There is a feeling of nostalgia that rushes over me as I watch my children at swim meets. This feeling though doesn’t bring me back to an earlier time in my life, it brings me back to what feels like, oh I would say around the 1950’s (from my guess watching movies although I wasn’t alive during that time). Everything from the concession stands to the ribbons over the pool and the person sitting by the fence changing out the heats and event numbers.

This unique sport where children get to participate in a competition among their own team members and the team against them for placing and receiving a ribbon, but also have the team as a whole competing to win against the other team in the competition is such a fun start to the summer…and, yet, it’s a dying sport.

Our team barely made a team this year with only 49 swimmers. They used to have 135. Competitive sports play a part in this because of the time commitment during the summer. Also parents work schedules make it difficult for children to participate. And, many people say no to the sport because they have made travel plans in the beginning of the summer.

I have thought about the benefits of swim team and wanted to share what I have discovered with my friends to encourage you to put your children in this great sport, even if it is a bit of a struggle or you have to miss some of the practices and meets due to other commitments.

I want to thank David Hart and Jessica Douglass Kelly for helping me put this together.

* Life skill. At times in life, indeed, swimming can be a life skill that the benefits of swim team can greatly come in handy for.

* Teamwork. Comradery. Cheering for each other and lifting each other up for hours at a time never gets old.

* Individual improvement with team spirit- good mix of both. At the end of each event, the individual places for a ribbon. At the end of a meet, the team wins or loses.

* Week to week improvements. Swim team is a 5 day a week sport where you can visually see week to week improvements in the swimmer.

* Price point of 6 weeks, each day of the week day practice and 5 meets is cheap. 6 weeks of 45 minutes a day practice is 22.5 hours. For our team, that’s $6 an hour.

* Lifelong friends for the kids and the adults. You get to see friends👫grow up together year after year.

* It is a tradition to go out for ice cream after the meets. It’s very fun for all who attend and it is a great reward to a long evening of swim events for the kids.

The season is long enough so that you make a good dent in your swimming skills and have a lot of fun and then it is also short enough for you get to enjoy the second half of the summer without having to do a sport.

I feel blessed my family has gotten to be part of this for the past two years.

Unfortunately, due to the current circumstances our world is facing, swim team for this year has been cancelled.