Summer Swim Team Summed Up

Life isn't fair.

It's one of those "because I said so" kind of phrases. There is such a finality to it.

That's it. No questions asked. Let it go.

I know. This post is about Summer Swim Team, not some rant about keeping an eternal perspective because things don't always turn out how you expect them to.

I know.

I just can't help myself.

I will start by saying the season was great. Everything I expected it to be.
I volunteered to be the volunteer coordinator (what was I thinking?) back in... February?.. March?.. let's just say it was a long time ago, during a moment of weakness (or was it strength?). I attended board meetings, gave input (occasionally received), and prepared weekly sign-ups to fill the numerous positions that were required each meet. It was a bit more stressful than I would have liked, but I had volunteered.

Here's a high-level run-down of the season:

Crocs v Holly Park Sharks - 06.08.13

Mauri placed 3rd in the 50Free, 2nd in the 50Fly, and 1st in the 100Free.

Shilo placed 1st in the 200Free and 100Free, and 2nd in the 100Fly.

Crocs v A-Lake Whalers  06.15.13

Mar missed this meet so she could stay at Girls Camp for the tear-down and ride home (the first year of camp is soooooo exciting!).

I apparently was too busy tracking down volunteers and volunteering myself to snap a pic. Bill, Shi and I had driven home late the night before from Girls Camp, arriving around 2am, then Shi and I were up at 6 to head to the meet. It was my first shift ever as a DQ Notifier. Not a fun job.

Shilo placed 1st in all three of her events: 50Free, 100Back, and 200IM.

Crocs v Willow Creek III Dolphins  06.22.13

Shi and Bill missed this meet for Youth Conference, so it was just Mar. And me.
Mauri placed 3rd in the 50Fly, 2nd in the 50Back, and 1st in the 100IM.


Crocs v Castle Pines Storm  07.13.13

(Mauri was super excited to win a Heat Winner ribbon, only to discover that the girl seeded first in the event accidentally swam a heat early, so Mar took 2nd, but still won her heat. Bonus!)

Mauri placed 5th in the 50Fly, 2nd in the 50Back, and 2nd in the 100Free.

Shilo placed 1st in all her events: 50Free, 100Free, and 100Fly.

Prelims 06.16.13

After Prelims Shilo was seeded 1st in her events: 50Free, 100Back, and 200IM.

Mar made it to the medal heat (top 6) at Championships in her events: 50Free, 50Back, and 100Free.

Championships  07.20.13

Results:

(I call these their Missy Franklin poses)

Way to go, girls!

This is where the problems begin.

The past few years the swim team board has chosen to have the end-of-year party the evening of Championships. I have never been a fan, but it wasn't even up for debate this year. We came home from the meet around 2:30pm, and, after spending 7 hours in high heat and blazing sun (remember how it was supposed to be rainy? - NOPE - seriously, that pool looked so good to me), crashed on the sofa. We eventually wrestled up enough energy to clean up and get ready for the party at 7.

I had some high expectations.
I'm not a score-keeper. I'm often not even good at remembering basic details, but I felt pretty darn confident that Mar and Shi would win the High Point Award at the party. This award is given to the girl and boy in each age division who scored the most points for the team during the season. Like I said, I hadn't kept track of any scores, carefully scrutinized the meet results, or kept any kind of tally on who-placed-what-and-when during the season. I did know that my girls had done well.

Let me also mention that neither of them have ever won an award for the Crocs swim team.
(Ironically enough, Shilo won the Most Improved Swimmer Award the first year she swam on a summer team as a 9-year-old 8&under. She started the season not being able to swim across the pool. But that was a long time ago on a team far, far away.)

The party started off with perfect weather - a little breezy - much cooler than the meet earlier in the day.

Before we knew it, skies that looked like this

suddenly looked like this.

After hearing about a tornado lock-down earlier in the day at the mall not far from where we were, I was feeling a little anxious. I think everybody was, so the awards ceremony got underway.

I watched Mar's face, camera ready, for the announcement of the High Point Award.
It wasn't her.
I was surprised as the award was presented to a girl who did not swim in any of the medal heats at Championships, NOR had she obtained an All-Star time in any event (Mar had two).
"Bummer," I thought. "Maybe it's because Mar missed a meet."

I must have been preoccupied with something (was I talking to someone?) because I didn't hear the 15-18 Girls High Point Award announced. I actually thought they had skipped it. I asked Bill.
"No," he said, "Susie got it."
(I've changed her name to protect her identity - she was an innocent award-winning bystander.)

That's when I was shocked off my rocker.
That's when I knew something wasn't right.

The coaches rushed through the rest of the awards, we grabbed our stuff, and headed off to the church to copy the programs for the following day (one of my three callings).
Mar cried. And cried. Bill tried to get her to stop, but I told him to let her cry (I know from experience that sometimes it helps to just bawl your eyes out and get it out of your system).
Shilo didn't think the results were correct, but is such a low-drama girl who doesn't want to stir the pot, she was fine with letting it go (I wish I could be like that).

I had a hard time going to sleep that night, frustrated over what I felt was clearly an error.
The next morning (Sunday, around 6am) I emailed the coach, the Team President, and the Parent Rep. I told them I was confused about the awards and asked for clarification. I received responses something to the effect of, "That was a computer-generated report," and "I was surprised too, but that's what the High Point print-out said." The 17-year-old coach sent me the report showing Susie with about 100 points more than Shilo.

No one wanted to correct it, only to say that it must be right because the computer said so.

Here are a couple of interesting (to me) facts:
The report showed Susie had taken 1st place 44 times this season.
IF she would have taken first place in every event she could possibly enter over the course of the entire season, the highest that number could be is 15.
Susie wasn't even present at 2 regular season meets.
Susie didn't win 1st place in any individual event all season, nor did she have an All-Stars qualifying time in anything.

There she is, folks, your High Point Award Winner!
(Gosh, I thought the sarcasm would be gone by now. Sorry.)

After church (during which I truly did try to work myself into a loving, compassionate, Christ-like mind-set), I pulled up all of the computer-generated meet results and tediously began going through them, line by line, adding up the scores.

The true results:
Shilo - 99 Points
Susie - 39 Points

Mauri - 56 Points
Katie (name changed) - the 11-12 Girls High Point Award Winner - 25 Points

I almost cried when I received an email from the team Scorer late Monday morning, confirming the numbers were wrong.  (I had emailed her that morning after the Parent Rep emailed me with, "I hope you don't think I'm being callus, but that is a computer-manufactured report.")
She would get the team computer from the coach and fix them.
That was the first ANYONE had been supportive in my quest for clarification, accuracy, and repair.

The computer wasn't wrong, but the parameters set by a fallible human being were.
Some swimmers were scored by their lifetime points (5 years), some weren't.
A person (or two), blessed with a brain that allows logic and reason, chose to just do, not to think,
"because the computer said so."

Not much can be done other than using it as a lesson for the future. I would have liked it to not happen this way. I would have liked for my girls to have one moment of recognition for the hundreds of moments they watch others receive it.

I've been feeling a bit like life isn't fair.
It's not.
I'm over it. Movin' on.