Grandma's Kitchen Table: What's Up?

Who's Who

February 19, 2009

What's Up?

The team moms at CHS all decorate the swimmers' lockers, etc. Since I am the "team" mom at GCHS for our team of one, I made him a poster of sorts for his locker for this week, pictured at the left. He was happy with it. At least the kids will know he made sectionals!

        The 2009 Indiana High School Boys Swimming Sectionals begin today!   Here's a little preview going into tonight: Meet starts at 5:30 at the CHS pool (they alternate pools yearly, so this year happens to be in Matt's home practice pool, which can be good, i.e. you know where all the bathrooms and refreshments are located and you are used to swimming there, and it can be not so good as there is a certain amount of complacency that develops when you are swimming somewhere so familiar). Prelims are tonight; Finals are Saturday, State is next Friday and Saturday at the Nat in Indy.

      There are about a dozen high schools represented...from the very large (that would be Carmel) to the very small (that would be Guerin). It's a tough sectional, one of the toughest, if not THE toughest in the state. Swimmers can swim two swims and relays (Guerin, of course, does not have a relay as it would not be possible for Matt to swim, jump out, dive back in, swim the next leg, etc. etc.).

      Matt's two swims are the 200 Freestyle and the 100 Backstroke. He is seeded first in the 200 Free and third in the 100 Back. The two seeded ahead of him in the Back are CHS swimmers, fellow CSC teammates of his: JJ (a senior) and Nick (a junior), both absolutely fantastic swimmers...JJ is going to swim in college at Ohio State next year.

      I just want you to know that I am more nervous than Matt is...by the end of the evening, I will have absolutely no fingernails left to speak of.

      Here is a blonding photo from the party last Sunday for the CHS swimmers. Some of the guys look very very different, Charles and Johnny look exactly the same before and after!

      I had several emails remarking on my comment in another post about the CHS boys being so cordial to Matt and asking why I found that amazing. Hmmm...well, here's why: The CHS girls team is outstanding (obviously winning 23 state championships will back me up on that). The CHS boys team has always been ranked very high and is very competitive also. Both teams feed from the Carmel Swim Club.

      At the high school level, several of the top boy swimmers have chosen to go to private prep schools and not Carmel High School, leaving the boys high school team without some of their top CSC teammate swimmers...i.e. Daniel, Stevie, Matt, Harrison, Scott...with those five not eligible for the Carmel High School team because of their/their parents' choices to attend other high schools, there could be hard feelings from the CHS swimmers, as with those five swimmers on that CHS high school team, there isn't another school in the state that could touch them for the state championship...with those five swimmers, CHS would have both the girls' and the boys' titles.

      That said, the swimmers and coaches could have chosen to harbor a little wishing that those five were swimming for CHS, but they don't hold it against these swimmers at all, and in fact, go out of their way to make sure everyone feels the same camaraderie they all feel during the USA team meets. Priceless, believe me.  We are very lucky.

      Tonight I will be cheering just as hard for the CHS swimmers as the GCHS swimmer...it's a swim family thing as we have been swimming with these boys for ten years. At this point, they are all "my kid" in the water! Go guys! Swim New Best Times!