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Swimming in Spirit
"FIGHT!"
Meaning everyone's voice was hoarse before the meet even started.
Eight Weeks of Pep
Photos
Swim Spirit The team from Tilden Woods considers itself the most spirited and zealously dedicated in the Montgomery County Swim League. |
There is no town square in Tilden Woods -- a maze of homes and lush lawns between Rockville and North Bethesda -- so the community pool is the magnet for activity. And for eight weeks every summer, the neighborhood lives there.
No, really.
There are two three-hour meets a week, five hours of practice each of the other days, Friday night pep rallies, a yearly sleepover and talent show at the pool, plus happy hours and poker nights for the adults -- all in the service of the Tilden Woods Dolphins, those 5- to 18-year-old rabble-rousers of the Montgomery County Swim League.
The league, in its 48th season, is made up of 90 neighborhood teams sorted into 15 skill divisions, and the parents do everything. They are the timers, scorers, referees and organizers. They make and sell the snacks and refreshments. At the yearly relay meet, the parents even swim. At Tilden Woods, a trio of dads records every triumph and tragedy for the team Web site and year-end DVD.
"Once swim season starts, that's all you do," said Andy Ship, one of the team photographers, parent to 9-year-old Hannah and social worker at the McLean School of Maryland. "It's like another full-time job, but you're doing it with your family. By the time it's over, everybody's glad because we're all exhausted. It's 24/7 for eight weeks."
The swimmers, meanwhile, occupy themselves with the science of the "psych-out." They paint their faces and bodies like they're extras on a Mel Gibson movie set. For away meets, the team decorates cars, then caravans to the enemy pool; if the route includes a highway, the coaches go out the night before and lodge blue plastic cups in the chain-link fence of an overpass to spell "GO TW!" And, of course, there is that extensive cheer repertoire.
"I have never been in a happier place than at Tilden Woods on a Saturday morning," said coach Nick Kaufman, 22. "The emotions just run so high."
Their spirit has fueled a charge through the league ranks, from divisions F, G and H several years ago into the elite Division A last year. Now it's the perfect blend: high spirit for high rivalry. At every meet, families perch on the edges of the pool, vocal cords quaking. Look at the license plate frames on the minivans in the parking lot to see the gestalt neatly defined:
Tilden Woods.
It's a Lifestyle.
