Everybody Gets a Trophy

W

Woody

Well-Known Member
Nov 20, 2007
9,449
N. Wisconsin/Lk Superior
Boat Info
2005 420DA
Engines
Cummins 6CTA8.3
This is about my granddaughter. They used to spend all their time with us on the boat during the summer. Nothing was more important than going up to 'their' boat. She and her sister both got into swimming while in diapers. It used to drive me nuts, they'd wake up and they'd pester me, they wanted to go swimming and I was their lifeguard. It didn't matter how cold the water was.

They joined the local swim club and were immediately among the best swimmers. They swam on the school teams, they swam/competed year round, even some open water on Lake Superior. Jokingly I'd claim all the credit, their success was because of me and the boat, their other grandparents would roll their eyes.:p

The youngest one is now a high school junior. She has the fastest time in the conference in every event this year. The team are the conference champs this year, she won all her events and set one conference record during the championship meet.

When the Conference swimmer of the Year was chosen it wasn't her. The swimmer chosen did win two championship events, but her times were seconds slower than my granddaughters.

Historically the other gals team was one of the better teams but this year it fell apart, they lost every meet. I'm sure she did her best but she is not a top swimmer in the conference. To me awarding her the conference 'Swimmer of the Year' was undeserved, more of a pity award but I guess it's the new way.
 
Woody said:
This is about my granddaughter. They used to spend all their time with us on the boat during the summer. Nothing was more important than going up to 'their' boat. She and her sister both got into swimming while in diapers. It used to drive me nuts, they'd wake up and they'd pester me, they wanted to go swimming and I was their lifeguard. It didn't matter how cold the water was.

They joined the local swim club and were immediately among the best swimmers. They swam on the school teams, they swam/competed year round, even some open water on Lake Superior. Jokingly I'd claim all the credit, their success was because of me and the boat, their other grandparents would roll their eyes.:p

The youngest one is now a high school junior. She has the fastest time in the conference in every event this year. The team are the conference champs this year, she won all her events and set one conference record during the championship meet.

When the Conference swimmer of the Year was chosen it wasn't her. The swimmer chosen did win two championship events, but her times were seconds slower than my granddaughters.

Historically the other gals team was one of the better teams but this year it fell apart, they lost every meet. I'm sure she did her best but she is not a top swimmer in the conference. To me awarding her the conference 'Swimmer of the Year' was undeserved, more of a pity award but I guess it's the new way.
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A lot of that is politics and the coach relationship with the selectors. And if it was a historically good team, they get the benefit of the doubt. Seems like a big deal now, but when she walks across that stage at college graduation, nobody will remember. :)
 
I wasn't present for the conference championship, my wife was. She said my granddaughter was upset, had a few tears because of it. My wife heard her say to a teammate 'this is bullshit'.

Tomorrow is sectionals, currently she's seeded first at sectionals and 3rd at state. I hope she goes beast mode and makes all the other girls cry...a little 'get back' can make you feel better.;)
 
Golfman25 said:
A lot of that is politics and the coach relationship with the selectors. And if it was a historically good team, they get the benefit of the doubt. Seems like a big deal now, but when she walks across that stage at college graduation, nobody will remember. :)
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I agree with this. It is just getting her schooled a little early on how the world works. She will be fine if she is that much of a competitor. You yourself know that she swam her fastest when someone was trying to take her win away. This will drive her on.
 
Maybe the girl that won is a senior and this her "lifetime achievement award". I swam competitively when I was a kid and all of the club teams I was on had some sort of subjective award that was given out at the end of the year. The great thing about swimming is objectively we all knew who the fastest kid in the pool was. Your times are all that matter. :)
 
OllieC said:
Yes Woody, let us know how it turns out. Also, she’s queued up to have a stellar Senior year.

Swimming in Superior will make anyone a fast swimmer. ;)
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For those that are interested...our team won at sectionals, everyone swam well. My granddaughter won her events, set one new pool record, next the state meet.
 
OllieC said:
Yes Woody, let us know how it turns out. Also, she’s queued up to have a stellar Senior year.

Swimming in Superior will make anyone a fast swimmer. ;)
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Ollie, are you familiar with the Point to La Pointe swim, Bayfield to Madeline Island? They'll cancel or postpone the race when the waves exceed 3 feet.:eek: My oldest granddaughter swam that once, is was a little rough, but she did ok placing 57th amongst all swimmers, there were about 500 that year. We were in the boat along the course, thought we'd be able to track her as she swam but it wasn't possible, all you saw were some heads amongst the waves and some arms in the air.

The Park Service boat was near me, they spotted a speed boat come from the end of Madeline toward the race course. That little Park Service boat is pretty fast too, they shot across, got ahead of the speed boat, turned and started running straight at it. The speed boat didn't understand they were coming for them, Park Service just kept running direct at the other boat matching their changes in course, finally the speed boat yanked the throttle back and came to halt, apparently they weren't aware of the swim.
 
MrHappy said:
Our family will be rooting for her.

I live in Carmel Indiana and graduated from Carmel High School in 1977.

Our Carmel Indiana high school women’s swim team is awesome. I believe they have the best record of any athletic high school team (women or men)in the United States. They have won 36 consecutive Indiana State High school Swim Title’s.

https://swimswam.com/carmel-girls-extend-record-with-36th-straight-indiana-hs-swimming-title/
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That's impressive MrHappy. We're a D2 school from a small town in N WI. To always have enough talent to dominate year after year just doesn't happen although we've done OK in recent years it looks like that will change after next year..
 
Woody, as a HS Coach, I can tell you it is often political. This year my Libero should have been 1st team because she had the best stats. The Coach whose libero ultimately won 1st team said to the other Coaches that her team was overall better (won our conference) and so she should win despite stats. We had 2 new Coaches in our conference and they basically didn't know what to do. So my Libero was 1st team last year, and just honorable mention this year despite improving and leading stats (and yeah, she's better too). Having my girl smile thru the tears was tough. The next night we won a huge 5 set match against a conference rival. We lost the 1st 2 sets, but won the next 3. If you know volleyball at all, then RARELY happens. She was able to use the snub as fuel for the best match of her career so far. She's already talking about next year...
 
MrHappy said:
Our family will be rooting for her.

I live in Carmel Indiana and graduated from Carmel High School in 1977.

Our Carmel Indiana high school women’s swim team is awesome. I believe they have the best record of any athletic high school team (women or men)in the United States. They have won 36 consecutive Indiana State High school Swim Title’s.

https://swimswam.com/carmel-girls-extend-record-with-36th-straight-indiana-hs-swimming-title/
Click to expand...
You Carmel guys can’t be best at everything….. I am HSE and of course we have Fishers next door who thinks they are best at everything ….. I’ll let you keep girls swimming bragging rights but that’s it :)
 
Congrats to you and your granddaughter.

I coached 8 year old T-Ball once. They did not keep score, and everyone got a trophy in the end. I did not come back the next year to coach as I found it ridiculous.
 
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