Fun fact: I set a Middlebury Town Pool record when I was 8 years old for the 25 yard breaststroke.
Don’t be fooled… I was no swimming all-star. I was the chattering kid sitting in the middle of the pool (on a lane line) ignoring my coaches’ “encouragement” to “get in the water!”
No thanks.
And that’s how practices went. Some training… mostly shivering safely out of reach. But when swim meets came along, there was no choice — it was time to swim.
When the gun fired (blanks, but yes, a real gun) I swam for my life. Fast-twitching my way across the pool — not to beat the other kids necessarily, but I definitely needed to outswim the “monsters” chasing me from the deep end. Turtles, sharks, sting rays… yes, they lived in there and I, for one, was not going to be eaten.
Trauma maybe, but still somehow it was fun. Maybe it was all the dry Honeycomb cereal we used to eat? Or maybe it was the friendships with the big kids — the Super Marlins.
Anyway… at the start of this summer (30 years later) my daughter Ida asked: “Hey Mom, can I join the Mini Marlins?” Immediately, creepy shark music began building in my head, da-dum, da-dum, da-dum-da-dum-da-dum…
Thankfully, I kept my bubbling memories to myself.
“Sure!” I said, exhaling my nerves.
It turned out that one of Ida’s good friends had joined the team, and my proud 7-year-old had just passed her swim test at Camp Kookamunga.
We signed her up, a little late, but she was on the team. We got the blue suit, the pink swim cap and she donned her scuba mask instead of race goggles — because it helps “keep all the water out of my nose!”
Obviously.
Practice times for the Mini Marlins fit seamlessly with Kookamunga’s schedule, which made scheduling nice and easy. And we were off. Ida trained 5 days a week (well Friday’s a fun swim day) for the better part of 8 weeks, and participated in the hometown swim meets (at Middlebury and Vergennes pools).
Let me tell you, this new wave of swim team — being a Mini Marlin mom — is 100% better. This I can do (with my feet safely on land)!
It didn’t take long before Ida was crushing each race with new personal bests. A heat-winner? Well, only occasionally.
Out of breath and beyond excited she would hop out of the water and immediately ask an official “What’s my time?” Then, without fail, her arms would shoot up over her head, and she’d exclaim: “YES! A new personal best!”
Over the season, backstroke emerged as a favorite, and our Mini Marlin took home her first backstroke heat-winner ribbon during the Champlain Valley Swim League final held this past weekend in Middlebury.
“How does it feel right before you start the race?” I asked Ida on the way home?
“I just wanna swim!” she said. “I get so excited and ready to go!”
Nerves? Nope, not one.
Thanks for an incredible season Middlebury Marlins!
— Elsie Lynn Parini, co-publisher of the Addison Independent and editor of the Arts + Leisure section.
Do you have a story to share about life with young kids in Addison County? We’d love to hear from you! Email [email protected].