First Swim Meets

John was a latecomer to year-round swimming as an 11 year old. Most of the kids his age on the club team had been swimming for several years, and so John was a long way behind them. One of his first swim meets was in Augusta, GA at the Augusta College swimming pool. It was an old indoor facility that looked like it had been built in 1910. The water was pea green and looked decidedly unhealthy.

The swim meet was for swimmers with B and BB times, the slowest and lowest classifications for swimmers. Many were swimming the events for the first time and had “NT”, for “No Time”, on the heat sheet. As a rookie, this was exactly where John belonged. It was also my first swim meet. The swimming was, well, unimpressive, and filled me with a sense of dread. “What if this is as good as John can do?” I wondered.

We didn’t know anything about heat sheets, circle seeding, shave and tapers, age groups, qualifying times, or anything else. We knew nothing, and felt totally lost. A coach was briefly present at the Augusta meet, but we were on our own at the next meet in Peachtree City. It was a lonely, forlorn feeling to be there with no one to guide us. I had to get over my innate shyness and ask strangers what we were supposed to do. Oftentimes they didn’t know any more than I did. I wondered if we’d made a bad mistake by letting John sign up for year-round swimming.

It got better over time.