Working at the Swim Meet

Staff members at my school district can earn their activity pass for the year by working at athletic events. Some involve supervising, which I shy away from, as I supervise all week long in my classroom. I don't need any more opportunities for confrontation in the off-hours. The other duties involve being timers, scorekeepers, and record keepers at the various games and meets. 

This year, my first duty was timing at a girls' swim meet. I'd never done it before, but everyone I talked to assured me it was easy. I was looking forward to watching the diving portion of the meet and seeing my friend Darci as she coached the girls. When I reported for duty, I was relieved to see another first grade teacher there. She was an experienced timer and had daughters on the swim team. We were given their stopwatches and we took our places at the end of each lane. I felt awkward and conspicuous. Wasn't there a more out-of-the-way place I could stand?

My mind raced back to high school, when my first cheerleading experience was for the girls' swim team. We wore short sleeved polyester outfits instead of the traditonal cheerleading sweater, and I remember how the humidity of the pool area played havoc with my carefully styled hair (think: big and puffy) The red and white saddle shoes that we wore were slippery on the wet tile. Doing jumps as we cheered was out of the question.  I remembered standing at the opposite end of the pool and getting a face full of water as the girls did their flip turns. Thinking back I tried to remember the chants for any swimming cheer. What did we yell? ..."S...W...I...M...??"

Would that year of experience help me remember the various swimming events and how many lengths of the pool each race went? How long was that pool anyway? I fought the urge to hand my timer to the next passerby and declare myself confused and unprepared. The meet was beginning and I would just do the best I could.

When the alarm sounded for each race I had the important job of clicking the timer for the swimmer in lane 6. During the race things got even more complicated because I had to keep track of which lap of the race she was on. Counting should be a cinch for a first grade teacher, right? I fought the panic each time I was sure I'd lost count and the race would end before I realized she was on her last lap. My experienced friend Julie helped me count from her lane, so I didn't miss any swimmers on their final approach. The big moment came at the end of each race. As my swimmer completed her final lap, I had to carefully work my way through her cheering team-mates, lean down, and reach the cord for the button-thingy that stops the touch pad. Leaning down near the edge of a pool while high school girls are jumping and bumping around next to me made me scared. I was sure I would get jostled at the wrong second and be first timer in Boone High history to get knocked into the pool.

As it turned out, the swim meet ended without any major problems or controversy. I'm fairly sure none the girls' Olympic trials were resting on their times from this meet. I was a bit wet from the flip turns and taking-off splashes, but I reminded myself that at least I wasn't wearing a hot polyester cheerleading outfit.