A disappointing end.

Part two of Lil's swim meet didn't end quite as well as part one. The temperatures yesterday morning were brutal but I was ready and instead of packing a cooler with cold drinks and the like I packed it with hot towels and jackets. I really did. I threw a load of towels into the dryer along with hats, jackets and gloves and let it run for 45 minutes I then very quickly packed them into a large wheelie cooler. I filled it to capacity so that there was no room for cold air to circulate and then I tossed it into the car. After every heat Lily had a nice warm towel and nice hot jacket. Damn I am a genius. Even her noggin was warmed by her nice hot hat. No Gatorade this weekend, no no, hot chocolate was the bevvy of choice.

She swam really well in her first two heats and came in first and second but didn't qualify for finals but on her third she blew her self away again and shaved 14 seconds off of her time and made it to finals as she finished 2nd overall out of 70+ swimmers. She was a shoe in for a silver medal. Her arch rival was in first place so that might have been enough fuel to get her a gold.

Her coach had been joking all day that they were not going to finals that night but after her last heat we found out it wasn't a joke. He had scratched the team. He said it was too cold. It was going to be 10 degrees warmer at night than it was the morning and 15 degrees warmer than Saturday morning and he scratched us. WITH. No parent conference nothing.

The kids were devastated. I was pretty pissed off as well. Some kids were less than 300th of a second away from J.O. times and the arsehat scratched the finals. I sent a text to the head coach. His reply: we discussed it yesterday and I Okayed it.

This infuriated me. They knew all along.

It took me hours to calm down Lily. In case you haven't noticed she is competitive. If the Coach didn't want to stand out in the cold I would have done it. Isn't that why he got me qualified. GRRR.

Then I get fed a bullshit line about, learning the rules of the swim world. This isn't a rule. This is an injustice to little kids who were in their first ever competitive meet and were winning real medals instead of ribbons. You push them and want them to compete and then when they do you take away the prize that was well within their grasp.

Life isn't fair and I understand that and I teach my girls that  but this was pathetic. Oh and the line about not wanting the kids to get sick. Germs make people sick, not cold weather. It wasn't as if they were in the water for an hour, these were 50-200 yard sprints.

When Lily told me she was done I was so sad. When another mother told me she was through with the team I was speechless. When we heard other coaches laughing at the fact that our team scratched, I was embarrassed.

3 happy freezing girls ready for warm ups at 7.30 am

14 seconds faster than last time. Damn girl can swim.

When the kids went to the "back" to wait, the officials were telling them to keep their clothes on. NEVER HAPPENS EVER.

One unhappy swimmer. For a moment I thought I was going to have to get another shirt, one that said, peace, love, quit.

This morning I asked Lily is she is going to practice tonight and she said yes. She said, "I am not a quitter, and I am going to show Coach Vlad that it isn't to cold to swim even for an hour and a half. That even though it is colder today than it was yesterday I will show up".

Girls got B*lls.