Swimming capes

This is one of my favorite pictures from the swim team: 4 swimmers confidently striding to their relay full of Montclair Swim Team branding. You might even recognize the picture from the header of this blog.

Getting the parka is a rite of passage for swimmers; I'm pretty sure every swimmer on the team has one. And since the team swims all year round, these parkas are needed to keep warm. They are, quite possibly, as important as caps and goggles to the young competitive swimmer.

But that's not the point of the story. As part of the team's upcoming 50th Anniversary reunion picnic, we've been talking to a lot of alumni. One of the things we found out is that the parkas were called "capes" in the 80s. Capes! That is fantastic.

Of course, this might bring up another image -- Gary Hall Jr. And that isn't a bad thing. So I think the team needs to take its branding to another level. We need gigantic Montclair Swim Team foam fingers, a battle flag to fly atop the team canopy, a team bus and maybe some team shoes designed by Ryan Lochte. At the very least go back to calling them capes.

High points and big smiles

At a recent meet, we were waiting for results and picking up ribbons long after the meet had ended. We just happened to be listening to the high points announcements and heard Gabe's name called. Luckily we heard that because he had already left.

So we had the good fortune of being able to bring home his trophy and present it to him. I have never seen such a genuine joyous reaction as when Gabe first got his trophy. He raised it in the air triumphantly with the biggest smile I've ever seen. I wish I had a camera at that moment. Luckily, the smile never went away for the 2 minutes it took me to take this picture of him.


Congratulations Gabe on great swimming and an even better reaction to the trophy.

Thank you to the aging off Sharks

Three times a year, the Montclair Swim Team says good bye to its older swimmers, sending them off to bigger and better things both in swimming and in life. It's one downside to being a 12& under team but it gives the swimmers chances to make new choices and build on the solid foundation of swimming and teamwork that MST provides. This past Friday, the team had a small picnic to wish the five swimmers aging off well in their future endeavors.

Three of the swimmers are the youngest sibling and last to leave the team from their family while two have younger siblings. Many thanks to Chelsea, Erin, Sarah B, Sarah M, and Savannah for all the great times and great swims!











Though the team can never *replace* these young swimmers, there is always the pre-guppy clinic to introduce new swimmers to the team and keep the tradition alive.