SAIL - Craig Report - Week One

Imagine this nightmare, your hosting the largest swim meet in the whole County. You have set up your pool, concessions are ready, the crowd is on site as well as the competing team.

You have the second set of your team in the water for warm ups, the next thing you hear is that the pool is being shut down by DEHC! That's right, everyone has to get out of the pool and there will be no swimming in the pool, AT ALL!

It happened last night at Sugar Creek vs. Gower! I can't imagine a worse set of circumstances to have to deal with. We have had pools that had pump problems and other reasons to have to move a meet, but NOT while the teams are warming up.

But this is SCR vs. GOW! Two of the largest teams in SAIL. They swam their meet by the way, this is the wild part, they MOVED THE MEET! Yep, got on the PA and told everyone they were moving to Woody Creek. Woody Creek just so happened to have swam their meet on Wednesday night, the pool had been closed and it was already set up from their meet. Concessions, Officials, Coaches, Swimmers, Mom's, Dad's and Coaches picked up the whole meet and went 500 yards down the road and started all over again.

Big KUDOS to you people for pulling that off! Big thanks are due to Woody Creek as well for allowing them to use the pool. Unbelievable that y'all did that! Just goes to show how well SCR and GOW are organized to be able to still swim the meet.

Now on to the other pools.

First stop, Forrester Woods vs. Foxcroft

I like meets at Forrester Woods, I live 3 miles from the pool. That's why my first stop at Divisionals is always at Forrester Woods as well. Love that Coffee!
Thing is about this meet was that I saw a good many of the swimmers that morning at the Mauldin High Graduation. Becca Brown, Beth Douglas, Kristen Terlitsky and Luke Douglas were doing their usual good job. Terry Palma was there as well. Sheryl Quinn was again the Ref of record; she has the same SAIL disease that I do, just can't leave SAIL.
Foxcroft had Kaitlynn Wright and Elizabeth Grigg yelling their heads off! Why is it that everyone likes to swim with Foxcroft? It's weird, everyone always loves it when Foxcroft visits.

Second Stop, Spaulding Farm vs. Thornblade

Ah one of my favorite pools to visit when it's hot.
They have a very large stand of trees near the west side of the pool, by four the pool is in the shade!
First person I saw was one of our adult Coaches, Rick Fairbanks. Rick has the SAIL bug as well! His daughter jumped ship this year and is Coaching at Spaulding Farms!
Lauren, does Dad give you any Coaching pointers?
Along with Lauren, SF has Erin Kennedy, Chris Reinke, James Haarsgaard, and Andrew Markam returning. I asked the group about the first meet jitters for their young swimmers, like past years the best example came from Andrew. First heat of individual 8 and under, they step up on the block, Starter is ready, Ref blows the whistle to signal that the pool is ready for the heat.
ALL the swimmers jump in the pool! Yep, happens every year!
Also in attendance was our own Cornel College swimmer, Bobby Nitto. Bobby must miss SAIL. He's doing well in school as well as in the pool in college!
Thornblade, Jaclyn Spencer, what can I say, she's one of the best we have in SAIL. Her attitude and overall constant smile has melted many a hard hearted swimmer as well as some adults, me included. I hope to count on her during this year as a place for the answer to some of my questions. I hope she stays with us for sometime.

Third stop was at SCR, THERE WAS NO ONE THERE!

see above

Last Stop, Silver Leaf vs. DTAR (Dove Tree, Weatherstone, Ashton Rec)

My second Home!
The Ref was again my buddy Chris Hotz, guess who was there as well?
PJ?
YEP.
Paul Jamieson has the BUG real BAD!
JR Christy was also there for the meet.
Silver leaf still has the same very good staff of Coaches they have had for years, Gretchen Lentz and Erin Jamieson. Silver Leaf is very lucky to have these two.
DTAR's group was again headed by another of our collegiate swimmers, Justin Dankovich, I have watched Justin swim for years over at TG, what a good man he has grown to be.
This meet was well underway when I got there; everything was running just fine as always.
I had a special parking place as well, and a big hug from EM! Thank you Emily, miss you a bunch.

This weeks visits were cut real short for me, I went to my Son's graduation that morning and I had to make it home for the party. Graduating one of my children is a big emotional tug on the heart. Like you and others that went through the same this week, happy that they are finished with High School, and sad that they will soon leave for college or other commitments.
My son has chosen to join the Marines instead of going to college, his decision, and my blessing. I was a little out of it last night with the weight of the future looming so close, so my apologies for not spending more time with you.
Thanks to all of you for helping keep SAIL going for so long. I hope that one day my Grandchildren will be swimming with some of these wonderful Coaches and their children.
This being my last year involved with SAIL, it's going to be a rough ride along with my Son's trip to Parris Island July 19th.
SAIL is my refuge, my world that I get to go see every Thursday for four weeks. A place that has no worldly problems, just children and young adults involved with one of the bests sports there is.
And I get to travel all over the county and walk into a pool just like in the old TV show Cheers, "Where everyone knows my name".
I love it!

Till next weeks Ramble

Craig