It was a cold snowy
winter day. The team was all gathered around in a small room where we would
warm up and prepare for practice. It was the first week of practice and it was
the time I had been waiting for the two previous seasons. It was the first time
I could run for team captain. I prepared a small speech and with the paper
clenched tightly in my hands, I shook as I tried to explain to the girls why I
would make a good team captain. We proceeded to our practice as our coach
counted up the votes. At the end of practice, he was ready to announce who
would be the captains for the following season. My heart began to pound as I
awaited the announcement. He began reading the name of the four captains
selected as I waited in anticipation.
“The
four captains will be Allison, Jaime, Peyton, and Shilo.”
The
nerves that had built up inside of me immediately subsided as I was ready to
tackle this season and see what we could accomplish. As the season progressed
some of my teammates and I began to drop time, and a few of us got the state
cut. We prepared all season as the swim meet rapidly approached.
The
butterflies that were building up in my stomach were indescribable. It was the
day before the preliminary round of the 5A Colorado State Swim Meet and the
adrenaline was building up in my veins as I was getting prepared to give it my
all. Something about this year was different because since the last year when I
barely made the cut, this year I had made it with a larger boundary. I was
excited to see what my team and I could accomplish. I had worked hard
throughout the year to improve and I could see the time shedding off at each
swim meet. It was my first year being nominated as the team captain, and I
wanted to show my high school what the swim team was made of, as we were a
sport that was constantly looked over, but just as we were about to accomplish
something great, all of it was put to a halt because of one simple earring.
The day before the preliminary round of the swim meet I
was filled with excitement, nerves, anxiety, and butterflies. Throughout the
school day my stomach was tied up in a knot, but I was ready to go race my
heart out. The following day I made my way up to the swim meet along with the
rest of my team, and we were all excited to compete and see what we could do. We
walked into the muggy and loud pool area, towels, bags and swimmers spread all
throughout the pool deck. We made our way to our tight little corner that
should have only been fitting two girls and instead had to make it work to fit
a team of ten. We were packed together like a can of sardines, but we didn’t
mind the uncomfortable situation, we were all just ready to compete. It was out
teams allotted time to warm-up, so we all got prepared in our cap and goggles
and slid into the icy water to loosen up our tense muscles.
It
was finally time to start begin the meet. As we stood for the National Anthem
my hand could feel the fast beat of my heart. I started the day off by competing in the 200
Medley Relay with my teammates Allison, Becca, and Lauren, the same relay team
that would compete with me in the final race. I then moved on to my individual
event, the 100 Backstroke. I had dropped a significant amount of time since the
previous year and I was happy with what I had accomplished. As I sat and waited
through the rest of the meet, we finally arrived at my last event. It was the
400 Freestyle Relay, which happened to be the very last event of the meet. This
race was less than desirable because it was notorious for taking so long to
accomplish. The average swim meet would take about two and a half hours, but
the prelims of the State Swim Meet took an entire day. Allison, Becca, Lauren
and I were ready to get out of the pool, so we all swam our hearts out getting
our best time ever. And to our surprise, we had made the Finals of the State
Swim Meet, which was stepping leaps and bounds for our swimming program. We
knew that since we had made the Finals, it would be an opportunity for us to be
noticed.
The next day came and I along with the rest of my relay
teammates were ready to get out there and make a splash. Allison, Becca, Lauren
and I were the only member on our swim team that were competing in Finals. Both
Allison and Lauren had multiple individual events before the final relay. We
had to arrive before the start of the meet, warm-up with the team, but then we
just sat there and supported any other teammates in their events. Allison was
very good, and she was competing to rank very highly in her individual events
at the meet. The previous year, she got 2nd place in the 500
freestyle which was an amazing accomplishment. She was pushing to do even
better this year, and wanted to go for the gold. Unfortunately her crowning
event this particular year she had to compete against Missy Franklin (before
she won numerous Olympic Gold Medals). Mt teammate performed well, but she did
not do nearly as well as her previous year and was not in a very great mindset
for our final race.
My relay teammates and I had formed a pretty strong bond
throughout the season, and we were excited to put all of our heart into one
last and final race together. Allison had competed in two individual events and
everything went smooth and fine. As we were anxiously waiting to approach the
block we were laughing and making jokes and we were all so ready to put
everything we had into this last race.
We were moments away from being called up to the blocks,
and then suddenly an official seemed to approach out of nowhere and spoke to
Allison with a stern voice.
“You need to remove that earring from your
ear. Now”
Our teammate tried to fight it explaining that
she could pull her cap over her ear to cover the jewelry, but it is a strict
Colorado High School Athletic Association rule that no jewelry can be shown at
a swim meet. Becca Lauren and I did not think it would be a big deal and that
she would just quickly remove the earring, but the only problem was that it was
not just a regular piecing. It was located in a thick piece of cartilage in her
ear and it was screwed onto her ear rather than just held on by an earring
back. As we were scrambling to try to remove this earring, the official once
again approached us.
“We will give you two minutes to remove that,
then we will begin the race.”
The
panic started to set in. We ran over to our heavily pierced and tattooed swim
coach and asked him if he would be able to assist he immediately ran across the
pool deck to make it to Allison and began tugging and pulling on that earring.
Blood started dripping from her ear as tears were welling up in her eyes.
The close of the two minutes was rapidly approaching, and
those in attendance to the swim meet were all confused of the delay. Eventually
the officials notified us that we would just need to begin the event. The
problem was that Allison was our lead swimmer. We quickly switched around our
order and made our way to the blocks to begin the race.
“Swimmers,
take your mark… beep!”
And just like that we began our race. I was
the second swimmer and as Lauren began her departure I kept my eye closely on
if there was any luck with the earring. As it was my time to enter the water
they were still working on it. The adrenaline from the situation put a fire in
me and I put my all into the race. I approached the last flip turn of my 100
yard leg of the race and I was hoping to see Allison ready to compete at the
end of the block. I pounded my hand into the wall and watched my teammate
Becca’s body fly over me as she dove into the water. There still had not been
luck with the earring. I watched as my coach told my teammate to just pull the
cap over her ears and pretend she had removed it, but the officials saw right
pass that. As Becca approached the wall and touched, she immediately looked up
hoping to see a body flying over her and diving into the water, but to our
disappointment there was not. We could feel the eyes of the whole area focused
on us, the team whose relay stopped after only three swimmers. Tears started
streaming down the face of Allison, and she grew angry and began to yell at the
official who had noticed the earring. As she began to raise her voice more and
more, the official sternly glared at her.
“You
need to leave the pool proximity immediately.”
The
other two of my relay teammates and I were heartbroken.
It was interesting to see how different all of our reactions were with the
situation. Lauren was trying to laugh it off. Becca began to cry
uncontrollably. But for me? I was just frustrated. I didn’t see the fairness in
it all. Allison had already competed in two other events that day with the
earring in her ear. Why did they have to see it right before that last race
that we were so excited for? I was
frustrated because Becca, Lauren and I, who had swam the unfinished race, had
all performed the best we ever had. I was frustrated that my coach lied to the
official to try to get her to swim, creating a bigger problem than there
already was. I was frustrated that Allison disrespected the swimming official
and put a negative light on our entire team. I was frustrated that Allison, who
had been swimming for countless years thought she could risk wearing the
jewelry when she knew it was against the rules. I was frustrated that so much
negative attention was put on our team by everyone in attendance. After allowing
myself some pouting time, I realized that I needed to forgive and forget. It wasn’t an easy thing to do because this was
the race that was supposed to change how Legend High School was looked at in
the swimming community, and how our school perceived the swim team, but I knew
that it is what I needed to do.
A
few weeks passed and we were all sitting together at the team banquet. The room
was threaded in lights and all of the team was dressed up, a very different
appearance from the usual wet mop hair and no makeup look. As we listened to
our coach and reflected on the good and bad of the season, my eyes made their
way around the room looking at all of my teammates. At that moment I realized
that even with the good and the bad of the season this was my team. This was a group of girls that
would always be there for me, no matter the circumstances. I began to smile as
I thought of what each and every girl brought and contributed to the team, and
any hard feelings still lingering diminished because this was my team.
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