The Trophy is in Sight

While we were gone on all of our vacations, swim team continued.  We missed a few meets, but as we already told you about, Evan did great in his last regular season meet after we got back.  There was only one more meet to go.  This one was Champs, the city wide meet where all the swim teams in the city would be competing at the UNC Natatorium in a very busy and very deep pool.  Evan qualified for Champs in freestyle and backstroke because he had completed and not gotten disqualified in those events at least twice.  He was a little nervous about that big of a meet and the fact that mom and dad would have to sit in the stands upstairs from the swimmers, but in the end we convinced him to give in a try.

Champs was quite the experience.  We dropped him off downstairs, not being allowed to go on the swimming pool floor ourselves, and headed up to the balcony.  From the crowded, not air conditioned stands we could watch all the action.  I watched nervously as they hopped in the pool to warm up.  It was 8-12 feet deep at all points so I wasn't even sure that he would jump in, let alone swim across it, but after some nervous hesitating and toe poking he hopped in and swam across, grabbing the rope a few times for good measure.

There were tons of kids there, so there were lots of heats within each event.  Fortunately for us, Evan was in the first heat of the boys 6 and under freestyle.  There were only 3 little boys and their times were all similar to Evan going in.  I watched nervously as they blew the starting horn and he jumped in.  He swam his little heart out the whole way across.  He had to grab the rope at the very end for a little while, but he finished with another personal best by two hundredths of a second.  He even beat one of the other competitors.  I was so proud.

We waited around through lots of other events and finally it was time for his backstroke.  He really doesn't like backstroke and really didn't have much experience with it.  For that reason, I wasn't completely surprised when everyone was getting ready to get on the blocks, and Evan hesitated.  He started to climb back in and then hopped back out and the race went on without him.  Turns out, the blocks were higher there than at the Fairfield pool and when he was down holding onto the handles waiting for the backstroke to begin his little bottom didn't even touch the water, so he was too nervous and got back out of the water.  I don't really blame him.  After the meet, Evan was a little bummed about skipping the backstroke but after some big hugs and a celebratory milkshake he concluded that it was a good experience and he was proud of himself.

After an awesome season, capped off with a great Champs meet, it was time for the moment Evan had worked so hard for, it was time for him to get a trophy.  So, we went to the neighborhood pool the next night and had a big party.  They had a slide show and a really nice presentation of trophies and ribbons for each kid.  Evan ended the season with one personal best ribbon, one participation ribbon from Champs, and one trophy that, much to his delight, "said his name"!  I am so proud of my little boy for hanging in there and finishing out the season with a smile on his face, it was quite an accomplishment for him.

(the view from the stands)

(Ben cheers on his big brother!)

(Evan shows his spirit on his back!)

(on the way to the race)

(my little swimmer)

(examining his reward)

(It says my name!!)