathing every 3rd stroke only. The coach is using the less frequent breathing and the alternating sides to try and help smooth out Bear's stroke. It seemed to be working. In the video he did look smoother. His personal best is a 4:41, but he hasn't really approached that time since his shoulder/lat issue....he was swimming 4:50 lows at the end of the season, but he only manage a 5:09.76 in this one. He did finish 2nd, once again trailing Ross (no shame in that).

#8 200 Yard Medley Relay - Bear swam the fly leg on the blue team's B relay. He posted a 25 second split in his leg, immediately following the 500...and he out split the white team's B flyer.

There were a few takeaways from the meet:

- The Blue Team won overall, with Bear getting 7 points
- If the team can get in shape they will be very strong at conference championships come March
- Bear's Freshman class looks very good

Now that the team is swimming, I'll work on putting together a roster breakdown soon...

[Breeze]

Bear comes home for the holidays today. He'll have to train on his own for a while (or hopefully get in with SwimAtlanta), then he'll head back to school for 2 week of winter training, before returning home for Christmas.

[Breeze]

Bear ended up not coming home. His girlfriend's cultured Covid test came back positive (the instant was negative) on Friday, right before he was supposed to leave. He wasn't going to put me at risk with my health issues and was preparing to stay at the school over the holiday. However, thankfully he was able to stay with his aunt and uncle who have already recovered from the disease.

[Breeze]

Bear still has not gotten to come home. He missed Thanksgiving with the family, and he continues to run a very low grade fever. Thankfully, his symptoms are minor, but at this rate it looks like his quarantine will be over Friday, and he'll be immediately heading back to school for winter training for 2 weeks. Which means we won't get to see him until around Dec 20th.

[Breeze]

Berry College - Winter Training Part 1

Today is the first day of a 2 week winter training, and it's going to be pretty rough for Bear, who was only able to swim a couple of time over the last 2 weeks due to Corna. Today he'll have around 6 hours of swimming and weight lifting.

Thankfully, we were able to get him home for a few days before he had to head back to school.