Reflections of a Gator - by Sheridan Phalen

I have spent 13 summers of my life as a Gator. During those years, I have set records. I have been on relays to help set records. I have gone to all-stars. I have won all-stars. But before all of those things, I was just another six and under with no ability to swim. In fact, I was a six and under with no desire to swim. At practices, I would shiver until the coaches would let me get out early and dry off. At meets, I would make it as far as the clerk of course before I started to sob and scream, until my parents had to pick me up before my race because I was so afraid of swimming. Then, when I turned seven -- for some reason -- I swam.

I tell this memory as my favorite one because, before the trophies, the medals, and ribbons, I was just like many kids who start swimming, scared and unsure. While swimming might not be where some kids end up finding their passion, it is where I ended up finding mine. After my seven-year-old debut, I was swimming year-round, not because I loved swimming, but because I loved the MVP Gator summer swim team. I loved racing down the pool as fast as I could because I loved winning, but mostly I loved being a part of the team, which is what makes summer swim so different and special. 

Summer swim is about the race, not just the time, but the race. From this, we learn victory and loss, good sportsmanship, and the importance of collaborating and supporting one another; how to lift each other up for the good and success of the team. Summer swim is also unique in the fact that kids from age 5 to age 18 are on the same team, year after year. From this, we learn tradition and patience. We learn to be able to work and communicate with different people regardless of age or perspective.

As I continue my journey beyond the Gator Community, I would like to note that it is the love of my sport that pushed me to become a college athlete, and to study nutritional science and biological sciences at Michigan State. In addition, it is my love of coaching that has driven me to want to work towards becoming a secondary education teacher. Both my love of swimming and coaching would not have been possible without the support and guidance that came from my coaches and from my teammates in my Gator family. 

Reflections of a Gator - by Brian McNamara

Wow, this is hard to write. Once upon a time, my parents made the decision to become members at a local pool around the corner which had a beautiful pond, a colorful playground, a field, three pools, and tennis courts for their two children to explore. Little did three year old me know that it would become a home away from home for the next fifteen years.

When I was five years old I joined the Mount Vernon Park swim team which had practices in the morning and meets with hundreds of kids all swimming on Monday nights. Every morning I would wake up early and eagerly await the time that my mom would drive me to MVP. The big kids were there waiting for us so that we could start the fun activities on the hill to warm up while the other practice ended. The first day I immediately felt like I belonged.

Throughout the years, I grew as a swimmer and as a person with the help of my teammates, coaches, and family. I learned how to reach for goals and to persevere through my failures. And, even during the bad times, I had a loving environment to cheer me on and help me through them. I was able to swim at A meets where I worked for the good of the team scoring points, to attend the divisionals and All-Stars to represent our team, and to swim my heart out all season long. Some of my favorite memories are the cheers that we would belt before the meet, the comradery in and out of the pool, and the rewarding meal after all was said and done.

Although many of my favorite memories were in the pool, Mount Vernon Park as a community gave me so much more. Cookouts with family and friends, fishing, fun obstacle courses and dunk tanks on the 4th of July, a little shack to grab a snack or a drink when I took a break from my shenanigans, a job, a place to make s’ mores and stay up until the sunrise during campouts, a support system, and a love for swimming.

It’s funny because during this pandemic I wasn’t able to have a regular High School graduation experience and although I was upset, the pain from that was nothing compared to the pain I felt when I realized that I won't have a regular senior year on the MVP swim team. I had been looking forward to the costumes and swim meets, my senior night, the coaches’ retreat, a final camp out, and a slide show to finish off the season.

Although these things may not be possible this summer, I will always keep the memories that were made as I move on to the next chapter in my life. I guess what I’m trying to say is thank you to MVP and all of its members for being there to teach, love, and support me for the last fifteen years. I promise to make you proud.

Some of my favorite memories:

• Campouts
• Water polo
• The IM invitational
• All-stars
• Pancakes
• Throwing pies in the coaches’ faces
• Synchronized swimming
• Coaching and coaches’ retreat
• Team lunches

Reflections of a Gator - by Taylor Makin

         

Here you have it all, the first Makin child to graduate out of the gator swim team. I found out while trying to write this it is very hard to express the impact that my years on the gator swim team had on my life. Being part of the gators shaped my personality. All the fun costumes, pies flying in coaches faces, jumping around screaming and dancing… all the dancing contributed to my fun, goofy personality. I still remember when I was around 9, coach Bob ( who was really coach Julia) hanging Bea over the pond by her ankles telling her she was gonna drop her in and let the gator eat her. And I will never forget all the fun pizza dinners at primos waiting to find out what relays made it to allstar relays. I could go on and on about all the memories I have from basically living at the pool as a kid.

One of the biggest memories I have of when I was younger was making my first all stars. Swimming always came so easily to both of my siblings. Everyone knew their names. No one really knew mine. Sometimes it felt as if I wasn't holding up the family name. Making my first allstars on my own really gave me so much self confidence. So what if I wasn’t my sister, I was me and that was enough. 

One thing that the gators gave to me that will live on forever is my love for teaching kids. Since I was 12, I have helped coaching the kids however I could. The look on the kids faces when they finally got something they wanted to do so badly. It made my heart smile. I somehow just knew teaching and coaching was something I wanted to do for the rest of my life. I have the gators to thank for that. Gators was way more than a summer job. This was my family. They have seen me at my highest and at my lowest, and supported me through both. There are no words in the english dictionary that can describe the impact gators made on my life. Though my time as a swimmer may be over, you have yet to see the last of me. Someone's gotta be my dad's right hand man, am I right?

My memories:

• Winning my heat at allstars in 50 breaststroke

• Almost getting my tooth knocked out playing water polo with the olders kids for the first time at 13

• Smacking my back on the water trying to touch the flags with my foot

• Teaching the 8& unders the “Im a little gator” cheer each year

• Getting to dress up in my gator onesie and dancing around like a fool

• Painting the little girls nails before the green and white meet

• One time someone brought bagels and cream cheese to practice and we decided to sit around and eat bagels and talk for the first 45 minutes of practice instead of practicing

• Beating the team relay record with Sheridan, Cassidy, and Parker

Fact versus Fiction

Everybody Safety Dance.

Sigh.

One thing I have always hated about swim season is the way we handle DQ of little kids for false starts. The older swimmers get it. But those 8 & unders... sometimes I think we're giving them PTSD. They false start, and then we make the kid get out of the pool, totally embarrassed, often in tears, and march away in front of everyone back to the team area in shame. I've always thought that there is no real harm in letting the kid swim. A DQ is a DQ, we get that.... but no matter how bad things are, we all just want to participate. And right now I feel like we are all that kid, and 2020 is that mean old NVSL official kicking us out of the pool with no opportunity to participate.

Sigh. 

I've struggled with kicking off the blog this year. I have been challenged to find my motivation. Generally, when I get out out onto the pool deck and see all the swimmers, parents, coaches, and other friends around the pool the energy and excitement of summer swim builds. I think it is that energy that serves as my muse for the blog articles. So, without the swimming, the muse seems to have stayed in hibernation.

Starting is the hard part. You just gotta jump in.
Yes, this is a blogging metaphor. 

The teens are doing great, but don't necessarily love
all the social distance stuff... 

In case you haven't noticed, we have a global pandemic going on. So, not only are we lacking the excitement of summer swim, but we are anchored down by the malaise brought upon us by social distancing and self-isolation. That's where the fact versus fiction comes in. (No, this blog is not about any particular politicians or news networks... I'm going to really try to keep it apolitical. There's enough of that fact vs fiction debate on the cable news.) This is about fictional swim meets. When we first started isolating, I thought about writing a fictional blog that went through a lot of the pre-season and pre-meet analysis that I normally do and then expounding upon the "virtual" meets and results. (Spoiler Alert: we were going to do a LOT better in D2 this year than most people think... yeah, we would have been back next year.) But, the problem was my muse. I couldn't bring myself to start typing away without getting out there on deck and being part of it. So the digital printing press remained quiet. No clicking-clack of the keyboard and no fly photos to post at the end of the blog.

...but I've heard the dad's are all generally fine with it. 

But then... we emerged from the darkest days of swim isolation and made it to Phase 3 of the COVID-19 reopening plan in Virginia. And that meant we could swim! And time. And DQ. But no cheering (because airborne particles). And actually, no spectators at all. (Which is probably good, because if spectators were there, the announcer would have been heckled pretty badly for mispronouncing just about every swimmer's name. He even whiffed on his grandkids, I think. To be fair, the mask should probably take the blame.)

Really taking that "wear your mask" thing to heart!

So, our unofficial time trials kicked off the swim season. An actual, non-fictional, event with Gator swimmers in the pool racing. Monday. July 6th. 8am. I love the smell of chlorine in the morning. Let's do this! 

We've missed a few weeks worth of swim blogs.

We have the luxury of our huge park with space for all the swimmers to spread out and keep good social distance while awaiting the events. We had a very temperate day. It almost felt like a normal MVP summer day. Almost. We did still all wear masks. 

And that means we've been robbed of all those Fly photos.

While not a full team, we had all the age groups represented, with lots of good swims taking place. All of the times were technically unofficial for this meet, since we only had one timer per lane and kept a few official positions vacant to help with social distancing requirements. But all in all it was a good event. It was a swim meet. Not the greatest one we ever had. Not the climactic, drama-laced final meet of the year versus High Point that elevated us into 2nd place in the division last season (and landed us in D2). But yes, it was a meet. Fact.

And we all know that Fly photos are the best swim photos.

There were even results (unofficial) which you can check out here. And lots of pictures that you can see here.

So, since we're blogging again...

It was a good, and needed, spark to the swim season. It's good to belong to a pool where the leaders have worked hard to take the necessary safety steps to enable us to have this little bit of competition and fun in an otherwise challenged summer. (Thanks leaders... you are officially the Gator's of the Week!)

And since we've missed those weeks... 

And it was a needed spark to the summer blog. I think my muse has returned. So, check back for some more blogs in the days and weeks to come. We've got a couple more events planned (a virtual meet and a Green and White B meet coming up... and maybe more). Whatever may come, I'll put together a few of those fictional meet entries, too... just to show you how the season would have likely played out. And to be clear, my plan for these blog entries is not fantasy-fiction, its historical fiction (i.e. based on facts that actually occurred, posed in a realistic scenario, that didn't actually happen). 

We might as well catch up a bit... 

Go Gators. 

And see more of those great Fly photos.