Swim Team Banquet and Our Big Surprise

The Olympus High swim team banquet was held tonight.  There was dinner and awards, of course.

I thought this was really cool of our head coach.  We have this kid, David, who has been on swim team and he has some developmental delays.  His swimming is slow, but he's there and part of the team.  And I've been so impressed with the way all of the kids have accepted him, and you should hear them cheering for him at the meets even as he is a full length or two behind the last finisher.  Anyway, he wasn't ever going to qualify for state or earn his varsity letter, but he is a graduating senior.  So our coach, decided to give him his own letter jacket that he earned when he swam for the University of Utah as a student.  David was thrilled.  You can see him tearing off his jacket so he can put on Tom's letter jacket.

I thought that was really cool of Tom.

Since the season is over, and they will no longer be swimming at Granite, the captains decided to give each swimmer a piece of granite in the form of the lane line flags.  Jonas was awarded "best under pressure."

A shot of the team captains from Jonas's first year on swim team. 

At the banquet, the principal showed up to announce a huge surprise.  He told the kids to all go home and get their suits so they could be the first into the new pool.  We were all so excited!  (Of course, this threw a bit of a wrench into my plans to leave the banquet quickly and get home and pack for our early morning spring break departure.)  I think just about everyone of the kids made it back with their suits.

Here they are lined up just waiting for the countdown.  But every time they were about ready to jump in, someone else would come running through the door, so they would have to stop and wait.  

They wanted everyone there to jump in together.

There was lots of waiting, and posing for pictures and waiting.

But finally, when it was decided that everyone who was going to come was there, the official countdown began.

This is one of those instances where the pictures do a pretty good job of telling the story.

(Believe me, the coaches wish they were this excited to jump in the pool every day at practice!)

Then they turned out the lights, just for fun.

It was pretty cool to see all of these kids so excited to be in the new pool.  I just feel so bad for the poor seniors who will never have a chance to swim in the Olympus pool.  The old one was torn out just before they started, and this one was finished after their last season was over.

Shawn couldn't resist getting in either.  This is his field of dreams after all.

Loved watching them cheer!