FLORIDA MOM MAGAZINE - August '08 - Determination - Fletcher's Summer Swim TeamBy: Robert Candler Photos: Deborah Caltrider
 Do you ever wish that you could find that well filled with passion, focus, and drive? They are three key ingredients of success, and I was highly impressed to see them alive and kicking during the summer swim team season.
I arrived at the first swim meet of the season at Mandarin High School, only to realize that the school had no bleachers and I had no chair. I saw eight timing chairs and immediately volunteered to help out. I took my seat and timer, not realizing how quickly I was going to be reminded of those critical life lessons.
As the meet started with the 6 and under 25m Freestyle, I noticed the little girl, Emma, in my lane. The horn sounded, timer started and off she went. With 7 other girls swimming, she was not the fastest and kept looking to see where she stood. 10 seconds later the leader finished, but this little one kept pushing. Her stroke was not perfect, but with every breath she got closer and closer. When she finally finished and popped out of the water, I was greeted with the biggest smile and, “I made it! I finished the entire race!” What a humbling experience. She just took away any and every excuse I’ve ever used.
Next up was the 7 and 8 year olds, 50m Backstroke. Jake stepped up and said, “My best time is 1.07. I’ve been working on this at home, and I wanna beat it. I think I can do it.” I told him, “Let’s see it.” Jake gets in, starts, and tears through the first 25m. He’s in the lead. He reaches the wall, flips around, and starts back. He keeps pushing and you could see in his arms that he intended to hit his time. The water was thrashing as he tore through the last 5m. He reached for the wall……… 1.0545. Need I say more?
The Butterfly stroke is like watching a ballet on water. The movements are purely beautiful, but it’s extremely demanding physically. 12 year old, Evan gives me his card, hops in the water, and mentally gets in the zone. You can see he has the focus and drive of the other two, but he intends to finish, finish strong, and work the Butterfly stroke to his full advantage. He powers through his heat almost to perfection, finishing a very respectable 2nd. He was happy with his time, and the highest place he had finished. He had reached one of his goals.
I’m going to tell you that to see the determination and drive in these little ones was incredible. They individually pushed themselves to reach their own personal goals, all the while helping to support their team. To all of the Fletcher swim team members, Thanks for the inspiration! |
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