Gheorghemas Day Three: Three Beauts

On the third day of Gheorghemas, Big Gheorge gave to me....

Three beauties, my kids. He also threw me a curve ball w/the following formatting - go ahead, let me have it. I'm here for it. Did this in Word and brought it over here, unsuccessfully. Feel free editors, to do your thing. 

Haven’t talked about the kiddos here absent my son when he was on his swim path. As of July, we’ve three teens in the house, two gals – Grace & Mikayla at 15 & 13; and our boy Declan, 17. Interesting times!

The girls, well, have a hate/hate relationship. Or at least the eldest does. The day we brought Grace’s new sister home, her world and disposition changed within about two minutes. She was precocious, really funny, emotive. She’s still pretty funny but it’s of the dry, cynical kind. Emotive has been replaced with stoic. Gracey was a pseudo preemie – about a month early and weighing about 3 ½ lbs. Teeny little thing who has always been smaller than her peers, and by 8 or 9, slighter than her sis. 

She followed her brother into the pool at the age of 7’ish. She was decent, slightly above average and pretty tough, gritty and very disciplined. Missing practice wasn’t/isn’t an option for her. From the age of 12 into her 14^th year, her progress lagged as compared to her peers. Very little growth physically, so as she watched her mates develop while improving consistently meet after meet, she’d only experience marginal gains, and only rarely. Experiencing stalls in swim is not only common, but a certainty. Stalls like this one, well, that’ll get you down. Throw in the fact that her younger sis shined and shined early, double whammy. It was a tough time for her and us.

To her credit, she gutted it out for too many miserable months before eventually emerging from the drought of all droughts. A bit of a growth spurt, added strength from the dry land sessions, and that grit I mentioned helped her realize an amazing frosh season where she qualified for Districts and then Regionals (which was a stretch to do so) and States (never said it out loud, but based on her times, it was very, very, very unlikely). She not only made it, she qualified for the 500 B Finals (Top 16) as the 13^th seed and finished with the 7^th fastest time. In betting parlance, the odds on this would have been 40 or 50 to 1.  Add a 4^th consecutive State title AND “Rookie of the Year” and you get a giddy Grace. One of my favorite pics...several years ago while attending ND vs VaTech, hence the orange pom pom.

Her sis, a bit different. Naturally sweet, kind, big smile. Similar to her brother, she had the physical attributes that would come in handy. Unlike her brother and until recently, she could give 2 F’s whether she went to practice.  A few years back, she’d sometimes cry on her way to practice at which point we said, “okay, you’re done”. I won’t lie, that really bothered me. What’s the line from The Bronx Tale – “there’s nothing worse than wasted talent”?  A natural and with the swim bod to go with it – legs up to her neck, tall and lean, big feet, long arms. Given her social proclivities, she missed it. Hanging with her peeps is what lured her to practice as it was. The alternative for her was to pick up something else whether an instrument or another sport, and until that time, her mom would assign her chores while her friends were in the pool. Fancy that. She saw the light and returned. 

As I figured, she quickly excelled, and so did her desire to race, to compete, to bring home hardware. With multiple top 20 times in the state across various events, including 5^th in the 200M breast (top 100 in US), ambivalence be gone but maintaining that sweetness. Here she is outpacing her fam during a hike in Acadia...

The D-man. You might remember his exploits from a very young age. He was swimming with the big kids year-round at 8. One of 4, 8-year old boys that year to qualify for FL’s Age Group Champs (FLAGS). Between the ages of 9-12, he took home the high-point award once and if memory serves, was never outside the top 5. At thirteen his thirst began to wane. Bored, tired, burned out plus the added high school workload which he took seriously – the writing was on the wall. 

Fast forward to the end of his freshman high school season where his squad took home the State Championship. He missed qualifying by 1 spot for each of his two events. He took a small break, considered packing it in, but committed to one more year of club & high school swim. He had a couple of club team goals but what he really wanted was to make and contribute to a second consecutive State title for his boys’ team team. He did just that, qualifying for A Finals in both 50 Free and 100 fly. He knew that was going to be his last race (fly). We were pretty sure, but not 100%. Seeded 8^th out of 8 in the heat, winning or placing wasn’t in the cards – a 3^rd place would have required a big drop, seconds vs fractions of a second. He finished 5^th while breaking his high school record. He also swam the fly leg on one relay, and free in another where his team took the top spot in each, as well as that State Title. Given how his and their season ended, we thought he might reconsider. 

Not only did he not reconsider, he did an about face and began working out with the football team the following summer before his junior year. He practically moved into the gym and not thinking it was possible, started eating more. A lot more. Between his first day as a sophomore and first day as a junior, he gained roughly 40 pounds. He added another 30 for his senior year – 240 L B’s. 

He played sparingly as a junior – special teams and occasionally as a blocking back or tight end. But he worked his ass off throughout the season and through the following spring and summer. He moved about position wise, kind of a utility guy but mostly as a tight end and H-Back/fullback, but solely as a blocker. Up until his last three games, he was in on 60-70% of the snaps depending on the package they were running. For the last four games of their season, including two playoff games, he started at right guard and was selected as captain for 2 of those games. Their season ended in the 2^nd round of playoffs a couple of weeks ago. He’s had a couple of small schools reach out, but he’s ready to be a college kid without the commitments. And I’m here for it. A pic of the Captains as they head out to midfield prior to their first playoff game. He's 65. (0 going to Okla; 3 to Ga Southern - studs)

It’s still early days for these three, but could not be prouder of who they are as people. 

Kind contributors in school, at home and socially. Love these little effers.