For Rookies
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This is just a short thing I've written for all this years new-comers. First off thanks for joining no matter how you do this season trust me your helping the team and i appretiate it. Now many of you may think "I'm not good at swimming" or are jsut using it to stay in shape or as something to do or other excuses. However I'm going to tell you right now that you're wrong. Everyone has the potential to be a great swimmer. Even Gary scored points last year. In fact I've even had doubts about myself before...
My freshman year I joined swimming instead of basketball. An easy decision by any means. One of the bonuses of swimming is that we usually place pretty good at the County and Sectional meets. When was the last time a Way-Co basketball team went to sectionals? Plus in swimming you get ribbons if you win. Anyway, i spent the first month of swimming training with the rest of team. When the first meet came around we were all joking as to who would be doing the 500 (the longest race at the Varsity level). No one really wanted to and we all assumed that Brett Irwin and Tom Robinson would be doing it since they were regulars in the event. When i got to the pool to start stetching and warming-up Brett asked me who was counting for me (in the 500 you get people who count the laps for you so you dont forget how many you got left). I laughed and didnt think anything of it because i thought it was a joke. Then I went over and looked at the meet line-up. My name was down for the 500. I couldn't believe it! My first varsity meet ever and the most i'd ever swam before was 200 yards... now i was supposed to double that and add another 100?!? I walked over to coach at the timing system and said
"Coach you put me in the 500?"
"Yup."
"Why?"
"I think you'll do good in it"
I then said
"Coach i cant do it theres no way ill be able to do that and all my other races"
He said "Ok"
I asked him if he was serious; he said
"Yeah if you dont wanna do it you dont have to.... Give me your warm-up and go home."
I had to do it then because there was no way i was ending my swimming career on the first meet over one race. For the rest of the meet I was really scared and just wanted to get it over with. When it finally ended I swam a 6:50. A pretty good time but by no means anything special. For the rest of the season I continued to do the 500 and drop time. Then all of a sudden I was on my way to becoming a record holding swimmer, AS A FRESHMAN. By the end of my freshman year i ended up being .3 seconds away from the 5th place school record. This past year I broke the first place record knocking Brett Irwin down a spot and this year i hope to obtain the one thing Brett Irwin never could, a Wayland POOL record. All of this success in just the fist two years of my varsity swimming career and I still didnt even believe it would happen the first meet.
Take it from someone who recently learned this, you can be good and the only thing stopping you from winning in the pool is yourself. Even if your a weak swimmer now, Coach Hughes will make you into a strong swimmer. I guess the moral of the story is that everyone has a chance to succeed and even the most difficult challenges can become simple tasks. We finally got a new pool after almsot 50 years. This is a fresh chance for anyone to take the initiative to show that you want to be remembered. Put your name on the wall and become a champion.
New Pool, New Era... Will you be part of it?
