This year has been awesome in the fact that I haven't been in charge. Of anything! It's been so nice not to have to stress out about who is in charge of decorating lockers and putting up posters at the Middle and High School and which parents are going to bring treats and which are going to be timers. I was the Head Timer at the home meets but I didn't have to get the timers for them and we only had 3 meets instead of 6. It was really nice.
Sophie and Shayne are totally different when it comes to swimming too. Shayne, at Sophie's age, had already been swimming competitively for 4 years and was breaking all the records. She was EXTREMELY competitive and Sophie is there for the social aspect. I love it! There is no anxiety for me. It is just a laid back, try to beat my own time, kind of swim. With Shayne there were always tears. They usually came from me but they were always there. The seriousness of it all. She had her routine and she never veered from it. You didn't interrupt her before a race. She got in her zone and you never talked to her. You could see the focus and determination in her eyes. She was there for 1 purpose. To win. Many times it wasn't about beating her own time. Just about beating the girls in the pool with her. In fact we had to start paying her $5 for every time she beat her best time to get her more focused on moving forward by herself because the competition in Southern Utah wasn't strong enough to move her forward. Getting 1st place wasn't getting her anywhere. It took awhile for her to see that. But after she learned that lesson I lost $35 in the next meet. It was worth it.
Sophie is friends with everyone and reminds me of me in high school. Not the smartest, most talented or most popular but the nicest, kindest and funnest kids to be around. She will always have a lot of friends. She made sure to cheer on every single kid on the Pine View, Hurricane and Desert Hills Team. She didn't win any medals or even qualify to make it to State up at BYU (Shayne was on the Varsity team her freshman year and her relay teams consisted of 3 Sr's and her and she qualified in 6 individual events) but Sophie didn't mind at all. She and Shayne took 4 other freshman girls up to stay at my parents house so they could all go to BYU and cheer on their team. Our little Pine View state team consisted of 7 kids. 4 boys that were actually swimming the relays and 2 substitutes just in case and 1 girl that qualified in 2 events. Of those boys Mitchell Hutchings and Zack Paddock both had 2 individual events that they swam. Mitchell took 1st in both of his and Zack took 4th and 8th. The boys relay took 4th. And out of 27 teams they took 9th overall! It was amazing!
I love the kids that do swim team. They all cheer each other on and there is hardly ever any drama. They love and support each other and I hope that all my kids do it just for the experience of it. I know I have 3 more years with Sophie at least. I can't wait to see how it goes.
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| Sophie getting ready to dive in for her relay. |
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| Sophie's Dive |
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| Sophie's Backstroke |
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| Shayne's traditional kissing of the caps that backfired on her at State when one of them tried to steal a real kiss. |
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| SHAYNE COACHING EVERYONE FROM THE SIDELINES |
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