At the first meeting with the entire team I finally got to put some names to faces, but I definitely felt like the outsider. Coach had built up the image of the team so much that they were already inseparable; keep in mind this is mostly freshmen and spent all of freshmen seminar together. Here we got the practice schedule and a few other forms, but overall it was just an informative meeting and a meeting to make sure everyone had everything they needed turned into the trainer as well as the NCAA, most swimmers/divers did not. At this point, Rita had officially called me the manager of the swim team. She had told me that was my title and had told me to put that title in the e-mails, but when she said it officially I felt like I was finally part of the team. In my mind it would be Coach, Steve, and me watching these, at the time 20 people, grow and become amazing swimmers.
The team had the first week of school off before practices started so I stopped into Coach’s and Steve’s offices every day at 1PM to see if they needed help with anything. Normally they said no, but one day Steve said that if I was not busy I could look up a camera and TiVo for the divers. Of course I would help. I did not have my computer at the time, so I jumped onto a school one and started looking. I found a good deal and essentially everything Steve was looking for at Best Buy about 20 minutes later. Steve then had me find back-ups just in case so that is one of the main things that I helped contribute to diving. Also during this time, Coach had individual meetings with the men’s and women’s teams. In both meetings, she talked about goals and how practices will not always be easy, but they need to keep a good attitude and work ethic and everything will turn out great in the long run.
The team had the first week of school off before practices started so I stopped into Coach’s and Steve’s offices every day at 1PM to see if they needed help with anything. Normally they said no, but one day Steve said that if I was not busy I could look up a camera and TiVo for the divers. Of course I would help. I did not have my computer at the time, so I jumped onto a school one and started looking. I found a good deal and essentially everything Steve was looking for at Best Buy about 20 minutes later. Steve then had me find back-ups just in case so that is one of the main things that I helped contribute to diving. Also during this time, Coach had individual meetings with the men’s and women’s teams. In both meetings, she talked about goals and how practices will not always be easy, but they need to keep a good attitude and work ethic and everything will turn out great in the long run.
