Swimmers, Take Your Mark

We became a swimming family in the summer of 1987 when Daniel joined the Lakewood Cruisers summer swim team.  By winter of 1988, he was swimming year-round with the Kansas City Blazers.  A few years later, Jon joined the Blazers, as well.  We traveled to meets around the state and out-of-state and could tell you what the pool was like in Oklahoma City, Wichita, and various other cities, but not much else about those towns.  Swim meets dominated our weekends.  They both swam in high school, too, and we loved watching them compete.  Time spent at swim meets ended when Jon graduated in 2000.

Not only was Daniel and swimmer, but my daughter-in-law comes from a family of swimmers, as well. All of them swam from the time they were little, with two of her brothers swimming in college--one for Stanford and one for Cal Berkeley.  So, we've come full circle and have been fortunate enough to go to meets with M and J who are part of the DACA swim family.  It's taken a little time to get used to the fact that no matter what time of year it is, all of the meets are outdoors. 

Swimming is great exercise and requires so much individual discipline. It's a "team" sport only to the extent that the points earned by the individual swimmers are credited to their team.  The swimmer, however, is all alone in his/her lane with very little awareness of his/her competition.  

We're happy to be back at poolside watching the next generation of Parris swimmers.