Trophies for Everybody! Gator Swimmers of the Week #3

The calm before the swim storm.

I'll admit, the whole modern movement of giving everyone a trophy rubs me the wrong way. I subscribe to the philosophy that when you reward everyone, it reduces the intrinsic value of that reward. Even as a youth athlete, I always felt that getting a t-shirt or jersey was a great participation award, and a trophy always felt better to me only for winning something. I always thought a participation trophy seemed a little hollow. (As an adult, I'll take the t-shirt every time.) That said, I think a lot of programs and leagues have done a good job of giving all participants awards, but then differentiating the awards for the top achievers.

For example, the local soccer league gives everyone a medal each season, but then the tournament champions get a separate one for winning. The local basketball league only gives awards to the top two teams each year. The MVP Swim and Tennis teams both have followed a pattern of recognizing everyone with awards, but giving larger or more ornate trophies to the higher achievers. The NVSL does something similar with awards for Divisional Championships, All-Stars, etc. All the participants get something, but the size/structure of the ribbon/medal/trophy grows with higher levels of achievement.

Ok, I'll step down off my soap box and get to the point of the article- this week's Swimmer of the Week. To be honest, I'm sort of tempted to give this one to just about everybody. We really had an outstanding meet up and down the different age groups. Lots of top notch swims in there. And really, narrowing it down is a pretty tough challenge... a challenge I am thankful for. Sort of an embarrassment of riches. Its nice to have so many of our swimmers doing so good at the meets.

Little Hands, Little Feet... 

Trophies for everyone might be the best solution here. We had EIGHT swimmers who finished with perfect (or near perfect) results on Saturday. EIGHT!

Look at these swimmers:

Lincoln Jetton (8u): 1st Breast + 1st Fly + 1st Free Relay = 15 points
Natalie Crowther (8u): 1st Breast + 1st Fly + 1st Medley Relay = 15 points
Alex North (11-12): 1st Free + 1st Back + 1st Medley Relay + 1st Mixed Age Relay = 20 points
Matthew Makin (11-12): 1st Breast + 1st Fly + 1st Medley Relay = 15 points
James Piland (13-14): 1st Back + 1st Fly + 1st Medley Relay = 15 points

Our 8 & Unders can't be beat. Literally. 

Then there are three with an asterisk because of some 2nd place finishes, but deserve to be included in here. First, these two:

*Donovan Kovalsky (13-14): 1st Free + 2nd Breast + 1st Medley Relay + 1st Mixed Age = 18 points
*Jack Klopson (13-14): 2nd Free + 1st Breast + 1st Medley Relay = 13 points

*The asterisk for these two is because Donovan and Jack both got a 2nd place finish because of each other... no one on the other team could beat them, they each could have won those events but they cannibalized each other's points and ended up sharing 1st and 2nd in their individual events.

Sharing the wealth in the 13-14's

Then, there is this asterisk:

**Sheridan Phalen (15-18): 1st Free + 1st Fly + 1st Relay + 2nd Mixed Age Relay = 15 points

**Okay, but wait... didn't the Mixed Age girls lose their relay? Isn't this a list of perfect results? How can Sheridan be included in here with a loss? Well, because this is one of those times the data doesn't tell the full story.

Wasn't it Dory who said, "Just keep winning..."
Or something like that.

Whoa. I can't believe I just wrote that. The data ALWAYS tells the story. But, maybe not this time. Sometimes you need to see these things with your own eyes. If you were there watching, you saw the flawless anchor leg of that race swam by Sheridan.  Handed a deficit of nearly two body lengths, she proceeded to swim so fast that she closed the gap up all the way until the final result was only half a second behind the VW team. I didn't have a watch on the splits... but Sheridan certainly ate up some big chunks of time. She had to have shaved around 3-4 seconds off the gap to make it such a close finish. If the pool had been 5 or 10 yards longer, she certainly would have completed the comeback.

Race Ready.

I haven't even mentioned some of the amplifying information like how the 13-14 Boys Medley Relay (three of whom are on the list above) set a new MVP record by over a second and a half. Or that the 15-18 Girls Medley shaved 4 seconds off their time to upset the top-ranked VW girls. Ok, technically I did mention both of those things in the weekly meet blog... but I haven't mentioned it here.

Just look at that list. That's a lot of high quality swimmers to choose from for the SOTW. How am I supposed to narrow that down? (Well, let me let you in on a little secret... since the SOTW is an unofficial recognition anyway, mentioning all of the candidates here is pretty much like giving a "trophy for everyone" anyway, so does it really matter who is the final chosen SOTW? Look what I have become... am I now a trophy for everyone guy?)  

But, I will stay firm to my beliefs and make the final call... Congratulations Lincoln Jetton, Swimmer of the Week! Why Lincoln? I'm going with largest total margin of victory in the individual events as the tie-breaker: he won the Breast by 3 seconds and the Fly by 8. That pushes him to the top of a very large mountain this week. (And congrats to all the other runners-up for the equally impressive performances.)

Go Gators!

Fly pics are the best swim pics.