Swim-Mom: How it All Started

When my daughter was 1 year old I would take her to the pool at the Community Center in Bend Oregon.  We used to go weekdays until she was about two years old.  There was a duck slide and fun water fountains for the young kids to play with in the "Duckie Pool."  She loved it!  I was training for the Boise half ironman at the time and we were at the gym alot with 11 workouts a week.

When my daughter turned two, we moved to Portland Oregon and immediately joined the Bethany Athletic Club because they had a great pool for young kids.  All summer long we would play at the pool weekdays when dad was at work.  When my daughter was two and a half she started private swim lessons with a sweet teacher and swim instructor named Abi.  For a year or so my daughter learned to dive and swim freestyle.  Abi was so sweet and a perfect match for my daughter at her age.  I used to work out with a trainer named Jim and the triathlon club there.

When my daughter was four years old we moved into a new house that had a neighborhood pool.  My daughter would swim every day in the summer.  She was really good at diving and pool games.  We no longer needed to belong to the gym for the pool.

I started teaching yoga at SHARC in Hillsboro when my daughter started Kindergarten.  She also had private swim lessons at SHARC in the summers.  SHARC is a great pool for swim lessons because of the several large pools, diving board and fun slide.  She learned to dive and swim freestyle for longer distances.

We decided to move our daughter to a private school in first grade.  The PE classes included swim lessons in the Spring.

Dad volunteering at swim lessons

I asked her PE teacher, who was also the swim coach, if my daughter would be able to join their swim team.  He said yes and my daughter started swimming for CYO when she was six.  She loved competing.  She loved being part of a team and representing her school in a sport.

After her first year of CYO swimming (non USA swimming sanctioned events) my daughter wanted to get better.  Her coach had mentioned that she could join THPRD Thunderbolts and get better over the spring and summer if she wanted to.  We went to Thunderbolts and tried out in March 2014. They placed her in the non-competitive squad called Olympic Way.  She needed to learn the breast stroke and the butterfly stroke.  She started on a squad called "Silver."  Once she learned the breast stroke and the butterfly she moved to "Gold."  We could only commit to two days a week for the Olympic Way because we had a conflict with another class on Fridays. On Fridays the Olympic Way squad would meet for races.  My daughter missed all those races.

 Eventually my daughter wanted to get onto the competitive squad of THPRD swim team called "Thunder."  Many of her friends were moved from Gold to the competitive squad Thunder in the fall and she was not chosen to be moved with them.  She felt really discouraged about that.  She missed her friends terribly and she felt like she wasn't good enough for the team.   My daughter continued to swim proudly for her school for third grade on CYO and was really enjoying competing and having fun on the CYO team.  Not getting onto Thunder was really nagging at her.  She started to lose interest in Olympic Way.

In the Spring of 2014 an email was sent out by the coach of the Thunderbolts notifying the parents that they planned on moving a large group of kids into Thunder - the competitive squad.  My daughter asked me to send an email to the coach and tell him that she was interested in getting on a competitive team in the Spring.

Here it is:

Coach:

I read the newsletter.  I relayed that information to my daughter Cadence.  She has been getting the flu on and off these past couple of months.  We took a couple of weeks off to stay out of the water and rest.  Cadence wanted me to tell you that her goal is to be on a competitive swim team this spring.  Her schedule will open up - especially Saturday's starting next week.  She said that she is prepared to swim 5 days a week.  She will be there on Friday and over the next few weeks to do her best and hopes that she will be considered for Thunderbolts team.

My daughter has always loved swimming.  In first grade she join her schools' cyo swim team.  She loved practicing with her team and competing.  She wanted to get better and so she joined Olympic Way one year ago.  She has improved alot thanks to the Olympic Way coaches. She has her own goals and she works hard for them.  

Thank you

Gabrielle Johnston

My daughter was prepared to try out and join another team although the Thunderbolts was her first choice.  She researched other swim teams in the area and who the coaches were and what the other teams had to offer in terms of practices and pools.

It was so exciting for her to find out that she was moved to Thunder in April 2015.  I officially became a swim mom!

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