When my middle son Gabriel (Gabe) was five years old, we took him to a state park in Pennsylvania. Despite a lifeguard being present and Gabe being within arm’s reach, he sank to the bottom of the pool. Before I could reach down to get him, my mother, who was nowhere in sight previously, shot in like a light to the bottom of the pool and pulled Gabe up before he could drown. Today, Gabe is a 19-year-old D1 college swimmer.
When my three sons were toddlers, I was in grad school for a PhD and was constantly busy. My mother stepped up to put my sons in swim lessons to keep them safe. Nana, as they called her, would give me updates on how they were doing. “Gabe and Jordan passed their deep-water test today, Shanty, but Brock didn’t, we have to work on his skills!”
There were two YMCAs near us, one offered group classes and the other individual lessons; my mother took my sons to both. “Advanced from flying fish to shark class today!”, she’d say proudly!
In 2015 my mother got sick with Uterine High-Grade Sarcoma. It was also the year I finished grad school. I took over as the swim parent and realized that in my absence, my mother and the YMCA staff had taken my 3 sons from sinking to the bottom of the pool to swimming across the entire pool at any depth; the freestyle, breaststroke, and backstroke looked good, but butterfly was still yet to be learned. Years later, butterfly would eventually be the stroke that would break a 20-year record for Gabe, take Brock to Eastern Zones, and get Jordan onto a college swim team!
After the boys graduated from swim lessons they were excited for the YMCA swim team. They learned about flip turns, times, and racing rules.
Between the ages of 9-13 Brock qualified for Districts, Junior Olympics, and Eastern Zones. Gabe broke over 10 records between the ages of 10-14 years in our county and Jordan qualified for States relays.
After the YMCA years, we continued with summer league swimming, high school swimming and club swimming. It took up most days afterschool for practice and most weekends for swim meets, it was a lifestyle.
Over the years, besides being competitors, the boys also became employed as lifeguards and were professionally licensed as Junior Coaches of children ages 5-12. Gabe and Jordan stuck with the sport through college and Jordan remains employed as a lifeguard to this day.
Scholarships, college swim team roommates, training trips to Florida beaches, friendships and swim meets in multiple states are all reasons the boys love swimming. They have traveled (or plan to travel) to New York, Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, Minnesota, Indiana, and Illinois for swim meets and made like-minded friends from all over the country as a result. It has given them discipline, athleticism, employment, and a skill to prevent them from ever sinking to the bottom of the pool again. In my mother’s memory, we thank her for her time and commitment to family and aquatics. The boys are often thanked by members of the community for helping to exemplify excellence and diversity in the sport. We’re proud to be a swim-family.