Not just the battle against the other team, that is always
there. There is the battle to keep your head, and especially your heart, in the
game through adversity.
Tuesday night the Winona Winhawks were fighting battles on
multiple fronts, and it eventually took its toll. Life is one long learning
experience and if the Winhawks took anything from this “meet”, it is that stuff
happens, and somewhere from the midst of the team, leaders have to emerge to shake their teammates
from their funk and get them focused. This was a non-conference dual against a cross
border team they see once every year or two. Next time, it will be a closer Big
9 foe, and they will need to be able to recognize the funk and correct it.
Start with knowing that there are no divers and diving
boards at the away pool so you’re leaving home A) some of your teammates, B) teammates
that are typically on the plus side of the event points. Add in that you are
leaving home 3 ill varsity swimmers, and have 3 more along that do not feel
well or are injured. Depleted in numbers, you walk into your away competition
venue to see it has a giant slide and a “you must be this high” alligator sign.
You get into the water and it is "swimming lessons" warm. They tell you that the
scoreboard is not working, so they will not be able to display times and
results. They inform you that the timing system is working, but the starter box
is not, so the Starter will have to shout “Take your mark” and use a whistle to
start the races. Then the referee shows up wearing sandals because he doesn’t
like getting his socks and shoes wet.
After
all that, you have a bunch of unmotivated swimmers that just want to get the
meet over with regardless of outcome, rarely a recipe for a swimming victory.
Onalaska Holmen has a respectable team, some very good
swimmers, but they only had 15 bodies in the water, usually a tough row to hoe,
but tonight, they had the mental edge.
In spite of ALL that, the Winhawk girls started in the lead taking
1-3 in the 200 Medley Relay.
Winona takes 2-4-5 in the 200 Free, letting OHA inch closer.
Winona takes 3-4-6 in the 200 IM, allowing OHA to take the
lead.
A 2-4-6 in the 50 Free allows OHA to pad their lead a little
more and it is 28 – 34 Winona is down at the diving break.
After the break, some close finishes and no scoreboard meant
I could no longer keep score.
The Winhawks were in the thick of it, then the 200 Free A relay, with
a 10 YARD LEAD, gets DQ’ed for an early leave. Instead of 1-2-4 the Winhawks get 1-3. Only
a 6 point difference, but it did more damage to the psyche than the score.
There were some good races after that, Reese’s gutty performance
in the 500 Free for example.
But in the
end, the Winhawks, with all that has befallen them, loose only 90-80.
No DQ and just one or two 2nd instead of 3rd
places, and this could have been an eeked out win under very adverse
circumstances, rather than a loss to be forgotten about.
Yes, all life is a learning experience, including this one,
hopefully.
Posts
Sorry to hear you didnt like our facilities. To give you a little history about our swim team Onalaska/Holmen/Aquinas (OHA) is a co - op team meaning it is not school funded. It is funded by the parents. We have no school pool so we are at the mercey of the YMCA. And the YMCA puts the swim team at the bottom of the totum poll as far as pool time etc. 3 yr old swimming lessons and seniors water arobics get first crack at the pool. Meaning these girls have to swim at 10:00 pm at night and 6:00 am in the morning during the summer. But we are glad to have what we have. By reading your blog I got the impression that you thought this swim team was a bunch of smucks that you could blow out of the water. But these girls are nothing close to that. Most swim 9 months out the year since they were 8 or 9. So they earned what they are getting. If we had your facilities im sure our numbers would be up there. You got out scored by a pretty good team. 90 % of points were scored by freshman/sophmores. But as you know swimming is a grueling sport and most girls in HS would rather do Cross county or VB. Less work and a lot more recognition. We dont loose a lot of sleep about winning every meet and every event of everty meet. We focus on getting better and peaking at the end of the year when it counts. If Tues night was the most adversity your swim team has gone through this year then things are good in Winona Mn.
ReplyDeleteOHA Parent.
Anonymous - Sorry to hear about your lack of support from both the 3 high schools and the Y regarding funds/equipment/facilities. Hosting swim meets is great, but that comes with a responsibility to run it in a manner befitting the effort the girls put into training. Secondly, if you read the pre-meet post, you should have picked up on the fact I had great respect for the OHA girls and their abilities. As you have the same press problems Winona does being in a Lee Newspaper town, I had to find results in papers of towns you had competed this year as well as accessed last year's Section Meet results AND the La Crosse Wave history. I deduced and posted that your girls could swim and swim very well, the unknown was how big your squad was. In HS swimming it is about points not times. A team can win every event in a HS dual and still loose the meet. No disrespect was intended in observing that your team only had 15 swimmers. It points out limitations in entries over an eleven event list. A larger squad has distinct advantages over a smaller one every time.
DeleteGood luck with the rest of the season. I expect to see some of your girls advance out of sections this year and will watch for the WIAA state results.