Following the Feet is an 8-week summer series on SwimSwam. Written by Stina Oakes, the series follows the eight weeks of summer club season at Silver Spring, Maryland’s Daleview Swim Club, whose team mascot is the “Feet.” In relaying stories from the Feet’s season, Oakes hopes to capture the beautiful and unique connection each swimmer has to his or her local pool and club.
This week, Stina has provided a bonus piece, a ninth installment covering the team’s end-of-season banquet that will wrap up the summer series.
Part 1 – Opening Day
Part 2 – It’s Worth It
Part 3 – Time Trials
Part 4 – First “A” Meet
Part 5 – Big Foot, Little Foot
Part 6 – Not Defeated
Part 7 – B Meets
Part 8 – Saying Goodbye
Last Day
At 6:20 a.m. on Saturday morning I wake my daughter up for Divisionals. She sleepily pulls on her swimsuit, grabs something to eat, gathers her bag, and heads to the door. Opening it she turns to me, smiles, and says, “The Divisional Fairy came!”
Early this morning thirty-four other Daleview swimmers play out a version of this same scene, opening their doors to find the Divisional Fairy visited overnight. Waiting for them on their porches is a poster with their name along with the seed and goal times for the event they will be swimming. On top of the poster is a black drawstring bag with “Property of: ________ , Proud member of the Daleview Feet Swim Team” written in gold; the bags are filled with goodies to eat during the Divisional meet, Feet tattoos, and gold and black bead necklaces.
Whoever the Divisional Fairy is, it’s a well-kept secret. In true Daleview spirit, it makes our swimmers feel just a little more special.
***
Photo credit: Tim Male.
At Divisionals, my son looks around at the other teams. He tells me, “We’ve got the best mascot. I mean, everyone else is dolphins or porpoises or some type of fish. We’re the Feet. That’s cooler. How come we’re Feet?” he asks.
“Because we’re so fast, when you swim us, that’s all you’ll see of us,” I answer. “And we’re black and gold because those are the colors in the Maryland state flag and the state flower – the black-eyed Susan.”
***
Now, twelve hours later, the entire team is assembled at Daleview. The evening is hot and humid – no prediction of the rains that have plagued us all season. If you look closely, you might be able to see a glimmer of gold on noses; this morning before each race one of the coaches anointed each swimmer’s nose with a smear of glitter.
Sitting in lawn chairs facing the pool house, we’re all full of Popeye’s chicken and biscuits: the traditional Daleview Awards Banquet meal. We’ve also eaten lots of salads and desserts. A potluck at Daleview features some of the tastiest food around. We’ve got a reputation for being “the pool with the good food;” this night lives up to expectations.
Photo credit: Tim Male.
All around me kids are holding their trophies and paper plate awards. Every year the coaches hand out paper plate awards to each kid on the team – all 186 of them. Each award is particular to the swimmer. As they are given, the coaches tell the story of the award, making each kid feel that much more special. The awards are sometimes about swimming achievements, but more often than not focus on who the kids are. This year features “Silliest Goose,” “Kick Machine,” “Who Needs Goggles?” “Future Coach,” and “Snack Bar Jokester,” just to name a few.
“This award goes to a boy who I gave lessons to over the summer,” begins the coach. He tells the story of one lesson where the boy looked up at the coach and said, “Sometimes I forget you aren’t my family.” Surprised, the coach said, “What do you mean?”
The boy answered, “You seem like a big brother.”
***
The highlight of the evening is the slide show. On the big, inflated screen in front of the pool house, photographs from the last six weeks accompanied by music play on the screen. The pictures show Daleview kids smiling, cheering, swimming, hugging, playing, having fun. We all laugh at the amusing ones, “awww” at the tender ones.
As I watch the images flash across the screen, I look around me. I see the people I have spent the last eight weeks with. I think back to a conversation I had with another team mom at the beginning of the season about an article I wrote. In it I made a reference to a friend and me standing on deck. After it came out the woman approached me and commented on how touched she was that I used “friend” rather than “swim mom.” Her reaction surprised me: of course she’s my friend. We’re Daleview.
Photo credit: Stina Oakes.
Seeing all these faces around me, I think about an anthropological theory that argues we are all looking for our tribe. The idea is that our ancestors needed tribes for survival. Even though we no longer need these groups to survive in our modern world, we’re still hardwired to find them and do so through social settings.
The theory explains why when I was in Maine at a small lobster shack and saw a family wearing Daleview gear that I ran over to them and started talking to them. Normally I wouldn’t approach people I don’t know, but their Feet gear signaled they were my people.
It’s why we have Daleview Feet magnets on our cars year round. A former Feet family that moved last year still has theirs on their car. They told me, “No one else knows what it means, but we do.” Even though they aren’t on the team anymore, they’re still Feet.
It’s why when we see a Feet car outside of our normal routine we feel the need to signal to them, to say, “I’m one of you.”
***
The sun sets, bringing some much-needed relief from the heat. A breeze blows through, cooling the sweat on my body. Behind me I hear laughter and splashes from the kids in the pool. In front of me, swimmers lean to one another, commenting on pictures, whispering about the season.
I smile. Here, I am happy. Daleview is my tribe.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Stina Oakes is a member of Daleview Swim Club where she swims with the Masters group. She is new to swimming, having only learned how in the past year. She is the mother of two swimmers (ages 12 and 8) and one future swimmer (age 2). She is a Professorial Lecturer in the Writing Program at American University.
I have thoroughly enjoyed this series about the life and times of a summer swim team. Thanks for sharing this with us!