Coach Dave

My kidlet has been swimming competitively on the Blue Team for about five months now. She has 1.5 hour practices four out of five days a week, and we make dry land one of the two days out of the week, which adds another 45 minutes.

So I'm there a lot. Observing.

Most people think I'm sitting and crocheting, but I'm also people watching--the swimmers, the parents and the coaches.

It's what writers do, we watch. We watch how personalities interact with each other. It helps us deepen our own stories.

There are numerous coaches: high schoolers who teach the various entry level classes --Swim America (beginners 4+), five coaches of various ages who teach Gold team (ages 13+), White team, and Blue team.

And then there's Coach Dave.

Coach Dave started Swim Tulsa and Swim America (the entry level swimming), but he also teaches the Union High School team. I think he's been a coach for 30+ years, first teaching at Jenks before moving to the Union district.

He's a tough coach. When he's with the high schoolers, he give them tough love. He doesn't take any guff or excuses. Your time is your time and if you disappoint him, you can hear it in his voice. No, he doesn't yell, he's just disappointed, plus he give them a "You know you can do better."

But it's  how Coach Dave interacts with the little kids that I find wonderful. I'm talking about the wee ones, the four- five-, and six-year olds. He talks to them. Learns their names. Asks how they're doing. He knows how to connect.

With the White and Blue teams, he knows everyone's name, but he's also watching them, evaluating them, looking at their potential.

Yesterday, Coach Dave was chatting with one of the kidlet's coaches, Coach Steffin. Coach Steffin swam for Coach Dave in High School. As they were chatting, they were observing four lanes of swimmers. As I was at the other end of the pool, I don't know what was said, but I bet they weren't talking about the Super Bowl coming up this weekend!

That's it for today, Peeps! I just wanted to give a shoutout to the hardworking swim coaches!

It might look like all they're doing is staring into space, but they're, "...watching, always watching."
*Name the movie* HINT: it just came out again in 3-D.