What can I say - it feels really good to finally win.
This past weekend myself and the Synchro Team were in Toronto competing at the Eastern/Atlantic Divisional Meet. We had set a goal of improving from the last performance they had. We were up against a Quebec Team that, from watching them in practice, looked good. So as any coach would, I decided that we had to "kill it" and aim for improvement. The rest should fall into place.
As the Quebec team swam, I watched in amazement at some of their interesting choreographed moves. I noticed synchronization errors and hoped the judges weren't going to enjoy their 'clean' looking performance over our 'intense, splashy (ier) routine.
As the girls lined up, I was already proud of them. They looked great, appeared confident and energized. What more could I ask for. In my mind, we had already won.
The girls swam a lovely performance - they came to compete. Patterns that I had never seen on were on, energy that I didn't know they had came through. We had just made changes to the routine and the girls swam these sections like they had been doing it for months.
As we waited for our marks, I was smiling ear to ear as I knew they had done their best. As the scores were being read, I couldn't believe my ears....69.712 overall. Our goal was to improve upon the 64 and change that they earned at Games. 5 points higher - Amazing. I could then hear screaming from the stands and as I turned around, I knew we won. The parents and other coaches were on their feet so proud and ecstatic.
"We won!" I yelled to the girls who were swimming over to the side, unaware of their achievement.
I have been waiting for this feeling for a long time. It was so sweet. Mainly because I wasn't expecting it and because the girls were so innocent in their win.
Congratulations to the athletes and coaches who worked so hard to get these girls to this point. Bravo!
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