Jr. Swim Meet

I don't guess I ever mentioned it, what with my blogging hiatus and all, but Clara was on the junior swim team this year. The junior swim team was made up of 4-6 year olds who weren't ready for the regular swim team. Thankfully, after the first couple of days, they made two separate groups because there were so many kids. The younger group had kids that were crying and hadn't really had any experience in the water. Clara was in the more advanced group.

It ran for 9 weeks (the same length as the swim team's season) and practice was every weekday for half an hour a day. She really improved and gained a lot of confidence during those two months. She can swim short distances but still needs a lot of practice.

As the season progressed, the swim coach would move kids up who she thought were ready to compete in the meets. She was about ready to move Clara up but then she had to miss a little over a week of practice because of a bout of swimmer's ear and our school district getting out of school a week later than the district the swim team was in. (They switched to morning practice when school let out.) So when she came back, she had lost a lot of ground and never really did get back to the same level she was at. Which was fine by me. I never really expected her to move up. I was happy with not having volunteer hours, not spending my Saturdays in the heat and not having to purchase a really expensive team swimsuit.

Clara on the other hand asked when she would get to move up almost daily. At the end of the season, they had a party and a junior swim meet so the kids got a small taste of what a swim meet was like. They swam two at a time and Clara got paired with the best kid on the team. He probably beat her by a minute. All of the kids on the swim team, along with all of the parents, stood by the side of the pool and cheered them all on. It was pretty sweet.

Go Clara go!!

At the end, they each got a ribbon.

Here she is with her sweet coach, Stephanie. She was so patient with all of the kids and helped ensure Clara had a great time learning to swim. Chris and I decided that chasing Robert around in that heat with a huge crowd did not sound like fun in the slightest. So in an attempt to make up for not staying for the party, I took Clara to get ice cream afterwards. I asked her if racing was fun and was overjoyed when she said, "No!" I asked her if she didn't want to be on the swim team after all and she said she did but she only wanted to go to practice, not do the swim meets. When I told her she had to go to swim meets, she decided she didn't want to be on the swim team after all. Score!