Summer swim season. It is six weeks of intense pool time. Daily swim practices and swim lessons. Weekly swim meets against other swim teams. And it all wraps up with a swim championship - one pool, five swim teams, and a million and one kiddies sporting speedos.
My boys love swim team. They love all six weeks of their swim team experience. They form such bonds with their coaches and their team mates. And it never fails that when it is over, they all shed a tear because it just went too fast.
The last meet of the season is the swim championships. It is like one giant, chaotic swim crazed party. The kids chant and cheer, dress up in their team colors and even dye their hair to match. (I was grateful the boys avoided the green hair dye going around our team's tent.) The teams start the championship with a parade of teams. Each team is introduced to the spectators at the pool during the parade and are given a moment in the spotlight to parade around the pool to the song of their choice. The other teams danced their way into the pool to various pop songs. Our team marched and danced into the pool at the hip sounds of Eye of the Tiger. I laughed for a good ten minutes after watching their darling college age coaches rock out the kids old school style. It was quite a sight.
After the last race has been swam, the kids retreat to their home pool for a pizza party and night swim. The boys love the chance to swim at the pool after hours and way, way past their bedtime.
It is one of the longest days of the summer, but the boys love every single second of it. It breaks my heart to see them cry at the knowledge that it is over until next year, but it brings me such joy to know how much they have enjoyed it, how much they have grown and how much they have learned.
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