Memories of a Gator: Jayne Orleans

Jayne will be attending Miami University in Oxford, Ohio.

There are very few firsts that I remember from my childhood. I don’t remember my first steps or my first day of school, but I’ll never be able to forget my first Gator practice.

 I was six years old and had been in the water before, but never like this. Surrounded by what seemed like hundreds of other children, all of who looked as though they were itching to get into the water. I, on the other hand, found my way to the back of the lane to see how long I could get away with avoiding the demanding 25 we were told to complete. When my time came, I panicked. There was no way I could go from where I was standing to the complete opposite end of the pool. I wouldn’t get in; I couldn’t.

Looking back at that practice, it’s hard not to laugh at my naiveté and irrationality. Of course I could get across the pool without drowning. I had fins on and at least four coaches eyeballing my barely legal stroke (which was not quite freestyle yet). Who would have guessed that the crying six year old in lane one was going to go on to swim for the next ten years of her life, experiencing countless 4:30 AM practices, stuffy swim meets, heartbreaking DQs, and unforgettable people.

Mount Vernon Park swim has always been my favorite of the three teams I had the pleasure of swimming for. There’s something about summer swim that just makes my days better and more worthwhile. Rolling into the 13-14, 15-18 practices in sweatpants and barely opened eyes, watching the 11-12s try to avoid dry land before they jump into the water, trying to control the 8& Unders when they tell you that they can touch the bottom of the deep end and you can’t do anything to stop them. These mornings are what make the rest of my days so much better. How many other people can say that their work involves water polo, doughnuts, and being a role model for countless little kids? You just don’t get opportunities like that outside of swimming.  

There aren’t too many sports where you can meet people at 6 years old and know you’re going to be friends with them until you’re 18. There are even fewer sports that you can learn how to develop a competitive nature as strongly as you do on a swim team. I will always attribute my drive to succeed to being a swimmer and knowing that to get better, I have to put in the work.

I was never the fastest Gator. I’m not on my way to the Olympics anytime soon or swimming D1 next year, but I did manage to break one individual record during my time at Mount Vernon Park. If you ask Coach Paul or anyone who has ever been in a pool with me, the only stroke I can really (kinda) swim is breaststroke. When I was a 13-14, I had been trying to make my way onto the record board for a while. I was a 40 second breaststoker trying to beat a record that had been on that board longer than I had been alive. I had a goal though and there was no way that I was going to age up without leaving my mark.

I broke that record at a home meet by less than a second, but I broke it nonetheless. It’s funny how once we know that something is attainable, it becomes less and less difficult to achieve. A week after breaking that record, I dropped another second, and the week after that, another. By the end of the summer I was 14 years old with a 37 second breaststroke and my name on the record board. What other sport but swimming gives you the confidence and the drive to keep going even after you’ve achieved your goal.

As a Gator who is going off to college, I’ve begun to realize that every practice is bringing me closer and closer to the end of my swimming career. It’s such a bittersweet feeling because I’ve been waiting to go to college for what seems like forever, but even if I join the swim team at Miami University, nothing can live up to my experience as a Gator. The memories this team has given me are like none other and I can’t imagine what my life would be like if I hadn’t been a swimmer for MVP.

To my swimmers: I love you all more than anything and will miss you when I’m gone!!