Spirit Animal - Gator Swimmer of the Week #4

He's clearly their hero. 

As always seems to be the case, the selection of the SOTW is not easy this week. If SOTW stood for "Sisters of the Week," then I'm pretty sure the winners would be clear: Natalie and Cassidy Crowther demonstrated some super sister power loud and clear this week. Both girls won each of their events (11-12 Free/Back for Cassidy and 8u Breast/Fly for Natalie) and helped to win their respective relays. However, that's not the right acronym. As we know, it actually stands for "Swimmers of the Week" which makes the choice quite a bit tougher. We have a lot of stellar swimmers this week and every week. Donovan Kovalsky won the 13-14 Free and Back, as well as the contributing to the Medley Relay and Mixed Age Relay wins. And once again, Sheridan Phalen took the 15-18 Free and Fly, and anchored her Medley Relay win.

Do you see how tough this selection is? Every week it goes like this. Last week I had to use "largest margin of victory" as the determining factor in bestowing the honor upon Lincoln Jetton.

This week, instead of looking to the largest margin of victory, the criteria is shifting out of the pool. We've got another swimmer and leader who won both his races (Free and Fly) and the anchored the Mixed Age Relay, all while demonstrating exceptional team leadership throughout the meet. Cole Miller has led the team all season with the pre-game cheers, rallying the swimmers throughout the course of the meets. He really stepped up his game this week in true Superhero fashion and got everyone extremely pumped up for the races! It's that great Spirit Leadership that pushed Cole to the top of the SOTW category this week.

Week in and week out, we can count on Cole taking the role of team leader. We routinely see him patrolling the deck wearing the Gator costume, or this week, his Superhero costume. Cole's rally cries and cheer leadership help the team get the adrenaline flowing and keep performances high.

The MVP of MVP. 

As a matter of fact, if you read the weekly summary yesterday, you'll note that Cole's first win of the day ended up being the Race of the Week (the 15-18 Free). It is certainly no coincidence that Cole was leading the team in the rally cheers prior to the start of the meet and then pulling off an upset victory a few minutes later. There is a saying in academics, "If you want to learn a subject well, teach it." I think that applies here similarly, "If you want to pump yourself up, pump up the team!"

Congrats Cole for pulling off the rare double honor of being in the ROTW and being the SOTW.

SOTW Fly pics are the very best swim pics.