IGX

My son is a sophomore and on his HS varsity swim team. Swimming is an individual and a team sport, so you see some interesting things. For example, it allows for a lot of leeway for participation that you would not see in team sports. On the JV team there a couple of swimmers that I will kindly state are "not strong swimmers". It takes a lot of balls to be the lowest guy on the JV squad and to come in dead last in every single heat. The only reason these guys are on the team is because I assume the HS and district are afraid of a lawsuit. I'm talking about those guys.

There is one pathetic freshman in particular. This kid can't weigh more than 80 lbs. He looks like a short younger version of the weakling in the Charles Atlas ads. He's so small and scrawny, that he looks like he's 10 years old with TB. I asked my son if the kid was some sort of brainiac that skipped middle school or if he had some sort of physical ailment. My son says the kid is just small. That the kid is in normal classes and doesn't appear to have any real ailment; other than being very un-athletic. My son, having been raised right, thought it would rude to inquire more.

Anyways, I've been to about five home swim meets so far and this kid has swam in every single match; JV 50 meter and some of the JV relays. He's the slowest guy on the JV reject squad. Watching him dive in to the pool is painful. The combination of abject fear and lack of athleticism is painful to watch. A combination of a belly flop and desperate grapping for something to break his fall is his signature dive. Then the real pain begins. The slow awkward free style stoke with his legs kicking like a drowning man. About 15 meters in, he starts to tire and when he goes to take a breath he almost has to tread water to do it. Trust me, it's painful to watch. He's dead last in every race. As this kid is making the half way turn, the other swimmers have been out of the pool for a while. Same goes for the relays. If he's in a relay, that relay team is going to have a combined time that is twice that of the next slowest team.

Yet, the pathetic swimmer shows up to every practice. My son's team had practice and two swim meets during this last winter break. Half the team didn't make it to practice or the meets. Caused by either family commitments or teenage laziness. Not the pathetic swimmer; he was at each practice and every meet. He arrives early and leaves late. Always completing his assigned workout. And when practice is over, he's back in the pool doing more laps.

Every time he swims in a meet, people cheer him on. The applause if deafening when he finally finishes. Does he ham in up? Does he smile? Does he look ashamed or shy? No, he stoically gets out of the pool and heads straight over to his coach.

Now, I have seen a lot of courageous bad ass stuff in my life, but this kid has the heart of LION. A lot of guys talk about having heart. Mostly they talk about heart in the context of gutting it out for the win or coming back to win in some way after a crushing defeat etc. They very rarely mean gutting it out when you have absolutely no chance of winning and losing so bad it looks pathetic.

Chances are this kid will never overcome his lack of athleticism. I seriously doubt there will be stories about how the 80 lbs weakling grew up, joined military and becoming a SpecOps bad ass. And yet, I bet you this kid will go on and he'll be fighter in life. He may always get his teeth kicked in, but someone or something will have to kill him to make him quit.

I'm a pretty cynical guy, but it did me some good to see that kid.