The swimming coach

This is a recent picture of my son Calvin and his high school swimming coach Cindy. As the picture suggests Cindy is not a big woman, but she commands the respect of the young men and women of that swim team, and the parents. We are all afraid of Cindy – in a good way!

The thing about Cindy is that she does this without being a big imposing person, she does it without a lot of hollaring, screaming, cussing, or berating. She does it by saying what she means and following through.

Last week Calvin made every early morning practice on time. In fact he was early for two of the 6:30 a.m. practices. But Friday he overslept and he was late. Because all of the practices are mandatory and because Calvin didn’t really have a good excuse for oversleeping, (talking on the phone with your girlfriend until 11:00 p.m. is not a good excuse!) Cindy did not let him swim in that evening’s swim meet.

I didn’t even half heartedly try to plead his case. If she gives in to one of these swimmers and the sea of teenage angst that surrounds them, she’ll have a leak in the damn that she’ll never be able to patch up! I was happy, although disappointed, that he didn’t swim. Maybe he’ll be more diligent about getting there on time.

In the meantime, this mom of many stands in silent awe of the benevolent swim coach. She has my full support!

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