Building a Swim Community: I Let My Whole Swim Team Pie Me – Here’s Why
My fellow coaches and I stood in a line, about to meet our fate. Our young swimmers and their parents roared with laughter as pies flew through the air. One by one, they hit each coach in the face. With whipped cream in my hair and all over my clothes, I stood there with a full heart. I felt incredibly grateful.
It was the end of our season. We had spent our summer working hard, racing, and becoming a team. We were ready to celebrate at our annual banquet. While planning the event, I texted all the coaches. I asked if they would consider getting pied in the face for a good cause.
Every coach answered yes – without hesitation.
The idea was simple. All swimmers and their parents could donate and then participate in the chaos. The money collected would go to a nonprofit called For the Love of Recess. Its mission is to collect and distribute simple recess equipment to local Catholic schools in need. The organization promotes active play and healthy lifestyles for kids. It was a mission our families could get behind because our team’s culture was also built around active play.
It was messy and ridiculous, but it was one of my favorite parts of the summer. What I saw that day was more than kids throwing pans of whipped cream at my face. I saw a community, swimmers cheering and laughing hysterically together, and coaches who were willing to make total fools of themselves for a good cause. Most importantly, I saw young athletes coming together to make a difference.
Becoming A Community
That is one of the things I love most about swimming. In a sport where success is often measured individually, somehow, a community forms. On that summer evening, my swim community helped to raise hundreds of dollars for a good cause.
Swimming looks like an individual sport. It is not. You spend a lot of time in a pool by yourself. You race alone, your goals and times are yours, and at the end of the race it is about how fast you can push yourself. But a swim team is built in the moments that happen between the races. It is the early mornings when everyone is tired but still shows up for the hard practices that somehow become fun when you’re doing them together. Most importantly, it is the teammates who make you laugh hysterically when you need it most.
You may be swimming by yourself under the water, but when you pick your head up you can hear your teammates cheering you on. Over time, those moments turn into friendships. Your teammates become the people you celebrate with after a great race and the people you want beside you after a disappointing one.
That support becomes even more meaningful when something bigger comes along. The pie-in-the-face fundraiser reminded me why I love being part of a swim team. When you spend so much time with the same people, you build a community where you can be completely yourself, joke around, make mistakes, and still know that the people around you will always have your back. It is heartening to know that you have this community behind you that is ready to step up when you ask them to support causes that are bigger than any one teammate.
