Swimming Memories

Yep - I was a swimmer and a volleyball player and a tennis player and a hurdler and a basketball player and an all-around tom boy growing up. If there was an activity to be done, I was doing it. My biggest problem was that I was a natural athlete - I never had to work hard. Practices were a big joke for me, I never really gave it my all. Because of my natural abilities, I played around at my sports and never really reached my potential.

Except once. One time - I got the Gold.

I wind the clock back to the 1984-85 school year, my Senior year at Cedar Cliff High School in Camp Hill, PA. As I struggled to find my place in the rat race called the "teen-age years", I found it once on the deck of a pool at the Mid-Penn Conference swim meet. If memory serves me correctly, you could only swim in events that you had qualified under the cut off time. I know I swam mutliple events but I can't remember which ones - 50 free and the 4x100 free relay are the only ones I remember. I'm pretty sure I probably swam 100 back too.

I do remember swimming the 50 free individual race because I remember being incredibly nervous. I also remember using my Sony Walk-man (yep, cassettes!) to help relax before the events. The 50 free race was prior to our relay and I didn't swim as well as I would have liked. Actually, I was disappointed with my swim and remember the coach talking to me in an effort to get me to focus on the relay. The relay team was comprised of 3 Seniors and 1 Sophmore. It was the last time we would be swimming together as a relay team. Before the race, we all huddled like you've seen the Olympic relay teams doing in Beijing. We were psyching each other up to give it our best for the team - it was our last swim together and we wanted it to be our best effort.

I honestly can't remember what leg I swam, I only remember the feeling on the deck afterwards. Pure joy! We screamed and hugged each other because we did it, as a team. We got the Gold medal at that event. What a feeling and what a way to top off our swim season which had been a fantastic one.

We didn't qualify for States missing only by a few tenths of seconds but we still had our Gold. It sits on the desk now - as a reminder that goals can be reached but only by giving it your best effort.